Sorry, We Judge Books by Their Covers All the Time

We’ve all heard it before: “don’t judge a book by its cover.” And in so many cases, it’s true—whether we’re talking about metaphorical books or actual books, what lies between the pages is actually far more important than the cover.

The more unfortunate truth is that we absolutely do judge books by their covers all the time. And that, my friend, is a reality we need to acknowledge.

Indie Authors Would Love to Argue Covers Don’t Matter

In my day job, I’m an editor, and I work with indie authors all the time. Time and again, I hear both editors and authors say, “The cover doesn’t matter, I’d rather invest in the editing!”

And yes, at the core, this is a sensible stance. Covers can be quite expensive. In some cases, they’re almost as expensive as editing or sometimes even more! (It really depends on the project and the editor and cover designer involved.)

The long and short of it, though, is that most indie authors—and even small presses—are on shoestring budgets. That means they have to choose between a cover and editing more often than they’d like.

As an editor, I should absolutely encourage you to spend your budget on editing. And in some ways, I do think that’s the right call. Editing is investing in the quality of your product. A well-edited book is one that delights readers time and again—no matter what the cover looks like. By contrast, a poorly edited book is one that people aren’t likely to read again. In fact, they might return the book or leave you a bad review. More often than not, word of mouth travels: they may trash your book in book clubs or to their friends, on social media or elsewhere. They may turn other potential readers away, because the book was not a quality product.
So, yeah, on the surface it really seems like you should invest editing, right?

The Cover Hooks Readers

The problem with this is that you can have the best book in the world, the best editor, a super-premium product, and nobody is going to know if your cover looks like shit. That’s the long and short of it: people judge books by their covers all the time. And, more often than not, those covers are what also land you the sale.

The cover is the piece that catches people’s eyes initially. It makes the book stand out—whether on the shelf, at a display table, or on social media. People pause to look at the cover.

A good cover quickly communicates to readers if this book might be up their alley. Good covers contain all sorts of visual shorthand for communicating things like genre—which is why so many people are up in arms about the trend for cutesy illustrated covers for any and all romances. That cover style says “romantic comedy,” and so very many of the books adopting these covers are not romcoms. At all.

Interested readers—and those who have had their interest piqued, despite not normally liking this genre—will then read the cover copy. Solid cover copy is usually what seals the deal—awesome cover + blurb that says “straight up my alley”? Sold!

Yes, some readers will pick up garbage by virtue of this process. They’ll also pass over gems that don’t have an eye-popping cover. This is where the saying comes from: a pretty cover could be covering up some pretty gross content, while an ugly cover could be hiding a gem.

That said, the ugly cover isn’t catching anyone’s eye, which means nobody knows if the book is a “hidden gem” or not. The problem is that no one is reading it.

Opting for a Better Cover

This is why, even as an editor, I’m recommending indie authors invest in covers. If you have to choose between a cover or editing, pick the cover.

Why?

Editing is fickle. Trust me. I’ve been in this game for over fifteen years, and, by most accounts, I’m a pretty decent editor. But what I think makes a good story is not necessarily what someone else thinks makes a good story!

And, of course, there are readers out there who will pick out every minuscule flaw in grammar or spelling. And there are plenty of people who think they know English grammar and are bold enough to assert whatever error they think is correct in public forums.
The long and short here is that even if you’re telling the story to the best of your ability, even if you hire the best editor in the world, there are still going to be people who don’t like your book. There are still going to be people who think it was “poorly edited” or simply bad. There are going to be people who hate your work.

You are never going to please everyone, and if you then slap a bad cover on the book? You’re going to be pleasing approximately no one at all, because no one is going to look at your book.

The Cover Is Your First Marketing Tool

This is a cardinal rule I was taught in my book marketing classes. As much as I had the Marketing VP of a Big Five publisher tell the class they had no idea what sells books, they did stress the importance of book covers. The cover is a marketing tool, so when you invest in a good cover, you’re investing in marketing.

The cover is often the first point of contact with a reader. It’s what gets them to pause, to give your book a second glance. It takes, on average, seven points of contact to make a sale.

The cover becomes shorthand for your book. Readers see it over and over again, on social media: in your posts, your ads, on your book’s page, on GoodReads and Storygraph, on “If You Liked …” recommendations, in book reviewers’ roundup posts.

They begin to recognize the cover. The more they see it, they more they think, “Hey, maybe I should read this book.”

And, since people process visuals faster and remember them more easily, the cover is excellent shorthand. It’s even better than a title.

Most of your marketing will center around the cover for your book, so why not invest in it and make it a beautiful one?

What about Crafting a Quality Product?

I sort of went over this already, but the long and short is that readers are both picky and not particular enough. I can’t tell you how many trashy romances I’ve read. They are formulaic, boring, poorly written, poorly edited—the list goes on.

Look any of these books up on GoodReads and you’ll see they have hundreds, if not thousands, of ratings. They usually have an average of 4 stars.

My own books get about the same—with far fewer people picking them up.

A huge difference is the covers. My early releases have covers that don’t readily tell the reader what the book’s about. Later releases, like Evan and the Alpha, have more genre-specific covers. I’ll note that there’s been a trend away from the “man-chest” covers I was initially opposed to, towards what are now called “discreet” covers, often illustrated and more metaphorical, which is what I’ve been doing, so I’ll just say I’m ahead of the curve here.

The problem comes down to the fact that I’m not getting enough readers to put their eyeballs on the book to even get people to pick it up and decide they hate it. Take A Stranger Sort of Fairy Tale for example.

Now, I did just about everything wrong with that book: canceled a preorder, released it approximately a year later with no marketing at all, and I didn’t put it in KU. The biggest thing I did wrong though? The cover.

Don’t get me wrong: I like the idea behind the cover, but the execution is not there. This is not a book that’s catching anyone’s eye. So even if I’d marketed the shit out of it—and even if the handful of people who have read it absolutely adored it—it wasn’t going to gain much traction.

Ah, if only I knew then what I knew now …

Fairy Tale still holds up for me almost ten years later. As I said, the people who have read it thought it was great. But the problem is that I think only about ten people have read it, and even though they sing its praises, nobody else noticed this book.

A Book Can Catch On, Despite Its Cover

I will yield that occasionally a book can become a sleeper hit, even if it has a bad cover. Sometimes, that’s because the author puts out another book that becomes a hit, and people flock to their backlist. Sometimes it just takes a while for word to get around. And sometimes a book becomes a hit because of its bad cover—people pick it up because the cover is so ridiculous or awful, and they discover that “hidden gem” (or a book so bad, it’s good).

So yes, just like a bad review can sometimes help you sell books, so too can a bad cover sometimes help you sell books. But this is the exception to the rule. Most of the time, bad covers are simply ignored or written off as being wrapped around “bad books.”

Should You Really Ditch Editing for a Better Cover?

As an editor, I am obligated to say that you should still care about editing. But listen, I read fanfic, and I see people salivating over unedited trash all the time. I’ve seen books that were clearly written on someone’s phone, with next to zero editing, with several hundred positive ratings.

Readers, as I said, are both picky and not as particular as you think. Most people aren’t going to catch that one typo on page 78 that is going to haunt your dreams for the rest of eternity. Most people also aren’t going to look twice at a book with a bad cover—and that’s worse, because that means you don’t have enough readers to worry about someone finding that damn typo on page 78.
In an ideal world, every author would be able to afford both brilliant editing and a great cover. If the sacrifice is okay editing and a fantastic cover, spring for the cover every time. If you have to cut editing altogether? Then so be it.

That said, I think you can get a good cover for a reasonable price; there are lots of fantastic cover artists out there who charge a fraction of what editors cost. So, if you have a budget for an editor, then maybe carve out of that and settle for a lighter edit or an editor who will work for slightly less. Because that cover is going to be the difference between reaching your readers and your book dying in obscurity, no matter how well-written or how well-edited it is.