Design and the Indie Author

ou can’t judge a book by it’s cover… only, everybody does, don’t they? Recently I’ve been really starting to debate this idea because I’ve seen a lot of indie books that have (in my personal opinion) pretty sad, unprofessional covers, and yet the books seem to be doing pretty good in spite of already having one thing against them, a bad cover. In my alternate line of work (graphic design) creating a cover is about creating something eye catching that one would hope, also conveys a story related to the story within.

Obviously I’m not going to call out any author on their cover, no matter how bad I think it is, that isn’t my place (unless of course they ask my professional opinion in which case I will be honest with them) obviously they thought it was good, or at least passible. So who am I to judge? Except a reader and a professional in the field. Of course, I’m pretty difficult to please, for instance one of my teachers has a rather unimpressive website that he proudly admits he designed himself and I personally wouldn’t be so proud of that, but then, maybe there are some who feel my own website is a little too heavy handed.

Art is subjective, cover art, even writing, what someone likes or hates depends entirely on a million unrelated factors. Obviously, Fifty Shades outsold Harry Potter, of the two I’d rather gouge my eyes out than read Fifty Shades of Grey.