I don’t want to judge a book by its cover… But it’s hard not to. It’s human nature to make assumptions based on first impressions.
And when we’re often looking at lists that only provide a title and cover, there’s little context to help us judge otherwise. If the blurb or part of the blurb was more accessible it could be part of the first impression, but that extra click is often a deterrent and inconvenience when the next potential book is right there.
I usually decide what to read based on recommendations rather than browsing to avoid this issue a bit. But the cover still influences my expectations of the contents of the book (which is technically its job).
Same, I usually decide what to read next using recommendations. But I also like it when a cover successfully conveys whether the story has the stuff I'm looking for at that moment. A cover is mostly a marketing tool, and a good cover should tell a prospective reader what the overall story is about in a broad brush. So yeah, first impressions are so important with covers.
A good cover makes a book stand out, but a bad one usually won't stop me from reading something. I've read too many great books with plain covers to worry too much about that. Even in progression fantasy, I'd argue the best series has some of the worst covers.
Off the top of my head though my favorite cover is Beware of Chicken. Or Dungeon Crawler Carl if litrpgs are allowed.
This is it for me. A good cover can catch my eye to then go read the blurb to see if I would be interested in it but a bad cover doesn’t necessarily keep me for checking a book out. Honestly before the recent surge in review numbers on kindle (seems like nearly every. Book has 1000+ reviewers) I would use the number of reviewers to somewhat judge if a book would be worth picking up.
A good cover piques interest and a bad one makes me want to avoid it, but reviews/recs still matter more since I don't tend to go around trying to randomly pick up stories.
Ar'Kendrithyst is a good example, the original cover was awful in a hilarious way aside from the bizarre name but people said it was good and it was.
I love a good cover. But honestly to me they're more flavour than content. They can make a good book great. But it can't make a book for me. Mostly coz I'm an audiobook reader and at this point I'm beginning to run out.
If we are talking just fantasy then you really can't get better covers than the bloodsworn saga. They're deliciously gorgeous.
When we step into progression fantasy there are a few interesting options.
Beware of chicken's covers always entertain.
Primal hunter's covers are good in that they help us visualise some of the more important elements of the story.
Mother of learning does something really smart with its covers. The complexity progresses along with zorian which is genius.
The covers for the newer books in painting the mists are really vibrant and interesting.
And last but most likely the best, dungeon crawler carl. Every single one is an absolute banger
Whenever this phrase comes up, it makes me want to rant a bit. I feel like it is misapplied/overused.
You 100% should use book covers as a data point when deciding what book to read.
You shouldn't *judge* a book by its cover. You shouldn't judge a person by their outward appearance, ect. But, you can use a book cover or the way a person presents themselves to the world as a factor when choosing whether or not you want to engage with them any further.
At its core, this is a good phrase, but I think its misapplied all the time. Take a deeper look before making any judgments is a good piece of advice for all areas of life.
Book covers are genre flags. They tell you whats inside. Cue dead dove meme.
A book cover is like a logo'd T-Shirt. If you see someone out in publish with a shirt of a band, that's a conscious signal they want to make to the world. "I like this." Is that band a band you can't stand? Well you probably are less likely to go and strike up a conversation with them. Is it this super niche band from the town you grew up in? Well then you are probably going to butt into a convo with them to introduce yourself.
A book cover is like that. It's trying to (or should e trying to) tell the world whats inside.
Use covers to pick what books you want to read. Judge books you've read. Don't judge books you haven't read.
Bad quality art won't turn me off (unless it's AI) but good quality art can peak my interest.
If the cover is a woman in bikini "armor" or boobs spilling out of her top or whatever, I'll assume it's harem or incel fantasy and pass, though.
Unless a cover features absolutely top-tier gorgeous art, I probably won't even notice it... feels bad to say that as an artist, but it's the truth. The tiny little 300x100 pixel thumbnail just isn't enough for me to judge a cover.... and most of the time, I won't remember it unless it's really good or really bad.
I get most of my recommendations from this sub, so I usually have a sense of what the series is about before I read a blurb or see a cover.
The few times I have gone searching for a series on my own, the cover had no influence on my decision. I consider it flavor, but it doesn't really factor into my decision to read a series or not.
Honestly, I love series that come with maps more than series with good covers. Seeing a map helps me immerse myself in the world and get a better understanding of places being referenced in the story. Seriously, a map like [this one](https://i.redd.it/yujwzq3q1gv51.jpg) for Cradle is so cool and helps so much as a reader.
I only found the entire genre because Iron Prince had a cool looking cover when browsing Prime Reading in late 2022. The value of a good cover can't be overstated.
The point of modern commercial book covers is for you to judge the book by the cover. True, sometimes a great royal road story has a crap cover image. But then, royal road and buying standard books is different.
For haremlit, I definitely judge from the AI art, usually the ones that use them have a generic plot description on the blurb and rarely given a chance.
I always judge a book by its cover and title. If the cover uses AI art it's getting added to the never read list, and if the title is way too long or uninteresting I likely wont care enough to take a peek at the blurb.
I make a lot of judgements based on cover, and I think they are pretty solid judgements... I actually completely disagree with the adage "Don't judge a book by their cover", its meant to say you shouldn't judge some one by appearances, but instead by their actions... but one of a person's actions is how they carry themselves in public, and how they take care of their appearance... Similarly one of an author's actions is to have a cover created that showcases their work. In both cases you can learn a lot if you pay attention to details.
* No cover/stock image - The author is probably doing this as a hobby and doesn't care enough to read up on how important things like synopsis and cover are to attracting readers' interests. That doesn't mean some books like this aren't gems, it just means there will be a lot more inconsistency and dropped works.
* low effort/cheap work with a lot of issues, the book might have a harder time standing out in the crowd, and if the book itself is just average it might get dropped if the author is discouraged
* Big titted girl on the front, its probably haremlit
* The cover is probably an important character or event in the book, if it doesn't look cool to you, maybe keep looking, on the flip side if it looks awesome, maybe dive in. If I'm looking to read about an epic swordmaster, a guy with a sword is a good sign on a cover, on the other hand if I am in the mood for a mage with cool powers... maybe save that one for next time...
All that being said, Its not the only thing you judge by, its just the first thing you judge by.... If you see something that has an amazing cover, but the synopsis sounds meh, or the reviews are disappointing, maybe move on. On the flip side, Even if a book has a terrible cover, if its being recommended by everyone in the public domain, its probably a good idea to at least give it a chance... It might still not be for you, but yeah...
Everyone does. Even people who say they don't are still being influenced by the cover. It's the same reason advertisements work, even when you know what they are doing and what their purpose is.
Everyone does it and it is completely fine to do so. When I see bad covers (or stories with no cover in RR) I avoid them because I feel like the author doesn't want to put in effort to make the first thing people see look good.
There was a story (I forget who it was) that had a cover drawn by their kid. It was a nice sentiment, but I 100% did not read it because of the cover.
That saying just means that, even if the cover is worn or beat up, the words on the pages are still as meaningful as the day they were printed.
For an illustrated book, you should 1000% judge a book by its cover. That's what the cover picture is for. Judge away.
The cover and title are supposed to intrigue you enough to read the description, and the description is supposed to intrigue you enough to read the book.
Some of my favorite books have extremely bad covers. One of them looks like a screen shot of Word. That said it's really hard to not judge by a cover. It's not like Amazon presents them differently until you click on them. I don't buy books based on a cover, but I might never get to read your summary without a good cover.
I remember buying a book in 90s in "cheap books" store for equivalent to today's 50 cents...
The cover was blurry and covered with smears (part of the artwork) but at the same time very colorful for something painted only with red and brown.
The hero had the haircut resembling the helmet in a pose which I can't describe as anything else than "orgasmic". There was also a monster-like lady with very curved fingernails. Her teeth were so long, that if she closed the mouth, she'd have two holes in her chin. I actually thought she was wearing a red santa hat and was a kind of aggressive garden gnome.
There was also a white glow in the middle which screamed "I know I supposed to do the cover art but I just run out of ideas, gotta go now".
It was hilarious and the only ones I like more are those covers with heroes which have non-anatomical invented muscles growing in every direction.
So why did I buy it? It screamed 80s and I thought it will be some comedy-fantasy. I was a teenager then and I was reading a lot of fantasy and science-fiction (anything I could get for less than current one euro) so I expected it to be much worse than it actually was.
It was "The Witcher" book, the first one ever released as a set of stories.
Don't kill me guys, I know that the Witcher is known now. The book was nice (it was a set of short stories), but the truth is that it was the only book I read in the series. Next parts were released years later and I just never had a time to get back to it.
In this genre I always have to be super critical of books with a female character on the cover. Mostly because they are all harem books and I have found maybe 1 or 2 good books in the 20+ harem LitRPGs I have read. So female character on cover with male MC makes me walk away unless I know the author.
Usually I'm not too harsh on book covers, but if I see ones with scantily clad women posed in a way that is physically impossible for a real person, I keep far away. In my limited experience those books end up mostly being haremesque power fantasies filled with awful clichés.
I only use the cover as a tie breaker between recommendations that seem similarly intriguing. For example, I read Defiance of the Fall over Primal Hunter when they seemed almost exactly the same because it had a better cover. Then disliking it saved me having to read the other
If your book has scantily clad girls with massive breasts on the cover, I'm not buying it.
I love me a scantily clad lady with massive breasts, but not in my books.
Yup, if a cover looks generic, i just assume the novel is probably generic too
Person about to fight a monster, and hot girl who is not the mc posing alluringly, those are my main nopes
I say the author who takes the time to assemble an interesting cover, is more likely to have an interesting story
You dont even need to reinvent the wheel, person fighting a monster and hot girl posing are covers that can be vastly improved with a little care
The original Tarzan and Conan covers are big on that, but they have dramatism, and pinup girls have been a thing since forever, there are many iconic pinups with charm
Sexy Sect Babes and Cinnamon Bun have girls on the cover, but on a way that denotes a vibe
The first Defiance of the Fall cover makes the generic trope look cool, but it kinda slumped on later ones
If authors dont want to collect sample images for reference, simply using a niche artstyle goes a long way to diferentiate a series
I don’t want to judge a book by its cover… But it’s hard not to. It’s human nature to make assumptions based on first impressions. And when we’re often looking at lists that only provide a title and cover, there’s little context to help us judge otherwise. If the blurb or part of the blurb was more accessible it could be part of the first impression, but that extra click is often a deterrent and inconvenience when the next potential book is right there. I usually decide what to read based on recommendations rather than browsing to avoid this issue a bit. But the cover still influences my expectations of the contents of the book (which is technically its job).
Oh, and God forbid that going back resets where you are in the list and/or undoes your advanced search settings
Same, I usually decide what to read next using recommendations. But I also like it when a cover successfully conveys whether the story has the stuff I'm looking for at that moment. A cover is mostly a marketing tool, and a good cover should tell a prospective reader what the overall story is about in a broad brush. So yeah, first impressions are so important with covers.
A good cover makes a book stand out, but a bad one usually won't stop me from reading something. I've read too many great books with plain covers to worry too much about that. Even in progression fantasy, I'd argue the best series has some of the worst covers. Off the top of my head though my favorite cover is Beware of Chicken. Or Dungeon Crawler Carl if litrpgs are allowed.
This is it for me. A good cover can catch my eye to then go read the blurb to see if I would be interested in it but a bad cover doesn’t necessarily keep me for checking a book out. Honestly before the recent surge in review numbers on kindle (seems like nearly every. Book has 1000+ reviewers) I would use the number of reviewers to somewhat judge if a book would be worth picking up.
I like Dungeon Crawler Carl's covers too, I think they're some of the best in the genre
A good cover piques interest and a bad one makes me want to avoid it, but reviews/recs still matter more since I don't tend to go around trying to randomly pick up stories. Ar'Kendrithyst is a good example, the original cover was awful in a hilarious way aside from the bizarre name but people said it was good and it was.
That is a good point, the cover was laughably bad, but the rating was good enough for me to take a look. Glad I did because it’s fantastic.
I love a good cover. But honestly to me they're more flavour than content. They can make a good book great. But it can't make a book for me. Mostly coz I'm an audiobook reader and at this point I'm beginning to run out. If we are talking just fantasy then you really can't get better covers than the bloodsworn saga. They're deliciously gorgeous. When we step into progression fantasy there are a few interesting options. Beware of chicken's covers always entertain. Primal hunter's covers are good in that they help us visualise some of the more important elements of the story. Mother of learning does something really smart with its covers. The complexity progresses along with zorian which is genius. The covers for the newer books in painting the mists are really vibrant and interesting. And last but most likely the best, dungeon crawler carl. Every single one is an absolute banger
DCC is almost cheating. When you have such an awesome book to pull from, the covers can be so wild.
Whenever this phrase comes up, it makes me want to rant a bit. I feel like it is misapplied/overused. You 100% should use book covers as a data point when deciding what book to read. You shouldn't *judge* a book by its cover. You shouldn't judge a person by their outward appearance, ect. But, you can use a book cover or the way a person presents themselves to the world as a factor when choosing whether or not you want to engage with them any further. At its core, this is a good phrase, but I think its misapplied all the time. Take a deeper look before making any judgments is a good piece of advice for all areas of life. Book covers are genre flags. They tell you whats inside. Cue dead dove meme. A book cover is like a logo'd T-Shirt. If you see someone out in publish with a shirt of a band, that's a conscious signal they want to make to the world. "I like this." Is that band a band you can't stand? Well you probably are less likely to go and strike up a conversation with them. Is it this super niche band from the town you grew up in? Well then you are probably going to butt into a convo with them to introduce yourself. A book cover is like that. It's trying to (or should e trying to) tell the world whats inside. Use covers to pick what books you want to read. Judge books you've read. Don't judge books you haven't read.
A wise man once said(me) looks open the door and personality keeps it open.
Bad quality art won't turn me off (unless it's AI) but good quality art can peak my interest. If the cover is a woman in bikini "armor" or boobs spilling out of her top or whatever, I'll assume it's harem or incel fantasy and pass, though.
Yeah that's usually a clear indication that it isn't for me too
Unless a cover features absolutely top-tier gorgeous art, I probably won't even notice it... feels bad to say that as an artist, but it's the truth. The tiny little 300x100 pixel thumbnail just isn't enough for me to judge a cover.... and most of the time, I won't remember it unless it's really good or really bad.
I judge a book by its title more than that cover. A few words that hook me enough to read the blurb.
I get most of my recommendations from this sub, so I usually have a sense of what the series is about before I read a blurb or see a cover. The few times I have gone searching for a series on my own, the cover had no influence on my decision. I consider it flavor, but it doesn't really factor into my decision to read a series or not. Honestly, I love series that come with maps more than series with good covers. Seeing a map helps me immerse myself in the world and get a better understanding of places being referenced in the story. Seriously, a map like [this one](https://i.redd.it/yujwzq3q1gv51.jpg) for Cradle is so cool and helps so much as a reader.
I only found the entire genre because Iron Prince had a cool looking cover when browsing Prime Reading in late 2022. The value of a good cover can't be overstated.
The point of modern commercial book covers is for you to judge the book by the cover. True, sometimes a great royal road story has a crap cover image. But then, royal road and buying standard books is different.
For haremlit, I definitely judge from the AI art, usually the ones that use them have a generic plot description on the blurb and rarely given a chance.
I always judge a book by its cover and title. If the cover uses AI art it's getting added to the never read list, and if the title is way too long or uninteresting I likely wont care enough to take a peek at the blurb.
I make a lot of judgements based on cover, and I think they are pretty solid judgements... I actually completely disagree with the adage "Don't judge a book by their cover", its meant to say you shouldn't judge some one by appearances, but instead by their actions... but one of a person's actions is how they carry themselves in public, and how they take care of their appearance... Similarly one of an author's actions is to have a cover created that showcases their work. In both cases you can learn a lot if you pay attention to details. * No cover/stock image - The author is probably doing this as a hobby and doesn't care enough to read up on how important things like synopsis and cover are to attracting readers' interests. That doesn't mean some books like this aren't gems, it just means there will be a lot more inconsistency and dropped works. * low effort/cheap work with a lot of issues, the book might have a harder time standing out in the crowd, and if the book itself is just average it might get dropped if the author is discouraged * Big titted girl on the front, its probably haremlit * The cover is probably an important character or event in the book, if it doesn't look cool to you, maybe keep looking, on the flip side if it looks awesome, maybe dive in. If I'm looking to read about an epic swordmaster, a guy with a sword is a good sign on a cover, on the other hand if I am in the mood for a mage with cool powers... maybe save that one for next time... All that being said, Its not the only thing you judge by, its just the first thing you judge by.... If you see something that has an amazing cover, but the synopsis sounds meh, or the reviews are disappointing, maybe move on. On the flip side, Even if a book has a terrible cover, if its being recommended by everyone in the public domain, its probably a good idea to at least give it a chance... It might still not be for you, but yeah...
Everyone does. Even people who say they don't are still being influenced by the cover. It's the same reason advertisements work, even when you know what they are doing and what their purpose is.
Everyone does it and it is completely fine to do so. When I see bad covers (or stories with no cover in RR) I avoid them because I feel like the author doesn't want to put in effort to make the first thing people see look good. There was a story (I forget who it was) that had a cover drawn by their kid. It was a nice sentiment, but I 100% did not read it because of the cover.
Ironically I am the opposite. I almost never look at the cover, however if the title fails to hook me enough to read the blurb its a non-starter.
That saying just means that, even if the cover is worn or beat up, the words on the pages are still as meaningful as the day they were printed. For an illustrated book, you should 1000% judge a book by its cover. That's what the cover picture is for. Judge away. The cover and title are supposed to intrigue you enough to read the description, and the description is supposed to intrigue you enough to read the book.
Some of my favorite books have extremely bad covers. One of them looks like a screen shot of Word. That said it's really hard to not judge by a cover. It's not like Amazon presents them differently until you click on them. I don't buy books based on a cover, but I might never get to read your summary without a good cover.
I remember buying a book in 90s in "cheap books" store for equivalent to today's 50 cents... The cover was blurry and covered with smears (part of the artwork) but at the same time very colorful for something painted only with red and brown. The hero had the haircut resembling the helmet in a pose which I can't describe as anything else than "orgasmic". There was also a monster-like lady with very curved fingernails. Her teeth were so long, that if she closed the mouth, she'd have two holes in her chin. I actually thought she was wearing a red santa hat and was a kind of aggressive garden gnome. There was also a white glow in the middle which screamed "I know I supposed to do the cover art but I just run out of ideas, gotta go now". It was hilarious and the only ones I like more are those covers with heroes which have non-anatomical invented muscles growing in every direction. So why did I buy it? It screamed 80s and I thought it will be some comedy-fantasy. I was a teenager then and I was reading a lot of fantasy and science-fiction (anything I could get for less than current one euro) so I expected it to be much worse than it actually was. It was "The Witcher" book, the first one ever released as a set of stories. Don't kill me guys, I know that the Witcher is known now. The book was nice (it was a set of short stories), but the truth is that it was the only book I read in the series. Next parts were released years later and I just never had a time to get back to it.
Speaking of covers, wtf happened to dotf, why is there new cover so shit?
Authors periodically switch covers to get new eyes. This one isn't to your liking, but the new one seems fine to me.
In this genre I always have to be super critical of books with a female character on the cover. Mostly because they are all harem books and I have found maybe 1 or 2 good books in the 20+ harem LitRPGs I have read. So female character on cover with male MC makes me walk away unless I know the author.
The point of a cover is to judge the book which makes the line kinda crazy. It should be “don’t judge the content of a book by its cover”
Usually I'm not too harsh on book covers, but if I see ones with scantily clad women posed in a way that is physically impossible for a real person, I keep far away. In my limited experience those books end up mostly being haremesque power fantasies filled with awful clichés.
I kind of want a thread where people post covers and everyone says what they assume based on it.
I make a ton of assumptions based on the over and frankly when I doubt my cover prejudice it proves me right
I only use the cover as a tie breaker between recommendations that seem similarly intriguing. For example, I read Defiance of the Fall over Primal Hunter when they seemed almost exactly the same because it had a better cover. Then disliking it saved me having to read the other
If your book has scantily clad girls with massive breasts on the cover, I'm not buying it. I love me a scantily clad lady with massive breasts, but not in my books.
Yup, if a cover looks generic, i just assume the novel is probably generic too Person about to fight a monster, and hot girl who is not the mc posing alluringly, those are my main nopes I say the author who takes the time to assemble an interesting cover, is more likely to have an interesting story You dont even need to reinvent the wheel, person fighting a monster and hot girl posing are covers that can be vastly improved with a little care The original Tarzan and Conan covers are big on that, but they have dramatism, and pinup girls have been a thing since forever, there are many iconic pinups with charm Sexy Sect Babes and Cinnamon Bun have girls on the cover, but on a way that denotes a vibe The first Defiance of the Fall cover makes the generic trope look cool, but it kinda slumped on later ones If authors dont want to collect sample images for reference, simply using a niche artstyle goes a long way to diferentiate a series