Branding: What Do You Have a Taste For?
By Therese Walsh | August 14, 2007 |
I’ll be tidying up the Google Notebook this morning, so don’t forget to go on over for your hit of Books & Business news for the week.
A study released last week really caught my attention: Kids eating foods and drinks from containers labeled “McDonalds” preferred the taste over the same exact foods served in generic cartons. (The health writer in me is seriously holding back a tirade on brainwashed children and unhealthy repercussions. I’ll spare you.) It got me thinking–really, it did–about books and whether I “ingest” stories differently depending on the cover and brand appeal.
Yes, I’m more likely to buy a book by a brand I know, a favorite author or known entity. If I choose an unknown author, I might grab for a book awash in dramatic colors, like this beauty at right (The Alchemist’s Daughter by Katharine Mcmahon) instead of something dressed in pink. I can tell you in all honesty that I fell for Juliet Marillier’s Daughter of the Forest years before I’d heard of her, had interviewed her, or begun blogging, because of the simple, poetic illustration of the cover. In a different vein, I picked up Christopher Moore’s A Dirty Job for the cover’s promise of macabre hilarity. And Charles Frazier’s cover for Thirteen Moons, with its gold edging and Caribbean-hued vista, made me buy it for its promise of a journey–even though I already had a teetering stack of books on my bedside table.
I’m drawn to gimmicks, too. I might like a book with ragged edges and thick paper like this prize, Mr. Thundermug by Cornelius Medvei
(which also comes with a few illustrations to enhance the strange, fictional tale). Or a book that plays with fonts or physically manipulates the look of words on the page, as James Morrow does in The Last Witchfinder, weaving in and out of a book’s POV (yeah, a book’s) and a woman’s, via an hour-glass effect by letting the last word of one POV become the first word in the next. (Psst, this book is currently selling for the bargain-basement price of $6.99 at Amazon for a hardcover edition. If you’re not intimidated by historically rich tomes, I’d highly recommend it. Hey, I’m kinda intimated by it, to tell you the truth, but it’s still a great book.)
These books promise, from moment one, a particular kind of read, a certain bite (like the crunch of that McD fry). Would I love them just as much if the covers were fashioned out of brown paper bags? If I’d never heard of the authors? If I didn’t love the feel of them in my hand? Would they taste just as delicious to me?
I think so. But being a child of psychology, I know that expectations factor into these things: I think I’m going to love it, therefore I’m going to try with all my might to love it or risk being wrong.
So I’m asking you: What influences you to pick up a book? What would absolutely GUARANTEE you’d pick up a book? Do you ever find yourself giving books you thought you’d like more leeway than books you didn’t have such high expectations for, if the books starts to lose your interest? Do you think reader expectation influences how you digest a book?
Update: I just happened upon an article, Judging Books by their Cover, at the A.V. Club Blog. Check it out HERE.
Write on, all!
Therese Walsh (she/her) co-founded Writer Unboxed in 2006 and is the site’s editorial director. She was the editor of WU’s only book, Author in Progress, and runs the Writer Unboxed UnConference.
Her second novel, The Moon Sisters, received starred reviews and was named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal and Book Riot.
Learn more about Therese on her website, and sign up for her newsletter to be among the first to hear about any new projects.
I’m afraid that a handsome cover does influence how I approach the read. It subliminally tells me that if the publisher cared enough to give the book a special cover, they love it too…therefore I must love it. Doesn’t always work out, though.
I’ve read plenty of wonderful books with a gag-inducing cover too. But they have to work a little harder to convince me to open it up.
Yes, all this branding stuff matters a lot. Writers don’t like to admit it, but… it really does.
I think it’s a lot more than just the cover though. A lot of it has to do with all the stuff I talked about in the Media Franchise post.
People will remember a catchy name better, and will embrace a concept that makes sense to them and can be easily summarized.
The one thing that guarantees I will pick up a book for a look is a good review of the book by a staff member in the bookstore. This has worked well thus far.
I would pick up a book with interesting cover art, but it would have to have a lot more going for it than that for me to buy it.
Karen Duvall talks about Author Branding in her Newsletter KAREN’S PROMO TIPS Number 15 (https://groups.yahoo.com/group/Karens_promo_tips/)
You’re right, of course, Eric: Branding does have to do with a lot more than the cover. But the cover is where it starts, don’t you think? I nearly bought that book Alchemist’s Daughter this past week because of its look; that’s what caught my attention. Yes, I read the back cover too, and I thought it sounded like a good book. It really took some doing to just leave it at B&N and get back home to seek out some reviews. I decided, after, that it probably wasn’t the book for me. One historically rich tome at a time, thank you. ;)
Mary, thanks for the tip. I’ve signed up for Karen’s newsletter.
For me, it’s all about the cover and title flowing together. When I’m in a book store I’m not going to stop and read about every book that has a catchy name. Especially when the books are on the shelf and you can’t see the cover. So I have to slide every book out that looks interesting and that suits my taste and study the cover and then, only then will I know that that is a book for my shelves at home. Books like Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier, Duchess of Aquitaine by Margaret Ball, and Paradise by Toni Morrison. I like it best when the cover is a detailed painting of a scene from the book.