How much does cover art influence you?

[Albertosaurus Rex]

And yet didn't you say you didn't mind those romance novel style covers for the US spoken word versions of Farseer trilogy (I think it was? Err I can't even remember what thread I mentioned it in!)

Ah, but there's an important thing to note: they're audibooks, and you're unlikely to be holding an audiobook on the train. Besides, I never listen to audiobooks anyway. (I'm not particularly fond of the audiobook covers, though...)

If I hear good things about a book, I would certainly look beyond the cover art, because after all, it's the words that count. But I wouldn't want to be spotted with them. I don't mind being seen with a fantasy or SF book (As I've said before, I think they're perfectly valid as "literature", whatever that means), but something that sexualized?

I should note that the US cover of Dead Witch Walking is actually fairly accurate... to the opening scene of the novel, in which our heroine is undercover attempting to arrest someone and is actually mistaken for a hooker. And the cuffs "are for work, thank you very much, and not the kind you're thinking of".

And here's another one of those glorious US covers! (Yeah, most of the books are titled with horrible puns on westerns. But I am enjoying my read of Dead Witch Walking, believe me!)

[Image: n146367.jpg]