It depends …
Book covers are a marketing tool, so different covers indicate a different kind of book:
- Romance and romantic suspense novels tend to have people on the cover – usually the main character, or the couple in a romance.
- Historical or literary novels often have places on the cover, as do fantasy or science fiction novels (which often have spaceships). This tells the reader something about the setting.
- Romantic comedy or chick-lit novels often have illustrated covers.
- There is also a trend for hand-drawn text covers on literary novels. These might be the book title, or may have some kind of pattern behind the text.
I have to admit a particular liking for a well-drawn illustrated cover.
These covers are invariably drawn for that novel and that novel only, so the covers are unique. One of the problems with stock photography is that multiple authors can end up using the same photograph.
So I’m always drawn by an illustrated cover … but that doesn’t guarantee I’ll buy the book.
The book description has to be equally engaging to convince me.
