"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).

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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]

Not sure. I'm not a PR reader, so I can't say the reaction. I was horrified at the idea of marketing my book as PR, I thought PR readers would be put off. But yours is less batshit insane than mine--maybe they'd find something to like...I personally would love to see an LE with a different cover and more of the Dr's MS in it...

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

personally would love to see an LE with a different cover and more of the Dr's MS in it...

As would I.

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.

[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 ;(

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?

[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.

[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.

[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]

litfic genre

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

Otherwise, a fair assessment.

[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.

[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.

Re: Female Oriented Cover Art

[captaincurt81.livejournal.com]

No, I don't buy something because it's selling. I select work based on my own tastes and interests. I was referring to agent/author sales to publishers. I keep an eye out for forthcoming books I may like when they are published. I try to spot the good stuff in advance.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

UF?

Re: Female Oriented Cover Art

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. Thanks for clarifying.

[readingthedark.livejournal.com]

I am of the opinion that literary fiction has become a genre due to publisher's forcing conventions onto it. Dysfunctional families, roadtrips and other mimetic and mannerist conventions have pigeonholed liftic, in part because pubbers want Oprah to pitch their book for them and because "If you like ____ you will like ____," is easier to say over and over than to actually explain why a book is actually good.

(But these are just my opinions.)

[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.

[jtglover.livejournal.com]

Urban Fantasy. The two often seem coterminous, but an easy generalization I recently read is --

UF -- hot girls with awesome powers hunt & kill monsters
PR -- hot girls with awesome powers hunt & have sex with monsters