Glossy vs. Matte

The SF/F books on my shelf are almost all glossy.

Depends on your cover art. You could get a proof copy of each and decide which you like better.

I put six of my books into print this month. One in matte, the others in glossy. I have to say that I ended up liking the look of CS glossy covers better. The matte seemed easy to smudge or something weird I couldn't quite work out.

Also, as a spec fic reader, I think I'd go for glossy over matte especially for urban fantasy. I'd think an Ursula K. LeGuin book might look good in matte, but most others I'd expect glossy.

From what I can tell, the Createspace glossy covers survive opening and closing better in regards to wear and tear on the spine. (They also survive getting small water spatters on them better, and don't seem to mar as easily-- unfortunately I seem to be rough with the books I'm reading).

In general, I like the appearance of matte covers better for certain images (classier, like you said, especially for illustrations), but most of the books I've seen seem to go with glossy. Though note, those books were YA science fiction and paranormal romance. The matte one was science fiction.

If you're worried about overall genre, you can always check a local bookstore.

EDIT: I went back and checked the couple Createspace books I have. I didn't see a whole of difference in quality between the two cover types, though the matte showed imperfections a little more (probably from the aforementioned water spatters that resulted from carrying it next to a water bottle at work). Other influences may have been that the matte cover was white and the glossy cover was black/dark colors.

On my first book I had a proof copy of each type made. The matte type did not wear as well as glossy. However, glossy uses a layer of transparent material over the paper which tends to curl just a bit over time. (Which is not the case with my paperbacks put out by trade publishers, so I suspect this is a CS problem.)

I wish Createspace would offer the matte option with a UV coat. For me, that would be the best option.

Matte!!! It looks so good!
Originally I went with glossy for my first book. For the 2nd one I did in print I went with the Matte & I liked it so much better. I have since made the first book in Matte too and it looks so much better than it did when it was glossy. When people see my books they always compliment the Matte look & feel of the book. Createspace really does a great job with the finish.

I went with Matte for my book and was VERY happy with the result. I might experiment with Glossy eventually, but Matte will continue to be my default.

I went with glossy for my first and matte for my second. I love them both. I think it probably depends on the cover art. (Glossy works really well with my photographic image, and matte with the vector graphic.)

My sister's doing my covers and she strongly suggested matte. I deferred to her expertise and have no complaints.

I much prefer matte. The first in my series (UF) was matte and looked great. The second one came out glossy; when I complained I was told the reason was that glossy is cheaper.

The third, they went back to matte. I had a great point of comparison since the artist was the same and that covers were designed to look very similar, the only difference being the finish. And once again all I can say is that matte is not only classier but just simply looks better.

I'm a big fan of matte over glossy, I think it comes across as better produced and a bit more professional.

It will depend a lot on the cover art though, as certain colours and textures look better in one form over another...

On this topic - I'm interested in hearing from people with experience of hardcovers from Ingram Spark. You have the option to either do a case laminate or a dust-jacket over cloth, and I'm wondering whether there is a noticeable difference between a matte laminate and a matte dust-jacket?

Like others have said, I think it depends on your cover. If you can't decide, why not order one of each to see how you like them?

I went with matte for my urban fantasy. It's got a roughed-up texture over the image, and I figured the cover would look weird if the texture was roughed-up and the cover itself was glossy.

The matte looks great for mine!

So my post above where I said I was going to go with glossy for the photographic image--I deferred to my resident professional (lol) and he suggested matte. I have the paperback in my hands, and I'm really glad I went with the matte. Thumbs up.