So. Slapping it on the counter and staring at it. Book covers. How do you judge books? Do book covers make a difference? To simplify the thing completely, the same book was published with a pink cover and a blue cover would it matter to you which?
Book covers do make a difference, and of course, always have; if I could choose any one thing to spend money on in the publishing process (and, being an author, I can't), it would be the cover.
But it's not always about just the art -- it's the whole design. We have marketing flags buried in the backs of our brains from long years reading in various different genres, and those flags are twigged by the covers we do see. I know a lot of people don't like Sweet or Royo -- but they work as marketable artists for a certain style or type of book; you would never use them for a mystery or a romance, though.
I'm not different; I'll pick up a book with a striking cover because the cover has caught my attention.
Conversely, I'll pick up a book with a truly, truly hideous cover, for exactly the same reason -- it caught my attention.
Getting the attention is half the battle; the back cover blurb and perusing some part of the book itself sometimes does the rest. It's not word of mouth, but a lot of times I'm in a store, I don't have word of mouth guiding me, and because I'm looking, what I see guides me.
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Date: 2008-10-11 01:44 am (UTC)Book covers do make a difference, and of course, always have; if I could choose any one thing to spend money on in the publishing process (and, being an author, I can't), it would be the cover.
But it's not always about just the art -- it's the whole design. We have marketing flags buried in the backs of our brains from long years reading in various different genres, and those flags are twigged by the covers we do see. I know a lot of people don't like Sweet or Royo -- but they work as marketable artists for a certain style or type of book; you would never use them for a mystery or a romance, though.
I'm not different; I'll pick up a book with a striking cover because the cover has caught my attention.
Conversely, I'll pick up a book with a truly, truly hideous cover, for exactly the same reason -- it caught my attention.
Getting the attention is half the battle; the back cover blurb and perusing some part of the book itself sometimes does the rest. It's not word of mouth, but a lot of times I'm in a store, I don't have word of mouth guiding me, and because I'm looking, what I see guides me.