What's in a cover?

I don't think I've made it a secret that I love art in all it's forms, but today I want to talk about cover art. I browse different cover artists' pages on a daily basis. Rae Monet, Natalie Winters, Valerie Tibbs, Scott Carpenter all have pages that I've saved to my favorites.

The thing is, a good cover artist can really bring your story to life. Authors get a rush when we get a new cover. It's the icing on the cake. I always have my most recent cover as my desktop background and every single time I log on, it's there and it brings me a smile. Authors put so much of themselves into a story and we want the cover to reflect that I guess. We want readers to stop and stare, to get curious enough to read the blurb and maybe buy the book. The cover is the first thing they'll see.

One of my most favorite people has been hard at work creating covers for authors for months now. I don't know how much money cover artists make, but I don't think they do it for the money anyway. I imagine it's like writing, they do it because they're driven to create something with their own two hands. I think that sort of passion should be recognized, don't you?

Which brings me to The Fantasm Awards The talented Valerie Tibbs is a finalist in the "paranormal category"! Is this a cool cover or what? Is it any wonder she finaled??

If you haven't voted already, head over to The Fantasm Awards and vote for Valerie!

And just for fun, here are a few more of Valerie's awesome covers:

I'd like to leave you all with a question. How big a part does the cover play when buying a book?? Have you ever been browsing a site or a shelf at the bookstore and found yourself drawn to a book because of the cover? I admit, I've found new authors because of their cover art. One author that springs to mind is Christine Feehan. I first read "Dark Desire" (yes, I read that one before Dark Prince) because I liked that cover and it made me curious to know more.