A question for you: should book covers be relevant?

It’s reasonable to expect that a book’s cover depict the contents of the book. So the answer must be “yes”.

That’s all there is to say. Thank you.

Only, marketing being marketing, that isn’t all there is to say. Not by a long chalk.

The book business stands alongside that of movies in its sophisticated use of cover art. In terms of some of the wider aspects of marketing it can often lag behind other businesses, but when it comes to packaging, books have it… covered (I’m sorry, I’m sorry).

The goal for a piece of cover art is to sell the contents. That means attracting attention so that you and I pick it up and read the back blurb which informs us this is the book for us. That could be done through an exciting précis or by splashing the names of other respected authors beneath favourable quotes. I’ve often wondered how well a book would sell if the back were actually the front, foregoing any pretence at illustration altogether.

Assuming, however, the illustration is in place, what should it depict? Should it be aiming to convey the plotline or should it be a scream, a scream that says “BUY ME”?

There is a lot to resist in the “buy me” approach, artistic integrity not least. One trick of this approach is to follow the best-sellers. My colleague, Carl (@firsthead) discussed this with me recently and observed that standing in one of the hyper-commercial supermarket book stores, one can divide the books up into their follow-me status. It’s like Amazon’s recommended approach. In one block of books you can see the repeated figure of a person walking away from the viewer – from this we know that if we liked Shadow of the Wind we will like this. Then there is a block of books with cathedral arches (gothic, naturally) for the Dan Brownites. Like Jodi Picoult? You’re in luck, the detail of the child’s shoe or partial face, washed in a nostalgic sun – that’s for you. And then of course there are the flat neon tones of the chick lit covers, a handbag, a lipstick, a pair of heels and the drunken typography that once heralded the Club 18-30 holidays and now toned down slightly for the modern fun-loving lady.

At once we are invited to judge the book by its cover. At once we decide whether to investigate further or dismiss entirely as being “for women” or for “light” readers. We are not, in other words, encouraged to look deeper and discover.

Publishers are of course just trying to sell books, in volume. And why wouldn’t they? It’s a business. Many writers these days understand the business of writing; the grit as well as the inspiration. These writers face the commercial truth of publishing. A writer must understand how to sell as well as how to write. Listening to them discuss the business side of writing is a revelation.

So why the surprise when it comes to a cover not reflecting the contents of the book?

One reason, of course, is honesty. In the 80s entire nations of videogamers were well used to routinely being lied to by advertisers. Claims that a game was life-like were, oddly enough, the more honest of ads, accompanied as they were by actual images of the 8×8 characters you were supposed to emote with. Far more common were beautifully painted covers promising worlds undreamt of. These were often supported by “in-game” images that were anything but.

All this didn’t seem to diminish the appetite for battling across new worlds  but book covers speak a different language and live by a different set of rules.

Books cannot be oversold through pictures of exotic slave aliens or sweeping vistas. Their visual power rests in the imagination of the reader who is far more able to understand and accept the “sizzle” of a well designed jacket.

Books can, however, be mis-sold in other ways. Make out that a treatise on 17th Century radicalism in French baking is like Harry Potter and readers may well be slightly miffed. Miffed enough not to be fooled twice even, perhaps, if the author does follow this with the perfect wizard book for all ages.

Another reason authors might not want their books hailed as the next Dan Brown is one of integrity.

Ok. Let’s skip over that one.

A book cover design must promote the author as original whilst showing readers it belongs to something they will feel comfortable reading. It should face down contradictions to be part of a genre and yet stand out in that genre.

So to the first question we asked: relevance? Only if it is relevant.

©2012 HEAD BLOG. All Rights Reserved.

Ah, youth.

Luckily that same seminar set me right on how complex a craft the writing of Mills & Boon literature is. Sure it channelled great writers such as Emily Bronte but it did so knowingly and with a very clear understanding of a target market. The execution is also carried out by writers who can, y’know, write. Properly. They are clever, talented authors who know how to structure a novel and deliver total entertainment to their readership.

And by strange coincidence, I just saw this article.

Mills & Boon is targetted, commercial writing.

And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Anyone browsing through Waterstones these days (or watching ITV2) can’t have escaped what seems to be a glut of book covers featuring pale men, blood red roses and even paler women. It’s a style designed to signal that if you enjoyed Twilight by Stephanie Myers then you’ll love anything else in the “range”. Vampire fiction is hot property.

Like Mills & Boon though, it’s not the only range on the block. YA (young adult) fiction has many ranges appealing to many different readers (with a great deal of crossover appeal too).

And like Mills & Boon, these books are targetted, commercial and created by very talented writers.

Which got me thinking about how this approach works when it comes to creating games. Which it doesn’t.

Unfortunately.

Otherwise we’d be seeing some interesting games right now that tapped into this demand.

Development schedules, a desire for “originality”, costs, procedures – the list of why not to react to the market can be endless.

But what if games could react? What if a team of developers decided that instead of chasing the latest technology they would release games based on a simpler model which could be turned around within six months and be more focussed on engaging existing or potential gamers in the worlds they want to be engaged in.

Imagine a game based on the Max Payne engine. It has the right sort of feel and functionality to be host for a Vampire game. Why can’t that be repurposed to allow for different characters and a different storyline every six months? I know the reasons why it isn’t. But what are the reasons why it can’t be?

A new development model allowing for  game creators to dovetail their skills with those of the productive YA author could be exciting. It could develop a market for YA games that isn’t based on what a hardcore, live with games every day of my life developer sees as quality but rather based on the interests and aspirations of a generation who might want different things from their gaming time.

And yes, Head First has plenty of ideas what those things might be

©2012 HEAD BLOG. All Rights Reserved.

A few nights ago I was reading a book to my son. This isn’t, in itself, unusual enough to write about but, after writing about how much I think the iPad will change the book buying market it did make me think more than usual about the process I was going through in reading the book.

Earlier that day I’d been discussing e-books with an author as we outlined plans to help him promote his first book. Creating eye-catching advertisements is a large part of what we do here at Head First and our experience in games has given us a pretty (I’ll resist saying unique) appropriate perspective in promoting certain types of products. As books increasingly vy for attention against games (which is intensifying in the face of the e-book) we all felt that our knowledge could be put to good use.

The upshot (after many preambles like that) is our discussion. We both agreed that e-books are here to stay but that print was where the real joy was.

As the wide format book opened in my hands that night I found myself enjoying its shape, weight and texture just as much as the marvellous writing. This, I thought, was what books were all about: the pleasure of the format and the joy of reading it outloud to someone too young to walk away. Every author desires a captive audience, every father no less so.

This, I felt, could never be lost. The amazing shapes (and sometimes sounds) built into the idea of a book are infinite. Wide books, tall books, flap books and pop-up books – all of these are part of teaching a child not so much to read but to feel; to engage in their tactile world. As enchanting as the words on the page are, as charming as the illustrations are, a book is so much more. How could an e-book ever threaten this?

They won’t. They will offer something different. As they mature, writers and artists will explore the format in the same way they have explored new printing process. New ideas will be born from the potential of e-books but the role of print will not disappear.

There are many migivings about the rise of digital books. Adjacent business models in games, music and even films offer glimpses of what could be around the corner and clues as to how to deal with the changes. Totalitarian regimes and corporate anti-trust cases should serve to remind us of the power and dangers of allowing a single entity to control a communication gateway and new threats will no doubt arise that must be dealt with from the perspective of what is beneficial to society rather than propitious for commerce.

We must never forget that a book isn’t solely the material from which it is made. The paper, the card, the vinyl or the silicon offers writers and artists a format to work in and explore but the ideas they invest in that format are altogether bigger.

©2012 HEAD BLOG. All Rights Reserved.

Amazon, once the pioneer in this market and the company who brought book buying into our homes, has taken the knock as many pioneers can: by being too focussed on a single business model. Books were their stock-in-trade and, surprisingly perhaps given their successful   expansion into the wider world of online retail, books is where they chose to stay.

Now, against the backlit elegance of the iPad, Amazon’s Kindle looks as dusty and old fashioned as the books it sought to replace. The lessons it has learnt and the markets it opened are there for all to see; especially brighter, more visionary companies like Apple.

Apple have just forced Amazon to concede its persistent and historic advantage, price. By switching places, by adopting the pricing freedom which Amazon once used to undermine that of iTunes, Apple have ensured the co-operation of the major publishers whilst starting off (before they’ve really even started) on the right foot, namely a profitable and sustainable pricing model. Apple want no loss-leaders of the sort which have hamstrung the likes of Microsoft, Sony and Amazon. The future path of publishing will, it seems, be found by avoiding the potholes of other content digitisation.

The not-so-secret cheers at the first signs of Apple’s success can be heard from newspaper offices to games programmers because, much as we all love the idea of free it’s not so great when you have something you have to sell.

Had Amazon understood that getting their over-the-air delivery model right would lead to people wanting more from the technology then perhaps they wouldn’t have been so eager to adopt the digital ink format that has limited their selling power to books. Think small may be a great maxim for makers of chips but Pandora’s box of online shopping was opened a long time ago and our expectations exceed current capabilities (seriously, where is my jetpack?). We don’t so much see capability as we do potential. So reading books=great, but I’d like to watch video, look up references and buy presents for the kids too.

The iPad (and whatever personalised devices come after) aren’t so much about whether you can work on them (one editor told me she would only buy one once she could edit on it, and I’m sure there will be an App for that) but how can spend our leisure time on it.

And so we come back to the e-book as the notion of leisure time ends where it started, with a good book in front of the fire.

Digital books will pay dividends for the casual market, not because the screen is easier on the eye (it isn’t) or because they are cheaper (they aren’t), but because they are convenient. Much as I might prefer the sensual feel of paper flicking across my thumb and much as I want to scream and rebel at the idea of Apple being the gatekeeper of our leisure time, restricting and dictating the content to fit with a single person’s idea of “brand values”, I can’t help but notice that I’m changing. I’m demanding more from my books even as I read them. Engrossed as I was in Late Night On Twisted River (John Irving, 2009) I found myself pausing at moments and reaching for Wikipedia just to probe the border between reality and imagination. Irving is a master of blurring this border and whilst I was happy to be carried along with bears and prostitutes I couldn’t help but wonder more about the man behind the deaths of so many beautiful, innocent children.

In short, I wanted more, not less from the experience of reading.

David Hewson recently posted a number of photographs on his blog. He also tweeted about them. The photographs were of the places he had researched for his latest novel (The Blue Demon, available now at Amazon). On his blog he demonstrates how he took them and also why.

At the back of her books, Jodi Picoult devotes a few pages to the book club concept. She poses a list of questions people might want to consider when discussing her book.

Chicken House point would-be readers of their books to a specific passage using the bold statement “Read it! Try page…”. It’s an expansion on the old marketing trick of relating a unique selling point to salespeople by which they can enthuse about a product. The marked passage encourages readers firstly  to pick up the book and then open it. If the passage is picked properly then that provides the last link in the chain that has us hooked.

We want more, not less, from our books. With e-books (or books, as I believe we will one day call them) this won’t change.

The challenge will be in ensuring the tipping point doesn’t send us all downhill.

©2012 HEAD BLOG. All Rights Reserved.