How important are ebook covers to you in attracting your attention when browsing for a new ebook? I recently purchased a book I had skipped past many times because the cover was frankly atrocious, but my kindle kept recommending it based upon previous purchases, I finally gave in, read the book description and bought the book. It was a fun read, by a very professional author but the cover art truly sucked. I read one author's recommendation for cover art-saying that it is often better to go with something simpler, rather than trying to tell a complete story on the cover. I have to agree. Simple works best. What do you think? What are the best and worst covers you have seen for ebooks? And do covers matter as much now that we are reading more ebooks than they did when we bought more paperbacks?

I think that though we are readers, we are still very visually oriented. I, for one, really do look at the cover or title to even get me to read the blurb. A bad cover has me moving on to the next book e-book or print. But cover errors are not new. The one I remember the most is the Original cover to Julie Garwood’s The Bride, Jamie wore White one the cover – a very sad mistake.

LOL - I never even paid attention to the cover but I remember she didn't wear white to her wedding!!

I too am influenced by the cover art. I rarely look at a book with a cartoonish cover or an ugly cover. And if there is no cover art at all I just skip right by it. I figure if the publisher can't put the effort into a decent cover then they don't really want to sell the book. JMO.

Yes she dressed in black for her wedding, but the cover showed a bride in a white dress with a back that plunged to her waist. It took my employeer at the time to get me to read it.
Titles and covers are so important. I don't skip the cartoonish covers, but ugly not even if it is free. And if I can't figure out what it should be.... No way.

My graphics must not be very good on my kindle because the pictures don't look right. So I don't even pay attention to the cover for an ebook. It must be hard to design something that looks right for all the devices.

I have to admit that I do not pay attention to the covers either. I go by the story and the author. I know authors sometimes have no control of their covers.

I had a Kindle 2 and I can't remember if a cover showed up when I was reading a book.

For me a cover can and has caught my attention, but the blurb has to reel me in. If fact I have started reading new authors because one of their covers caught my attention and when I read the blurb it sounded good. To some degree I don't like to see the faces of the hero or heroine on the cover because in my mind they will look different. I do hate it when the cover does not match up with the story.

The one thing I hate about ebook covers but at the same time understand; is the use of the same cover, with only different colors and sometimes not even that on several different ebooks. This is very difficult for the reader, when browsing for ebooks. You see the same cover of the book you read last week, last month, etc... So you pass on it, only to realize that it is a different book. Or you look for a cover and almost buy it because you think is another book you have been looking for.

In the end though I love the cover art, I try not judge a book by its cover. Its hard with the Romance covers that have cartoons on them though. I would rather look at a picture of the ocean or a car or a tree anything but a cartoon. I am sorry I love cartoons, I will still watch Tom & Jerry, as sometimes that is the only thing worth watching on TV when I do watch TV. But I don't want them on my Romance covers. Its hard to take those seriously. I'm sorry.

When I think cartoon covers, it takes me back to Marianne Stillings and the cover for The Damsel In This Dress. It stopped me dead in my tracks in the bookstore, and ended up being such a great book - taught me to never judge a book by it's cover! It was quite a creative cover though.....

That said, I do love a good cover. Not that there are that many to be had out there anymore. I love the covers for JoAnn Ross' books, but also find I am liking covers without pictures of the H/h on them. Usually the people on the covers are the total opposites of the characters in the books, so I find the landscape covers more appealing now. The cover of Lori Wilde's The Cowboy Takes a Brideis nice too. Wants to make me sit down on the porch and wait for a cowboy to stop by!

Lori Foster does get the best cover models though, so I always buy her books, not ebooks, just for the drool factor. Otherwise for my Kindle ebooks, I buy for the author, not so much the cover. I do like to check out the nice big color covers on my iPad though!

I looked up the cover for Julie Garwood's The Bride, and Oh my goodness! A stark white dress when you say she wore black to her wedding? I haven't read the book but I bet the author was at the very least frustrated! There were two other covers shown for that book so I guess they changed it after a while.
As for current covers, epubs are getting more strict with their guidelines now for cover art, so hopefully we'll start seeing more really good covers. I've always loved the covers, it was what lead me to discover this site many years ago when I was browsing on the internet.

The Bride is one of my Favs. I alway have a copy in my personal library. If you haven't read it, I would recomend it as a great summer read.

I just wanted to give everyone a heads-up on what I learned this past week. Most of the ebook retailers are all upping their requirements with regard to the standards for ebook covers, they want clearer images, more pixels etc. But the covers already out there are in most cases grandfathered in, but I think a lot of authors will probably be upgrading their covers to compete, so watch out that you don't accidentally buy a book twice over as it may have a different cover!

I have noticed that there are a lot of authors that for one reason or other change the covers of there ebooks. Most are really good at saying that said ebook has only had the cover changed, but like L.C. said, I would always check to make sure you do not buy an ebook twice.

I think they are very very important. When I used to buy PB I would trade them to make it more affordable. Now I get to keep the ebook since most of what I buy is cheaper than PB. One of the big bonuses to ebooks is that I get to keep the cover art. It sits on my desktop and I get to admire it.

I would love to get ahold of some inexpensive romance cover posters to frame and hang on my wall.,

A good cover is like wearing a nice suit to an interview. It shows the employer you r professional hardworkint and appreciate the time they spent giving you an opportunity to apply. The cover says the writer is professional knows what the readers expectations are and they respect the money you give in exhange for a good book. So they wont dissapoint you.




Of course u cant judge the content of the book by the cover or the work performance by the suit....but would you give a job to someone

Who showed up in pajamas?

Sorry had to post this here. Couldnt get edit function to work.

I too am cover oriented, I like a good cover. I find I am drawn to the cover first, even when shopping for e-versions, even though I never see the cover on my kindle.

Nothing worse when the guy on the cover completely misrepresents the hero of the story... anyone remeber Get Lucky by Suz Brockman, that original was T.R.A.G.I.C!
(I have a copy)