Cover Art: Love it or Hate It?

Cover Art. Love it or hate it, cover art sells books. And not just print books, but ebooks too. Sure, some readers are high-minded enough to ignore poor art in favor of a decent blurb. But since I'm not alway one of those folks, I figure I can speak for the masses when I say that poor artwork can seriously cramp a book's style.

I'm not trying to offend anyone, just giving my oh-so-humble opinion. So I'll just flat out say it. I can't stand Poser. That animated, looks-incredibly-fake, computer art just turns me off to a book. I can handle photos or graphic art, drawn characters. But that computer animated stuff kills me. And I'm not talking about art that's been touched up or slightly altered by computers. I'm talking about something that looks like this...

Granted, it's not the best shot of the guy, and he's alone, not very romantic, but just looking at his pixeled, fake face, I'm turned off to any sort of romantic story. Same as if the hero or heroine on the cover is ugly. And yes, that HAS happened. But I won't put those covers up, so as not to embarrass the authors who are already embarrassed.(I'm paying for FICTION, here, and unlike real life, it's okay for everyone to be beautiful and perfect in a book. I want a fantasy. If I wanted real life, I'd go to Walmart at midnight and stare at the odd species of human who cart their kids with them while they search for light bulbs, Diet Coke and Twizzlers late at night in Augusta. Uh, okay, the Twizzlers part is me.)

But I challenge you to look at either of the guys below--and no, I'm not being biased, I'm deeply in lust with both males in the pics--and tell me they wouldn't put you in some sort of romantic lala land. The guy on the left is a model who's been grafted over a kick*ss dragon that I cut out to focus more on him. The guy on the right, I think, was based on a model but is clearly artwork and not real, more's the pity. I'd look at the back blurb on both books just because of these heroes. Hey, I'm shelling out anywhere from five to ten bucks on a book, be it electronic or print, so I want it to look as good as it reads! And I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. And the same could be said of a good vs. bad review on a book, but that's an entirely different discussion.

So as not to slam Poser (my pet peeve), let's look at another poor selling point. Characters and scenes that don't mesh with what the book's about. That's usually an author's sticking point too, when she writes about a lush, red-headed heroine, only to see a dark-haired woman with a pixie cut on her cover. Or worse, a steamy erotic story with a cartoony cover and sweet sounding title, something along the lines of "Loving Mr. Mom"(not an actual title) when it's actually a book about an alien who has to have sex with suburban housewives in ninety-nine positions to get home.

Then too, there are the wacked out titles. I'm sorry, but I refuse to go to a store, in the romance section, to pick up a book entitled Big-Assed Housewives, The Nympho Next Door, or The Lickable Lady. Okay, I made those up, and I sincerely hope no one actually used similar titles because they sound like porn. But they're like some titles I've seen out there that are actually on romance books. I'm astounded at the trashy sounding titles out there, and these are books, not with Hustler or Penthouse, but with reputable erotic romance sellers, both small press and large, who produce great storylines.

I'm off my soap box, and am not quite sure how I began ranting about titles when I'd started on covers, but it's all the same when you come down to it. If the wrapping looks shoddy, you might now want to open up the box. And in many cases, you'd miss out on a real treat.

My disclaimer...I've been fortunate that I LOVE my covers. Eliza Black, Kat Richards, Anne Cain, April Martinez and Trace Edwards are incredibly talented artists. And I'm only sorry Venus Press closed its doors, because the covers Dan Skinner did for my Talsons rocked.

And that's all I have for Thursday.

Marie