Covers for Novels - Detailed/Anime Art or Classic?

[ViktorGrim]

• Any art will do.
• Make it anime art.
• As long as it's not words on a solid color background!

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So, we all know covers are important. I'm sure most of us know what works on Amazon, what works in stores, and what works for web comics here and on Webtoon. However, I'm new to Tapas, and while I have looked through the novel section, I'm seeing a lot of the same kind of art one would expect of a web comic.

To which I ask, being a broke novelist with a family to feed who can't even afford to save up for the dollar menu.... Is this particularly important to novel readers on Tapas? What makes you click on a novel to read it? Just the cover? Does the title have any bearing on your decision? What's the mind set?

[Kelheor]

I don't read novels on Tapas, but I just went to the front page, look at the Top charts and understood that I like when a novel have the title written on the cover (icon).
Right now front page have Going Rogue and As the Crow Flies that look most appealing to me personally, and I immediately recognise them as covers for novels. Like when you see a book in a shop and look on the title, not on the picture. The art is pretty minimal on them too. Unlike usual covers (icons) without text, which I immediately think are comic covers.
As far as art goes, doesn't really matter

[KRWright]

For click through I’ve found anime art matters. That’s because most people looking directly for novels aren’t using Tapas. It’s mostly people who want a change of pace from webcomics that then move over to the novels section. So you’re branding for people who want the visual medium, not necessarily people who want the book medium.

Case in point, I much prefer Mortician of Avalon’s cover on Wattpad:

But here, I used anime and it definitely helped on clickthroughs.

So it’s up to you, but ive DEFINITELY noticed a difference.

(Sorry for crappy screenshots of covers. I’m on my phone)

[burginlewis]

I wanted something that made sense for my novel and didn't get lost in a sea of similarity. Everyone else's mileage may vary.

[joannekwan]

YEAH I think KR has a point. For this site, the reader base is pretty used to more comic-style art (particularly anime/manga/webtoon) so I do believe an icon leaning towards that grabs more attention.

I went from this, which I'm using as the main image for the proper cover of my book

To this, as I thought a more shojo-y vibe would lure in more people to this romance story. It's still done in my own style though.

And I think it's working? I'm growing steadily, but I'm not sure how different the numbers would be had I kept the previous thumbnail.

But I say, stay true to your work! Personally I'm kind of 'eh' on anime covers. When I see an anime cover I'm expecting anime tropes for better or for worse. It really colors the way I read a novel.

[hat-and-goggles]

It's going to take me a bit of meandering to get to my actual point but I promise this is somewhat going somewhere, I'm just trying to summon my knowledge on art and design after midnight which always gets "interesting".

I'll use some covers/icons I designed for my own novels as an example.

This is my cover for The Princess and the Squire. It shows the main characters rather small in comparison to the rest of the image around them, showing their world. This is because it suits the theme of the girls (or mostly the princess) finding their place in the world and their happiness. It's a light and fluffy novel, set in a fairy tale world, so this cover gets you right in the mood for that.

And this is the cover for The Demon and the Exorcists. It's a slightly different approach; because the bulk of the novel uses first person perspective, I pictured the main character quite large, but pictured the imminent danger he's in as well, even if it's not exactly clear who it is. It uses a bit of an anime-y style and it has a nice pop of contrast and contrasting colours, so I personally like how it comes off the page (or rather, screen).

The thing is, though, during posting periods, these novels perform about equally well as far as I'm aware, which leads me to believe that honestly, it doesn't really matter what the art on your novel is or what style it was made in, as long as it

1. says something about your story,
2. matches the general vibe of the story you're telling,
3. looks appealing,

and yes, that can mean "words on a solid color background", given that the typography is well-designed. But really, I've seen popular novels on this website use anything from typography to abstract shapes to moody photography/photomanips. Your cover could be anything.

Just let your imagination go nuts, but above all, try stuff out! Canva seems to be a nice online tool to get you started if you can't/don't want to invest in the expensive stuff and there are many free resources on design as well.

Anyway, I hope this was at all useful/helpful. Good luck, and have fun designing!

[rajillustration]

So I used to work in a bookstore and I've taken classes on this actually during art school and there is a clear branding that happens to covers within different genres, so what I recommend, is to know your genre, go to your bookstore, go to those genres on tapas--and see what those books look like. People judge a book by it's cover because they know certain covers mean that it will be a certain type of book. While Tapas definitely has it's own unique genres (like the K-genre for instance, you wouldn't find at Barnes and Nobles) I think there's still a lot of crossover, especially for novel readers, to rely on those stylistic choices from their IRL book experience to see what type of book you're selling online.

So if you got anime on your cover...it'd better be pretty anime inside your book. If instead you're doing like Girl with the Dragon Tattoo type of thriller mystery...maybe don't make it anime? Like clearly anime will give you a bump but like...is that the demographic that wants to read your thriller mystery? It's up to you, though. But, especially if you want something cheap and you have a deadline--I would veer away from illustration (illustration is v expensive) and get some good stock photos (you can find fair to use stock photos with advanced search in google) and some good free fonts that match the genre you're writing, and stick some photoshop filters on it (or instagram filters if you have no photoshop) and call it good.