Episode: "Titles and Covers and Sales, Oh My"
Originally aired: Thursday, June 17th, 2010
Guest post submissions are in, mes auteurs, and now the time-consuming (yet thoroughly enjoyable) task of selecting five of them to run the week of Monday, June 28th falls to yours truly. Results will be in soon!
In yesterday's comments, the question of how titles and covers play into the sales discussion came up. Let me, for educational purposes, present the following (entirely fictional) one act play featuring sales rep #1, sales rep #2, marketing guy, and art guy.
sales rep #1, sales rep #2, marketing guy, and art guy are all gathered around the conference room table with myriad other publishing professionals.
sales rep #1: I don't know, art guy. This cover just screams romance to me, and Dudes and Bros and Explosions is a thriller.
art guy: True, but one of the main characters is a woman who tries to be "one of the bros" but then falls in love with the protagonist, yeah? We figured it was more of a romantic suspense.
sales rep #2: No, we're aiming for a male audience. We need to take the clinch off the cover and throw in some dudes. Maybe some bros.
sales rep #1: And some explosions.
sales rep #2: Definitely some explosions.
marketing guy: Also, what about the title? I mean, yeah, it's kind of intriguing, but what about the title we launched with?
sales rep #1: You mean The Huzenlaub Effect?
marketing guy: Yeah, that! I'd pick that up in a book store.
sales rep #2: We thought it sounded too academic. Plus, it turns out it's pretty similar to the Huzenlaub process, which is...
sales rep #1 (reading from BlackBerry): "...a form of parboiling designed to retain more of the nutrients in rice."
sales rep #2: Yes. That.
art guy: Okay, we stick with Dudes and Bros and Explosions. But I'm not sold on cutting the clinch. I mean, hot women on book covers sell. And the dude has one arm around her and he's holding a grenade in the other. I don't see what's not to like.
sales rep #1: You made the protagonist look like Fabio. He's described in the book as more of a Kiefer Sutherland type.
sales rep #2: With an eye patch.
sales rep #1: Yeah, an eye patch.
marketing guy: Eye patches don't sell.
sales rep #1: Eye patches totally sell. Boy Wizard with an Eye Patch sold three million copies in hardcover.
marketing guy: Boy Wizard with an Eye Patch was written by J.K. Meyer. She could have written the character with two eye patches, leprosy, and a daytime job on FOX & Friends and it still would have sold.
sales rep #2: All right, what if we foil emboss the title? Shiny things sell.
art guy: Too expensive.
sales rep #1: What if we make it a trade paper original and drop the price point to $16.99?
sales rep #2: That might work.
marketing guy: You know what? I think I like Bros and Explosions and Dudes better.
The curtain closes as everyone at the table tries to speak at the same time.
fin
Still love covers. Almost bought THE TWELVE without even looking at what the story was about because the cover was so cool. (It's a vampire story, so I didn't buy it. But I almost found that out too late!)
ReplyDeleteHA! This may be a rerun, but it's my first time reading it.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely an eye patch. ;)
I do believe I own a romance novel with Fabio on the cover, and...yes, he's wearing an eye patch. :D
ReplyDeleteSuch a perfect read.
ReplyDelete