> I would expect more that genre fiction readers will be browsing the section where all of the books are in their genre, and the cover will completely fail to c

> I would expect more that genre fiction readers will be browsing the section where all of the books are in their genre, and the cover will completely fail to carry any further information about the genre. Yup, readers do definitely browse the section where the books in their genre are like you say. They also see book covers on Goodreads, TikTok (BookTok), YouTube (BookTube) Facebook, Instagram, book shelves, and a bunch of other popular places where they congregate. Whether they're browsing a dedicated section or not, if they're an avid reader of a certain genre or niche, they likely have expectations for what they want to read. Aside from a strong recommendation from a trusted source, the cover and blurb are the first things that will either catch their attention and communicate that this is a book that looks similar to other books they loved, or have them move on to another one that does. > There's a semi-recent trend in fantasy novels for the cover to have an abstract image instead of art. (Compare: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T2/images/ https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T2/images/... for a "modern" cover, or https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T2/images/ https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T2/images/... for a "traditional" cover.) Art is better. Yup! The "abstract image" is what I meant by object cover. I disagree that object cover is better by default. Though I agree the specific _example_ of the object cover you linked is better than the specific example of the character cover you linked. You'll also note that the character cover you linked is for a book from 1994. That cover likely fit in very well with that niche at the time. What's "better" ultimately depends on the goal and the market: if the goal is money and character covers are at the top of all the charts in those genres, a (more modern-looking) character cover will likely be "better". Right now there is definitely an object cover trend! Alternative covers are also popular in some genres now, like romance. In steamy romance, "manchest" covers used to be (and still are) especially popular, but some readers love to have a more tame paperback version with a nice object cover. This lets them take the book on the train or coffee shop without feeling awkward :)