Hi everyone,
I’m very happy to say that I’ve just had my debut novel published and would love to swap thoughts and opinions on what makes a compelling read. Obviously, some of my motivation is market research, but if I don't ask people who are interested in books who can I ask! With this in mind, what do you think attracts a potential reader? Would it be the front cover like mine below or is it more likely to be on the strength of the synopsis? Just how important is the cover art and what really determines our decision to invest the time to actually sit down and read a book? As a new author, I feel these questions are very important, so any insights you can give will be greatly appreciated. It may help me not to make the same mistakes if I ever get around to writing another one! :)
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/9805/magiclandsamazonfe8.jpg
― MH6, Wednesday, 22 August 2007 22:12 (eighteen years ago)
Since this is market research and you write fantasies, that pretty well leaves me out as someone to ask, because I am not attracted to fantasies and probably haven't read anything that fits into that genre for the past 40 years. Sorry.
I believe there are forums much more actively devoted to fanatasy fiction than this one and you might catch more information by dropping your line and hook in those waters. Of course, you may get anibble or two here as well.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 22 August 2007 23:36 (eighteen years ago)
Note that we as a board always support the use of badgers in cover design.
― kingfish, Saturday, 25 August 2007 12:48 (eighteen years ago)
Okay, as a sometimes fantasy reader, I'll take a stab at answering your questions.
What attracts me as a potential reader? Publishing house, title, known author, blurbs/reviews, suggestions from people with similar tastes in books, occasionally the book design/lettering/cover art.
Cover v. strength of synopsis - I usually put most weight on the synopsis, but will occasionally take into consideration the cover art.
Importance of cover art and what makes one sit down with a book - for me, it's usually not the cover art. I'll grab a book that I don't know anything about and read the synopsis, any blurbs/reviews on the front/back covers, any reviews on the pages preceding the title page, if it's a hard cover then I'll usually also read the text on the book cover flaps, and I'll look at the author blurb, too. Most of the time I'll randomly read a paragraph or two to get a sense of the writing style.
I absolutely detest blurbs that say something like "If you liked <insert title/author here> then you'll love <blank>" or "A modern-day <insert something literary here>" or "Shades of <author's name>" etc. I think that they raise false expectations and are a turn-off.
And after all of that, I can give you a contrasting response - my S/O reads pretty much only hard sci-fi and cyberpunk stuff and he does buy books based on cover art (or even the artist!) and he likes books that have blurbs that I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Frustrating, eh?
― MsLaura, Wednesday, 29 August 2007 07:00 (eighteen years ago)