[KRCox]

I've been thinking about book covers, and wondered if anyone really cares, or pays attention to, who the artist is?

What're your thoughts?

 

[Ann in Arlington]

I don't care at all. . . . . sorry all you artists out there.

 

[Seleya]

In my favorite genres (fantasy and SF) definitely yes, a cover painted by Donato Giancola, Michael Komarck, Alan Lee or Michael Wheelan will always make me stop and take notice.

Not so much for photomanipulation or for non-figurative covers, they tend to blend together.

 

[Mike D. aka jmiked]

I used to know the names of all those illustrators doing covers for SF books and magazines back in the 50/60/70s: Richard Powers, Kelly Freas, Ed Emswiller, and many others. That was a great time for cover art. These days, not so much.

Mike

 

[KindleGirl]

I love looking at book covers, but I never know who the artist is. Even if I did I don't know what I'd do with that information.

 

[The Hooded Claw]

I pad attention back in the 80s and 90s, and even was able to recognize some cover artists by their style, but not anymore.  I'm one of those for whom the cover on a Kindle book is of little importance--On Amazon's website they are small enough not to make a big impression, and there is a lot more information in the forms of professional and reader reviews and such on the web page that is a more efficient way for me to make a judgement on the book.

About the only way covers affect me now is that if a cover is spectacularly amateurish or bad, I'll be more suspicious that the book content is unedited or has other problems.

 

[BTackitt]

The only covers I ever knew on sight were Boris Vallejo ones.

 

[Atunah]

No clue, don't care. Sorry. 

 

[Cardinal]

Seeing as I was just at Amazon looking for a new series to read and instead found myself admiring book covers and wondering who the artist was and what other series they had done and then surfed to the Book Corner, this thread put a smile on my face. 

 

[history_lover]

No - the cover is a market tool. Do I follow the designers of good ads? The makers of good commercials?

 

[Suz Ferrell]

I do. In fact, I love my covers and my cover artist so much, I post her name as illustrator along side mine as author. Bad covers WILL keep me from buying a book. I figure if you won't invest in the cover, why should I invest in your book.

 

[Andrea Pearson]

I think the people who most notice who the artist is would be artists themselves or authors. I can honestly say I never really thought about covers before I started writing. And that's a good thing - as has been stated, if the cover is well made, it won't make someone hesitate to purchase the book. If it's a cheap cover, readers may pass the book up.

 

[Adele Ward]

Yes, I do look at the copyrights page to see who the artist is if I find a cover interesting. Actually, I have a feeling I nearly always look to see the credits for the cover. Covers are very important to me. I think I would have liked to go to art college if I hadn't wanted to be a writer even more.

 

[UnderControl]

Never really crosses my mind. However, good album covers do, oddly enough.

 

[Adele Ward]

A book cover can really put me off a book.