Judging a Book

by its cover

Dear <<First Name>>,

Like many old saws, “Never judge a book by its cover,” is based on an idea that makes sense. Most authors don’t have control over their cover art. And a tiny thumbnail that you glimpse for a few minutes while you’re making a book purchase decision shouldn’t really color your enjoyment of the book—particularly an ebook, where you don’t even need to look at the cover if you don’t want to. Plenty of books with crappy covers are great. And plenty of books stink, despite fantastic cover art.

At Odyssey Con last week,  I came away with a mile-long list of books, movies and TV shows I can’t wait to check out. At the very tip-top was a book called Dirty Magic. Fantastic title. But what really got me was the way a panelist was describing the storyverse, of illegal potions being cooked and sold like crack, while legal government-sanctioned potions can be purchased from vending machines like energy drinks. Since I love nothing more than a combination of magical and mundane, and since I really liked that a guy was getting excited about and identifying with a female protagonist, Dirty Magic was the first thing I ordered (sight unseen) based on the title and an avid reader’s description.

When I picked it up from the library, I realized that if I had actually seen the book, I would have put it right back on the shelf. The cover didn’t appeal to me. The figure was too small and centered (and nineties!), it was overly busy, and the colors didn't evoke the gritty tone of the story. I was envisioning something more typographically oriented, to highlight the simple yet evocative title. Something like the hardcover versions of Holly Black’s Curse Workers series, but with more schmutz since it's supposed to be filthy and decrepit.

I’m happy to report I’m enjoying Dirty Magic anyway.

But really, what this goes to show is how an enthusiastic recommendation of a book by a reader is so phenomenally important. I’m told that if you can amass more than 70 reviews on Amazon, the site’s algorithms will promote your books more heavily. I don’t know if that’s true or just an authorly urban legend, but I do know that as an writer without a publishing house behind me, I really rely on my readers to leave reviews of the books they enjoy. For instance, many readers tell me Wild Bill was their favorite vampire ever, but most Channeling Morpheus ebooks only have a handful of reviews.

In fact, the majority of my works get significantly fewer reviews than similar titles by my peers. If you were new to the genre and you had the whole body of m/m to choose from, would you pick a story with few reviews or a story with many? I personally would start with the stuff that seemed popular to see what it was all about. So please, if you enjoy something I’ve written, it would help me out immensely if you went and wrote a couple of sentences on Amazon about why that book entertained you.

And speaking of cover art, here’s a sneak peek at the cover for my short story Post Mortem, which will hit the shelves later this month.

Love, Jordan

(Post Mortem originally appeared in the 2012 UK Meet anthology, Lashings of Sauce)

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