When buying e-books does a picture on the cover matter, or is it all about the content?

When it comes to buying e-books what do you look for in a cover?

Do you need pictures to show you what the book is about, or do you want a big title that expresses exactly what the book is about?

Using the above examples, plain colour and print covers, followed by pictures covers, which ones caught your attention? Which ones made you more interested? Which ones made you want to read them?

When designing a cover for your novel it’s all fairly simple, you need pictures that represents the story you have told.

When designing a cover for your non-fiction book it’s not so simple. If you pay a designer then you will more than likely get a picture cover, after finding and paying for the pictures of course. You could use a photo you have taken yourself if it’s appropriate, and many authors put themselves on the cover.

But what about plain cover e-books. Are they good enough to make you want to buy them?

With the e-books I’m writing I’m going to need covers. Do I go with picture covers or plain colour and title covers?

I’ve done mock-ups and have decided on plain colour and title books. There will be some graphics, depending on which book it is for as I do have four e-books being written at the same time as my current novel, which is nearly finished.

I’ve used colour combinations that work. Blue, yellow and red for example. The primary colour triad that works well. With others I used the colours that were in the logos I made as two books will be based on Facebook pages I set up.

I’ve kept the background a plain colour which fades to white at the bottom. Big title, a logo or banner with author name.

And, do you want to see something about the author on the cover? Such as doctoral letters, author of, expert in. For example, if I put Author, Blogger, Social & Media Commentator under my name at the bottom of the book so you knew what I did and gave you some sense that I knew what I was talking about, would that work for you?

Yes, I am trying to get a feel for my own books, and I will reveal my covers closer to when I publish the books, which may actually be sooner than May 1 next year.

Let me know what you look for in a non-fiction e-book or even non-fiction physical print book, and tell me, do pictures matter?