Does the carpet match the drapes? Or more about covers

Let's talk about covers. I know. we talked about this before, but there is more to say and I'm not touching AI this week. 😊I'll be honest with you, as usual, I lost almost two thousand subscribers talking about AI. That's a lot of readers who silently voted they hate AI. I get it and we talked that over and for me it's settled. As I said beginning with Tajss #34 and Fated Mates #9 I'm done with them. 

 

But that brings us to covers in general. The biggest complaint I get from readers is that the covers don't match the description in the book. Let's talk about this!

 

Non-AI covers use what is called “stock photography”. Professional photographers do photoshoots that they then make available on various sites for some kind of a fee. The costs vary a lot so I'm not going into that, but the idea is they get paid, I assume the models were paid, and the site makes some money too. 

 

But I write science fiction romance with alien dragon men that only exist in my head and yours. There is not a single photographer on this planet who is doing photoshoots of Zmaj. Let's be honest, there are no Zmaj on this planet modeling. (I wish!!!!! Sorry James, love you 😍💖).

 

What has to happen is I or a cover artist I am working with then has to go into Photoshop or similar program and work the base photograph over. The more of this that happens, the harder it is to make the image look good. It's a very highly skilled profession to manipulate a photo like this and very time consuming. It also usually involves multiple stock photos or pieces of art that are being put together to bring the vision to life. 

 

It's impossible, or close enough, to match exactly what the description says. I go for close or in the ballpark. Best I can do and honestly the best I can afford. 

 

I've talked before about hiring an actual artist to draw the covers but that's prohibitively expensive. I paid for art that I'm using on merchandise and for my Patreon and I still haven't earned back the investment. That's been over a year now and per James only one piece has earned back what it costs us. If I did that for every book cover, I'd have to go get a different job. It doesn't work. 

 

Another thing I do as an author is I don't do a lot of character descriptions. Especially of the females. My audience is women, and I want you to put yourself into the story. I think it's easier if I'm not force feeding you my idea of what she looks like, I want you to fill that in. 

 

I do go into the guys more, but not always. And it's fun for me to hear what readers think the character looks like. He's bald! He has long hair. He has short hair. His horns are this. I get lots of emails with descriptions or disagreements and I love it. Because that means you got involved in the story. 

 

Storytelling is a collaborative art. I draw the lines, but I need you to fill in the color. When you and I work together, then the magic happens.

 

A lot of romance is very fluffy, very predictable, and that's fine. The bestselling books tend to be of that nature, and I know it. Light, no big topics, just two people fated to meet, have a couple issues with it, then they have sex a few times and off to the next book. I wish I could write like this. I've tried but that's not me as a writer. 

 

I have friends who nail this, and I look at them in awe. Literally. They sell more, rank better on Amazon, and hit numbers that are amazing. I will, on occasion, try to write something like that then I go off the rails and write what I write. 

 

Here's the thing, for me, about this though. My readers are more invested. I'm building a longer-term fan-base. My stories, I hope, stick with my readers and are ones they will come back to again. 

 

In the 1940's and 1950's when “pulp fiction” was being published weekly there are authors that we now consider “classics”. Especially in science fiction. Issac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, etc. There were literally hundreds, maybe thousands of authors being /published but some of those rose above the “masses” writing stories and are remembered today, seventy and eighty years later. I hope that my stories are like that. Ones that will continue to be read and remembered. 

 

That's what I go for anyway. Stories that have deeper themes, richer topics, and that deal at least in passing with more of the human condition we all are experiencing. 

 

Once more this went into directions I didn't expect but I hope you enjoy my weekly ramblings. The summary of this is that I do my best to make the cover reflect the characters, but in general the cover has to sell the book. The purpose of the cover is to catch a reader's eye long enough to get them to click on it and then read the blurb. The blurb then hopefully hooks them to try the book out. Then hopefully they like that well enough to become a fan. 

 

So, you're right, the cover is not always exactly right. My first concern though is does it catch the eyes of a readers scrolling down Amazon. I want your thoughts!