Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
You know, they DO see the artwork--they see it on the website, where quite frankly, they can see more of it than they can on a real device. Also, if anyone is interested, they can use the "go to" menu, ie.,"Go to cover." OR, they can page back.
I'm not trying to be argumentative. I'm just saying, it's not as though the covers are excised.
Also, with regard to the BYG: that is ALSO in response to overwhelming author/publisher demand. They asked and asked and cobbled together links and yadda, to get people to leave reviews for their books. Hence, the BYG (Before you Go) page.
I suspect that it's programmed by Amazon to come after the last page of the body of the book--again, remember, folks, they don't just decide to do this stuff. They analyze reader behavior. Obviously, back-matter gets just as little love as does front! :-) Otherwise, if everyone read to the last (really last) page, that's where they would have put it.
Hitch
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Amazon might have the book cover, but they DON'T generally show frontispiece artwork on their website. Or maps. Or title page illustrations. Or TOC illustrations. So, no, people won't necessarily have seen any front matter artwork on the web site. Only the cover.
What tells people a map and/or frontispiece or other important information or artwork exists in the front matter if they haven't seen a TOC? How do they know to BE interested in taking the action to page back?
It's not like any publisher wants:
Chapter 1
STOP! Page back to see the map and frontispiece image that Amazon just zoomed you past! Oh, and by the way, keep reading after the "before you go" screen that pops up after the last chapter, because more cool stuff and artwork awaits!
Begin chapter text here....
Do publishers just have to hope the reader enjoys the text so much that they will visit the TOC?
In print form, at least a reader thumbs through the front matter on the way to the text, so if something catches their eye, they can stop and view or read. But if they are simply presented with Chapter 1 or whatever the first full page of text is, I can't see many that would be paging back if there is no visible reason to do so.
I get that for the vast majority of current, text only fiction books, Amazon's decision on starting books probably works pretty well. But I think it really falls down when it comes to illustrated books.
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