…it seems not such an age ago that my frequency of trips from where I live in the Middle East to London was dictated by the need to stock up with physical copy books from Waterstones in Piccadilly… 
I was what’s prob’ly known as a ‘weight purchaser’
…I bought books by the kilo… of course, like most of us, I have my favourite writers, but their offerings weren’t the only tomes to occupy the sales basket… getting ‘lost’ in a huge bookstore is an indulgence… and one that I savour… notwithstanding my attraction to the Kindle products too, which I’ve also come to know and LUV… but back to the sorties in deepest Waterstones country… much gets bandied about as to ‘yeez can’t tell a book by its cover’… 
that may well be the case in some instances, but here I have to partially disagree, on at least two points… 
I have often been dissuaded from even picking up a book if the cover didn’t at least say, ‘here, have a look at me’… and many of my purchases DID lead directly from excellent cover presentations… the same thing holds even on Auntie Amazon’s Kindle Pages… 
art work is important… it’s the author’s silent calling card to potential readers… I write crime fiction… hard stuff… bad criminal stuff… no room for fancy Sunday School covers… and my front covers are designed precisely to that end… shoppers and browsers in the mighty Waterstones Piccadilly palace and equally in the labyrinth that is the Amazon eBooks universe have nano-seconds exposure to the books that flit past their ken… so, art covers for Authors?…there was a time, a time there was… when yeez threw yer books out there and maybe good folks would pick them up… much has changed since then, dear fellow scribes… I highly recommend yeez invest as much in a good c0ver artist as any other part of yer marketing and promotional spend… I’m fortunate to have the services of a brilliant commercial artist in the Philippines, Edward Lu, who has dressed all my novels to date, much better than ever I had proposed in outline to him originally… give it some thought… see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!
ALL MY BLOG POSTS ARE FREE TO SHARE OR RE-BLOG SHOULD YOU SO WISH—BE MY GUEST!
I have been thinking about this a LOT, lately, and of course, there you are addressing the matter. I’m searching now for a good cover artist who doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Actually, I can’t even afford a leg. But our fellow blogger/writer extraordinaire (with many self-published successes), D. Wallace Peach, also speaks adamantly about the need for a good cover.
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…mwaaaah 🙂
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if you thought about getting in touch with Edward Lu, DM me on FB, m’Lady 🙂
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Thanks, Seumas. Personal recommendations definitely weight a lot with most of us. 🙂
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…cheeers, m’Lady, Olga 🙂
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Oh yes, I agree. And even my teenage daughter does. If the cover does not attract, the book is not picked up to read the blurb.
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…my point precisely, m’Lady, Colline 🙂
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I completely agree! And you’re also right about the awesomeness of all your covers, too. While the content has to be worth reading, I’m sure some of your success comes from having a series of eye-catching, attractive covers.
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…at least it gets them noticed, m’Lady, Sarah 🙂
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I too have left many books behind because of bad covers. So I try my best to convey what would be inside my books with my covers. Mine are mystery with a dab of fun. I’m lucky too, that I have a very good friend who is amazing, who does my covers for me. 🙂 Thanks, my kind sir for the friendly and well thought out reminder.
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…mwaaah, m’Lady, Jackie …
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That old saw, ‘you only get one chance at a first impression’ has never held truer than for writers.
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…agreed,,, and it IS only a nano-second in other people’s eyes as they browse book covers 🙂
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Your book covers are excellent, Seumas, as are your titles. The covers showcase perfectly the thrillers they contain. I believe having a good title is of greater importance, but that’s just my opinion. But coming together in combination is unbeatable and accounts for your success and the many downloads you have.
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Reblogged this on Writer's Treasure Chest and commented:
Thank you, Seumas Gallacher, for your blog post about book covers and art work! We’re always grateful to read your opinion about things in the writing world. It’s helpful!
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Reblogged this on The Owl Lady.
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Reblogged this on Musings on Life & Experience and commented:
Seumas give good advice about about a fact of self-publishing
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