What Catches You First About A Book?

[J A Fielding]

Is it the description?

The cover?

The title?

The sample?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. 🙂

[J A Fielding]

Ok, I’ll go first. 🙂

A cover is what usually catches me first, makes me want to click and look into the book more. Then the description, and finally the sample. If it’s from a author I like though usually that’s the main thing which makes me look into it first.

What about you, what’s the main thing which makes you look into a new book? A recommendation? Other?

[Michele]

I agree. The cover and title catch my eye first. I like to see interaction between the couple on the cover and I like when the cover matches the description of the characters in the book.

Next I read the description of the story. Then I read the reviews, both the higher rated reviews and the lower rated reviews.

If the book is by a favored author I purchase regardless of the ratings or description. I guess I am a loyal follower.

[somora]

The cover, then I would go to the summary to see if it’s a book I would want to read.

[Dee Best]

What catches my attention is the cover first , then the description and sample, last is the length of it. I don’t like spending a lot of money if I am going to finish the Ebook in 5 hrs or less.

[Mpho]

The cover, length, price and sample in that order. Sometimes I’ll scan through reviews, although I’ve learnt those can be deceiving as they ARE subjective. Then I have authors who’re an “automatic buy”, whose work I enjoy.

[joy]

I now go with order you listed, but used to have cover first. However, the I/R & BBW titles have made me discount covers. So many times there would be a real plus sized woman (size 18 and up) on cover and story is about a size 12/14 Average size woman who just has image issues not real size discrimination. Even more frustrating is the I/R cover with wrong size, height or color tone of female and even the white male! In the early 90’s when there were few BWWM photos or art it made more sense except the covers that were obviously cut and paste jobs.

I add reviews now but look at averages then read the longest positive and negative entries.

[J A Fielding]

Michele and Mpho, there are some author who I’d buy from regardless. When they come out with consistently good material they earn that.

And good to see I’m not the only one looking at the front cover first Somora and Dee. 🙂

Although Joy has a good point about the cover not always matching up to the characters in the book. That said, if I’m browsing and there’s a good cover which catches my eye I’ll have a look. I won’t buy solely based on that (and I sometimes buy books with covers I don’t like) but that is what catches my eye about a book / author I’ve never heard of before personally.

[juanita]

Hello everyone. I am new here. Just read my first J. A. Fielding book yesterday and decided to check out the website and joined this morning.

Usually it is the cover that catches my eye although some authors use stock images and it can be confusing at times. One of my pet peeves is the unattrative covers on some I/R books. Some have been simply horrible. The story may have been good, but the cover turned me off. Then, I read the reviews both positive and negative and have not had a negative review cloud my decision to by a book. I have found that even some of my favorite authors can not hit the mark every time!

Then, I look at the number of pages. I am willing to pay a certain amount for a certain number of pages (shallow I know. Afterall, the author needs to make the cake just like I do). I look for books 100+ pages. Then, I consider the author, Is it someone who’s work I read before or is it someone new to me. THe past few months, I have downloaded a lot of freebies. Some have been so so, some wanted me to read the authors other books, some have been exceptional and others so horrible I could not finish the first few pages. So, in a nutshell it is the cover that pulls me in and the writing that keeps me coming back.

[J A Fielding]

Hi Juanita, welcome to the site. Glad you thought enough of my first book to come and get involved with the site. 🙂

I totally hear what you’re saying about unattractive covers. I’ve been guilty of getting a few of those made before, but I’ve learned it’s worth paying that bit more for a good designer that will give the reader the experience they’re after.

Price definitely does have an influence on the books we buy, but like you mentioned authors need to eat too. I guess it’s just a case of whether or not they prove that they’re worth buying into.

Thanks for your feedback, I look forward to seeing you around the site. 🙂

[Author]

Posts