Fantasy Book Covers - Do they lure you in?

[pornokitsch]

A good cover can lure me in. A bad cover will require a pretty good recommendation to overcome it. I personally shy away from anything with corsets and/or hooded men at this point...

[Overlord]

A good cover can lure me in. A bad cover will require a pretty good recommendation to overcome it. I personally shy away from anything with corsets and/or hooded men at this point...

Ah... See... Hooded Man on cover pretty much guarantees my money these days - lol. Painted Man, Name of the Wind, Night Angel Trilogy... all in my collection

[AJZaethe]

I judge books by their covers.  I know I shouldn't but I do, but after i judge them worthy enough to be picked up, I jump to the middle of the book and read an excerpt of description, flip a few pages, and then an excerpt of dialogue.  If you pass both, I will buy you.  I do not read the beginning of the book to pull me, because as you and I both know, many authors spend most of their time trying t work up a good beginning and then fail!  They suck after the first some odd pages.

I almost forgot to say why I judge by cover.  I always say to my friends.  The best authors get the best artists.  Not always 100% true, but it has yet to proven that I am completely wrong.  For the most part, it is right, from what I have read.

[Eclipse]

One for Bradley, thanks to @Jeni for showing me this novel via Goodreads.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18900678-lifting-the-lid


Did the image of cover work?

[ScarletBea]

 

[SleeplessCT]

I don't buy a book by its cover, but I don't buy a book by its cover 

[JMack]

I don't buy a book by its cover, but I don't buy a book by its cover 

Excellent statement.
And true except for the exceptions.
I’m looking at you, Wheel of Time series.

[Vizhigoth]

The cover has no importance to me at all - why care, I hardly ever see it. The spine though... ahhh, that's a different matter. That can sway me.

[J.R. Darewood]

Haha thanks @Eclipse ! Clearly someone is stealing my niche. Now I'm going to have to find something even less desirable than toilets to write about....

PS-- this actually looks very entertaining in a Gonzo Tom Robbins sort of way. Are you planning on reading it?

[J.R. Darewood]

Double-post re: the OP.

A good book cover can draw me in but 99% of fantasy books in the US have awful covers so the vast majority of the time I read a book *in spite of its cover*.

Actually after reading the back copy and a few pages of books with good covers I have very frequently put them down so perhaps covers don't really matter for me after all...

[SleeplessCT]

I don't buy a book by its cover, but I don't buy a book by its cover 

Excellent statement.
And true except for the exceptions.
I’m looking at you, Wheel of Time series.

Fortunately, with most hardcover books you can take the paper cover off and under that it's basically monocolor 

[ArhiX]

Cover of the last book lured me to read Malazan. And English cover of "Dark Defiles" of "Land fit for heroes" makes me want to buy them in english version (cover from my country is really really bad).