So I am kinda curious what experience other authors have had when it comes to how the cover image for your story effects how many views it gets. I've noticed that having something super explicit seems to get a lot more traction that going for something more subtle. So have people actually fucking gets more attention than just someone sitting in the nude. Just kinda wondered if anyone else has noticed a bump in readers after changing or adding a cover image.
I'm more likely to open a story if it's got a cover image, but that's mostly because I prefer non-humans, and so a cover image featuring a non-human draws my eye to the story rather than just the plain text.
I think a (the right) pretty face/body can be just as effective or more than explicit fucking, personally. Whether its sex or posing or just a portrait, some images are simply going to work better than others (due to the small sizing), and having a high quality, high interest picture with a particular 'pop' is ideal.
Personally I prefer to scout for images that fit the story rather than show me something explicit. Good images for a story I would say are 'At the Cabin' or 'Chronicles of Atlarcton' while bad would be (ironically as i write for it) 'The Gamer - Chyoa Edition' as it has pretty much nothing to do with the story. A bad picture is better than none however. No picture kinda implies that not enough work went into the story to even bother to search for a fitting image. Which is ironic because the current #1 Story has none. Can't answer whether or not it actually bumps views though.
Agree. While I don't normally go after a sex scene for the cover image I could see why someone would be more interested in that type of image over others. As a reader on this site I do not base it on the image it is more the Title and the context underneath that draws me to click then if that first chapter or two don't interest me I leave, but if I go further I am more interested in the story. Now reading physical books I am more author and cover image based first then story outline on the jacket.
Two stories I write comes to mind. T.L.C. and Jailbait. In my opinion the cover picture attracts many to open them. Especially with Jailbait where i'm flirting with the age rule.I personally don't use explicit pics since it clearly understood that there will be sex sooner or later so why not use a pic that draws the reader's imagination!
I have found Incase to be a gold mine for pics. Although the challenge I have found is when you have a more abstract story idea that you are trying to bring across. "the horror stories of Black Hollow City" is a good example. It is kinda tricky to find something sexy that still has that horror vibe. Another problem I have found is finding pics that scan well when they are small thumbnails.
I typically put in more effort then I probably should looking for the right picture. Looking through all that porn is a dirty job but someone has to do it. : ) I admit that I sometimes will look at a story just because of the cover art but not very often but any art is better then none at all.
You got me curious enough about horror images suitable to your vibe to do a quick imagefap search. As you said, finding something that works well as a thumbnail is kind of the trick. Anyway here's some links for inspiration. Good luck in your search: http://www.imagefap.com/pictures/6682451/Pulp-Horror-Art http://www.imagefap.com/pictures/5829454/Grindhouse-Films http://www.imagefap.com/pictures/5810959/monsters-and-damsels Or for images a little more 'horror'ble: http://www.imagefap.com/pictures/5268641/The-Horror-ART-of-FAUSTIE!!-TENTACLEMONSTERPORN-XXX http://www.imagefap.com/photo/2030461480/#3 (^careful of that gallery...)
I'm really unsure about adding images, mainly because I take most of my inspiration from Hentai manga. Like, when I'm writing, I visualize what's happening more as a comic than as live-action. But I know that not everyone is as big a weeaboo as me, so I don't want to turn people off with something that's too anime. For example, for a long time, I toyed with the idea of having what is now my profile pic be the cover image to my story "Succubus Family", but decided against it. I suppose, thinking about it, that my worries are unfounded, since there are plenty of top stories with an anime-style cover... Incase is great because he falls right in the centre of the Venn diagram of "Realistic", "Western-style" and "Anime-style". His art looks realistic enough to not turn off people who don't like drawn porn, anime enough for the weens to enjoy, but not too anime. Also, he covers a wide array of fetishes, situations and body-types.
I think the title picture is an important way to attract the readers' attention. For me, an interesting picture usually leads me to read at least the title and subtitle. On the other side, anime/manga/comic style pictures make it less likely to draw my attention though I have no dislike for these pictures in general. I suppose the problem is when the picture generates some expectations.
Excuse me good sir but I am a Weeb not a Ween. I watched a lot of anime to gain this title and you will refer to me as such! ^^
Stories without cover images always strike me as sort of suspect. Like stories with misspelled titles. That being said I clearly didn't put much effort into mine, which is just a black and white graphic of a crown.
Sorry for resurrecting an old topic but I just became active on this site a couple of weeks ago. The more I look around the site the more I've been thinking about this topic. On one hand a great picture really grabs the attention; a picture is worth a thousand words. On the other hand the quality of the picture often has little to do with the quality of the story it represents; never judge a book by it's cover. I find the pictures both a boon and a bane as I navigate around here.
Personally, I've always preferred the more subtle ones. Pretty much every story here has sex, so the pictures of just various sexual things is just boring.
I think the cover picture should show the most important element in the story. Usually that's the setting; the thing that sets most stories apart from each other is where (and/or when) they happen. For example, the popular story "A Boy at a Girls School" has a picture of a sexy woman in a schoolgirls' uniform, but if it were my story I probably would have shown a picture of an old Victorian boarding school house with several girls in front of it (assuming, of course, that I could find such a picture!). The cover pic that Torg chose is fine, don't get me wrong, and the story itself is outstanding - I just wouldn't have chosen a clearly twentysomething model to represent a story about barely-18 girls in a boarding school. Someone else chose the cover pic for my story U.S.S. Ishtar (a Star Trek story), because I was absent from the site for a while and editorship was assumed by someone else (thanks, Artican!). The picture he used is a piece of fan art which shows Counselor Troi naked and touching herself on the bridge of the Enterprise. Neither Counselor Troi nor the Enterprise are even mentioned in the story, but it's a great cover pic because it expresses exactly what the central idea behind the story is: it's a story which takes place in the Star Trek universe, in which the women are all horny as hell. I think that adding the ability to post pictures is the best improvement that CHYOA ever made - I absolutely love illustrating my stories, and I think the readers like it too!
I took the time to see how it would turn out and now i can say that i'm mildly against the introduction of pictures. First impact was good, but all i see now are dull short stories clickbaiting on the main page with covers that are just porn. Good porn, mind me, sometimes even great porn, but still ... Also stories full of pictures feel rather bad to me. I'm a novice at writing, but the strength of the written word should be that of unleashing the immagination, pictures just kill that. Putting there a nice frame out of a porn, or a profile photo of an hot girl from the internet instead that coming up with a good, arousing description of your character is just cheap for me.
