Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A What matters more when it comes to book covers? Is it ‘professional quality’ or relevancy?

There are two issues at play here, which I believe you are conflating. The first is the themes or "hook" which is conveyed by the imagery on the cover; the second is the professionalism of the cove...

posted 5y ago by Blue Caboose‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T11:47:51Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44898
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Blue Caboose‭ · 2019-12-08T11:47:51Z (over 4 years ago)
There are two issues at play here, which I believe you are conflating. The first is the themes or "hook" which is conveyed by the imagery on the cover; the second is the professionalism of the cover. In my experience, I have found that both elements are necessary to earn a click.

A professional cover which conveys no information, such as a plain text one, will likely not get clicked on. However, a book with an interesting concept on the cover which has clearly been created with little skill will still not likely earn many clicks.

An unprofessional cover brings up many concerns about the book: How much effort might the writer have put into their actual writing, if they care so little about the cover? Is it possible that the writer is just young and unaware of conventions?

If someone happens to be skilled not just in writing, but in editing, photography, graphic design, etc, they may as well create their own cover-- assuming that they can produce something of professional quality. Why create a book that is not of high quality all the way from cover to cover?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-05-01T16:36:23Z (almost 5 years ago)
Original score: 6