A Publisher's View of Book Covers

The publisher told me this

It is the cover that sells the book, What you write inside needs to be good but many people will only read about two or three pages of the book they buy.

This is depressing but then again it probably depends what market you write for. Anyway, designing a cover is fun.

A good way to get a decent book cover

One way you can get a good book cover is to collaborate with an artist friend and agree to share a percentage of royalties. You may also be able to get some black and white illustrations for the inside of your book.

Keep expenses down

Don't go for colour inside because it will push the price of the book out of any kind of reality if you self publish. Use black and white pen drawings inside your book and keep the pretty stuff for the cover.