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.
Not at all.
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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.
Don't believe everything that you read.
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.
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The Gin Rickey Singularity -- Dirty Talk competition entry
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.😉
A poem for your enjoyment. Little something that came to me a couple days ago
https://www.lushstories.com/stories/erotic-poems/the-mistake-4
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 used to be a pervert. In here, I'm normal!
Watch this space...She is really - cumming soon!
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
2 competition winning stories, 1 Famous story, a smattering of Editor's Picks, a handful of Recommended Reads and one Clitorides award are scattered amongst my stories.
One of a handful of writers to get the Omnium badge for writing in every category
For a book club with a difference... try this lesbian romp
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.
