There’s an old saying that goes: Never judge a book by its cover.  Unfortunately, it seems to be a saying that most book buyers, whether of e-books or “dead tree” books, don’t seem to be aware of.

It has been proven by many an author that it takes an eye-catching cover to attract a potential reader in the first place.  A book may be a real page-turner, one that readers would simply be unable to put down until finished, yet still be unread and undiscovered, if its cover isn’t attractive and compelling.

The e-book space is littered (some might say overwhelmed) with books by new authors that no one will even consider looking at because the cover is poorly designed or poorly executed.  The thinking of the would-be purchaser seems to be “If the cover is that bad, the writing must be worse.”  I know that I have been guilty of that same mindset.

But not all books with bad covers are bad.  Some are probably quite entertaining, engrossing and fascinating.  But the likelihood of someone looking past the amateur quality of the cover is very very slim.  I discovered this the hard way when I decided to try and cobble together a cover myself rather than find someone who could do a much better job.  The only thing that I proved with my misadventure was that I have little artistic skill.  So, I bit the bullet, and hired someone that I discovered in the Kindle Publishers forum.

I’ve decided to put the two covers side-by-side so you can compare the quality and the attractiveness of the two — my monstrosity, and the one created by Dawn Smith.  I think it’ll be easy for you to determine which is which.

If you like Dawn’s work, you should go to her Facebook page and give her a Like.  I know that she would appreciate it.  http://www.facebook.com/darkdawncreations