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Wanderer D


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  • Today
    Welp, here's a life update

    These last couple of weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster. Good things have happened, and also bad ones. No wonder I could relate to both Furina and Navia in the latest Isekai chapter. Sometimes pretending things are fine is really exhausting, even if they do get better.

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    8 comments · 195 views
  • 1 week
    Welp, another year older and...

    ...still writing ponies. (Among other things, granted.)

    28 comments · 230 views
  • 2 weeks
    Update to the Isekai coming tonight! And some additional details and change of plans.

    First, to everyone waiting patiently for the next Isekai chapter, I apologize for the delay. I know there are a lot of people that want to see another visit to Hell happen soon, and it will, I promise. However, due to some circumstances, I decided for a different pair of visitors to visit the bar this week.

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    3 comments · 284 views
  • 2 weeks
    Boost Reminder!

    As discussed not too long ago, local legend and friend Skeeter The Lurker suffered some devastating losses that impaired his ability to work and live. We've all done well to get him close to achieving his objective, but he's still a bit short! Just saying, that if 10% of all of you awesome people that follow me donated a dollar

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    2 comments · 156 views
  • 2 weeks
    RIP Akira Toriyama

    Without a doubt one of the most influential creators in not only animation but modern culture. Everyone around the world has been touched by his work in one way or another. Love it or hate it, the man made a mark in the world and a lot of our hearts.

    He will be missed and remembered.

    11 comments · 200 views
Dec
16th
2015

On cover art. · 5:24am Dec 16th, 2015

So let's talk a little about something that way too many people don't pay enough attention to: Cover art for a story.

I think one of the best features of Fimfiction is how we can add cover art for our stories. There's more to it than a lot of people think: a good cover art draws as much attention to a story as a description at times and I find that searching for something that expresses what the story is about as important as writing the story itself, especially when it comes to grabbing the attention of readers!

Whether it is something I found online.

Or art someone far better an artist than I made for a story.

Whenever I see a story that lacks cover art here in Fimfic—in this day an age where a google-search can provide thousands of perfect options and a message to the image's owner is literally a few seconds away—or has a badly-drawn interpretation of... something... done in a notebook page, my first impression is that the author didn't care at all about their story.

Generally speaking most of the people I see doing the notebook thing destroy whatever credibility they have left by having a dismally written story description, so my already low expectations are hammered down into a thin paste. Maybe it's odd for some people, but to me that complete lack of investment in presenting a story is perfect grounds for not even looking inside.

I have to refrain myself from downvoting at times when it's particularly offensive. I remind myself how I hate when certain people downvote out of spite, that even tho Nothing Is Constant, I can't allow myself to be one of those pieces of slime that don't even look inside a story.... but I am tempted.

Granted, finding an artist willing to help you out is not a small feat. If they don't know your work they probably will be hesitant to simply draw something, and if you show them that you don't care about your story... why should they? A cover art gift is an amazing thing. It's honestly moving... and for me awe-inspiring.

I can't draw like that. But if someone draws something like this for me:

More than gratitude, I feel an honest need to show my appreciation by doing my best for a story so that it might prove worthy of such a thing.

Can you imagine Past Sins without it's legendary cover?

Funny thing is, when it came out, it was the first such cover like that any of us authors in Equestria Daily had ever seen and Pen Stroke didn't even get it intentionally for cover art, but rather as a gift to himself for having finished the story in the first place. The cover drew an amazing amount of people (including myself) to the story and blew the rest of us—with perhaps Fallout Equestria as the sole exception—out of the race.

So, what to do if an artist is not willing to gift you a cover? Well, artists are usually willing to accept commissions, and if you're willing to put a real effort into your story, you might as well put your money where your words are. If you're already going all the way with your story, why not go that extra mile and get it a nice cover? You also help a fellow fan of MLP by doing it too!

Finally, if you don't have the cash as most of us don't, Google is your friend. Search for a nice cover, follow it to the artist that made it and send them a message asking their permission to use their image for a story. They might even promote it if they go and read it, and showing consideration to them by requesting permission, speaks volumes about you.

And if that doesn't work for you... make your own, but for the love of Celestia, put some effort into it.

So, dear readers, what do you think of the importance of cover art? How does it affect your perception of a story?

Comments ( 52 )

I can't read so cover art is all I can actually experience of a story.

Having anything at all is usually better than nothing, I think. Sometimes the cover art draws you in - at a glance you can see what the story is about. I think Whip and Wing is an excellent example of that.

I think cover art is really important, and I say that as someone too shy to ask artists to use their work, let alone ask them to make art for me. I also have no money for commissions, so I have all of the excuse bases covered.

So what do I do?

I use screencaps from the show. I have photo-editing software, and I copy and paste stuff around to make it fit my story-- Paint if it's a simple job or Gimp for something a little trickier. The art style of the show is really easy to manipulate, it's mostly block colors and clean lines, and if it doesn't look great a filter or different background will hide it enough that no one is going to notice at a glance.

So, there are no excuses. Cover art is a must.

Well, to be honest, back in the day when I used to read fics I never ever gave it any importance... but then again, it was back to when fic writers had their fics at google docs, so it really wasn't much of a feature unless they were promoted by EqD or they decided to put a cover on their first page.
Right now... hrm... I don't really know. xD
I try to avoid to guide myself by cover arts, and put more attention to descriptions. Then again, I have not been reading fics that much lately.

Agreed. Coverart is the most important part of the story description. But the only problem is finding someone on here to help with thay. Not everyone on this site is employed, so this makes it difficult to find people willing to do the work since only a small percentage take requests. I know art is hard work and some kind of payment would eb in order, but the number of request takers has shrunk over time. Honestly, if you can find someone willing to do a cover for one of my stories thar really needs it... in fact, that should be a thing. Like an actual position!:rainbowlaugh:

But seriously, though. I think that's the main thing: finding someone to help you do it.

3621685

I use screencaps from the show. I have photo-editing software, and I copy and paste stuff around to make it fit my story... [T]here are no excuses. Cover art is a must.

All my this. (Hi, books!)

Back when I was getting started here, I mined show images for my cover art all the time. Then I started asking artists on DeviantArt if I could use their stuff (something that may get a bit easier with more followers, I have to admit). Then I commissioned a piece or two, because I'm crazy like that.

To me, cover art is all about communicating a sense of professionalism. I want readers to see my stories and think, "This guy knows what he's doing, and he cares about what he publishes." When I read something by a new author, I always find myself trying to judge their skill level—how much of what I'm reading is intentional setup, and how much is just text-meandering? I don't have a lot of free time, and I don't have a lot of patience for weak writing. If I don't see evidence that a story is worth me investing my time early on, I drop it and look for something better.

That's how I approach reading, and it's what I expect from other readers as well (even though I know I'm an outlier). Cover art is a critical part of a first impression. It and titling are 80% of what I see when I scan story lists. If an author doesn't put in the work to get some decent cover art, people like me are almost guaranteed to skip it and look for something where the author was willing to put in more effort with their story.

Okay, let's see if I can convey my thoughts properly.

Cover art is an important part of the story, but I personally feel that it shouldn't be the entire reason why someone should read the story. The cover art does help to show some more description of the story, but also reading the long and short story descriptions help to build the interest as well.

As for requesting and commissions, I really think that is a difficult task at hand. There are some people who don't really have the money to commission someone for any cover art (I do know there are some people that charge pretty cheap for commissions, but I also think it's a risk as well sometimes when paying money to someone to create something for you). I kind of lucked out on finding someone who is willing to make cover art as a request, but they have stories of their own that they create cover art as well for.

Google searching for images is helpful as well, but in the case of some of the stories that I've written, there is usually a lack of or no existence of what I'm specifically looking for. There just haven't been any real images that convey what the story is going to be about properly, and I feel it's just bad to pick a half-assed piece of cover art that has no relation to anything about the story itself.

A story itself can have an air of professionalism, even with the lack of cover art, but that leads to what some people avoid doing. They read the short and long description of the story, but since there's no cover art, they might be inclined to leave it alone. I kind of believe in taking a shot in the dark and reading at least a couple of chapters to see if the author themselves are putting in actual work in their story, even given the tough circumstance of not having any.

So I personally think that it's just mainly for some authors having to make do with what they can, even though sometimes they won't get the projected results that they wanted.

I use cover art as identity to help remind me what story I'm in when a new chapter rolls out. It's more difficult if we can't remember what's going on, especially for slower Fics..?

You know that saying that you can only have one first impression? A cover art usually fills that roll and it can carry more weight then you first think. It can be the reason why you even read the description to said story in the first place.

Personally as a reader, a coverart (or lack thereof) isn't as big as a deal for me. I'd rather the story have a good description and have a somewhat generic coverart. That's how published books do it, after all.

But I do agree that having a coverart does have an impact on whether a user would click on the story because it's what draws their eyes and if what they saw was palatable, they would in turn be more inclined (or at least give chances to slips committed by the author) to read what the story has to offer.

I mean, even I myself get a sinking feeling when I see a story sporting a pony creator coverart...

Whenever I see a story that lacks cover art here in Fimfic—in this day an age where a google-search can provide thousands of perfect options and a message to the image's owner is literally a few seconds away—or has a badly-drawn interpretation of... something... done in a notebook page, my first impression is that the author didn't care at all about their story.

As someone who has googled for coverart, I personally found it too cheap and even lack of care for my story than having a pony creator coverart (not that it's much better) precisely for the reason that it takes seconds to find a random generic picture on the web. Well, I used to anyway. As I said above, it's no longer a big issue for me, descriptions are more important.

Someone can have the nicest coverart but if the description doesn't grab my interest, it doesn't get read by me anyway.

And I really don't like having to ask for permission to use someone else's art because 1) I'm shy and 2) I don't want to bother people.

As a writer, I find myself too wary of throwing a random image up as the coverart because of the reasons above. To me, a coverart should represent exactly what the story is about (even though the pesky publishers in the real world doesn't do that) and there's substitute for that, so I make my own coverart. But making coverart takes time and I'm no artist. It can take literally months just for me to put one up and I don't want to leave my finished story linger in limbo, so I prefer to publish my story without one until I finish the coverart.

On the other hand, I could commission but that comes with other problems: 1) I'm not exactly loaded =P, 2) I don't feel that I can adequately explain my vision to an artist for them to draw one for me. Not that the artist is bad or anything, it's just a personal problem for me.

(I have too high standards for myself.)

When you're scrolling a long list of fics looking for something to read a good cover art can mean a difference between picking up a story and passing it in favour of something else.

Coverart is important as hell, not only does it help keep track of what the fudge you're reading, it sets the tone, it sets the commitment and it sets the effort. Heck, before I really started as a digital artist I made so many covers with noting but vectors in goddamn MS Paint!
I guess what Im saying is that theres rarely really a reason NOT to find/make/whatever a cover...

3621660 Well, you'll always have throwing small foals into a pit in a desperate attempt to get a mechanical erection, he who would be Duke Zap (Von) Nator.

Cover art is important, no question about it. Your story can be brilliant, but if it doesn't entice people into reading it, how shall we ever find out? There are too many ponyfics being made daily that anyone can just go and read, or even sample, them all.

Any cover art can have a impact on the number of readers, especially right at the beginning . Better cover art will draw in more but as for myself? I look at titles. If the title sounds interesting I might, I might not look much less read any of the story. So in other words,
Title first
Cover art and description second

Cover art shows that you give enough shits to put work into your story. Not going out of the way to get it, in this age of fimfiction, basically means that your story isn't worth looking at. Go to the new stories section, and click everything without cover art--chances are there will be more bad fics than not.

I guess I'm fortunate enough to make my own? They're not very good, but I guess its better than nothing. Unless said story wasn't something I put much effort into.

Wanderer D
Moderator

3621729 Like I said, if there's no money, you can google something. Art for a story doesn't have to be unique for it alone. I mean, look at most of my covers, they're not commissions or gifts or self made.
3621685 Yep, editing out some screencaps can be also a good way to learn to vectorize :pinkiehappy:
3621784

To me, cover art is all about communicating a sense of professionalism.[...]If an author doesn't put in the work to get some decent cover art, people like me are almost guaranteed to skip it and look for something where the author was willing to put in more effort with their story.

Exactly this!
3621823 Cover art is the first impression. Like Bradel above said, titles are also important, and then descriptions. Granted, you should never judge a book by its cover alone, but while an author might not be able to find the perfect cover for their story, putting up a mediocre drawing that's half-visible, half-obscured by lazy coloring and the lines of a ruled paper is kind of insulting to both the reader and the story. Better to have something that's not quite perfect, but nice, than something like that. Again, it's not that it defines the story completely, but it makes it look lazy and uncared for.
3621834 yeah, that sometimes happens!
3621868 Definitely agreed!
3621892 Sometimes you just can't find a perfect picture to use for a cover true. But, if that's the case and you want something unique and perfect for your story then you have to shop for commissioned artists. There's nothing wrong with using a googled image as long as it works for your story. Saying that they're not good enough is a bit extreme since there are thousands upon thousands of amazing images out there. The idea is good presentation, not perfect evocation.
3621930 Yep! And it can be a shame sometimes!
3621935 Exactly. It's not like back in the early 90s where 100kb images took a minute to load alone either, image search is really easy and can do a lot for your story.
3622064 That is a good way of doing it, but you can't deny that even if your first impression is the title, when you click on it and see an awful cover it affects your perception of it, right? :duck:
3622073 A sad truth. Not that there won't be any good fics at all, but it is indeed a mark of an engaged writer to try and look for the best cover art they can find for their work.
3622213 You are indeed fortunate!

3622268 True. But that gets increasingly difficult in cases of stories with an OC(s) as main characters.

Wanderer D
Moderator

3622277 Yes, I definitely can see that... I guess my only example to give from my own stack of stories is: Gestalt Trace's Last Stand. I concentrated less on finding a pony that looked like her, and more on a symbolic cover that would sort of give you an idea of what to expect.

3622268 I get VERY thankful I don't try my hand at artwork, I'd make some of the cover art look good. there is no shudder just full body seizures

3622277 Ya' know, there is an entire group on here dedicated to doing this stuff... [x]

3622280 Hmmm... fair point.

3622268 People should at least have cover art that makes their story seem less lazy, but I guess some of my views make me look at things differently. Cover image is usually the last thing that I look at for a myriad of reasons, but some of them being 1) It's messy and poorly drawn 2) Relates nothing to the story 3) It's just a random image. I'm not saying that someone shouldn't use an image they find as their cover art, more power to them for doing that. Just for me personally, I prefer to have one that conveys to what I'm trying to write. Will it take a while for what I wish to make? Of course. So I will usually go without cover art until I can get something settled.

Wanderer D
Moderator

3622304 You see, that is exactly my point! I'm glad you can see past the cover image for stories when judging them, but you described exactly what my criticism of lazy image-finding for them are. :raritystarry: Those are my same concerns.

The way I see it, I've got thousands of stories to choose from and good cover art is a convenient, though somewhat unfair, way to reduce the list to something more manageable.

Edit: It's not like that's the only thing I look at, but sometimes it's a big factor.

Wanderer D
Moderator

3622375 It shouldn't be the one and only factor, but presentation is definitely a big thing!

3622379 See ninja edit above. :derpytongue2:

Eh... I have to disagree. I’ve never been turned off by a story online because of bad art. Cover art is only important on fimfiction because the site design gives it a place of importance. It is fan fiction and writing, I go for the description and the first chapter to judge weather I want to read something. Even with a book, I generally don’t judge the quality of interior based on the cover mostly because a lot of publishers choose covers based on marketing not capturing the contents of the book.

It's a moot point in my case since I haven't posted any stories to fimfiction, but I avoid using art I've "found on the net" unless the artist gives permission. The artwork belongs to whoever created it.

Wanderer D
Moderator

3622570

—in this day an age where a google-search can provide thousands of perfect options and a message to the image's owner is literally a few seconds away—

3622571
Not to seem confrontational, I've found it to be otherwise.
Getting a message to the artist of an image is not always as easy as one might imagine. For instance, if I am not a member of the art archive in which the work is posted, I am usually not provided a way to contact the artist.
The artist may use different names on different sites, making it difficult to trace.
It's even more difficult if the work is unsigned.

Wanderer D
Moderator

3622590 I use either the google image comparison or tineye.com

But I do agree with you that it's bad practice not to let them know you're using their art.

3622597
Thanks for the tip. I've never before heard of either Google image comparison or tineye. Those sound useful.

Wanderer D
Moderator

3622603 Google image comparison is really easy to use and a bit better than tineye, imho. When you have google open, go to images, and in the searchbar you should see a little camera icon. Press on it and everything else is pretty straight forward.

Wanderer D
Moderator

3622418 Fair enough, but turn it around. Let's say your first impression is the description and it's bad, and then you look at the cover art and it's very clear that the owner of the story couldn't be bothered to search for something at least presentable. Isn't then your perception of the story worsened, even though you had already made up your mind about it?

It's presentation. Just like when you send text to a magazine, or the first three chapters of your novel to the publishers and you need to follow a specific format, write a specific type of cover letter and mind the font, spacing and numbering, in the specific case of online stories, you want to make sure that the presentation overall is good to draw more readers and increase your chances of them hitting that first chapter.

So, what to do if an artist is not willing to gift you a cover?

Get good enough so that their time is worth the advertising they get when you publish the story.

Whenever I see a story that lacks cover art here in Fimfic... my first impression is that the author didn't care at all about their story.

Damn right, thank God I'm not the only one who thinks this.

So, dear readers, what do you think of the importance of cover art? How does it affect your perception of a story?

Cover art is the very first thing I look for when I start a new story. 9 times out of 10, most of my ideas come from pictures on DA and derpibooru. I'd never ever publish a story without cover art. As for me being a reader, the title and the cover art is the most important things to me. If I like what I see so far, I look at the description, and if I like that, then I'll read the story.

As for stories without cover art, I don't even bother reading the title or the description. Like you said, if they're too lazy to find something, then why should I read their story? They might not have put any effort into it, so why would I waste my time?

Although! There is another issue. I've encountered a few people who are actually afraid to ask the artists if they can use their art. And since they can't draw worth a shit (I know I can't. :twilightblush:), they simply don't put up a cover art. That might be a bigger cause than someone being lazy, but I guess we'll never know for sure.

3622268

Saying that they're not good enough is a bit extreme since there are thousands upon thousands of amazing images out there. The idea is good presentation, not perfect evocation.

That's why I say I have too high standards for myself. :derpytongue2:

Personally, cover art helps me visualize what I'm about to read. Especially if it's an anthro story; a single picture or reference of the character is a huge help in kickstarting my immersion in story.

Can you imagine Past Sins without it's legendary cover?

Really, WD(40)? Really?

No, but I've always known how important cover art is. Now that I think about it, it's one of the more considerable reasons why I prefer FIMFiction to other sites. I've made all my own cover pics (so far), with more effort into some than others. And more skill in some than others. TBH, I've spent more time on the cover art for some stories than actually writing them. And I still can't look at them myself.

I think for the future, though, I'll go ahead and commission something from someone I know is good instead. Doing it myself really just became an excuse to put off writing more than anything else, and sucks up your time like nothing else. Just look at all those little houses! Gah, that's enough, can't look at it anymore.

Cover art is what makes people pick your story out of the others in the list. We think of it as an indication of a quality story, a story worthy of good art. In practice that hardly ever applies. I nearly overlooked The Moon's Apprentice because I wasn't all that impressed by the art, but now it's one of my favorite stories on the site, and I picked up The Age of Wings and Steel because of the art but couldn't get past the first chapter.

I was gonna do something more relevant here, but instead here's a big blah of awesome/iconic cover pics. Prize to whoever names them all! But anti-prizes if you cheat and look at my bookshelves.

On the twelfth day of Hearthswarming, FIMFiction gave to me:
Twelve Planned Austraeohs,
Eleven Seattle's Angels,
Ten Featured Crackfics,
Nine Hatted Profiles,
Eight Not-Recommended's,
Seven Vocal Critics,
Six rounds' hell called "Slamjam",
FIVE READ-IT-NOW'S!
Four new Read-it-Later's,
Three troll threads,
Two new followers,
And a brand new chapter from my favorite fic!

3622307 I'm glad that at least my point was somewhere along the lines of what this conversation is about. The few stories that I've published without cover art, I've actually spent hours, leading into a few days to find something that fits. I'm usually scared to ask an artist to make me something, and I don't feel that I have enough credibility on this site to do their work justice. Commissions are something else because I feel that is a two way street. From my standpoint, someone that doesn't have a lot of money to spend, it's hard to get this done. Lots of artists either have very high prices for their work, and I know there's some that charge them at low prices, but this leads to my second reason why I sketchy with commissions.

Paying for commissions can be risky because there is that chance that the artist that you paid never comes through with what you paid them for. They could even leave and never say anything, so you pretty much end up losing money with no way of getting it back. It might be possible this fear could be unreasonable, but it's just how I think about it.

Do I wish my stories that have missing cover art had some so they are finally complete? Of course I do. Do I plan on getting cover art for them? Yes to that as well, and that is depending on how I can do things. I'm personally trying to get better at doing art so I can put them on my published stories. Will this possibly fix the outcome of what has happened to them in the sense of getting low views? Maybe not, but at least there will be a feeling of completion on my end.

Sometimes I even with that there were images that could be found, but I haven't been able to find any because none have been made before. I've even pulled in friends to search for any images to fit the story, but even they turn up empty. So it's also this reason that not many cover arts can be put on a story.

3622769

Although! There is another issue. I've encountered a few people who are actually afraid to ask the artists if they can use their art. And since they can't draw worth a shit (I know I can't. :twilightblush:), they simply don't put up a cover art. That might be a bigger cause than someone being lazy, but I guess we'll never know for sure.

I'm one of those people that is afraid to ask an artist for using their art. Commissioning for me personally is also something I'm not personally comfortable with, but then again, it's also because I don't stand on a very financial ground to do such a thing. My stories that are missing cover art is because there aren't any pictures that convey what the story that I'm writing about.

3623544 I'm sure there's something out there for ya.

3623546 I'm still searching for one, but maybe I'll find one at some point.

3623558 PM me and maybe I can help you find something.

Covers are one of things that I look at when looking for a story, Thought it is not the most important thing. I look at the name, description, then cover and Comments, When I see a story that deserves a good cover, I might try to gift one for the author. I did several, Two of them are now on their respective stories (you can see them at my profile page)

Cover art for me isn't much of a big deal, but the prettier it is the more drawn to to I am.

“Don't judge a book by it's cover.”
- Mr Tulliver, from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, and countless mothers ever since.

As someone with no artistic talent, no money, few friends, and a very strong vision of how I want my works to be experienced, I have no way of creating good cover art. I can't draw, I can't commission, I can't request, and even if I find the one in a thousand willing to accept a request, I can't explain my vision well enough. This, however, has very little impact on my ability to write. Judging someone's ability to write by how they draw would be like judging someone's ability to be an astronaut by their ability to scuba dive. Yeah, they have a few things in common, like needing oxygen tanks and a suit, but it would be madness to claim that because someone didn't put the time into being a good scuba diver they obviously don't care about their astronaut job. Your ability to get good cover art uses creativity, and writing uses creativity, but otherwise they require largely exclusive skillets.

My stupid blocky vector artwork is not an indication of how bad my story is (the fact that my writing is bad is what indicates that!). I don't think it's fair, or even remotely logical, to claim that the level of skill shown in the cover art is representative of either the author's skill in writing or their level of effort. If a story is 100,000 words long, it doesn't matter if the person has bad cover art – that's 150 hours of work minimum, if they are a fast writer and don't do edits. For me (because I'm pedantic and record things like this), it took me 237 hours to reach my 101 K. That is effort. Giving your soul to the story is much more important than being able to come up with some eye-candy.

It's not that I don't agree that cover art is important. It's just that I think it's only important because people put false credence into it. I think it shouldn't be important. It's like how in most places in America someone who can speak good Standard English is more likely to get a job than someone who can't, even if they have exactly the same qualifications. Should this be the case? No, it shouldn't be. But the depressing fact of the matter is that it is the case. I think cover art is the same sort of thing (though with a much less significant level of impact on society. I'm comparing the effects, which stem from similar biases, not claiming at all that they have a similar level of severity.) People are shallow and 'judge the book by it's cover'. But we all learned not to do that from our mothers, right? There is a reason for that. The cover doesn't tell you much about the book inside.

Very few authors choose the artwork for their books, you know. They pay people who's job it is to figure out good book covers lots of money to figure out good ones. Marketing departments exist for a reason: It's damn hard to make something that people like looking at. That has no impact on the fact that the authors can write masterpieces. I don't have the money to get someone to do that, and rather than spend another 100 hours of my own time getting my artwork just right, I'd rather spend two hours making something okay and put the other 98 into, you know, the actual story. The part that's important. Or at least, the part that should be important.

So, if it's all the same to you, I'm going to work on making my writing better, not my artwork. We have a word for when people put more time into the artwork than the story. Fan-art. And fan-art is great, but it's not fan-fiction. The fiction should be the most important part of the fan-fiction, I believe. I don't even look at the cover images when I search for stories. Titles and descriptions, the things that actually tell me about the story, is what I look for. I believe that someone's ability to write is most indicative of their ability to write, not their ability to make pretty images.

Wanderer D
Moderator

3627112 You missed the point here and I'm left to wonder if you even read the blog before firing off that short essay.

Edit: not that I disagree with you on the majority of what you wrote there. It is true that it's unfair to judge a story by its cover, but... the point here is that you do a disservice to your hard work writing by simply throwing whatever you find as a cover to it.

3627183 Wait, no. Hold up.

So, dear readers, what do you think of the importance of cover art? How does it affect your perception of a story?

This was my response to that question. Well, that and a response to the part where you say

Whenever I see a story that lacks cover art here in Fimfic—in this day an age where a google-search can provide thousands of perfect options and a message to the image's owner is literally a few seconds away—or has a badly-drawn interpretation of... something... done in a notebook page, my first impression is that the author didn't care at all about their story.[Emphasas Added]

I was just providing my experience of how cover art effects me, and giving an example of how having a bad cover art does not necessarily mean that you haven't put effort into the story. That is definitely what you wrote about. You also gave a long explanation on how there was no excuse for not having good cover art because it's pretty easy to make good cover art - and I provided a long explanation as to how that might be incorrect to assume. I believe I addressed what you wrote. But I only responded to the parts that mattered to me. I agreed with most of what you said, so I saw no reason to add to those parts of the artificial. You had already done a good job with them. It would be pointless, pedantic and asinine to take to task every single part of a blog post piece by piece, so I didn't.

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