To me book covers are VERY important. (no way right?) Because I am a visual person. I know we make light of the fact that we’re “cover whores” and whatnot. But it’s really much more than that.
The saying goes,
“Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
What?
← Then all covers should look like this
Granted, most of us have at least heard of or even read The Catcher and the Rye, but you get my point.
A book cover draws us in and sets the pace of the story from the FIRST GLANCE. Before ever reading the synopsis.
Take this for example:
Hmmm… Well, I suppose it looks bloody and interesting. I ASSUME it has a female main character. From the blurb at the top I also ASSUME it’s about zombies, only because I know that David Moody writes zombie books.
Would THIS COVER get me to click a link and check out the synopsis of this book? Probably. Would I buy it? No… Would I accept it for review? 93.4% chance of ‘No’.
Why?
Because it looks unprofessional. It looks “meh”. If the cover looks those things, does that mean the writing is ALSO unprofessional and ‘meh’? I don’t know, but I’ve got about 264 other books on my shelf that have yet to be read and I think I’ll give them a go FIRST.
Oh WAIT!!! Wait, just one gosh darn minute you judgmental, zombie loving, brunette!!!! Take a look see at THIS COVER of the exact same book, sporting the exact same blurb and… BAM!!!!!
Drop Dead Gorgeous goes from an “easy pass”, to a Zombie Queen “MUST HAVE on my shelf YESTERDAY” book.
Because this new and improved cover says, “Check me out dude. I’m a force to be reckoned with, I ain’t messing around this time.”
I DO however think they should’ve kept the blurb from David Moody. I dislike this new one, but that’s neither here, nor there. Because I’ve already purchased it.
“Rough, Filthy and Completely Brilliant.” – David Moody
“Simmons writes like the grotesque lovechild of George A Romero and Charles Dickens” – Physical Grafitti
And here’s an example of a book I was DYING to read until they went and changed the cover… *sigh*
Right? Do you guys remember this one?!?! OMG!
This was one of my MOST anticipated releases of 2012! Right away THIS COVER says,
“Deadly, brutal and beautiful. I’ll lure you in, and kill you before you even realize you should be afraid.”
Then they switched it to this:
The Vicious Deep STILL has an awesome cover… But the NEW one says, “Percy Jackson and the god of the Sea or something equally as ‘take it or leave it’ to me” so I haven’t read it. Nor have I bought it, like I would have if it had kept it’s original cover.
Now so no one gets the wrong idea and starts to get the impression that I only like covers with people on them, I’m going to give you an example of book covers that I much preferred before the change and people were put on them!
I much prefer the old covers to the new covers. Not for any particular reason besides the face that they are different, intriguing and make me pause to think, “Hmm, I wonder what these are about?”
But the new covers would definitely not stop me from BUYING these books!
So what do you guys think? Is it PURELY about the pretty cover as the term “cover whore” so implies?
Or is there more to it than that?
One cover on a book, compared to another with the EXACT same blurb can totally change my opinion!
Book loving, zombie freak, stiletto wearing, twitter whore, coffee addicted Brunette with a purse fetish.
Collector of flamingo paraphernalia & zombie keepsakes… Frequenter of thrift stores... cRaFtY bitch... and I match my eye-shadow to my outfit - everyday.