Update: Winner of this post giveaway is Chelsea B!
What comes first? A character’s looks or a character’s personality? I suppose it depends what writer you ask and what story she happens to be writing at the moment.
Sometimes authors envision the character first because they are inspired by a picture in a magazine, an article on the Internet, or a person walking down the sidewalk next to them. Other times, a writer’s subconscious will birth a character while she’s day dreaming or sound asleep, and this character sketch will then lead to the creation of an entire plot.
A tattoo gets a writer thinking about what it represents. How the person felt before or after getting it. Whether it says something about the person’s personality or not. When I see someone who outwardly fits a stereotype, like a Scottish redhead or a swarthy, dark-haired Italian, I imagine other ways that person fits the mold, but also the ways in which that person is unique and incapable of being pigeon-holed. Story often flows from there.
At the same time, one of the reasons writers are such avid readers is because we like to start with words and only then imagine what a character looks like. By words, I don’t mean a physical description of the character, but words that amount to dialogue and action and internal thoughts.
As a reader, I tend to like book covers that leave a bit to the imagination. More often than not, my vision of a character, gleaned from the story itself, is usually different than what a cover reveals. For my own books, however, I’m absolutely STOKED when a cover artist manages to capture the essence of who my characters are.
One of the funnest things I’ve done is create a trailer for a story after I’ve written it. The first trailer I created was for my Para-Ops series. In the first book, Chosen By Blood, I introduced the Para-Ops team, a group of six dynamic, completely different individuals. I wasn’t sure whether I’d be able to find images that accurately represented my vampire, werebeast, mage, psychic shaman, human, and wraith, but it was a lot easier than I’d expected. After writing the story, I definitely had an idea of what these characters looked like. Not because I’d been inspired by anything visual first, but because the story revealed so much about them, and their looks reflected what I’d learned. 
Vampire Knox is an artistocratic leader and bound by decorum and duty. On the book cover, the artist did a wonderful job of portraying him as sexy yet elegantly dressed. In my trailer, I couldn’t find a picture that captured Knox’s essence, so I used one of a sexy guy wearing a tux.
Dex is a motorcycle riding bad-boy with a bad attitude, so sunglasses and stubble were a must. Wraith was a complete freak, so why not give her white hair, hazy eyes and blue skin to outwardly reflect that? And so forth and so forth. Granted, I didn’t find a picture of a woman with white hair and blue skin and hazy eyes, but I found a picture that “felt” like Wraith, and that’s really all that mattered.
Watch the trailer I made here. The beautiful thing is that whether you see an image first and get a feel for the story as a result, or read the story first and imagine what a character looks like, both options are fun!
For you, do book covers generally do a good job of depicting story characters? What’s your favorite cover and why?
GIVEAWAY: Comment and you can win a copy of the Para-Ops book of your choice, e-book or print:
Wraith’s Awakening (Prequel, Ebook only)
Chosen By Blood (Book 1)
Chosen By Fate (Book 2)
Great trailer! I admire you for putting it together. You have skills way beyond mine.
There are so many covers I like, so here are just a few. All of Michelle Diener’s. Her cover artist ‘gets’ her books. I love the cover for A Summer In Europe by Marilyn Brant. Her On Any Given Sundae cover is great too – I drool over that ice cream sundae. And the image above it with the man and woman feeding each other cherries with whipping cream… Perfection! And I love my covers, created by the brilliant Laura Morrigan. It’s hard to pick one, but I’ll say Dragon Blues, with that great dragon design on the cover. It makes me want to write a sequel, just the have a similar cover.
I can see why some of those, including Dragon Blues, is your favorite! Very cool, Edie!
I think covers generally good a job illustrating the overall theme of the story. I am not really good at visualizing characters so I like it when both hero and heroine are on the cover and I can imagine them while reading the story. It does bug me just a bit if there is a clear description of a character in the book but and it is different from the cover (heroine has long brown hair but the cover shows her with short blonde hair). It really isn’t a big deal to the overall story, but more disappointing I guess. Overall I think the cover artists do a great job! I can’t imagine all that it takes to put a cover together and how many revisions they must go through!
Amy, I agree most cover inconsistencies aren’t that big of a deal. I find the more I love a story, the more picky I am about the cover. Thanks for commenting!
Virna, your cover is beautiful! Sexy and elegant, definitely. I believe cover art is hugely important and my books come to life for me when I get my cover art, so I’m always on pins and needles to see what it looks like.
All the MM ladies have great covers, and I know as a reader, covers often sell me on a book or series.
We MM ladies ARE definitely cover lucky!!! I also agree that a story truly comes alive when we see the cover art. It’s like finally getting to see your baby after 9 months. You loved it completely before you saw it, but when you do…WOW!
Virna,
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Your Chosen By Blood cover is just gorgeous, and that image of Knox really drew me in…I’m so curious about his character from both your description of him and that photo. Off to check out your book trailer next!
And I love the covers of all the books by the M.M. authors — it’s wonderful that we have them on the right side of the page. I enjoy admiring them every time I visit
Marilyn,
Thank you! I’m so glad you found the cover of Chosen By Blood and my descriptions interesting. I LOVE The sidebar with the covers, too. Thank you for visiting the site!!
I love a lush cover that gives a good visual of the character and/or feel for the book. Light and fluffy or dark and dangerous. I tend to rely on covers too much but I’m not often disappointed by covers that don’t match the characters.
I’m one of those people who will visualize a character and then go in search of a photo that fits that image. Every once in awhile I’ll see a picture and just know that image in going revolve into one of my characters. Love it when that happens.
I agree, it’s such a great feeling to feel that “click” between characters – story-and cover!
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But I have noticed, covers have gotten so much better! Hair color the same as the characters, eye color…. Tattoos when the characters have them, piercings…. I have to say, Gena Showalter has absolutely stunning covers! Especially her Lords of the Underworld covers.
I agree about GS covers!! Hot and well done. I love the little details the art department includes on covers!
I enjoyed the post. Nice trailer and book cover. Book covers generally do a good job of depicting the characters. I like Kresley Cole’s book covers.
Virna, I love your covers, and the Chosen By Blood one is terrific. I also bow to your expertise in book trailer making. I’ll watch it as soon as I post this comment.
I am very much drawn in by covers, and that’s why I’m so happy I get such great ones. A bad cover is a real turn off, and I’ll only get a book with a bad cover if someone has personally recommended the book. Like Chelsea said, I do think covers are getting better and better.