> In reality, the safest bet is to only stand out _a little bit_ while still fitting in the aesthetic of successful books in the genre. Because genre fiction readers know what they like, and they'll look for covers that look like what they'll like.
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.
You're better off with a cover that appeals to the reader, not a cover that looks like the cover on other similar books whose covers were chosen for reasons other than reader appeal.
> the cover will completely fail to carry any further information about the genre.
The cover, as selected by the above algorithm, will convey quite a bit of information about subgenre and niche and when it was written / how new or fresh it will be. To people already looking in the area, this is the most informative signal you can send: where does your book fit on the existing "landscape" of books within this genre that they have in their head?
> The cover, as selected by the above algorithm, will convey quite a bit of information about subgenre and niche and when it was written / how new or fresh it will be.
Since none of those things are considered by the above algorithm, this isn't possible.
> 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.
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 :)
The general issue is the same as fast food. McD does not in any significant way care about any of the 8,000,000,000 humans food preferences. Only aggregate.
If your market is selling billions of something, making niche stuff that sells 10,000 barely registers. With a market cap of $212.5B a 1% daily shift is $2B. Those sales don't register. It's the same issue it always is with capitalism. You think it's supposed to result in something, it doesn't.
Strategy: Make a cover that appeals to the broadest demographic blandly, yet appealingly. Don't insult anybody. Don't use imagery / technique / layout that drives away buyers. Don't appeal to any single individual's tastes, unless they drive huge sales. Effectively, SEO optimize your covers.
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.
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/... for a "modern" cover, or https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T2/images/... for a "traditional" cover.) Art is better.
You're better off with a cover that appeals to the reader, not a cover that looks like the cover on other similar books whose covers were chosen for reasons other than reader appeal.