Does a cover image heighten your enjoyment of a story?

I am curious to hear people's thoughts on the overall impact a story's cover image has on not only drawing you to read it in the first place but also its impact on the story as a whole.

For instance, if an author depicts a person on the cover who is the subject of the story, does having a visual of the person or people being written about heighten your overall enjoyment, or would you prefer it to be left to the imagination based on the subject's appearance and attributes described in the story?

Makes absolutely zero difference.

Doesn’t make me enjoy it more, but it helps me decide if I want to invest the time for a read.

I normally form a picture of the characters in my head, but for many if there is a cover image of a character their brain will latch onto that. If this enhances or detracts from the story in terms of general acceptance it’s hard to say.

Personally I rarely use actual people on my cover for a few reasons. I don’t use AI, I’m not a skilled artist, and using photos I find online of strangers feels a bit creepy.

I am a visual person and love a cover. It helps immerse me in the story… sets the tone.

No.

Far more repel than entice.

Not at all.

Quote by kistinspencil
Far more repel than entice.

Yeah, I agree. There's a lot of stuff on here that I'm just not into. Usually I can guess by the title and the tag line that I won't like a story, but images help, too. On the other hand, they don't add much to my enjoyment of a story. I might think, 'ah, she looks nice,' but it's not a major selling point for a story - the quality of the writing is. If the author has done a good enough job with their story, I should be able to do my own visualization without the assistance of a cover image. That said, as an author I've been creating AI-generated covers for my stories to approximate what I think the main female character should look like in some scenic context (a bedroom, outdoors, wherever). Hopefully they're not too repulsive.

That tough for me to answer because I went to school for graphic design, and I love making cover images for my stories, stretching those skills that don't get as much use nowdays.

On the other hand (forgive me) many of the cover images people make here are pretty low effort and don't do anything for me.

That said, even the bad ones I don't find "repelling", more of a neutral.

A good cover image can be excellent. I don't need them, but I enjoy them when they're done well.

This is bad but perhaps timely analogy, but I think cover images are like vice presidential candidates. They’re unlikely to help, but can hurt if carelessly chosen. The hurt being if the cover image trivializes the story content or leaves me wondering about its connection to the story.

I'd probably never select a story because it has a cover picture but it might affect if I read it once I got to the page.

Not sure a cover image has ever influenced my choice of reading material here. Author, category, whether it's a comp entry, that sort of thing is probably more so.

As a writer, I sometimes spend more time than maybe I should on the cover. Sometimes it is hard to get one that fits. I have even had a couple cases where I went with a symbolic cover, e.g. my current story about a girl named Cherry has a cherry as the cover.😉

I don't care about covers that much.

When I write something, my primary goals are to meet the required standard, improve, enjoy the challenge and hope it connects with a reader somewhere. If I put a cover on a story, then ( whisper it gently ) I may do so as a bit of fun. People may not care less and they have every right to take that view, I can put a cover on for no other reason than I felt like it.

When I was writing, I often used coverage images. But on some stories, I didn't. I never noticed any increased readership because of the picture. And when I'm choosing stories to read I base it on content and my interests or the author not on whether or not there is cover art.

I have written stories with and without a cover, I don't think there's any relevance to readership. But, if a cover is present it will affect whether I read the story or not. I expect the cover to at least resemble the acts described in the story too or resemble the person described.

Sometimes, I've found an image and based the whole story around it, so that makes it significant to me.

I really like making the covers. It usen't to matter because you only saw the cover once you clicked the story after the author, genre, title or byline had brought you in but now the covers are seen on the storylists, a strong visual can entice. Though I have been put off clicking on stories where the cover puts me off before even reading the byline or genre.

So i guess good covers help, bad covers hinder. Theres no excuse for bad covers now the cover designer is so user friendly.

Looking back, i hate some of my old covers so might have to update them

As a reader, while a story cover doesn't necessarily determine whether I read a story or not, my thoughts as a writer are different. I really enjoy displaying the main subject of the story on the cover, and probably spend way more time on this part of the process than I should. It inspires my writing and helps me visualize things better along the way, and I assume people reading the story leverage the cover image for visualization as they read as well.

I believe a good cover image helps capture a potential new reader to at least try out your story. They don't make the story itself any better, but they and the title words are the first thing the reader sees.

I have written a standalone story based on a photo I have found on the internet. My story "Shadows" is a good example of this. I saw the photo and then came up with the story.

Covers and images are a huge reason why I'm here. (Hi, I'm new; this is my first forum post!) I have been generating images of my characters using AI and wanted to let the readers see them as well. I've been obsessed with my female characters and I think my wife is reaching her limit of how much she'll tolerate. 🙄😀

I started posting my stories on Literotica last month but that site is mostly/inconsistently/confusingly anti-AI, which is the main reason I deleted my account there and have been posting here for the past couple of weeks. My images give you an idea of what my recurring characters look like, but their faces change a bit from story to story, which I figure allows you to pick your favorite picture as the way they really look and treat the other images as interpretations. For each story, I have additional/alternate images in my Media.

Occasionally, the images will cause me to change some minor details in my story. For example, if the cum blasts in an image have a particular shape or pattern, I'll be sure to write those details into the story so it matches. But otherwise, the story in my head is driving the image creation.

Cover images rarely make a difference for me in whether I read a story but I do find some images either capture the mood or atmosphere of the story that might drive the picture I create in my head.

I typically use them for my stories and sometimes spend a lot of time trying to find the right image. For me I want the image to set the mood or atmosphere for the story. Or maybe just a 'feel'.

This may go against the consensus, but covers definitely make a difference for me. They help set the mood, and although my imagination is fully capable of operating without a cover image, they do often help me visualize the characters or the scene.

I would no longer consider publishing a story without one, and I intend to eventually go back and add cover images to all my older stories. I already have done so with some of my more popular tales.

It can do, yes

Quote by colin123

It can do, yes

😊