What would make you read a book?


demonlight's avatar
I've just had my novel published, and someone has suggested a "publicity stunt" of some kind.

Short of going all meta and beating someone into a coma with a geode (which happens in the first half of the book), I can't really think of anything.

But it made me wonder - what makes you pick up a book in the first instance?

I recently bought a pile of books at Waterstones on the strength of their front covers and how they were displayed (they included Dreams and Shadows by Cargill and Autodrome by Kim Lakin-Smith and A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan). Wonderful artwork but disappointing content - either just falling short of expectation or boring me to death.

I tend to have far better luck if I borrow a book from a friend or the library, or buy it in a thrift store, find an author I like and mercilessly mine their back catalogue.

Do you go on the front cover, on friend recommendations, on whether it's promoted through a book club, if it's in the charts or by Amazon/Goodreads ratings or do you just randomly pick books up?
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WynterPhoenyx's avatar
Online and in stores I first go by cover and title first. If the cover is well done  and the title seems be fantasy related I read the back cover. If the synopsis is interesting I'll either buy the book or read the first chapter. The cover doesn't *have* to be well done, but I've actually found that you *can* judge a book by its cover somewhat. 

It's mostly title first then synopsis. I don't like wasting my money so a good synopsis is a must.
demonlight's avatar
I'm a bit hrrm about the synopsis on the back of my book. But then again, I'm a control freak, so I'm always going to prefer my own blurb.
ShanFable's avatar
Well I normally go by online popularity, but most of the time if I am in a book shop and I find the book looks interesting I will read the back. Then decide by the description.
demonlight's avatar
I prefer flicking through/reading the back. I've read popular books, and quite often they're shite.
ShanFable's avatar
True, I read a few popular ones and just couldnt stick to them.
This-is-no-name's avatar
I go on the cover and the first page
3wyl's avatar
I find books through word of mouth, be it online or offline. Whether I read it is another matter. I usually read the blurb/synopsis. If it sounds good, I'll read it.

Goodreads ratings help. :nod:
PegasusCreations's avatar
I aways try not to judge a book by its cover, but it´s really hard.

If you're in a bookshop, you can´t just look at every single book they have, you have to select. And the first information you get is the title, the author and the cover. For everything else (reading the description on the back, open it...) you have to pick it up.
And "a picture says more than thousand words", so of course you get an idea what the book is like by looking at its cover, most times more than you can imagine from the title.
Often this idea is very far away from the actual book, but it's enough to stop us from picking it up - or to make us buy it even when we're not sure if we will really like to read it. At least it'll look good in the bookshelf.
Even if you realise that you're judging by cover, it is't easy not to do it, because you need to select and to choose.

Two examples from myself:
Though I really like Tolkien, I never wanted to read the Silmarillion, because the language was just awful as I first encountered it (I was 15 by that time). But then, I saw this beautiful cover: ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I… (it looks better than on the photo), and I just had to buy it...
And I love the Peter Grant series from Ben Aaronovitch. There again I first like the cover (the German and English covers are in a similar style, but I like the English ones best: thebooksmugglers.com/wp-conten… images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/…. But if I had seen them with the American cover: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia… upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia…, which looks quite different, I probalby wouldn't have touched them...

Knowing this, I try not to look at the cover so much, but sadly it somehow happens automatically.
demonlight's avatar
Well, the whole "don't judge a book by its cover" thing is a bit silly when you consider that covers are carefully chosen to attract readers of a certain type.

The Aaranovitch covers are telling. The American version looks brainless.
Estrago1's avatar
Personally, I like a book that has a cover and title that give me some insight into what the story will be about. If a title is too abstract, then I don't have that initial spark that inspires me to pick up the book. Of course, this only works for books that I have no prior knowledge about. Usually if I know a little about what the book is about, my next step is to read reviews from people who've read the book; for this, I usually go to Amazon.
martypunker's avatar
I'm sensing a theme in your threads today...
Mrgreen36's avatar
Try a launch at your local bookshop
demonlight's avatar
I have considered this. It's impractical for a number of reasons.

Anyway, you haven't answered the question. What makes you pick up a book?
Mrgreen36's avatar
If it looks good and sounds good. Anyway, I'm sure it's not that bad. From what I heard bookshops are usually happy to oblige
demonlight's avatar
They typically demand 30% of the cover price. That's useless if your overheads are 75% (as mine are) because you make a loss on every copy sold.

Also, they aren't that well attended.
Mrgreen36's avatar
What's an overhead?
demonlight's avatar
What you pay out before you get money in.

Say, if you run a shop, you have to pay for ground rent, land tax, heating, lighting, staff, products and so on.

That's why it's difficult to set up a new business. You need to invest in it before you start making money. A lot of people don't make the money back.

My book costs about £5 to produce. If I sell it at £7, but the bookshop takes £2.50 off me, I lose 50p.
Mrgreen36's avatar
Oh you're self published. I see now
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CrimeRoyale's avatar
You could try to get it popular among teachers. If teachers like a book enough, they work it into curriculum's, summer reading programs, etc etc. Good way to get it out to students, anyway.
demonlight's avatar
University, maybe.

Far, faaar too much sex, violence and swearing for most schools, I think.
CrimeRoyale's avatar
That's a possibility.