Judging a Book by its Cover by Leia Shaw

The old saying, don’t judge a book by it’s cover, is a good philosophy to live by in some ways. Such as choosing friends, a spouse, etc.,

 but the fact is, people do judge books by their covers. And as an author, having an eye-catching, professional cover is one of the most important things you can get yourself.

If you’re published by a publishing house, you may not have much choice about the cover. Self-pubbers, like me, have all the control, which is nice in some ways, but it also means we have all the responsibility too. Sometimes it feels like having an industry professional telling you what’s best to do wouldn’t be such a bad thing — though I’ve seen some pretty terrible covers by big publishing houses too. But whether you hire someone to make yours, do your own, or hope your publishing house comes through, the fact remains the same. Covers sell books.

In my opinion, the point of a cover isn’t to tell the reader what the book is about. It’s to catch the reader’s eye so they read the blurb. And then it’s the blurbs job to reel them in from there. So a book cover should be attention-grabbing, good quality, and say something about the tone or genre. But just because your book is about a werewolf and a vampire that travel to outer space and encounter a robot that makes up their threesome, does not mean the cover has to include a werewolf, vampire, spaceship, and robot. I just pulled that example out of my idea book. It’s called Paranormal Menage in Space. Don’t steal my idea! That one’s a winner!

Anyway, I’d like to hear from you. As a reader, how important is a book cover? Do you buy books based on covers? Or do you pass them by if its got a bad cover?

For fun, I’m posting a few of the book covers I’ve made for either myself or other authors.

         

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