As much as my logical brain wants to claim that cover art on a book isn’t important, it really is. Most of the books I have picked up cold were either by an author I already knew or the cover art grabbed me (and the back cover copy was interesting after that).
At the same time I’ve read about how, in traditional publishing, the author has very little to no say in what the cover looks like. Most publishers will work with an author if they really hates the cover, but they’re under no obligation to. On top of that, the cover art doesn’t always accurately represent the insides of the book. The publishers are trying to make a sale, not show a scene.
Which makes me nervous, in a genre where it’s popular to put women in revealing clothing/armor, I really really don’t want Tabitha to end up looking like a girl on the cover. I feel like that would defeat the point. Maybe I’ll get lucky and my cover art will be a close up of an eye or a picture of a sword or something, then I won’t have to worry about that. Then I’ll just be left to twitch when the second book of my series comes out and the font used for the title on the spine is not the same size as it was on the first book. (I’m looking at you Windwitch.)
Now obviously, I first have to get to the point where I have a publisher, but that’s a different story.
