Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Judging a book by its cover


I admit it. I judge books by their covers. Unless I am familiar with the author, when shopping for books, I go first for a great cover, THEN I read the blurb. It's never the other way around.
I thought it would be interesting to go to different erotic romance publishers and check out their new releases and see what covers catch my eye.

Do you think they're as awesome as I do, or would different covers have captured your attention?

Sex. Cowboys. Sepia-toned cover. Yes, yes, and yes.
This woman just looks so naughty and sexy, I can't wait to read her story!

Love the title, for one. The colors also drew me in. And it just looks like a fun read.

Three hot guys and a shark? I'm so there.

Multiple hot guys. Beautiful, artistic cover--love the black and white.

I honestly don't know why this one captured my eye. I don't find the hero particularly appealing, but something about his expression just drew me in. And the hot (literally) colors. This cover just screamed for me to buy the book.



  How do you choose books? Cover? Title? Author? All the above? None of the above?




3 comments:

Kayelle Allen said...

I looked more than twice at Mahalia Levey's book myself! There is something appealing about that cover. I admit, there are books that I've bought because the cover yelled for me to pick it up. LOL Once I have it in my hands, the greatest cover in the world won't make me buy it if the opening doesn't appeal, but if the cover is unappealing, I am less likely to pick it up in the first place.

Becca Simone said...

Hey Kayelle,
I think covers are even more important now in this digital age. A cover must really stand out from all the others online. I often scan the Top 100 lists at Amazon for new reads. I'm sorry to say there are probably many, many great stories I'm not clicking on simply because the cover didn't catch my eye.

William Kendall said...

The second, third, and fifth ones work for me, though that's just personal taste.

The cover draws us in, of course, and generally speaking, you can alienate your reader if your cover is an obvious inspired by whatever the trend of the month is. I've lost track of how many franchise books have been published that are obviously riding the wave of that infernal Twilight genre, and you can see it just by the cover design.