I'm only talking about cover art, not the actual writing. As far as I can tell after 6 months of selling (and mostly not selling) Kindle ebooks, the quality of the text is the LEAST important factor in sales. Badly written books loaded with grammar and spelling errors and stupid plots and weak characters can sell very well, even become bestsellers, whether the author is well known or completely obscure. The key factors in whether an ebook sells are (IMO): an appealing cover that quickly catches the reader's attention, sets the mood, and looks professional; a good title; a short and well crafted blurb that entices them to click "buy". Once they've read it, the readers may hate the book, give it bad reviews (which hurt but don't kill sales), but that's all after the fact noise. Junky books with good covers, titles and blurbs can sell tons of copies -- or not. Marketing helps but isn't everything, and some un-marketed books sell like hotcakes. It's a strange environment. I read the Kindle author forum daily and there are plenty of authors who say things like: "I uploaded my first book two weeks ago, did no marketing, and sold 4,000 copies! Now the reviews are starting to come in from readers and they say it's crap, written by a fourth grader, and I should have proofread it before I upload it. I've been writing for only six months and this is my first novel ... etc." That is common. Other authors have been writing for decades, spend four years writing a book, proof it five times, and it doesn't sell at all. Not one copy. Maybe the cover isn't quite good enough, or the blurb is clumsy or too long. Anyway, "goofy" covers don't sell unless the book is flat out humor (think fart jokes). "Solid and corporate" covers look like they were done by a pro graphic artist and would fit right in on the bestseller racks of a bookstore. The readers want the ebook covers to look like they're from a commercially produced physical book, something one of the major houses would put out. The majority of Kindle customers HATE indie/self-published authors. Probably because they've bought junky books from indie authors. So, if you want any chance of having your work sell in that market, it has to look non-indie, non-self-published.
