Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
It's the problem of discovery. How do you discover new stuff you might like to read?
Reviews and recommendations are major sources of discover, but random browsing is another important component.
Which I think is the key for your experience. If you aren't visual, covers wont be an attraction, and good/bad won't matter.
For most readers, covers matter more than many suppose.
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Dennis
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I want to add to this only that this is absolutely also true for non-fiction. I have seen many competently researched, well-written non-fiction books sink, due to the belief that the ONLY thing that mattered was the work, not the marketing.
Bad covers sink books, period. You'll never even know it exists, because those books that had authors/self-pubs that paid attention, who put attractive covers in place, will rise to the top of the search results. (More clicks, more sales, higher ranking). That much-better book, with the crap cover? Will slowly disappear into the murk and mire of search, ne'er to be seen or found.
/done now with the lecture. If you don't write and publish, it doesn't matter to you, but it's a very, very real thing. The visual character of the rest of your compatriots affects what YOU see, in searches or browsing.
FYI, I'm not a compulsive visual person, either. I think in text, not pictures. The fact that covers mattered so much was a thoroughgoing shock to my CNS. But I cannot deny what I've now seen proven to me, over and over and over. It's real and it exists. It's like...Coverism, instead of racism or bigotry. The better the cover, the better the sales, AND, the better the position in search, for that specific book. Obviously, if the first page of the book isn't readable, that won't quite hold true--but
the clicks through to it will still exist--and that bad book with the great cover will
STILL take the place of a far, far better-written book on a search.
So, while we are not particularly drawn to a book, based on covers, the fact that most people ARE affects both of us--like it or not. It affects our search results and search positions for books, and thus, the books/choices presented to us, in our searches.
Hitch