Do judge a book by its cover

The old adage may be true of people, but it certainly does not apply to books. A great cover will draw people in, and a bad one will have them scrolling (or strolling if you happen to be lucky enough to be in a brick and mortar bookstore) right past your book. That’s why it is so important to have a cover designer you trust and that does great work.

I am lucky enough to have both! I’ve been working with Ravven since writing the Dashkova Memoirs in 2015, and she has designed every single Hundred Halls book cover, including The Reluctant Assassin rebranding that we created this year, since then. She does amazing work and has been a delight to work with.

The key was I did my research up front. I found a designer in my genre that was creating great covers and then I trusted her with many of the artistic choices. Many people think that creating a book is a lonely process, but unless you have skills in every single part of the creation, that is simply not true. My job is to write the books and give the cover designer enough details to create an amazing image true to the genre. That image may not be exactly what was in my mind, but a good designer will take your idea and combine it into something even more incredible. A great example of this are the covers for the Stone Singers series. These turned out nothing like what I had first envisioned, but they are so much better.

Have you ever bought a book just based on its cover? Or do you have a favorite book cover? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.