They tell you that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but, hey, the cover is its calling-card. It’s like the first impression you form of another person, and I suppose it’s just about reliable. Which is to say, it’s mostly a pretty good approximation, unless the person’s a consummate actor, or the publisher slapped a cheap stock cover on the book and thereby left a good part of its chances in the marketplace on the table. Sometimes I wonder if giving a new or mid-list author a mediocre cover may not be part of the strategy. After all, you don’t want to take anything away from the big names. But that’s probably just cynical me.
A good cover will give you an at-a-glance idea of what a book’s all about. Genre. Setting. Tone. Sometimes it can even tell you if the author’s female or male. Also, you might be able to home in on the publication date. Successful covers tend to kick off trends.
A long time ago, fantasy book covers were all about paintings of dragons and weird-looking people doing mysterious stuff. They were usually done in primary colors, and overburdened with detail.
Then, for a while, we had cloaks swirling like smoke around people in unlikely poses. In grimdark, it was scruffy men holding dented weapons, sometimes cropped to show only the man’s fist and the hilt of his weapon. If there’s a woman on the cover, she’s usually young and smooth-skinned and built like a Barbie doll. Sometimes she even holds a sword. The gods forbid that you show a warrior woman on the cover of a grimdark fantasy who actually looks like she could kick ass, and occasionally gets her ass kicked in return. But I digress.
When we’re looking for a new book to read, we often place a lot of weight on the cover. And as writers, we usually have a clear idea of what we like and what we don’t like in a cover. As for me, I’d be very disappointed to see my name on a cover that I don’t care for. I have no idea if traditionally published authors, especially debut authors, have any say in what the cover will look like. If not, then some people just luck out, and C. L. Clark hit the jackpot with the cover for “The Unbroken” (even with the “she’s gotta be pretty” rule firmly in place).
Especially if you’re not already a well-known author with an established fan base, making sure that you get the best cover you can afford and/or negotiate might go a long way towards giving your book a chance in the marketplace – never mind giving you a warm glow of satisfaction every time you look at it.
It’s indeed sad that bad things happen to the best people. I very much hope that Tommy Arnold will be back to painting soon. It was the cover that first attracted me to The Unbroken, and it’s why I put Tommy Arnold on my list of potential cover artists should I ever go the self-publishing route. To my mind, a great cover is well worth the investment. It might spur your sales to the point where the cover pays for itself. And even if it doesn’t, you’ll still look at your book with a sense of pride and satisfaction and not the nagging feeling that the contents didn’t get the packaging they deserve.
Good luck, Vaughn, and I can’t wait to read your books.
The Unbroken cover painted image was by the amazing Tommy Arnold. It’s one of the images that attracted me to pursue him a year ago. He was going to do my cover, had even done the initial sketches (which we loved), and then he suffered an injury that is keeping him from painting. He’s more than an incomparable artist, he’s a great guy and a class act. He aided me through my search for a replacement and has offered a briefing to my selection (the also stellar John Anthony Di Giovanni). I’m cheering for Tommy to be back to painting soon.
This is one of those things that is sort of sad but undeniable. There are good books that don’t get enough attention because of bad covers, and there are meh books that get more than they deserve because of great covers. This is an investment I may never earn back, but for me it’s worth it. It’s not about vanity. It’s more that I want to give my work its best shot at finding its right readers. What happens from there is up to me as a storyteller. Fingers crossed for me!
Good topic, LK. Hope you’re well. Happy Friday!