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…
I’m a writer who has been traditionally published, though never with one of the Big 4/5. I had a lot of cover input with my first book but little input with my second (and I feel my second book cover is super boring). It was different publishers. I have friends published by the Big4/5, and their experiences re covers have varied widely as well. In all cases, though, writers are never going to be able to dictate what their covers should look like-- it comes down to a marketing decision.
Interesting. Thanks for the insight! Still have a lot of deciding to do to figure out which way I want to go when the time comes.