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Originally Posted by Hitch
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.
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The work absolutely matters. But readers have to know the work
exists before they can decide to buy.
Marketing is essential, whether you are self/indie published or traditionally published. You must do everything you can to let your intended audience know you and your work exist, or you can't sell
anything.
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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.
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I consider myself a visual person, but most people think in text.
We perceive the world through our senses, and the world we live in is a model constructed by our brain based on sensory input. And we each have a sense which will be primary. In my case, it's vision. I see pictures in my head. Some books won't work for me because the pieces don't fit together, and I say "You can't
get there from here!"
Other folks are different. My SO's primary sense is hearing. If she asks me a technical question, my impulse is to grab pencil and paper and draw a diagram, but that will convey nothing to her. I need to find a different metaphor to get across my concept.
A chap I corresponded with elsewhere said his primary sense was
touch. He
felt holes in arguments.
And I ran across a case of a guy who couldn't find his way to work. He was highly intelligent and a trained engineer. Testing revealed he was not visual
at all. Landmarks conveyed nothing to him. But he
did have a strong kinesthetic sense.
So they drove him from his home to his office in a tightly sprung sports car that communicated every twist and dip in the road. Thereafter, he could drive to work with no problem because his body remembered what the drive
felt like.
And along those lines, in an interview I saw years back, a prominent cosmologist stated he didn't
think in mathematics, and neither did any other cosmologist he knew. His primary sense was vision. When he got a new physics concept, he saw a picture in his head. Sitting down afterward and doing the math to
explain the picture was simple rote work. The initial idea was visual.
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Dennis