Timeline for What matters more when it comes to book covers? Is it ‘professional quality’ or relevancy?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| May 7, 2019 at 8:36 | comment | added | GGx | @RedSonja You just MADE my day!!! Still laughing!!! | |
| May 7, 2019 at 7:38 | comment | added | RedSonja | @GGx google this! "sci-fi covers man dressed as woman" | |
| May 7, 2019 at 7:30 | comment | added | GGx | @RedSonja I would love to see the pic of that guy!! There's certainly some odd stuff out there. I heard a podcast a few weeks ago on Reverse Harem, a genre I didn't even know existed, yet some Indie is making five figures a month writing it. That's the joy of Indie - you can tap into markets traditional publishers wouldn't touch with a bargepole. And for readers, it's freeing. There are no longer gatekeepers telling you what you should and shouldn't be reading. There's a whole weird world out there! Even if you're a sci-fi porn fetishist! | |
| May 6, 2019 at 6:43 | comment | added | RedSonja | @GGx And there really is pornographic SF. If you google "science fiction alien rape fantasy" etc you will actually find the most surprising things. As I said, each to his own, not my thing, but somebody must be reading it. | |
| May 6, 2019 at 6:40 | comment | added | RedSonja | @GGx I was talking about SF. It is a running joke among SF fans that some cover artists twist their female figures to show bosom (lots of bosom) and bottom (big) at the same time. This is not actually possible for humans. There was a guy who made fun of it by dressing as a female fantasy hero and trying to twist himself into the position shown. :-) | |
| May 2, 2019 at 14:24 | comment | added | Chris Sunami | @MasonWheeler - There would be no need for the proverb "don't judge a book by its cover," if it wasn't something people do frequently, both literally and metaphorically. So yes, of course people do judge books by their covers ...and they are often right to do so. | |
| May 2, 2019 at 11:03 | comment | added | GGx | @RedSonja I'm sure there are plenty - look at 50 Shades! Erotica is a hugely popular genre. Each to their own! | |
| May 2, 2019 at 10:50 | comment | added | RedSonja | Indeed, book-buyers like me do judge books by their covers. For instance, I am a science fiction/fantasy fan. If the cover shows soft porn, it's not for me. If the cover is a cheap photograph of the author's mate wearing a cloak, probably awful. If the title is in big pink letters, no way. This is my taste. There must be people out there who genuinely want to buy books showing some woman's bosom and bottom at the same time... | |
| May 1, 2019 at 23:22 | vote | accept | user394536 | ||
| May 1, 2019 at 20:35 | comment | added | GGx | @MasonWheeler Yes, I think most of us do. The power of word of mouth shouldn't be underestimated for sure. And then you really need a good product that gets people talking. But for authors without a big marketing force behind them, generating word of mouth sales is slow going. There are voracious readers out there who read everything recommended and then go browsing. It's them you're trying to hook as a new unknown. But the book has to live up to it or word of mouth via reviews will shut it down. | |
| May 1, 2019 at 20:28 | comment | added | Mason Wheeler | I usually judge buying books on reputation. Several years ago, a family member shared a book with me by a (back then) brand new author by the name of Brandon Sanderson. On their recommendation, I read it, and I've been a committed Sanderson fan ever since. Without that, I would have probably never even heard of the guy until a few years later when he took over finishing up The Wheel of Time. (A series that I started back in high school, because a friend recommended it!) | |
| May 1, 2019 at 20:24 | comment | added | GGx | @MasonWheeler I think judging whether to buy a book and judging a book are different. But it's no different to how we buy most things. We look at a photo of a lawnmower, read the sales copy, read the reviews, and then judge for ourselves whether it does a good job on the lawn. Some great books have terrible covers. Some terrible books have great covers. We make a judgement call in the short buying window. But a book won't be judged either way if you can't convince anyone to buy it. And you're more likely to do that with a great cover. | |
| May 1, 2019 at 19:36 | comment | added | Mason Wheeler | So what you're saying is, people can and do judge a book by its cover? | |
| May 1, 2019 at 11:31 | history | answered | GGx | CC BY-SA 4.0 |