Judging a Book by Its Cover

I will admit that I do judge books by their cover. People try to tell you not to and that it is the story that matters but I disagree and so does Jenna Moreci, and since she is a published author and done her own marketing I assume she knows what she is talking about. She talks about cover art in her video Tips for a Successful Book Cover. She talks about it specifically from a marketing perspective. I am going to talk about cover are from a consumer perspective.

Typically I use the cover to give me an idea of the genre. I assume this is part of marketing that I have come to recognize certain elements are in the covers of mysteries, science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction. Some books are blends of genre's and their cover are reflects that and again I use the cover art to decide if it is something I would be interested in reading.

I will admit that if a book looks like it has some dramatic and sappy romance I typically don't pick it up. Not because I hate romance. I actually quite in enjoy romance but not as the sole plot of a book. I enjoy romance as an addition. Now I have a picture example in my post. People were recommending this book A Great and Terrible Beauty but the cover kept putting me off. To be frank the cover reminds me of a bodice ripper romance. I ended up actually enjoying the book and while I would say there is some kind of romance starting possibly it was unclear actually.

All this is to say that book covers are actually really important to me and while I generally try to not judge books by their cover I do. When a cover is beautiful and the art well-done to represent the story it is incredibly satisfying.