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Art in the eBook business is essential. Visual imagery is the only way a reader sees the book for the first time. Funny thing about cover art, rarely does it have anything to do with the subject inside. When I was a boy most of the hardback books I got were second and third hand. None of them had cover art. All you got were leather bindings and the title and the author. When you flipped these hardbacks open you were often greeted with a table of plates as they called them. Artwork embedded in the chapters. Peter Rabbit is a great example of this. The artwork of Peter Rabbit in the original was all you got. It was imagery built around the story.

Enter paperbacks. Paperbacks thrived on cover art. In the sixties and seventies, the covers on most paperbacks were awesome. You had so many great artists creating masterpieces for incredible stories. My favorite artist of all time was a book cover artist. At least a large portion of how he made his money was on book covers and a few album covers. The man’s name was Frank Frazetta and I still love his style. The number of great cover artists spanned across all genres. Westerns and Science Fiction. Romances and Thrillers. Horrors and Feel Good Books. As time wore on Hardbacks began to have permanent cover art instead of the paper wrapped ones they started with and now nothing gets sold without some sort of permanent cover art. Which leads to The Pyrateheart Press’s predicament. We have a budget so low it reigns in the red. Without any way to pay for cover art we have had to get creative; and find usable images we can use commercially so we can add cover art to our eBooks. Well, on most of our books anyways.  Our first published eBook, Penelope’s Melody had an original creation. The artwork is all ours. I liked the artwork. It fit in with the current minimalist style of most erotica books. So, we went with it. All of The Pan’s Naughty Flute series will have original artwork.

Our logo is an original as well. Crafted by Maggie Griffith , our logo is a perfect rendition of who we are. We thank Maggie for what she has done for us. It is an excellent logo. And it is the last of our original artwork.

We discovered Canva.com and Pexels.com and Pixabay.com and found resources to create book covers readers would like. We used Pexels to find an image for our soon to be released new eBook – The Librarians’ Tale . Take a look:

What do you think? It is an eye catcher. Which is what you want in a book cover I am told repeatedly. I am told all cover art exists for is to draw the reader in to open the book and begin their journey regardless of what is inside. Still, I do like this cover. I have liked them all. It is my ardent wish you the reader like them as well. Of course, it is time for a shameless plug so here goes. Visit us at thepyrateheartpress.com to see the covers of the rest of our books and while you are there take the time to sign up for our newsletter and receive 20% off your first purchase. Not too pushy? Too bad! I want you to come check us out and download your free samples. Get to know us through this blog and our podcasts and a few videos as well. There, shameless plug over. For now. LMAO . I got to sell books man. Don’t hold the plugs against me.

Anyways, back to artwork. Take a look at your books. Did you really look at their artwork? Was it the reason you picked the book in the first place or did you already know you were going to buy the book? I don’t care what was on the Harry Potter books. I bought the first one because a friend recommended it to me and the rest of the books I waited for impatiently cover art or not.  Which leads me to another topic. Not for tonight though. I will save the importance of reviews for another time. For now, take a look at your books and tell me if you bought them because of the artwork. Do you even remember the artwork? Or did the artwork help you get interested and the first chapter grabbed you? It is an interesting set of questions. Give us a shout back with your opinion, I’m interested .

I’m Ross, the Editor at The Pyrateheart Press and I’m out.