Do I get frustrated when you read a book that’s marketed wrong?
Yes.
But first let me give you an example to explain what I mean by a book that’s marketed wrong.
Several years ago, I bought a book with a bright pink illustrated cover that featured a picture of the Eiffel Tower. I expected the book to be a romance, or perhaps a rom-com.
Why?
Pink is the colour of romance.
The Eiffel tower is in Paris, the famed City of Love.
Illustrated covers tend to feature on romance or rom-com novels.
But …
The book was not a romance.
It was women’s fiction. it may or may not have been a good novel: I don’t remember. All I remember is reading it and waiting for the romance to start (it never did … because it wasn’t a romance novel).
So that’s one aspect of marketing that can annoy me if done wrong: the cover should match the genre.
The book title and description should also indicate the genre, and shouldn’t give any spoilers.
- If the title is “A Wedding Disaster” I’m going to expect a wedding (with a disaster) in the first few chapters.
- If the book description references an event that’s going to change the character’s lives, that event should happen in the first few chapters.
Most other book marketing blunders don’t bother me from a reader perspective.
As a reviewer, editor, and participant in a lot of online author groups, I often come across books that aren’t marketed well. I might offer advice, but it doesn’t necessarily bother me as a reader.
So what does bother me?
Seeing unsuspecting authors spend their money on dodgy publishing and marketing packages.
This bothers me as an advisor and as a Christian, but not as a reader. Unfortunately, the people who have spent (wasted) money on “marketing services” tend to get defensive when people suggest that time and money could have been better spent on pretty much anything else.
Dodgy services I’ve seen include:
- Paying for your book to be uploaded to Amazon or included on Goodreads (which authors can do themselves for free)
- Paying to activate the “Look Inside” feature on Amazon (again, something authors can do free)
- Paying for a publisher to write and send a press release (that will go straight to spam)
- Paying a publisher to create a “premium” book video (that will cost thousands and be less effective than an author-produced book trailer)
- Paying a publisher thousands to create
- Paying a “literary agency” to take their book to an overseas book fair (that will result in exactly zero sales)
This really frustrates me: “Christian” agents or publishers taking advantage of unsuspecting authors to separate them from their money in a manner that promises success but will deliver nothing the author couldn’t do themselves.
Thanks Iola. Yes, I get frustrated too when it’s marketed incorrectly. I remember a book I got on NetGalley once. I thought it was okay and I think I gave it 4 stars, but I noticed a lot of people had given it much lower ratings. When I clicked on a couple of those reviews, the main problem seemed to be the marketing. On NetGalley, it was marketed as a rom-com, but it was really more of a family drama with some romance. I agreed with them on that point. It was a much more serious book, so if you were expecting a breezy rom-com, that’s not what you got. If it had been advertised as a family drama, the author probably would have gotten better reviews.
I also read a lot of suspense novels. So it bugs me if something promises suspense, and then there’s nothing very suspenseful until the climax.
Matching the book description with reader expectations is important, but then some books don’t fit in a neat genre box either, so it can get tricky. I guess the upshot is that you shouldn’t promise something in the book description that you don’t deliver.