How Are You Seduced Into Buying Books?

 

I have to admit to purchasing tons of books the last few weeks via my Ipad. Both on Kindle and the Nook. Since I have a few books coming out this year myself, I am a bit more critical when assessing what makes me buy. What are the first things that make me decide to pick up a book.

 

STEPS To FALLING IN LOVE WITH A BOOK

 

(1) My Genre - I find that the first place I search online or in a bookstore for what I want is in my favorite genres (I personally like YA, Romance, Scifi and Horror) and these are the sections I go to first when I'm looking for a book.

 

(2) The Cover - Oh come on, you and the cover connect, the stars align and you are in serious like. You pick up the book and that book baby is half way to sold.

 

(3) The Back Cover (or Book Description) - This is where you have to grab me, make me want this book over any other book in my hands. So don't hold back. (I'll discuss this more)

 

(4) Price - it's got to be priced right either for me to buy it outright or add as a backup read to other books that I favored more.

 

THE BACK COVER WHAMMY!

 

So you're in love with the genre, the cover and the price isn't bad. Many of books have been tossed aside because of the back cover blurb.

 

Remember that query letter you had to write where you grabbed the Lit Agent with your 2 sentence hook? Well I wished the people that wrote back-covers or book descriptions did that more. I seriously think that publishers could use the query letter from the author to enhance the back covers / descriptions I've read lately.

 

(1) Grab reader in first 2 sentences

(2) Don't hold back juicy parts of the book - they may be the parts that the reader is attracted to. (Like: in my coming book Purgatory Reign - I wanted to hold back the fact that Angel (one of the characters) was really a girl. But if I didn't put that in the back cover blurb then the reader wouldn't know that there was a girl in the book that becomes a love interest.

(3) Give Some Away, but not all away - this is the hard part, figuring out what to tease the reader with but not give it all away.

(4) Make sure key elements for the genre are delivered. (If your book is a romance - make sure you make it appear like one on the book description, if its a horror - make sure it shows that. Know your market and the buzz words for it.)

 

SO WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A BACK COVER?