What Makes Or Breaks A Book Cover
(For Me)
I'll admit I will first judge the book by its cover and its synopsis second. I'll justify that by explaining how much I like pretty, matchy-matchy and organized bookshelves. There are a few books that have gotten past that "rule", but they are few and far between. With that being said:
What MAKES a book cover:
- Images that haven't been used on 100+ other books;
- Images that mean something to the story or, at the very least, is meant to represent a character in the story;
- Well thought out and professionally designed covers (though I've come to realize that there are a lot of authors that work magic in Photoshop so this only applies if the author isn't proficient in that art).
What BREAKS a book cover:
- The cover looks like it took the author's child 5 minutes to draw up and collage it in Paint;
- Using a very popular stock picture without even changing a detail of it;
- Using hard to decipher fonts any and everywhere;
- Using a picture that looks pretty but says nothing about the story or the characters (i.e. It's a book in the dystopian genre, but the cover is a woman wearing a beautiful ballgown).
What makes or breaks a book cover for you?
Let me know in the comments below!
LOVE this! It's all SO true too. I will add, shiny things on covers always attract me. I am quite literally easily distracted by shiny things, apparently ha. The stock picture one KILLS me, and so does the bad photoshopping. My favorite is looking through Netgalley- there are some REAL cover gems there, if you ever get the urge 😂
ReplyDeleteShiny covers and covers with raised 3D-ish art are the BEST! The person/team that design them do such a good job! HA! Netgalley covers are simply amazing! Next time I need a pick-me-up I'll be sure to browse a few categories I don't usually go through :)
DeleteStock pictures make me nuts, because most of the times, I can remember a cover and I connect it to a particular book, and then I see the SAME EXACT image for another book. I am really shocked when I see it on a large press book. They do it a lot for romances, and they should really do better by the authors. And terrible fonts! There have to be some better free fonts out there, you know?
ReplyDeleteThat's the feeling I couldn't put into words! I also connect a particular photo/model to a certain book and when I see that exact picture on the cover of another book I will forever compare it to the "original" in my mind (and, being honest, they will never compare!). I've also seen a lot of comments of readers asking authors why their cover models are on other books and that they've almost bought that other book thinking it was from this specific author because the cover was too alike. Don't get me started on my grievances with romance book covers! There are amazingly gorgeous free fonts available. I don't know why the authors and/or publishers choose to make some book titles a guessing game.
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