The Matter of Covers

Today we have a guest post on Book Covers by Sedona Venez, who just released her novel, Infinity.

 I certainly am a firm believer in having a beautiful package for all your hardwork




It’s not over when you finally finish writing your pride and joy. No, after the editing process, you go to the ‘I have to figure out what to do about my cover’ phase. Indie Authors know this all too well. In fact, they go through the painstaking process of finding the perfect cover artist that can produce a professional cover that fits into a tight budget. This is not an easy task, believe me.

But the book, it’s your baby, and you know that you ultimately have to decide what best represents your story, your vision. A vision that is often complicated by the issue of finding stock art that hasn’t been used like a thousand times by various authors. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack…simply impossible.

So with all of the angst that goes into creating a perfect cover--my question is, do covers really matter? I say the answer is yes. This answer was confirmed by a conversation I had with my sister after an exhausting and longer than usual search through the shelves at a major bookstore for Contemporary Romance novels. As her ‘must buy’ books piled up, I had to ask, do covers matter? Her answer, heck yes, it’s the first thing that she notices followed by the authors name, combined with a quick flip to the back to read the overview. I also noticed that every book either had a hot guy or girl on the cover, but I guess that was a given as an interest raiser.

Does the cover matter, especially if it’s a paranormal romance? And, does having a hot guy or hot girl on the cover sell you on buying it?

Ultimately, you have to make the choice, but as an author, I believe what’s between the covers matters just as much as what’s on it.

                                            

So, what do you think?