It's always nice to hear from an author who is listed on the Cozy Mystery site! I just added your new book (A Corpse for Yew) and must agree with you about your wonderful artwork…

I try to limit the number of book covers on each author's page to coincide with the space that is used on the author's book list. There are some authors' pages that make it difficult to decide which book covers I need to delete in order to make room for the author's newly released books. The more I like the artwork, the more difficult the decision. Your books' covers are all so nice that it's really difficult to decide which covers have to go to make more space!

What a disappointment! But, at least you found an author who you like and have stayed with…

One of your favorite authors has the right idea. I like to imagine what a character looks like, and if the descriptions are too clear, it sometimes ruins the illusion. When an author describes a character down to every last detail, it is not left to our imaginations.

Something along those lines, but clearly not in the exact vein, is when an author describes characters and then they produce the author's novels for TV. It took me several years to warm to the Sgt. Havers depiction in the Elizabeth George TV series AND the televised Hamish Macbeth is nothing (either physically or personality-wise) like the Hamish in the M. C. Beaton novels.

I think that covers might compel me to buy a book at a store as an impulse purchase, but with more and more of my purchasing happening online through amazon.com, I find that the covers have very little influence on my buying habits these days. I care more about reader and critical reviews, which are available at the click of a mouse.

Still, those covers are pretty compelling for me!

As for authors not having their say on book covers, my impression is that authors can at least influence their works' covers, if they feel particularly inclined to do so. One of my favorite authors (albeit a very popular author in a different genre) refuses to have detailed pictures of his characters on his covers. He thinks that character portraits take away from the reading of the book because he deliberately leaves many details of a person's description unclear, which allows the reader to project their own image of what particular characters can look like. I do realize that typically authors do not totally dictate covers; it's the publishers who do that. Still, if an author had really strong feelings about his/her book covers and carried enough clout among publishers, I'm fairly sure that they could at least influence the design somewhat.