Judging a Cover Not by the Book

When I received my cover art for my latest book, I was reasonably pleased. The colors set a mood that fit my story, the castle signaled that it was set in the medieval era, the models matched the appearance of my hero and heroine and their pose made it clear the book was a romance. I found the woman’s expression much too sweet and self-satisfied to fit the tempestuous nature of her relationship with the hero, but I figured, you can’t have everything. The main thing was: the cover fit my vision for my story.

A few months later, after very slow sales and an analysis of the covers of the best-selling books in my genre, I realize now how foolish I was to worry about my vision. My cover needed to be dramatic and sophisticated; it needed to “pop”. And most of all, it would have caught romance readers’ eyes much better if it had featured a half-naked man. As they say, sex sells. My book is steamy, and having a “hot” cover wouldn’t have been a stretch. But I was so focused on my vision of the story, how it’s a classic medieval tale with an empowered heroine, I forgot that without a cover that stands out, no one’s going to read it.

Covers have always been important. Even before e-books, bad ones often severely hurt sales. But today, in the digital age, when appearances are essential, covers can truly make or break a book. Readers used to be able to pick up a book and look at the cover closely, examine it before they turned it over to read the back cover blurb. Covers were 4½ by 6 inches or larger. Now, depending on your screen, they are half that size or smaller. They are also truly one-dimensional, in a way a physical book, with a spine and back cover art, simply isn’t. They are displayed on a screen, surrounded by a sea of copy and graphics. Most important, there are thousands and thousands of book covers out there, screaming for the reader’s attention. In a bookstore, your book cover might be competing with a few dozen similar titles at most.

Designing covers that sell has become such a huge deal, I know some indie authors who try out various covers for the same book to see which one sells the best before they settle on one. They may repackage their books several times, trying to find a look that captures the reader’s attention. There are a multitude of blog posts, articles and e-books written on what sort of covers sell the most books.

Of course, you may not have much input into your cover. Larger publishers have art departments that know what sells for each genre, and they tend to use the same proven cover styles over and over. Smaller publishers may give the author a lot more control, which I suspect, based on my own experience, is not always a good thing.

A good friend of mine recently got his cover for a book published by a small press. He was disappointed because he didn’t think the setting matched the book, and he didn’t like the look of the models. He asked them to redo it, and they did. He was much happier with the second version. But I’m not sure the new cover is better from a marketing standpoint. It fits his vision better, but that doesn’t mean it will sell more books.

I’ve seen a lot of other covers from small publishers that I’ve had doubts about. Often the authors are thrilled and rave about their covers. I think that’s because they’re making the same mistake I did. They want their cover to match their vision of the story. But that’s not what they should be thinking about. Unless your publisher has enough clout to get you reviews in the main journals, or you’ve already built up a following, the only thing that matters about your book cover is that it attracts readers and makes them want to buy the book. Although I would advise against a true “bait and switch”. A sweet romance that has a half-naked hunk on the cover might well frustrate readers. The same with a cute cozy mystery cover with a dark and gruesome story, or any other example of complete dissonance between the expectations the cover sets up and the book itself.

But in my case, I simply blew it. There was no reason not to make my cover sexier and more like the ones on the popular medieval romances. All I can do now is chalk it up to experience and maybe hope that down the line I can convince my publisher to repackage it.

I’m sharing my story to keep other authors from making the same mistake. If you indie publish or have a publisher who gives you a lot of input into your cover design, I suggest you forget your notions of your story’s vision and approach your cover strictly as a marketing tool. Ignore your emotional attachment to your book and view the cover art process with cold, hard calculation. Today, every author has to be a marketer, a business person, along with being an artist. Visions are what gets the story written. Covers are for selling it.