People judge a book by its cover. However, as every author knows, that’s not the only thing that makes them buy a book. Tucker Max recently explained in The Writing Cooperative what else influences their decision in a post we should all bookmark. As he points out,
Almost every potential reader will judge whether or not to buy and read your book before they have read one single word inside the book.
He then continues to explore the unconscious process of choosing whether to buy a book or not, breaking it down into a handy list, listed in order of what readers will consider, from first to last:
- The title of the book
- The recommending source
- The book cover
- The book description
- Editorial reviews
- Customer reviews
- The author bio and picture (depending on where the picture is placed)
- The length of the book
- The book text itself (the “see inside” function online)
- The price
What’s the key takeaway from this list? That the price only features last in it! So, let’s expand a bit on this:
The title of the book
Most people think the cover is the first thing someone judges. That’s only true if they’re browsing a physical bookstore, which is rarely the case anymore. Most books are now discovered either by in-person word of mouth or online, and in both cases, what is the first piece of information they receive? The title.
Let’s be clear: A good title won’t make your book do well. But a bad title will almost certainly prevent it from doing well. So many potential readers stop considering buying the book once they have heard the title, and nothing else.
The recommending source
If Marc Andreessen or Bill Gates recommends a book, then thousands of eager readers of theirs rush out to buy it. But if a discredited drunk with no followers on Twitter recommends it, no one buys it. This is because the credibility of the source is a hugely important piece of the recommendation puzzle. In fact, in most cases, people will transfer the credibility of the recommender onto the book.
The book cover
If the reader is still interested after hearing the title and taking the referring source into account, they will now go to Amazon, or to a bookstore, and look at the cover. They make more judgments about its relevance and their interest based on this information. The most important thing at this point is that the reader is not repelled. Most people are looking for reasons to NOT buy the book, and you have to not give them any so far.
The book description
At this point, if the cover hasn’t repelled the reader, they will look next to the book description on the Amazon page (or flip over to the back of the book in a book store). This is the book description, and it should give a good idea of what the book is about, while making it interesting and not giving everything away.
Editorial reviews
If the reader is still interested, they will now look at endorsements (sometimes for a physical book, they will do this prior to reading the book description). Note that most readers look more closely at who they are from rather than what they say. They assume that the blurbs will be positive, so they want to see what level of social status its author is, and whether it’s someone they know and respect.
Customer reviews
If the reader is on Amazon (or B&N.com or GoodReads, etc, but not in a bookstore), they now read the customer reviews. They will usually first note the number of total reviews–as a gauge of popularity–and then look at the average rating, and then possibly browse the content of the reviews. If they do, they normally read (more likely scan) one or two of them. And if they are like most people, they skip the positive ones and read a negative one first, before going back to a positive one (if they even do that).
The author bio and picture (depending on where the picture is placed)
Sometimes, but not always, people will look at the author bio. This is usually in situations where they have not quite made up their mind, are hesitant to buy the book, and need more information. Looking at the author page is about understanding the credibility and relative status of the author.
There are cases where this is one of the first things the reader looks at (when they’ve never heard of the author). Some people immediately want to know about the author.
At this point, the vast majority of people have made their decision. Note that this is before they interact with anything inside the book. They have yet to read one single page, and they’ve already decided whether or not to buy the book.
The length of the book
This is one of those things that seems to be generational or divided by socioeconomic status. Some people, generally voracious readers, never even think to check a book’s length. Other people always do. They don’t want to commit to a 300+ page book.
There’s not much you can do here–your book is the length it is–but books that are between 100 and 200 pages sell the best and are read the most.
The book text itself (the “see inside” function online)
There are some people who actually use the “Look Inside” function on Amazon to check out the first few pages and engage the content of the book itself. If they’re in a bookstore, they flip the book open and read some of the inside. They might even do more research to find more articles online about the book.
These are the informed buyers, but they are a distinct minority. Probably less than 10% of your buyers do the thing that everyone says they want to do: judge a book by the content inside, and not the cover.
The price
Some people will look at the price. For some reason, it appears that people are far more price conscious for ebooks than they are for physical books, because of value perception. And free books or books on offer always have a head start here.
However, the simple fact is that price for many people is not the deciding factor, even if it is the reason why they went to check out the book in the first place.
You can check out the full post on The Writing Cooperative.
kimwrtr said:
Reblogged this on Kim's Author Support Blog.
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Staci Troilo said:
Great post.
I guess I’m weird. (Again. Still?) I got burned too many times buying novel-priced books that were barely novellas, so now I look at the page count to see if the expense is justified. But I love the longer page count titles. Presuming they aren’t NY-priced at $16.99 or something, I feel like I’m getting a bargain—more book for the same price as others with fewer pages.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol–now, why hadn’t I thought of that? 😀
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Staci Troilo said:
My mind doesn’t work the same way as other people’s do. 🙂
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
And we love you for it 🙂
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Staci Troilo said:
❤
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D.H. Jonathan said:
I’m the same way. I’ve passed on quite a few 40 page titles that are priced the same as my 85,000 word novel.
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The Story Reading Ape said:
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog.
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EDC Writing/Believing Sight Unseen said:
I do the ‘look inside’ thing and more often take up the Amazon samples option for e-books before deciding – and then for an e-book will rarely buy if over £5 (pound, dollar, euro – all much the same nowadays!). I always look at the page count and I’m very wary of buying anything over 400 pages – much prefer 150 to 250 pages – Julian Barnes does okay at this length! A lot of covers tend to be much the same nowadays and bore me – for some reason though predominately white covers always attract me. I’m also erring on ignoring the blurb – all too often it gives too much away for me. So, my upcoming book, 150 to 200 pages, white cover and a single line blurb!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thanks for sharing that! It’s funny how Staci prefers longer books and you shorter ones 🙂
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Staci Troilo said:
I also prefer black covers and don’t care for white. I guess it just goes to show that there’s an audience for everyone.
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Solveig said:
I grew up with books having uniform covers. In Germany (they dénote collections) and France many publishers do so. I never cared much for the picture on the cover unless when I was a kid (but even then some of the best books were missing their protective sleeve and worth it their picturesque covers). Since being in the blogosphere I always see that the cover is so important, but personally I like simple covers that aren’t too noisy.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Interesting! Thanks for sharing that 🙂
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Stevie Turner said:
Reblogged this on Stevie Turner and commented:
Some interesting information here from Nicholas C. Rossis on ten reasons why people buy a book.
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Juli Hoffman said:
I like to sample e-books before I buy them. If the novel doesn’t grab my attention within the first page or two, I won’t buy the book. I hate e-books with too much front matter for this reason. How can I see if I’ll like the book if the front matter is 10 pages long? I also hate epilogues for the same reason, especially if they’re just a “spoiler chapter” from the middle of the story, something sensational because the first few pages of Chapter One are too dull or full of exposition. I don’t need a bunch of exposition at the beginning of a story. I want to hear the author’s voice right away, not a bunch of unnecessary information. Many a story missed it’s chance with me because the author thought it was vitally important to “purple prose” the description of the trees or other scenery on page one.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thank you for sharing that, Juli! Just a clarification; when you say “epilogue,” do you mean “prologue”?
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Juli Hoffman said:
LOL YES! Prologue. (That’s what only five hours sleep will do to you!!) 😀
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol–OK, that makes more sense 😀
Don’t get me started on sleep deprivation… Sigh… I keep making the silliest mistakes!
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Lindsey Russell said:
Half that list is irrelevant to me and I follow a different order.
Title
Cover
Author
Tense (If it is present tense it goes back on the shelf)
Paperbacks in the UK are £7.99 – for that price I expect a minimum of 275 pages so am thrilled if I get 500 pages for my dosh.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thank you for sharing that. We all seem to have different criteria but I suspect the list applies to a lot of readers.
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Sheron said:
More than anything is what the book is about. I won’t read horror no matter title, cover, price or blurb. I tend to overlook non fiction, but if it’s in the science fiction genre I’m halfway a buyer… and the other factors line up.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Absolutely, that makes perfect sense!
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jenanita01 said:
Reblogged this on anita dawes and jaye marie.
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Marina Costa said:
Reblogged this on Marina Costa.
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joylennick said:
Thank you. Agree with most points. In my case, unless a favourite author or recommended book, lst the cover, 2nd back blurb, 3rd first page; prefer 300/400 pages. Also not over-keen, on gratuitous violence or sex (advertised…), too much horror/vampires/fairies/high-flown writing . Love ‘faction’ writing and the unusual.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Fair enough. I’ve noticed that my own reading preferences change all the time. I’m going through a “sweet” phase at the moment (probably because of my reading so many children’s books to the wee one!) where violence really puts me off.
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DebyFredericks said:
I always suspected the title was critical, for exactly the reason stated here: people hear it before they see it. Now I can gloat for 5 seconds and then get back to writing!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol–well done, Deby 😀
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Jennie said:
Terrific post!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thank you so much, Jennie 😀
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Jennie said:
You’re welcome, Nicholas. 🙂
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jjspina said:
Thank you, Nicholas, for the information. I guess the title has to grab our readers first then we can only hope that will keep them interested enough to look closer. 🤗🎄🎁 Merry Christmas!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Merry Christmas to you, Janice, and thank you 🙂
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