I know I’m a romance author, but I’m still a READER at heart.
As a READER, my favorite thing to do is to go into a Lifeway or Family Christian Bookstore and peruse the fiction section.
And yes, I may even sniff a few times. There is NOTHING better than the smell of fresh books! (Okay, maybe vanilla or chocolate chip cookies come in close….)
I also am fascinated with covers. It’s what draws me to books. I know, I know. They say don’t judge a book by its cover. But I confess. Most of the time, a cover is what prompts me to pick up a book and check it out. And a cover is, at times, what makes me wrinkle my nose and walk on by.
Writers and publishers have a LOT of conversations about what a cover should look like, because a cover sends a message to you, our reader.
It might be something like this from Robin Caroll…
Clearly you’ll get some nail-biting suspense here!
Or maybe it’s something a little more fun like this from Becky Wade…
You can bet you’ll get a cute romance with a hunky hero and those pink shoes tell you there is DEFINITELY going to be a dose of fun.
Then you have our own Valerie Comer…
Which tells you that a sweet-farm romance awaits.
We can’t forget the more serious side, like the fabulous Katie Ganshert brings us.
This cover hints at a romance but with a serious side, preparing us for a soul-searching journey.
The different types of covers and the images they create are as endless as the story possibilities inside. We writer’s worry about lots of things. Should we have people on our covers? The couple or only the hero or heroine? Should we show faces or hide them? Cut off heads or fore-go decapitation?
Those are all things we painstakingly try to figure out, to ensure that we capture JUST the right mood for our readers.
![Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000026_00095]](https://www.inspyromance.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Hope-Book-Cover-Final.jpg)
I just released my next book cover for my upcoming novel, A Side of Hope, on my own blog yesterday. I chose to go simple, no decapitation, and show faces. Hopefully my readers will like it as much as I did!
So what about you? What kind of covers appeal to you as a reader? Do you prefer covers with faces, or do you like to picture what characters look like without being shown on the cover? Do cut off bodies annoy you?
Or are you like some, and just don’t care, as long as the story inside is fantastic!
Krista Phillips writes inspirational romance with a dash of smiles. She believes a sprinkle of laughter (and a wee bit of chocolate) makes everything a little better! She blogs regularly about life as a wife, mother, follower of Jesus, and mother of a child with a rare congenital heart defect at www.kristaphillips.com. She is represented by Sarah Freese of WordServe Literary.
Books from authors of my really like list I will buy without much thought of the cover. Not so well know or new ones I check the cover then I will read the excerpt. If people are on the cover it really bothers me if they do not match the authors description of them. As I read mostly Love Inspired and Love Inspired Suspense I find about 75% of time they do not match. That may be why I avoid a close look at the covers.
Krista, like you, I love book covers. Of course I have my favorite authors and I look for their books, but it’s the covers that draw me. When I pick a book up the very next thing I look for is the blurb about the book. If the cover and blurb don’t match then I put the book down. I like colors that pop on the front. Depending on the story I like scenery shots and prefer the actual models to not really show their faces (like Becky Wade’s book). I absolutely hate to start a book and suddenly realize the models and hero/heroine doesn’t match. That is poor marketing in my opinion.
I like just about any type of cover — unless it’s just super boring. Covers are the first thing that grab my attention and I’m not very likely to pick up a book that has a cover that doesn’t draw my eye unless it has a very attention-grabbing title. After reading several books where I was left wondering how in the world they managed to choose a “cover couple” that looked totally opposite of the couple in the story or a cover that had nothing whatsoever to do with the story (both of which drive me crazy!)….. I decided that I would try to enjoy the book cover as well as the book and just get extra enjoyment out of it when they matched! ;) I’m sure I’ve missed some good books because of their covers, though.
I always look at the cover and try to guess what this story is about and really don’t want to read the back unless it is an author I do not know. When one is in search of a certain kind of story, you must look at the cover and see if you get feel for where it will take you.
Great topic! A cover has to pull me in to get me to read the description, so to start, the cover is EVERYTHING. From there though lol it’s all about the plot and writing. I agree with the other commenters it drives me nuts when models on the cover do not match the description of the characters. Yes, I’m a writer, but I’ve been a reader for many more years than I’ve been writing. :)
That’s interesting! I’ve never noticed that about LI books, however usually characters on the books are fairly small instead of larger characters of some of the trade length books. I agree, I like my characters on the front to match the characters in the book!
Agreed! although I don’t always read the blurb, only skim it barely. I’m more apt to read the first few paragraphs of a new book after the cover has drawn my attention, to see if it is something I might be interested in. I’d rather be surprised by the plot as I go, thus my avoidance of the blurb, LOL
LOL, I probably have missed some good books too! I’ve tried to branch out lately to some I wouldn’t normally pick for that very reason!
Exactly! A cover is that great first line of information to give us a needed hint of the inside!!
Kimberly, me too!! I’ve only been writing since 2007, and seriously since 2008/2009, but have been an avid reader since my early teens, and covers have always been my first draw!
Since I have been reading e-books on my Kindle it has been a few years since I have paid much attention to the book covers. I find new books through the blogs by various authors that post to this newsletter. I especially enjoy learning about new releases by authors I enjoy. I then go to Amazon and read more about the book and reader’s comments. Back when I was reading books in paperback I paid more attention to the covers.
Hi Krista, I agree with what others have said, and I’m frustrated by covers that don’t closely resemble the character’s physical appearance. Sometimes the faces on the cover just don’t match the image we create in our mind, and other times they’re spot on. I also like browsing the fiction shelves in-store and seeing which covers draw my attention.