What do readers think of "snarked" covers?

**Celine Chatillon** · #1 November 7th, 2006, 05:30 PM

Another one of my covers has made it to the "it's not chick porn" web site:

http://dionnegalace.com/wordpress/20...oves-a-zombie/

Do the "snarky" comments about cover art:

1) Make you want to read the book straight off the bat?

2) Make you curious to check out the book further to see if it's something you might be interested in reading? Or--

3) Make you totally dismiss the book out of hand. A "bad cover" outside means it's a bad story inside.

I'm really curious. I don't receive a lot of notice in the erotic-romance field (yet) so I wonder if this is a good or a bad thing (or neutral). Thanks for your feedback.

Lisa Andel · #2 November 7th, 2006, 06:38 PM

Personally, I think it's a good thing to get snarked. It gets your cover out there, and it gets your name out there.

It's free advertising.

If they've seen your name crop up a few times, that's what they'll remember.

Laura Bacchi · #3 November 7th, 2006, 08:41 PM

Sites like these tick me off. Makes me want to find out more about the actual writing out of sympathy, to be honest. Sorry your cover got snarked

Maeve Beckham · #4 November 7th, 2006, 09:56 PM

Frankly, so many covers are horrendous and downright embarassing in this genre that I'm glad someone is out there showing how pathetic they are. That said, LSB is not one of the offending houses. I love our covers.

**Darragha Foster** · #5 November 7th, 2006, 10:08 PM

It's a good thing to get snarked. It's like being the guest of honor at a "Dean Martin Roast."

This book cover Bam snarked, it's not by LSB...I need to go look at your site and see who your other publisher(s) are.

Leigh Ellwood · #6 November 7th, 2006, 10:15 PM

I've been snarked more than once. Doesn't bother me personally. At the end of the day, I wrote a book.

Elisabeth Drake · #7 November 8th, 2006, 01:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maeve Beckham

Frankly, so many covers are horrendous and downright embarassing in this genre that I'm glad someone is out there showing how pathetic they are. That said, LSB is not one of the offending houses. I love our covers.

Agreed, on both counts. Some of the covers Bam snarks, I have to wonder WTF the artists were smoking. *shakes head*

**Robin Danner** · #8 November 8th, 2006, 09:57 AM

Hey Celine, I don't think the cover is that bad actually. I kinda liked the "sparky" type skin on the hero. (shrugs) Bam's snark seemed to help My Footman, here's hoping the same for you!

**Celine Chatillon** · #9 November 8th, 2006, 07:34 PM

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I think something didn't translate in the file she looked at for her "snark review". I have the original high-res cover graphic and it looked really cool and sci-fi to me.

And it is free publicity... And possibly readers will become sympathetic and at least purchase the book to try it out for themselves? (One can hope.)

But then I'm not a visual artist and don't pretend to be. I'm not even sure if I should pretend I'm a "literary artist" at times.

As another author put it to me once: "I guess I'm happy just being a hack genre writer!"

**Celine Chatillon** · #10 November 8th, 2006, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darragha Foster

It's a good thing to get snarked. It's like being the guest of honor at a "Dean Martin Roast."

Hee, hee, hee... I always wanted to be roasted by Dean Martin!

"Hey, Dino! Another martini, please!"

**Darragha Foster** · #11 November 8th, 2006, 09:06 PM

Quote:

"Hey, Dino! Another martini, please!"

And now you know why I buy Bam beers now and then

**Celine Chatillon** · #12 November 9th, 2006, 06:22 PM

Ooo... got the snarkers in your pocket, eh?

Well, my publisher says I sold a couple of books yesterday. That means a snarked cover CAN help your book sales!