The 7 Writer Types You Should Avoid Becoming

[Dutchbook]

I haven't looked at the cover of a book before deciding to buy it/read it in years. Granted, I get my kicks from reading technical books and history books, instead of storyline literature.

Case in point, the cover of what i'm currently reading: https://ozon-st.cdn.ngenix.net/multi...1007171774.jpg

And of my favorite book:
https://www.securepages.nl/kadeboeken/plaatjes/6574.jpg


But when I do, I just google the title, read a summary and the reviews on Goodreads (and more importantly, check what kind of people those reviewers are).

However:
What is a complete turn-off for me are "catchy" titles, designed to lure the customer towards it. I automatically reckon it is pretentious, superficial, unresearched bla-bla, and quickly scan the bookshelf to something else.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Dutchbook

I haven't looked at the cover of a book before deciding to buy it/read it in years. Granted, I get my kicks from reading technical books and history books, instead of storyline literature.

Case in point, the cover of what i'm currently reading: https://ozon-st.cdn.ngenix.net/multi...1007171774.jpg

And of my favorite book:
https://www.securepages.nl/kadeboeken/plaatjes/6574.jpg


But when I do, I just google the title, read a summary and the reviews on Goodreads (and more importantly, check what kind of people those reviewers are).

However:
What is a complete turn-off for me are "catchy" titles, designed to lure the customer towards it. I automatically reckon it is pretentious, superficial, unresearched bla-bla, and quickly scan the bookshelf to something else.

Yes: non-fiction is a horse of a different color.
Completely agree with you on the lures.
Example: The 10 greatest ways to make money. The 100 best ice cream recipes. 99 ways to make macaroni and cheese.
Note: The first book was stolen from Dave Ramsey's web site.
The second one was 1 recipe with 99 variations. The third one was 3 recipes with the same 33 variations each. Luckily they were all free.
I now typically avoid those titles.

If you like I will sell you a book on how to double your money in under 5 minutes.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Dutchbook

I haven't looked at the cover of a book before deciding to buy it/read it in years. Granted, I get my kicks from reading technical books and history books, instead of storyline literature.

Case in point, the cover of what i'm currently reading: https://ozon-st.cdn.ngenix.net/multi...1007171774.jpg

And of my favorite book:
https://www.securepages.nl/kadeboeken/plaatjes/6574.jpg


But when I do, I just google the title, read a summary and the reviews on Goodreads (and more importantly, check what kind of people those reviewers are).

However:
What is a complete turn-off for me are "catchy" titles, designed to lure the customer towards it. I automatically reckon it is pretentious, superficial, unresearched bla-bla, and quickly scan the bookshelf to something else.

Well, that's as may be, and I do think that there's a core of readers who are very much like you--I'm not big on covers, myself. But I can't overlook the evidence of what I've seen and witnessed with my own eyes. There are no two ways about it--in genre fiction, sharp covers sell, period.

I've told this story here on the Writer's Corner, before. I have a client who is also trade-pubbed. By a big publisher. We've done his backlist, into ebooks. He's a mystery writer, and his backlist books, and his current ones, for that matter, are series, in which while there are new mysteries in each (whodunits), there are the same characters and a larger story arc for the personal relationships of the protagonist, right?

There are 6 of these, up on his Kindle bookshelf. All for sale, all went up around the same point in time, a number of years ago. Now, you'd think that you'd expect that his first book would sell, let's say, X copies. Then, maybe not everybody loved the first one, you get some drop off, and those that did would go on to buy books 2-3-4-5-6, right? In approximately the same numbers? Some number of X-Y? Consistently?

Well...hell no, they don't. They practically leap over Book 2's dead body to get to Book 3. And they do it again, from Book 4 to book 6. It's not that they're playing hopscotch, but if you look at the series, Book 2 has a dark, not wildly attractive cover. But Book 3 has an AWESOME cover. Book 5? Back to not great; book 6? Fabulous.

I've seen his sales figures with my own eyes. They're utterly irrational unless you figure in the covers. And he's not the only author that's reported this type of thing to me. Repeatedly.

Offered solely FWIW.

ETA: I think that authors resist the idea that covers impact sales, and are heavily resistant to the idea that their babies, their wonderful offspring, aren't the sole arbiters of the destiny of the book; that the outcome of their labors can be so severely affected by something over which they have limited control.

Hitch

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by Dutchbook

I haven't looked at the cover of a book before deciding to buy it/read it in years. Granted, I get my kicks from reading technical books and history books, instead of storyline literature.

Case in point, the cover of what i'm currently reading: https://ozon-st.cdn.ngenix.net/multi...1007171774.jpg

And of my favorite book:
https://www.securepages.nl/kadeboeken/plaatjes/6574.jpg


But when I do, I just google the title, read a summary and the reviews on Goodreads (and more importantly, check what kind of people those reviewers are)...

I think you are completely astray in understanding the points being made about the importance of covers if you think that public domain mid 19th Century novels (your Havelaar example) and handbooks describing the USSR's air defense forces prior to the collapse of the USSR (your other example) have any relevance to what is being said.

[Dutchbook]

Oh no, that was not the point I was trying to make.
Those are just the covers of what I am reading right now and what kind of books I enjoy to read.

The point I was trying to make is that cross-verification of 'am i going to like this book?' Is just literally 3 seconds away. So for ME covers aren't important.

Darryl has put it into words beautifully a couple of days ago, in a topic about indie-authors

The decision to buy a book used to be made by visiting a book store and perusing a sometimes large but manageable stock of books. In an online store, the sheer number of books is not manageable. The supply may as well be infinite. We all develop our own strategies for dealing with this, and businesses are falling over themselves to find methods to help us do so. But we are still in a transition phase here. It remains open to anyone for whom the Indie experience doesn't work to simply confine themselves to traditionally published books. There are some Mobileread members who do this, and I applaud them for doing so, though if I adopted this course I would miss out on books by many of my now favourite authors. Some mostly adopt this approach but will buy an occasional recommended Indie. The rest of us presumably recognise the discoverability problem but find it preferable to the old limited choice curated by self-appointed gatekeepers. And develop our own methods to select books.

What IS important for me is the title and subtitle. Since the last post I've been browsing Kobo for books and the annoying titles that people give to books is what irritates and repulses me.

@Hitch: You can't tell a story like that and keep us hanging without pictures of those covers!

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Dutchbook

Oh no, that was not the point I was trying to make.
Those are just the covers of what I am reading right now and what kind of books I enjoy to read.

The point I was trying to make is that cross-verification of 'am i going to like this book?' Is just literally 3 seconds away. So for ME covers aren't important.

Darryl has put it into words beautifully a couple of days ago, in a topic about indie-authors



What IS important for me is the title and subtitle. Since the last post I've been browsing Kobo for books and the annoying titles that people give to books is what irritates and repulses me.

@Hitch: You can't tell a story like that and keep us hanging without pictures of those covers!

I think your point is you are not a visual person. Words mean more to you. That is great and fantastic. Thing is about 75% of the seeing population are visual people and the cover is the first thing they look for.
Jon is a very good example of a visual person. If he doesn't like a cover, there is about a 98% chance, he won't even read the description.
You on the other hand sort first by title. If you don't like it, 98% chance you won't read the description.
Now me, I look at the title and subtitle, then the cover in thumbnail, if those aren't too bad I will look at the description. That is usually the deciding factor.
I do also look at the author's name on indies.
I got called a book critic the other day. The author asked for feedback and he got it.

Now I really don't look at cookbook covers. They range from plain to wild and I have a few with the same exact covers but they are different books.
Actually I have two Feeding the Flock with the exact same cover but they are from different churches. Favorite recipes seems to be a favorite title too.
If I counted right, I have over 300 fundraiser cookbooks.

*There are not many duplicate recipes.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Dutchbook

Oh no, that was not the point I was trying to make.
Those are just the covers of what I am reading right now and what kind of books I enjoy to read.

(snippage)



What IS important for me is the title and subtitle. Since the last post I've been browsing Kobo for books and the annoying titles that people give to books is what irritates and repulses me.

@Hitch: You can't tell a story like that and keep us hanging without pictures of those covers!

I'm afraid that I can, and I won't. It's one thing for me to discuss this in theory--it's another if I embarrassed the client by displaying his covers. He doesn't mind if I discuss this, as an object lesson for other authors, but I think he'd take a very--very--dim view if I put his personal business on display. You know?

Hitch

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I'm not gonna lie--I'm the same way. Kill 50 guys, meh. Kill THE CAT? And you're on my sh*tlist for life, no redemption possible. ;-)

Hitch

Note to self: Finally write the splatter novel of my dreams, "Fifty Ways to Kill That Fat Neighbour's Cat." The internet (and Hitch) will love me.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Even though we make our shekels, at my biz, formatting eBooks, I tell clients that if they HAVE TO choose, choose a commercial cover design(er) over professional formatting.

Well...

Remember Phoenix Pick? Well, they have some rather well know authors. But, I refuse to pay because their formatting is the worst I've ever seen. The formatting is like the worst of Mobipocket combined with the worst of Word and then it's still worse than that.