What draws you in?

[Alora pendrak]

What draws you more to a fantasy book the summary or the design on the cover? And if you read a book summery on the jacket cover. What elements would make you want to read the book and what elements in the summary would turn you off if any?

 

[Svrtnsse]

If the book isn't written by an author I'm already familiar with and hasn't been recommended by someone I know and trust, it's the cover that makes me check out the blurb/summary.

The question about the elements that makes me interested or turn me off is a lot more complicated.

One of the things that turn me off is if the blurb makes me think I've read the same kind of story too many times in the past.
Similarly, if the blurb hints at a new take on something I'm familiar with, without making too big an issue of just how new and revolutionary it is, then I'm likely to be curious about it.

 

[Dark Squiggle]

A friend's suggestion, a quote, a mention on a forum, the fact that the book is canon. Sorry, I don't bite much for covers and blurbs although I will say that the covers that are really dark or look like photographs push me away, and fantastic or steampunk paintings will pull me in.

 

[skip.knox]

The cover is crucial. Case in point, a steampunk painting will always push me away. So will vampires and wolves.

[Sidenote: The first volume of Game of Thrones, in paperback, had wolves on it. It opens with winter. I will pretty much reject out of hand any book in which weather is a key feature, and anything with wolves or werewolves. I used to tell people that I considered it a measure of how good that book was, despite wolves and weather, Martin still pulled me in.]

Anyway, I'm exactly in the camp with Svrtnsse. I go on recommendations first, then it's the cover (very occasionally, the title), then it's the summary.

Thanks to Dark Squiggle, the file name for my spreadsheet of TBR list of classic literature will from now on be: canon fodder.

 

[Ankari]

The cover is important. It shows how highly the publishing house thinks of the work. The better the artwork, the more money they paid for it, which means the story must be of high quality as well.

I picked The Black Company from the omnibus cover art, the Wheel of Time because of the Dragon Reborn cover, and the Broken Empire series for the title and cover art.

I have yet to buy a book with a good cover and not be impressed by the writing.

 

[Insolent Lad]

The cover means little to me, unless it is thoroughly amateurish. That would lead me to believe the rest of the book would be the same. A good blurb or description is what pulls me in. Something that makes the work sound interesting. Reviews/recommendations might send me to look at something but probably wouldn't sell a book on their own. Perhaps the thing that would be most likely to sell me on a purchase would be a sample of the writing, a chapter or a page. That would let me know if it were my sort of thing and if the writing were decent.

 

[skip.knox]

It is important to recognize there are stages to being drawn in. The first is whatever makes me stop browsing, whether in a physical store or online. My attention level is at its lowest then. I'm just browsing. At that level, it really is the cover, though author name plays a role as can the title.

If any of those elements cause me to stop, what happens next? Most times, I read the summary if it's online, the back cover if it's physical.

Now you have my attention. At that point, it's the writing itself. I read the opening paragraphs, whether online or physical. The writing--not the plot or character, but the prose itself--has to prove itself to me. I don't really need to be hooked, I just need to know that I can trust the author to tell me a good story.

So, for me, the blurb isn't all that important except as a negative filter. If the blurb is clumsy or hits one of my triggers (a vampire falls in love with a werewolf!), then I'm out even if the cover is strong. But that's personal. You'll always have people who put down your book unread because it hits a negative filter.

 

[Svrtnsse]

It is important to recognize there are stages to being drawn in.

Aye, being drawn in for me is something that's happening step by step. Each little bit pushes me towards deciding to purchase (not read) the book or not.
The thing to recognize is that it takes several different things to turn me on to the book, but only one thing to turn me off. It's like a series of yes/no questions. If the answer to a question is yes, I go to the next question, but if it's no I discard the book without checking the other questions.

 

[Heliotrope]

What draws you more to a fantasy book the summary or the design on the cover?

Cover first. I don't go to a book store and randomly pick books off the shelf with my eyes closed and only open them when I flip to the summary. I always go by the cover. Like Skip I have books types I know I like. Anything SteamPunk I'm not going to pick up. Anything that is traditional "masculine" fantasy, like Tolkienesque, I'm not going to pick up. Anything that looks possibly "literary" (usually matte covers, very simple art) will pique my interest.

And if you read a book summery on the jacket cover. What elements would make you want to read the book and what elements in the summary would turn you off if any?

Once I get to the jacket, I'm obviously looking for.a great premise. A great mystery. Something I haven't seen before. If it says "orcs" or "elves" or "fairies" I put it down. I want stories about real people doing real stuff in a fantasy setting. I don't like big wars, unless it is focussed on the real lives of real people. I stay away from anything heavily masculine, like warriors or soldiers. I'm always looking for the human element. The real, true, emotions and motivations. I want insight.

 

[noob of the north]

The cover only matters a little to me. I avoid stuff with hunky half-naked guys on the cover since I'm not really a fantasy romance reader. I like steampunk, so that would draw me in a little bit extra though, heh. But other than that it's definitely the summary, the genre of fantasy and also the writing style. I flip open the book in the middle or somewhere to have a look at the text itself. I rarely go to the first page, knowing how that has been worked on like crazy for most books, but I wanna see if the writing style later on in the book is something that I would enjoy. I've found I'm really picky with that, so I need to see a paragraph or two before I pay money for it.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

I can be swayed by cover art or a known author name to read the blurb, but if I'm searching for something specific, the cover art doesn't matter much. If I like the blurb, I read the first few pages, generally skipping any prologues or other introductory material. If there is nothing available to be read past the introductory material, that's pretty much a 'no' for me. Otherwise, if I can handle the style and like the premise, have the money to spend, and think I might have the time to read, then I'll buy.

 

[Steerpike]

Cover, name recognition, reviews, word of mouth.

I don’t read the summary/blurb on the jacket.

 

[Russ]

The cover is important. It shows how highly the publishing house thinks of the work. The better the artwork, the more money they paid for it, which means the story must be of high quality as well.

I am not sure the above statement is entirely true.

My understanding is that most publishers now get their cover art from outside contractors or inhouse digital artists and the costs are not very different between the two.

My wife is with a big five publisher. She is a debut author, her cover was done by the same contractor who did the cover art for many NYT bestsellers at the same cost as their covers. As a point of interest in the first round of her cover development she was sent 18 different cover options to discuss and work with on development. Gotta love that.

For me, I am attracted by a good cover, and then the quotes and blurbs will close the deal for me. I have never spontaneously bought a book that did not have a really good blurb.

The data tells us that for spontaneous buys cover art, blurb and quotes are drives, all in that order, with not a huge drop off between blurb and quote.

You should see the stuff that a publisher will do to market test a cover for an important book. It really is impressive.

 

[Insolent Lad]

I probably should qualify my answer above by adding that I never go into physical bookstores, never pick up physical books and look at them. It's all online for me. Maybe that's why I'm not so wowed by a cover.