I’ve heard in another post of mine that a fair amount of fantasy fans want to see more engaging covers. I would assume this sentiment goes beyond just the fantasy genre. However, as fantasy is my main focus right now, that’s where I’m coming from for this post.
I recently saw the spray-painted editions of the Fourth Wing (Rebecca Yarros) books and they are quite cool. Perusing Barnes & Noble recently, I’ve seen a mix of both interesting and what you might call “dime-a-dozen” covers. For me, the cover is what gets me to pick up a book and read its blurb. If that sounds decent, then I’ll usually give it a try.
Are you like me, or is your hunt for new authors/books a bit more involved? Do you have any covers as examples that are your favorites? What stands out the most to you when looking at covers?
On a side note, I heard from a reputable source that books published traditionally typically don’t get much, if any, author input on the covers, as the publishing company uses their resources to decide what will work best to market the book. As a future potential author, that’s kind of disheartening to hear. Of course, with indie publishing you can decide your cover art. Would love to hear if anyone has any thoughts on that…
Most what I read I don’t find from casually browsing so I don’t think covers are the end all be all, but when I’m browsing at a book store I approach it pretty much like you do. In the store I think covers are fairly important. Color is definitely the biggest draw, especially since books are often displayed by their spine. Vibrant colors or at least the stark contrast of darker colors with bright accents. After that I’m really looking for something with style. The biggest turn off is realistic depictions of the characters or scenes from the book because they’re honestly just boring. Characters, places, and scenes can work if they are stylized but otherwise they’re not that engaging. Personally I like symbolism and more thematic covers, and I enjoy seeing the iterations across a series.
I think my favorite books/covers I picked up while browsing because of their covers are The Spear that Cuts Through Water, Priory of the Orange Tree, Scythe, and The Blacktongue Thief.