There's a saying that you should never judge a book by its cover. A saying that's not always used in relation to books, but this is what I'm gonna expand on. The cover art for the upcoming "Crossroads In The Dark" anthology from Burning Willow Press dropped earlier this week.
I do so like the cover.
I'd like to think that for the audience buying the book(s), regardless of what form they come in, they'll like everything about them. But then, like the stories themselves, the artwork won't necessarily appeal to everyone and so won't necessarily hook everyone.
As far as the stories go, I want to weigh in with A-grade product, and not just because the stories are representative of me as an author. I want those tales to be good enough for public consumption, so time and effort is taken to craft something I'd put out there. There's a fair catalogue of ideas which are half-baked, or half finished, or simply lacked the 'je ne sais quoi' that convinced me to roll with it. Only yesterday did I hit up one of the heavy hitters on a recent beta she knocked out for me. "Creepy" was the word she used for the piece, and said that I 'have an interesting (scary) mind.' Which is humbling and cool, because no matter who the audience is, that's how I want to move them. Back to the matter.
The stuff that I read is varied, a range of genres and a range of authors. Horror, comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, etc. More often than not, I'll go by the blurb on the back rather than the cover on the front. However, there have been instances where the front has sold me. The first example that comes to mind is The Relic by Lincoln Preston. Now I'm aware that one novel may, during its lifetime, have more than one cover. The one that hooked me was a black cover with the title embossed near the bottom. Above it, what appeared to be a red-and-yellow set of fanged flashing jaws. Below it, the title: "Natural selection is about to begin." Yes, I read the blurb on the back, but believe me when I say that cover sold me on the book. To date, it's probably in my top ten books of all time.
So. When the Crossroads... anthology drops on Halloween this year, here's hoping you good people are convinced to check it out. Maybe the cover will help with that, too.