Cover Art for Barb Hendee's

"Hunting Memories", due for release October 6, 2009, is the second book in the "Vampire Memories" urban fantasy series by author Barb Hendee. The third book from the same series is called  "Memories of Envy" and  is due fall 2010.

Synopsis for Hunting Memories:

When she read those words, Eleisha Clevon knew she had to respond to Rose de Spenser’s letter and connect with another vampire. Both reluctant predators, they venture outside only when the hunger becomes unbearable, try not to draw attention to themselves—and feel guilty when ending human lives.

    But Eleisha has learned a way to draw blood from her victims without killing them. She wants to share this knowledge with like-minded vampires and create a haven where they can exist together—and forge a united front against Julian Ashton, a vampire who has been hunting down and destroying his own kind for the last century.

    To win Rose to her cause, Eleisha must risk meeting her face-to-face, knowing full well she might be an agent of Julian’s—but never expecting the revelations Rose has to share about Eleisha’s own vampire origins…

Book one of the seris, Blood Memories,  was released fall 2008

  Synopsis for Blood Memories: 

Eleisha Clevon has the face of a teen angel, but she is no angel. Unlike most vampires, she doesn't like to kill, but
self-preservation comes first.

When an old friend destroys himself by walking into sunlight right in front of her, Eleisha is shocked. And what she finds afterward points to how very sick of his existence he had become — piling drained corpses in the basement and keeping records of other vampires' real names and addresses.

Because now, there are policemen on the case: two very special humans with some gifts of their own. They know who Eleisha is, and, even more dangerous, what she is.

Visit the author website:  http://www.barbhendee.com

Does the attractive book cover attract the reader?

Well it doesn’t hurt.  

Our society that has become dependent on visual stimulation, from television to movies to the internet and video games.  it has become harder and harder to hold onto the person’s attention for more than a few moments.   How do you get people to read when they have such short attention spans?  Well first you have to grab their attention. A good book cover is a good start.

This is something that publishers finally seem to understand. 

Take, for example Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson Series - the quality of the book covers has improved with each book:

        

Or even better example is Barb and  JC Hendee's Noble Dead Series (the Dhampir cover almost turned me off from starting the series):

 I admit I have to be visually stimulated in order to pick up a book and read the cover jacket.  If the cover doesn’t catch my eye, I just gaze over it and move on.   Not fair to the author’s but there is so much to choose from and so little money to spend on the luxury that I am going to go for the book that grabs my attention first. 

And you better hope that the story lives up to the cover.   If it does, then the book becomes about the author and then about their other works.  If it doesn’t , then the book becomes just another pretty picture and the word gets around that the story did not live up to what was expected and book will disappear into the bargain bins.  People do read the reader reviews posted at Amazon and B&N and Chapters, blogs, forums, etc.  With the price of books as they are you would be a fool not to, especially when it comes to new authors.

This is not to say that you shouldn't take chances from time and time with your book buying.  Sometimes it pays off and you find a new author that just rocks your reading world.

* although with the above example (Noble Dead Series) it is fair to say that the improved covers were in hard cover.