Wow, those sci-fi covers are amazing.. except for like the first 2-3 that look like generic SPACE!!!! Most of those harlequin covers are terri-bad but a few seemed to do the trick for me. I actually wanna read one or two of those books, lol. I got a feeling some of them are just about the author releasing their inner-deviant needs on paper >.>
A cover doesn't sell a book to me but it can turn me off one if it's just wrong for what I imagine the book to be about, or embarassing to be seen with. An important point is that you might be reading it in public or someone might ask you 'what are you reading?' in which case the cover had better not be cheesy. Which is why I don't like fantasy and sci-fi art for the most part, it's a genre associated with people who live in parents basements and have no friends. I don't want a massive painted scene of a dragon or spaceships thanks. No matter how good. I quite like the low key fantasy covers where you just have an abstract symbol on the cover, like a celtic dragon or stylised crown. They're not embarrassing to be caught with. The most recent versions of the GoT books are like that. Minimalist, and okay to be caught with. And I think that's the reason why books have gone modern, minimalist in cover design these days. People don't need to visualise the story on the cover anymore. But if the cover appears to be in good taste then they might be willing to give it a go.
A few to make you go :-O http://www.boredpanda.com/funny-book-titles-covers/ And a few that got it really wrong! http://lousybookcovers.tumblr.com/
@cutecat22 Smile a second :3 Couldn't stop laughing. But the others... Holy crap, it's what I fear will happen to my books if I don't wrest control over the book cover from a publisher >.>
I'm guessing that the control over the book cover when you have a publisher, is something that you would come to an agreement on as part of the contract between you and them. If a publisher were to offer me a book deal based on me giving them the OK to change the cover to something which they think is more appropriate, then I'm afraid I would ask to see their cover first (which they probably wouldn't do until I'd signed), or I'd say "No Thanks" and walk away. No amount of money would be worth having my name on the front of a cover that I think looks bad.
The second cover gives me the impression I'm picking up a light read about nightlife in Pittsburgh, PA.
These are from Matt Kahn's blog. He found some ridiculous book covers from one publisher. Check 'em out here and here.
I didn't know Alice in Wonderland had a cameo in Black Beauty, or that cyborgs fought in the first war, or that Oz was on another planet Makes me feel better about my homemade covers.
Awful, aren't they? And presumably someone got paid for doing that! I'll be going with homegrown covers, too, but I have an art and graphic design background, and should be able to come up with something halfway decent.