Monday, January 12, 2009

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.


11 comments:

NINATREAS said...

I LOVE COVERS THEY GIVE U A ERAL INSIGHT TO THE AUTHOR. I BUY BOOK JUST FOR THE COVER SOMETIMES ..
KEEP THE PEN HOT !!!! NINAT

Kelley Nyrae said...

Love, love cover art. Its what attracts you to a book if you don't know the author. I think a good cover is vital to an author. I looove getting new covers too.

Regina Carlysle said...

I don't know a single author who doesn't go ga-ga over covers. Maybe it's because BEFORE we're authors, we dream of having a cover with our name on it. Valerie does AWESOME work!!! These covers are just beautiful.

I actually have a book with a hideous cover and I never promote this book. Never even mention it most of the time and it got great reviews. Think I'm just embarrassed by the yukky cover so I just ignore the book. Sad.

Genella deGrey said...

The cover is the first thing I see when brousing both print and ebooks.

I can't stress enough how important the cover is to readers. I'm always shocked when the H & H don't fit the description in the book or the time period is off due to costumes or setting - What people don't know is that bad covers are NOT a reflection on the author, because most of the time, and especially with the bigger houses, the authors have little to no say in their covers.

Lucky for me Freya's Bower allowed me to play a big part in choosing what went on my beautiful cover.

:)
G.

Genella deGrey said...

Sorry about the type-o's - I'm in a hurry to get back to editing -
:)
G.

Jambrea said...

I love V and her covers! I get my first V soon through Freya's Bower! I am SO excited. I can't wait to show off my Valerie Original!

I already voted. Good luck V and I hope you win!!!

joyroett said...

I don't buy books by cover at all-it's the author's name that gets me so a lot of the times I dont even notice the cover. I think I was always like this and for sure when I realised what reprints were I definitely stopped checking for covers. With prints I just check the copyright date to make sure I dont have the title already and that's it.

All that being said, Valerie's covers are masterpieces. I really love them. You can't help but look. They are visually arresting.

Valerie T. said...

I'm going to cry now. I can't believe you blogged about me!

Thank you everyone for your comments - and voting. I appreciate it!

Valerie :D

Anne Rainey said...

Hi NinaT! Thanks for the comment! :)

Kelley--I get so excited about new covers. I think I drive Scott crazy asking 'is it read? is it read?' LOL

Regina--I agree 100% on the yukky cover problem!

Anne Rainey said...

Genella--I was surpirsed to learn that about the big houses. Years ago on Lori Foster's message board is when I first realized that NY authors have very littl say in there own covers. Amazing.

Jambrea--I can't wait to see what Valerie does for you! How cool is that?!

Anne Rainey said...

Joy--I agree, Valerie's covers are amazing!!

Valerie--if you cry, I'll cry! LOL (((hugs)))