Judge my book by its cover

Had to put this out here because of an interesting thing that happened to me. So let's do a quick blog about book covers.

Do you judge a book by its cover? Do you judge how good it is by the cover? Do you judge what genre type of book it is by its cover?

The reason I ask this, is because of an invitation I was extended and then was later rescinded all based on the cover of my book. First, for those of you who are asking yourselves, "What does the cover look like?" Check out the left column of my blog or go to www.deniserobbins.com and voila, there it is.

Now that you have seen it. What do you think? Is it offensive? Does it make you think it is a "smut" book? Is it any worse than what you see on television or in-person at the beach?

Personally, I love it. It leaves everything to the imagination and lets you know that the story has swimming and diving and sharks in it. At no time do you see the woman's face because I don't want you to know what she looks like. I want you to use your imagination. Honestly, the only thing I want you to know is that she likes pink. . .see her fins. :-)

Now that I have asked my questions, let me tell you what happened. Yesterday afternoon I was asked if I wanted to be on a community TV show and talk about my book. WAHOO! Yeah!
So I emailed the woman who contacted me the information she requested, one of which she wanted to see the book cover. Well, about 15 minutes later I received the following message back.

I am so sorry Denise, but I am not going to be able to have you as the guest. My viewers will have a heart attack. I could get away with it if the cover was not so sexual because the story sounds fabulous. I have a lot of viewers that are of the older generation and they let me know what they like and dislike. Please do not feel bad but perhaps when you next book comes out let me check out the cover and that might work. We always show the book on the air as you are talking about it.

Notice that her take was that my cover was "sexual." For the record, I am a pretty easy going person and thought her email was hysterical. It was the first negative comment I have received about the cover. Most people think it is eye-catching and gorgeous. Me included! Yes, the book is a romantic-suspense, therefore it does contain love scenes, but so do books by Jonathan Kellerman, David Baldacci, Janet Evanovich, etc.

Here's a question. Do you think if David Baldacci had that same cover on his book that anyone would have thought it was "sexual?"

So, do you judge a book by its cover? Should you?

Share your thoughts.