Do You Judge a Book by Its Cover?

Hi everyone--

Do you judge a book by its cover (even though the old saying says we shouldn't)? Chances are, your book buying decisions are determined by a lot of things. The author is probably number one, we all have our faves, and the blurb has a huge impact ( i recently wrote a blog on How to Write a Blurb at Savvy Authors and hundreds of people have read it). But let's face it, we're all influenced by a great cover and turned off by a bad one. One of my favorite MM romances of all time had a bad cover that kept me from reading it for over a year after i first saw it.

My paranormal romance, Spell Cat, has such a great cover (by Shobana Appavu) that i know a lot of people have bought it just because they can't resist the cover.The cover conjures the witchy paranormal quality of the story, includes Aloysius, the cat, who is a central character, and above all, features the supernaturally beautiful hero, Killian Barth. Since this cover is illustrated, Shobana could make him more gorgeous than real life.

My bestselling book, Fire Balls, also has a bestselling cover. The great photo of the pretty and challenging young man, enhanced by cover designer, Annie Melton, to have multicolored hair, really captures the feisty and brilliant hero, Rodney Mansfield. The cover also captures one of romance readers favorite themes--firefighters.

And my new book, Genetic Celebrity, has a fantastic cover as well done by Valerie Tibbs.. The cover shows the passion between my hero, Tommy Riley, and “Booky” Edelson, the powerhouse modeling agent  he secretly loves. But slipping into the scene--and their bed--is the androgynous, young beauty who Booky turns into a supermodel. Shay Shaleen occupies the front of the cover as he dominates their daydreams. And food --the strawberry and cream suggest the total pleasure of food which all three of them share throughout the book. Thank you, Valerie, for working so hard to make this image capture the important themes of Genetic Celebrity -- and again demonstrate the power of a great cover.

What are some of your favorite covers? Is there one that made you buy a book?

Thank you so much for coming by and for supporting the Follow the Rainbow Blog Hop this past weekend!
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