Does the Art Quality of the Novel Cover attract more readers?

[Deleted member 156316]

I've noticed many of the novels and stuff here have good quality art as their cover (Which I'm often envious of since I'm mediocre at drawing; But with the rise of AI art, I honestly can't tell the difference anymore).

I often draw my own covers from scratch using an art program in my artstyle, which is often a cartoony artstyle (Has been since I was 14 or so).

But mine rarely gets any views or readers attention (Not complaining or anything)

I am curious, does high quality novel covers attract more readers than low-mid quality ones? Or is it just me?

 

[Akaichi]

Only if your novel makes it to the front page or appear on a search.

When my novel first started to take off, the cover was not that good, but it was not bad. Just a random artwork on a solid color. I have used AI to create a better one since.

A good title, synopsis and tags are usually what grabs attention. Followed by a good first chapter!

Still, a good cover art is not a bad thing.

 

[SailusGebel]

It does. But that's not the only factor.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

Yes they do.
Especially when they contain half ecchi or some easy-to-understand memes, they attract different kind of beast of audience.

But title does that way better, they attract pretty much 99% of the audience.

 

[Lloyd]

I think the fact that your covers kind of look like a children's crayon drawing is probably turning people away at first glance. You might be able to run them through AI to get a more appealing style.

 

[RiddleBuns]

Personally speaking and I will give away that I don't look at it like most. The cover is generally the last thing I look at, as I make an effort of at least looking through the tags and description first. I also just skip any cover that has stolen art on it. So I'm much more likely to give a hand drawn crayon level cover a chance than a cover that certainly has better art if I can determine or even strongly suspect that it was taken without permission from the actual artist.

 

[Corty]

Yes. In my opinion, cover + title is what makes 95% of people click on a story for the first time.

 

[greyliliy]

I think your covers are cute/fine, but your FAQ sections are a pinch offputting. It assumes the reader has bad intentions from the get go.

Updating your summaries could also help. From:

In a realm full of Animals and Fantastical Beasts (Youjuu). There lies a closed-off world called Zasshu Empire in the Eastern Country of Yashima. If you've been living under a rock, many consider it a myth, a fantasy, an urban legend.

To:

In a realm full of Animals and Fantastical Beasts (Youjuu), there lies a closed-off world called Zasshu Empire in the Eastern Country of Yashima.
Many consider it a myth, a fantasy, or an urban legend.

And so forth. Using periods where commas should be may turn people away.

Summaries are the true first impression.

 

[Deleted member 156316]

I think your covers are cute/fine, but your FAQ sections are a pinch offputting. It assumes the reader has bad intentions from the get go.

Updating your summaries could also help. From:

To:

And so forth. Using periods where commas should be may turn people away.

Summaries are the true first impression.

In regards to FAQ, Yeah I had to deal with one or two art thefts in the past and people stealing my ideas without credit here and there (It was minor but eh...), but there wasn't anything I could do about it aside from blocking, reporting and stuff.

 

[greyliliy]

Yeah I had to deal with one or two art thefts here and there, but there wasn't anything I could do about it aside from blocking, reporting and stuff.

Art theft sucks (I've had stories stolen before, too), but summaries aren't the place to warn against it.

The sort of people who plagerize like that aren't going to heed "Don't do it."

 

[Deleted member 156316]

Art theft sucks (I've had stories stolen before, too), but summaries aren't the place to warn against it.

The sort of people who plagerize like that aren't going to heed "Don't do it."

Okay fair point, I'll remove the necessary parts of the FAQ

I think the fact that your covers kind of look like a children's crayon drawing is probably turning people away at first glance. You might be able to run them through AI to get a more appealing style.

What makes you say they look like a children's crayon drawing? I can draw fantasy-like creatures in a cartoony style (Basically Pokemon, I guess).

Also, I don't use AI for covers, but I do use them for references (If Pintrest isn't giving me anything to work with).

 

[doravg]

It helps, but if you don't tag correctly, it doesn't matter.

 

[Deleted member 156316]

It helps, but if you don't tag correctly, it doesn't matter.

I believe I used the right tags??

I haven't even gotten into the 'Youkai' and Supernatural Creatures part yet but I'm getting there.

Only if your novel makes it to the front page or appear on a search.

When my novel first started to take off, the cover was not that good, but it was not bad. Just a random artwork on a solid color. I have used AI to create a better one since.

A good title, synopsis and tags are usually what grabs attention. Followed by a good first chapter!

Still, a good cover art is not a bad thing.

Does AI really help improve the quality? Most AI websites I use either need a log-in or buy "tokens" of some kind.

Even if I get past that, the AI Art either:

A.) Heavily distorts or exaggerates the art I try to convert into A.I
B.) Makes it COMPLETELY different than how I intended it to covert. — Istg, I tried to convert my shark OC into AI this one time and it turned into a torpedo????

 

[doravg]

I believe I used the right tags??

I haven't even gotten into the 'Youkai' and Supernatural Creatures part yet but I'm getting there.

Does AI really help improve the quality? Most AI websites I use either need a log-in or buy "tokens" of some kind.

Even if I get past that, the AI Art either:

A.) Heavily distorts or exaggerates the art I try to convert into A.I
B.) Makes it COMPLETELY different than how I intended it to covert. — Istg, I tried to convert my shark OC into AI this one time and it turned into a torpedo????

Is it your first novel? For me, it took me a while to get known. But after I completed a couple of novels, people started checking out my stuff more often.

 

[Deleted member 156316]

Is it your first novel? For me, it took me a while to get known. But after I completed a couple of novels, people started checking out my stuff more often.

First and only time I wrote seriously.

I had drafts of my characters stored in my laptop but I never properly used or written them in a story/novel setting until now.

Probably because my skills in proper writing is terrible.

 

[Missivist]

And so forth. Using periods where commas should be may turn people away.

Absolutely true. Bad grammar in the summary probably means the story is not well-written, and I turn away. If an author struggles with grammar, they should get whatever help it takes to make sure that the summary is interesting and well-written.

 

[Vnator]

I had a serious ai image as a cover, but when I switched to a generic cute anime girl, the number of views skyrocketed :(

 

[Tyranomaster]

Your first impression will be your cover in 98% of viewer interactions. So, it is arguably the most important part of your story to meet some minimum quality standard. Second is the title, then third is your synopsis.

As annoying as it is, the quality of the story itself slides in at 4th most important to getting readers.

This sort of pattern shows up all over the animal kingdom as well. Animals use replacement metrics to easily approximate the quality of something, then everything adapts to the replacement metric.

Most flowers might not have the most nutritious nectar, but their smell and look attracts the bees more than more nutritious flowers do.

Some birds have detrimental plumage, some primates have brightly colored behinds, etc. The point is, most readers aren't actually looking for 9.5/10 hits, they're looking for anything above a 6 with a good title/picture/synopsis.

I had a serious ai image as a cover, but when I switched to a generic cute anime girl, the number of views skyrocketed :(

I've used two generic images (no humanoids) and two images of the pangolin looking humanoid main character, and I got significantly more new readers with the pangolin man. I'd wager if I had anime girls to put on the cover it'd do even better. Marketting is just that powerful.

 

[doravg]

First and only time I wrote seriously.

I had drafts of my characters stored in my laptop but I never properly used or written them in a story/novel setting until now.

Probably because my skills in proper writing is terrible.

With enough practice, you will get there. And if you have to, you can always change the language. It is not written in stone that you have to write in English.

 

[MajorKerina]

I feel like creativity in a cover is very important. You can have a very pretty or handsome anime character or a weird setting but when something is particularly curious or different or provocative or intriguing that's what's going to particularly grab a reader. A lot of fantasy novels all have sort of the same look and they blend together for a lot of readers. Mystery novels the same way where there's blood or there's some dark setting or there's some ominous objects positioned there.

I have seen a billion of these. I'm tired of it. The first dozen were interesting but now everyone does the same look like this for mystery novels.

A really good cover makes someone stop and take a second or even third look at the work because most people looking at books especially when you're looking for something to borrow from the library or you're looking at a shelf or you're scrolling down the Libby app and you just have the artwork to look at that's what needs to stop you and get you reading the summary. Someway somehow a person needs to stop and be like "whoa wait what is that?" In some fashion and pay extra attention.