We have all heard the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but come on... it is almost impossible not to make some snap judements based on a cover. Besides, the cover is probably the most effective form of advertising and can convey in a split second a wealth of information about the tone, setting, and contents of a novel. Take a look at the three covers below:
I’ll bet you can tell which one you would prefer to read, simply based on the message conveyed by the cover illustration. If you like the Amish genre, The Thorn is for you. My One and Only implies a contemporary romance, probably a road trip, in which the emphasis is on a poignant relationship rather than a sexy thriller. And finally, the campy tone of the third cover lets the reader know they should expect warlocks and probably a whole slew of other supernatural elements, but there will be no spooky or gothic tone typical of the genre. Rather, the reader needs to brace herself for a fun ride.
Getting the tone right is probably the most important thing the art department can do for launching a book. Sometimes they miss in a big way. Suzanne Brockmann was famously given a terrible cover for Get Lucky, the 9th book in her Tall Dark & Dangerous series. Readers were dying to get their hands on the long-anticipated book about a smokin' hot Navy SEAL named Lucky O'Donlon, who had appeared in many of the earlier books.
As you can see from the cover, the artist seemed to have forgotten about the "smokin' hot" angle when she drew Lucky. Instead of Get Lucky, some people said the book should be called Get the Pillsbury Doughboy. Brockmann even had a “fix-it kit” she mailed to readers if they wished to cover up the hero’s picture with a smiley face. Brockmann was not yet a nationally recognized author who had veto power over her cover illustration. The only power she had was a sense of humor, and she weathered the storm of a disastrous cover with classic grace.
Personally, I was very pleased with the cover of my upcoming book. I never understood how much work went into the design of a cover until I saw this article about the process over at the Lifeway Fiction blog. I was thrilled when they used The Lady of Bolton Hill as the case study for how a cover is designed, so if you want to see a handful of the alternate covers for my book, click here.
A fun website for evaluating romance covers is the Cover Café in which internet readers vote on their favorite and least favorite covers in a given year. I love looking through all the gorgeous winning covers in the Historical, Contemporary, and Suspense categories. Of course, it is hard not to cringe at the covers in the Worst Covers of the Year category.
There is a rumor that the toe-curlingly awful covers of heaving bosoms and half-naked pirates so popular in the 1970s and 80s was a result of marketing ignorance of the salespeople who sold novels to the chain bookstores. It has been said that most of these salespeople were men who believed women needed such covers to identify the romance books. I have yet to read anything in the industry trade journals to verify that rumor, but there is no doubt that the quality of cover illustration for romance novels have improved drastically in the last decade.