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.