What do you want your cover art to say?

The cover art for a story is very similar to "Don't Judge a Book by its Cover". I was trying to find a cover for my new story and thought about what I need for it.

1. It needs to be on Theme.
2. It needs to entice readers.
3. It needs to not write me into a corner.

Theme is easy. I use search terms to find a good match. In this instance I'm looking for a Mall themed picture that has a woman in it. "Woman Shopper", "Woman at Mall", and "Fashionista Shopping" led to some good results. To entice I usually throw a hot or sexy at the front of it.

Importantly I don't want the image to assume I'm only telling one story. I don't want to be writing Costume Story and end up having a French Maid on the front cover and not have a French Maid branch to the story. That's why I usually us Silhouette art for my stories. It's unique and has a hint of mystery.

I always find Hentai/Anime covers to be a bit schlocky looking. I do have one cover art that's a fan art of Disney characters in lingerie, but that's as far as I've gone.

How do you guys feel about cover art?

 

But... "Who buys the delicious apple if it doesn't look good?"

I think the first two points are most important while the third one isn't as much.

My recent story's cover shows seven women and within the first 5-10 chapters not even one of them appears/will appear in the story. The picture as a whole rather shows the overall concept of the story while the single pictures could be concepts for future happenings.

Cover art is important to draw the attention to a story, to be visible among many others.
It's like "Look at me! At least read the first two pages before you decide against me."

 

I agree with the first two the third not so much. The bigger question I have is do I do another sex image as everyone else does or do I do something different and both have their merit. You'll see more stories of the week have a sexual image. This week Camp Life by JohnLocke4 isn't.
Cover Art is better then nothing, but the story is the reason people read it is the fish and the cover art is the bait.

 

I feel like, while it's advantage having a sexy cover photo over a nonsexy one, it is an almost infinitely bigger advantage having a cover image period over having nothing. So it's a good idea to put something that is an at least passable plaaceholder up while in search of that one perfect image.

 

I've noticed at least one author who has switched cover art a couple of times in the last few weeks. It's the same model(blonde in a white bikini) but different pose each time.

Don't know if it's just something he's going for or if he's using it to get people to click more.

 

I presume you are talking about A Transforming Invention by TransforMaster. It is an older story that keeps on expanding. Not surprised that he would change the images up. He is frequently tweaking to make his stories better, and getting other authors to join and help them improve their own writing. It is a process of his. Got to learn to accept it.

 

I got a thing for the blonde in the bikini, yes

 

I want mine to say "for the love of every thing decent do not read this morally depraved story. It will give you impure and sexually graphic thoughts."

But at-last despite my efforts people still read it.