In response to the sentence "You can't judge a book by its cover" I have often replied with "Of course you can -- that's what they're there for."

One of my most annoying covers is the Islands in the Net paperback. Great book, one of Bruce Sterling's best, but the cover has cheesy green 80's gridlines and some hot, buxom chick in a slinky "futuristic" suit on the cover. What has this got to do with the story? Sweet diddly. I'm reasonably certain Mr. Sterling didn't have much input on the cover.

Also, I always thought the Neuromancer and Count Zero paperback covers were pretty damned ugly.

But one of my faves was one I spotted when I worked at a bookstore. TSR used to occasionally put the author on the cover of D&D novels, battling gorgons or wraiths or what have you. It was always nice to see some sub-Frazetta art with some nerdy looking guy in chainmail spearing dastardly creatures with a big-ass sword.

Admit it, the first question an author has about a cover like that is can he meet the model...

It's one of the major problems I find when engaged in any kind of skiffy evangilism.

 You talk ideas, you talk eyeball kicks, cognitive dissonance, new wave, cyberpunk, bio-punk, post cyberpunk, radical new hard science fiction.

 And they say "yes if that's the case why the air brush amazon with the big blaster, and the embossed space rocket shaped like a..."