Friday, April 15, 2011

Cover art and author photos: Do they matter?

An anonymous poster commented on my books over on Konrath's blog today, here is part of her/his commentary: 

"The "Unbroken Hearts" series of covers looks slapped together-- the whole series LOOKS like it was done on the cheap. We can see that. Even the author's photo on the Amazon profile is an obvious amateur shot-- stuff in the background, no make-up, weird expression, etc. Take a look at Tina Fey's picture and you'll see what a good authors' photo should look like."

My author photo and book covers can be viewed on my Amazon Author Page.

Is the author photo a deal maker/breaker for you when purchasing a book? In the ebook age, when the book cover isn't staring at you from your coffee table or bookshelf, does it matter so much? Does the cover have a function beyond  indicating genre and making the initial sale? Should the author spend big money on cover art? 





1 comment:

  1. I don't care about the author photo. I mean, I take a look, just out of curiosity's sake, but that's it.

    As for your covers looking slapdash, I checked them out after I read that commenter's, um, comment: I have no idea what he/she/they is talking about. I think your covers are beautiful. I'm not in your demographic, and I don't play a graphic artist on TV ;-), but those are some lovely covers.

    No idea what Anonymous was talking about.

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