"The talk of your life, Standing so near..."

[greygirlbeast]

Summer has finally come to Providence, and with a vengeance. Right now, the temperature inside and Outside are identical, 82F. Well, that's the temperature out in the middle parlour, where Dr. Muñoz is blasting, vainly trying to combat the heat. It's likely warmer here in my office. The lights are off, to make it at least seem cooler. After I finish this, and get dressed, we're fleeing the House for genuine air conditioning.

Nothing was written yesterday. Nothing was written again.

But I was confronted with the curious proposition that the cover of The Red Tree may be off-putting to some men. It's off-putting to me, but for purely artistic reasons, and because it's not appropriate in tone to the novel. But I'm getting off track. The following comments were made on Facebook (I'm withholding the commentators name), and I quote:

The cover for The Red Tree is well done, but it practically commands, “You, male child, don’t buy me.” I’ll bet nearly all of your male readers will buy it online and consider it a “guilty pleasure.”

I was on the plane the other day, reading a book of the same genre. (You could tell from the cover: pretty young woman in black, looking down and away, full moon and glowing gothic hoodoo behind her.) And I could feel how I was making the man to my left (with the competently written spy/cop novel) uncomfortable. The power of marketing...(ellipses divide two comments)...It's well done for what it is, I should say. I've seen much worse. But, yeah, it's a "paranormal romance" cover. Men aren't supposed to read those. If you buy one at Barnes and Noble, you need to have an it's-for-my-girlfriend/wife/niece excuse ready in case you get a male cashier (or a female who gives you a curious look).

Now, first off, this all seems awfully sexist to me. Or maybe not necessarily sexist, but certainly smacking of male insecurities. But secondly and most importantly, I spent a good deal of the day worrying whether or not it might be true. Has Roc, by marketing this novel with the generic "paranormal romance" cover (it is not, of course, a PR novel), alienated potential male readers? It seems absurd, but then much of human behaviour seems absurd to me. Most, in fact. So, here's the question: Do you think this cover is geared towards a female readership and is off-putting to male readers? Sort of a two-part question, I suppose.

I'm going to discuss this matter with my lit agent when she returns from her summer vacation.

Spooky has begun a new round of eBay auctions.

Also, there's a new bit of "evidence" up on the website, the addition of Plate XX.

Officially too hot to continue. Maybe I'll go sit beneath a cold shower. Maybe I will spend the day dreaming of icy moons, their oceans safe below the rime.

Comments

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

Oh those people are just being silly. Paranormal romances either have naked man abs foregrounding red flames or purple fog (when released by romance imprints) or a woman looking away from the viewer, generally oriented to show off a tattoo on the small of the back and some buff haunches (if from an SF/F imprint).

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I will agree it's tame for a "PR cover," missing some of the conventions of the form, but still think that it fits the bill.

[yuki-onna.livejournal.com]

I don't like the cover, mainly because Constance seems poorly photoshopped onto the background. However, having gone through this with Palimpsest--holy shit you should have seen the original cover they wanted to slap on there--I can say that any readers you might lose due to the cover you'll probably gain back due to the fact that PR is enormously popular.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I can say that any readers you might lose due to the cover you'll probably gain back due to the fact that PR is enormously popular.

Ah, but will I still lose them, once they discover the novel isn't PR? And never mind the fact that there's no net gain in this scenario.

[onemoreshadow.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's possible the cover is geared toward women, but quite honestly it didn't spring to mind when I first saw it. I think PR covers tend to be a bit more R than P, and I don't see that in the cover for The Red Tree. But that's just my opinion.

And regardless, none of that would have stopped me from buying a copy. Of course, I'm a long-time reader, so I can't speak for someone who isn't familiar with your work.

[bluharlequin.livejournal.com]

Ya know, I think the FB comment may be correct. I've worked in retail longer than I care to admit (though it's been a while since I've worked with books) and I could totally see men walking right past this, opinions about what men "aren't supposed to read" not withstanding.
OTOH, the style of the cover does have some similarities with "paranormal romance" books, which seem to be all the rage right now, so maybe the book is getting second looks that it may not have gotten otherwise.

Female Oriented Cover Art

[captaincurt81.livejournal.com]

Since women make 70% of all book purchases I believe ROC deliberately chose this artwork to appeal to that demographic. I don't see the cover as PR. There's no tattoo visible or eerie urban background menacing her. It's more impressionistic. I was not put off by the jacket, but I don't choose books by their packaging anyway. I read reviews and track manuscript sales through industry channels before publication. I bought the novel because I'm interested in exploring your work, reading a good story. Jacketing a book is one of the toughest parts of the publishing equation. There's no one right look for any book cover. A publisher has to go with the one that seems most marketable, that will catch the attention of the buyer at the chain or wholesaler. That's the real key to what a book will ultimately look like.

Re: Female Oriented Cover Art

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I read reviews and track manuscript sales through industry channels before publication.

You actually factor how well a book is selling into whether or not you'll buy it? Or am I misreading you?

[fusijui.livejournal.com]

Disclaimers: I buy very, very little "genre fiction", whether it's PR, horror, or SF/F. And as a sort of 'failed FTM' I don't know whether you'd see my opinion as being more of a man's or more of a woman's. But: I really, really was put off the cover. It filled me with a sense of dread (not the good kind) that stayed with me until I was probably sixty or eighty pages into reading the book.

Honestly, if you hadn't come highly recommended as an author, and if I hadn't read your LiveJournal pages for a while, I would have passed over "The Red Tree" on the shelf based on the cover, assuming it to be generic pulp. There's just *so* *much* published every year on the shelves of the bookstores you have to develop some kind of high-throughput filtration system. Mine is, well, pretty superficial ;(

[unknownbinaries.livejournal.com]

I honestly can't see beyond the part of me that wants to throttle the artist, yelling 'You aren't even TRYING!'. I'd have been nailed to the wall alongside the piece if I'd brought it in for crits in my illustration classes, because it says very little about the story. (But then again, I used to stand around with a friend I graduated college with and critique the covers on the new books tables in Border's, when we went in to have coffee and draw.)

And despite than I've heard it from almost every writer I talk to, I still can't believe that the author has so little to do with the art involved in their own work. There are no words.

[readingthedark.livejournal.com]

My assessment remains that they did a slightly above average job of designing a cover that will sell as many copies as possible. I doubt that male readers were considered much. (Statistically, what percentage of new male readers are influenced by the cover for a book like this, less than 15%? 10%?).

The goal of a cover is to not lose many of the writer's current fans while gaining a large number in a new niche, usually by mimicking a nearby marketing category that is formulaic and predictable. There are plenty of women who buy five PRs a week. Getting them to add yours to their giant pile was all the pubber cared about. Men do read PR, but they're used to the covers by now and they're a smaller niche that's harder to reach.

I believe the cover was made to look PR because no one is buying much else. Admittedly, because of the book's contents, it would have been better suited as being marketed in the litfic genre--but that's like launching a brand new writer and much riskier (in terms of costs) for them.

(Note: I am not saying that greed on the part of a publisher is a fair or decent motive, merely that it behaves predictably and that part of that pure greed is that they make covers designed to bring as many sales as possible in a crowded marketplace where ten percent of the consumers buy ninety percent of the books. It's not pretty, this commodification of text.)

We live in a society where anyone reading more than ten novels a year, even if they are Nascar-themed romances, is committing a radical act because those readers are choosing to consider how other people think instead of having consensus reality spoonfed to them. If they only buy books with a specific type of cover, publishers (for better or worse) will give everything that cover.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

litfic genre

Um...total Orwellian newspeak moment here. Sorry.

Otherwise, a fair assessment.

[mckenzie34.livejournal.com]

Jesus Hieronymous Christ. People are really so worried about WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK they wouldn't buy a book because of the COVER?

It's a good goddam thing these people don't need a SPINE
to function in our society.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Jesus Hieronymous Christ. People are really so worried about WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK they wouldn't buy a book because of the COVER?

Do keep in mind, this is a single data point. But,yeah...at least some seem to do just that.

[jtglover.livejournal.com]

I am not a good representative of the "average male," as I already read your work regularly and don't care all that much about covers of books I know I am going to read. Still, my thoughts:

* The cover is fairly clearly a PR cover aimed at females.

* Some males will be put off by this.

Now, that said, do you have any idea about the gender of your readership? Are guys who read CRK likely to be driven off by a PR cover that's pretty transparently being used to draw buyers? I think not. Looking at that cover, I see "haunted house" with a PR patina, which doesn't make me feel much one way or the other, in that flavr-of-the-month is always used to sell things.

Could the cover be better? That depends on whether you're talking artistry or salesmanship. Clearly "yes" when it comes to the former, less clearly "possibly" when it comes to the latter. Many, many people read PR and/or UF -- so this has the potential to tap into a huge audience of readers.

Distasteful as it is, the book needs to pass through as many hands and before as many eyes as possible for it to do well. It needs to get around. While a PR cover may be the easy out, it makes sense in the current economy, with numerous editors, publicists, etc. vanishing from many houses.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

UF?

[seismickitten.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I found the cover incredibly off-putting. Looking solely at the cover, I would assume it was PR. And I tend to associate PR with heteronormative and bland fantasy fulfillment. If it weren't for the fact that I've read many, many incredible reviews and have been keeping an eye on your journal, I probably wouldn't buy it. But no worries! I just put my order in at my local independent bookstore. :)

I'm the type of gal who prefers understated covers -- primarily colour, shapes, and text being the focus. I'm definitely not one for photographs of models or photoshopping (unless it's done in a subtle way). I find placing a character on the forefront distracting; it interferes with my own mental pictures. I can link my love of simplicity directly to my love of old, old, old books with nothing but the text embossed on the cover (with perhaps some minimal ornamentation).

But the woman who placed to order for me said she loved the cover. So there you go.

[derekcfpegritz.livejournal.com]

I'll admit...that cover is shite. And the first thing I think of when looking at it is: wow...another goddamned Laurel K. Hamilton rip-off.

However, that said: 1) Everyone already familiar with your work will not be deterred by a cover painting. 2) Readers of weird fiction have all been trained over the decades to ignore lurid cover art that does not in any way complement the content beneath it. I rather doubt anyone will be particularly turned away.

On the other hand, the cover imagery may draw more people to the book--enough to get them to read the blurb on the back. At which point they may think, "Hmmm...I bet this may have some saucy moments in it!" And then they take it home and discover, to their unremitting horror, that they're actually reading something good. Whether they burn it then or just use it as a doorstop, it doesn't matter: you've still scored a sale. Or, rather, the publisher execs who chose the cover art for its marketability scored a sale. Regardless, you'll still get a couple of cents from the sale, so....

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Readers of weird fiction have all been trained over the decades to ignore lurid cover art that does not in any way complement the content beneath it.

You have a point there.

[seph-ski.livejournal.com]

I hate to say it because I don't want to stress you further, but I do think the cover is off-putting to a lot of men, but not just men. I don't necessarily think it's because anyone would be embarrassed to be seen reading it. I think it looks like a formulaic chick novel, like a story about a tough girl in some tough situation, something Lifetime ("TV for women who hate men" as we call it) might make a movie out of someday. I know you're not supposed to judge books by their covers, but honestly, if I wasn't already familiar with your work, I might not have not give this book a second glance either.

Had I been in charge of marketing The Red Tree, I definitely would've gone for some sort of dark, stylized tree graphic, and not put a person on the cover at all. Yes, the brooding female probably catches the eye of chicklit readers, a large market according to top-sellers lists, and will probably bring some new fans to you from people who pick the book up for the cover and are pleasantly surprised to find there's so much more to the story than they expected, but I think a more generic, eerie cover would be eye-catching to all sorts of potential new fans, without the risk of appearing off-putting.

I could see my husband, who likes suspenseful thrillers mostly, coming across the title in our Kindle library and giving it a try, but I honestly can't imagine he'd ever pick the book off the shelf and crack it open, because it looks too much like one of the many vampire/PR/spooky-kid/chicklit books I have in my collection, and he'd likely just assume that's what it is.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Had I been in charge of marketing The Red Tree, I definitely would've gone for some sort of dark, stylized tree graphic, and not put a person on the cover at all.

And were it a book by Neil Gaiman or Susanna Clarke, Peter Straub or Clive Barker, that's likely the sort of cover it would have gotten. But apparently someone has deemed my books too trashy to sell with those "artsy covers."

[kathryn-aka-kat.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I'm an older woman. As a teen, I read tons of cheap gothic romances (and keep in mind this was back in the late '60s and '70s) until even I got too tired of the formulaic writing. I still see them out there and sometimes pick them up to read the cover blurbs, just as a reminder that they haven't changed. They haven't. Drugstore books. And when yours came, it was kind of a shock to see it looked just like one of those pieces of throw-away prose.

Yes, I think it's off-putting to men. My 20-year-old son would never touch this. Take her off the cover entirely, would have been my suggestion, and just leave the background.

Of course, drugstore books sell. But if the cover looks at home on a rack of them, maybe that's not the best targeting for the demographic you want? (as distinct from what your publishers want) You may get a new set of readers this way, but very few will care about the writing, most will probably hate the ending, and the majority aren't likely to look for more of your work. They're just looking for a quick read. Unless, of ocurse, you want to put out a line of more generic horror stories?

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

My 20-year-old son would never touch this.

Which is very, very bad.

Take her off the cover entirely, would have been my suggestion, and just leave the background.

This was a suggestion I made that was vetoed.

You may get a new set of readers this way, but very few will care about the writing, most will probably hate the ending, and the majority aren't likely to look for more of your work.

And that's what worries me most. Well, one thing that worries me most, how there seems to be very little forethought in this marketing.

[jdack.livejournal.com]

I think the cover would be embarrassing to a certain type of man. The type who does not read books any way.

I like it, frankly.

[michael-b-lee.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I'll ask my wife about this when she gets home from work. She's a book buyer at Ingram Book Company, and considerations like these often factor hugely into how many copies of a given book are ordered. She'll have a much more educated opinion than mine.

That said, my impression is that it the cover is definitely geared toward female readers than male readers. It's definitely evocative of the kind of covers you find on many paranormal romance novels these days, and since that genre is hot right now, I wouldn't be surprised if the cover is meant to tap into that market and add to your audience. Personally, I think this is a very calculated move on your publisher's part.

Me? I don't care what the cover of a book looks like. It's the author and the back cover text that typically sell a book for me, and in the case of The Red Tree, I put in my order as soon as I knew the book was available.

[alvyarin.livejournal.com]

I'll be honest - I would never have looked at this book and thought "romance", paranormal or not. I'm not sure I've ever seen a romance cover without a man on it somewhere, or at least a woman with a less grim expression on her face.

Nonetheless I don't think it's very representative of the book either, or conveys what it is. I think the reader above who said "stylized tree" was right on. But is there anything you can do about it now? (not meant to sound snarky - genuinely curious)

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

But is there anything you can do about it now?

Nothing, obviously. I'm just finding new things to fret over.

[pisceanblue.livejournal.com]

In strict attendance to your question, Caitlin, I do believe the cover is exactly as you posit. But my primary reaction, when I completed my first reading, was it simply does not do justice to the complexity of the narrative at all.

[fornikate.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

[szeret21.livejournal.com]

When I purchased your novel I hardly paid any attention to the cover to be honest. But that is due to the fact that I’ve read your previous books and novels, and really liked your style of writing. When my boyfriend, who often pokes fun at my choice of reading, took a look at the cover he didn’t mention anything about it looking like a PR cover. And believe me; he would have made some sort of snarky comment about it being a PR book.

Now that I’m at work, I’ve pulled out your novel and taken a good look at the art work on the cover. I think it fits the story. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’ve always felt that the cover of a book should fit the main subject, or subjects, of the plot. Your cover has all of the main things/person that Sarah Crowe interacts with during her stay at the house. Plus if it were truly a PR cover, Constance would be wearing some sort of figure revealing out fit and thigh high leather boots.

[scarletboi.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'm not a fan of the cover. It feels like one of the PR books my mom reads... I don't know if that'll put people off or give them false expectations of the book within...

Just off the top of my head, this is closer to what I would have done...

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Gods, that's gorgeous! Can I put this up on the website, as a file people can print out and paste over the actual cover? Also, could you make a second version that would be a "by Sarah Crowe" facsimile (I'd send you the text for that one)?

I don't ask for much, I know.

[alvyarin.livejournal.com]

On a different topic altogether, I absolutely LOVE the new evidence. I loved that story. The illustration is perfect.

[stsisyphus.livejournal.com]

At this point in the industry, the artistry on any book is between the covers, not what is on the cover. Still, I think the cover for The Red Tree is better than the one for Daughter of Hounds, as they sorta maybe found a model who might, conceivably, be sorta maybe found as a character in the novel.

I'm sort of surprised that you haven't been able to get Spooky to do photography for the covers.

But what I'm curious about the original comment is more of a demographic issue: If men will not buy this book because men do not buy something that hints at PR (and really, just dump the "paranormal" out of that assumption), the issue becomes - what do men buy in a bookstore? What genres of fiction (when they buy it at all), statistically speaking, do men buy? Is this a sale, again from a statistical perspective, would have missed anyway?

And, taking things to the next level of heteronormative and sexist assumptions, are men dissuaded from buying fiction authored by women? I believe your novels are usually physically sandwiched between Laurell Hamilton, Joe Hill, and Stephen King, and further down the line you've got Dean Koontz (of which we will say no more). If someone is looking for a novel in the "horror" sales-demographic, what will a random male browser in that section set their hand upon? I don't particularly know. Do men write "harder" or "better" "horror" than women? Does a female author necessitate that the story has more sex romance and 'empowerment' rather than maximum sexandviolence (to which I say "no", and toss 'em a copy of Exquisite Corpse, or point out who brought American Psycho to the screen). Is that the perception? Says whom?

There are people who get paid twice a month to figure these things out. I am not one of them, so I assume they go to school to become experts (or at least competent) in that field. This worry, Ma'am, you do not need.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I'm sort of surprised that you haven't been able to get Spooky to do photography for the covers.


Even if she did, she'd be taking very strict directions from marketing at Penguin.


There are people who get paid twice a month to figure these things out. I am not one of them, so I assume they go to school to become experts (or at least competent) in that field. This worry, Ma'am, you do not need.

A very good comment, but I must say, I do have to worry about these things. This is my career, and mine and Spooky's security.

[odditie.livejournal.com]

I think the cover is more generic and less paranormal romance-ish, considering Sarah is actually wearing clothing that bares very little skin. But it kind of sends the message that the artist hadn't read the book and tried to copy something s/he found on DeviantArt. The cover of Low Red Moon is actually much more reminiscent of paranormal romance (for obvious reasons), by the way.
I would've liked to see something made by "Amanda" for the cover.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

considering Sarah is actually wearing clothing that bares very little skin.

It's meant to be Constance, not Sarah (or so I am told).

The cover of Low Red Moon is actually much more reminiscent of paranormal romance (for obvious reasons), by the way.

I agree. And it is the absolute worst of the bunch. That one we did manage to get Penguin to do over. You should have seen the one they didn't use.

[ardiril.livejournal.com]

If you recall my comments from yesterday, I mentioned "Ellen", young housewives, female college students and female-oriented text. Despite my having already read half the book, I still subconsciously pigeonhole it due to that blasted cover. I love that version by scarletboi.

[elmocho.livejournal.com]

My "demographic": Male, early 30s.

I bought the book because I knew it had just come out, and I read your blog, novels, short stories, and Sirenia Digest. I don't think I'd have any trouble with someone on the bus or a plane watching me read it.

I have noticed people on the bus read more, so this might skew the sample.

The cover doesn't strike me as PR: Not nearly enough skin. I'd be more apt to say UF, but it isn't that either. Scarletboi's cover above is a better representation of the novel.

Now I'm tempted to try to do a New York Review of Books Classics treatment. They all have the same typographic and design elements, but different cover images. I suspect macro images of leaves might work. Or of carving-scarred bark.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'd have any trouble with someone on the bus or a plane watching me read it.

I just can't imagine that mindset. It's like, "Oh, you're reading a sissy book." Playground mentality at work.

Now I'm tempted to try to do a New York Review of Books Classics treatment. They all have the same typographic and design elements, but different cover images. I suspect macro images of leaves might work. Or of carving-scarred bark.

I'd love to see it!