Camille, as that tennis player with a camera once said...image is
everything..People see and cover anad relate to it in many ways.
They find it catchy to the eye or it may even be a subconscious pull
or a negative perception....but cover art is not all that is the
hook....the title can alaso get a reader involved or turn them
off...and the titles can also, like headlines, be misleading.
Packaging and marketing and handselling at libraries or bookstores
oten tip the scales....Bookseller and librarians who care work hard
to sell really good stuff without stifling the patron...
Date sent: Tue, 2 Dec 1997 11:58:00 +0000
Send reply to: Science Fiction and Fantasy Listserv <[log in to unmask]>
From: Camille Bacon-Smith <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: SF-LIT Digest - 28 Nov 1997 to 29 Nov 1997
To: Multiple recipients of list SF-LIT <[log in to unmask]>
Mike:
> He went on and on, explaining how you could predict the exact
> percentage of sales based solely on the cover art and colors. That
> was when I first realized that writers weren't as important to the
> process as I would have preferred to believe.
Interesting. My editor has recently come to the conclusion about my
first book that my sister, the Wharton MBA, came to the first time she
saw it. My sister figured they'd have a hard time selling the book,
because the people who would pick up a book based on the scary skull
worked in silver creatures on the cover wouldn't like the book, which
isn't horror in the way.the cover suggests. And the people who would
like the book would never pick it up because of the scary cover. The
cover itself is really nifty, but, like putting a gothic cover on a
bodice ripper, if it sells the book to the wrong audience you can't get
good word of mouth. So, we are going with different art on the next
one, and I have my fingers crossed. I think the most frustrating thing
about writing is how little the quality of the written book has to do
with the outcome.
A writer who can do short stories has an advantage, because that writer
can build an audience that will look past a cover or two, but if the
field rewarded writers for the quality of their novels, Doris Egan
would be a best seller, and not working under a new name. (I'd still be
struggling, though, because my books are just so damned weird.)
Camille Bacon-Smith
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Laura Hibbets McCaffery
Readers Services
Allen County Public Library
Fort Wayne, Indiana
"All opinions are mine alone. Others are
free to agree..or disagree."
"...all things are to to be examined and called into question. There
are no limits set to thought."
Edith Hamilton, THE GREEK WAY.
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