Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I understand why you might want to do this as an author, but I very much doubt that it's what your typical reader wants. When I open a book I want it to open at the page at which I can start reading, not have to wade through pages of advertising material, legal disclaimers, quotes from reviewers saying how wonderful your books are, etc, before I reach the first page proper.
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And, ^ there it is. That's the predominant behavior of Amazon's readers, and that's what Amazon is responding to--not what the publisher wants.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
Sometimes the start of the book is wrong. It starts at the first chapter missing thing like the dedication, frontmatter, cast of characters, and other things. So starting at the cover would make sure that everything that should be read is presented to the reader.
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AND, this is also true. We ran into this, some years back, with a client that was running a real-live Treasure Hunt, and clues were in the novel. But the crucial information was embedded in a prologue, and sure as sh*t, the SRL was opening far after the prologue. What did we do?
Simple. We defied bookmaking convention (which, let's face it, kiddies, is going straight to the dogs any-damned-way) and moved the Prologue past the TOC, so that the sequence went : Cover, title page, other stuff, TOC, Prologue, Ch.1...and
that works.
Offered FWIW.
Hitch