Horror's Greatest Hits

When Book Marketing Betrays the Reader


So, no. This isn’t really a new release at all. It’s barely a new format. Coincidentally enough, our topic at the SFF Seven this week is marketing suckering readers into reading a genre they don’t enjoy. Come on over to read more!

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Published on May 05, 2019 09:52
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message 1: by Kimberly (last edited May 06, 2019 11:58AM) (new)
May 06, 2019 11:57AM

Kimberly Love this post. Bang on. Another book that suckered me was "Little Bee" by Chris Cleeve. The cover was darling with fanciful, swirly type. The back cover read: "We don't want to tell you what happens in this book. It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it. Nevertheless, you need to know enough to buy it, so we will just say this: This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice, the kind of choice we hope you never have to face. Two years later, they meet again--the story starts there... Once you have read it, you'll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens. The magic is in how the story unfolds."
Sounds charming, right? It wasn't. The reason the packager went in this direction is because the original title was, "The Other Hand." The woman goes on vacation and loses her hand in a harrowing incident. The book was heavy and not at all what the cover/copy depicted. I always thought that the person who developed this package was genius even though it was quite misleading. BTW: the back cover copy on reprint was modified to reveal more about the content of the book. Little Bee


message 2: by Jeffe (new)
May 06, 2019 03:53PM

Jeffe Kennedy Oh wow - that really IS egregious. You're right: super clever book packaging, but then not good for the long term reputation of the author.


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