Clever Experiment Proves We Do Judge Books by Their Covers

“Entitled The Diamond Club, the book was completely written by the Internet, it was a “rambling incoherent mess”, but it did have three things going for it:


A Fifty Shade of Grey-inspired cover

• characters with trendy jobs (cupcake artist, blogger, etc.)

• lots and lots of sex


Are these things enough to turn a book into a best-seller? Yes, they are. The Diamond Club managed to climb to #4 on the iTunes chart, despite all the 1-star reviews from people who actually read it, just because it resembled every other book on there… This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. In 1969, 24 journalists put together Naked Came the Stranger, a novel full of sex, an incoherent plot, bad writing, meaningless dialogue and more sex, just to prove how low the American literary culture had sunk. It also became a best-seller.”


Read more: OddityCentral.com


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Published on October 05, 2012 13:51
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message 1: by M.H. (new)

M.H. Vesseur I believe that the incredible ease of buying something in iTunes is partly responsible for this phenomenon. People have started downloading a book before they've had time to think it over. And second to that comes the immediate availability: they don't have to wait. This phenomenon of superior impulsive buying, combined with lower and lower pricing and clever cover art, will ravage a lot of people's minds and wallets for some time to come.


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