The cover of a novel is the single most important ingredient in the success or failure of a book. This is not something authors want to hear and it is not always true. If the book is special enough and it gets loads of word-of-mouth, even a bad cover can’t stop the book from being a success. If the author’s name is well enough known–and I am speaking here of New York Times bestsellers with very large print runs–a bad cover can’t stop it from being a success. However most of us fall in the category where a cover can make the difference between success and failure. Over the years, I’ve had good covers and bad. One of the prettiest covers I ever had was on a book called MIDNIGHT RIDER. The problem was the cover was completely white. The lovely embossed bird on the front didn’t show up until the reader picked up the book. Not many did! The title was the second half of the problem. It was chosen by the publisher and no amount of talking could convince them to change it. The combination of bad cover and bad title was lethal. On the other hand, I…