Poll

that is how I choose books! If i don't like it I can dich it later!

Yes, I would because that's just how I get a hold of new books that I may or may not like. But there are sometimes books that catch me off guard because sometimes I don't think too much on what the story is about or the cover could represent something entirely different that I wouldn't have thought of. So it's definitely like taking a chance in reading any book that could be interesting me. :)

I do all the time as well. That's how I find most of my books (well before I stumbled upon this site). If the cover looks interesting to me, I pick it up. Then I read the description. If it sounds interesting, it comes home with me haha. It's the books without interesting covers that I pick up after I hear something about them, usually.

I always choose my book based on the cover and title

My favorite book was one I decided to read based on the cover, I didn't even read the description..

It was 'the book thief' by Markus Zusak - and the decision was based on this cover of if:
http://s2.v2img.anobii.net/edition/01...

Yes, I bought most of my books like that.

If I'm buying a book, then I'll usually only do so after checking reviews or if it's an author I'm familiar with. Actually, If I'm not familiar with the author, then I'll only buy it if I hear lots of good things about it. I get most of my books from the library, though, so actually, my main method of picking books is to just grab a few off the shelf, and as long as the blurb doesn't seem to have anything I'll hate, I'll read it.

Cindy wrote: "I do it all the time!"

exactly! best way to find real gems!!

yes! the description is what the book is about, what else do you judge it by?????

Great survey. As a writer, this really brings the point home of how important the marketing aspects are to attract readers.

This is a little bizarre. I have a new release through Amazon Select and today when I came out of my yoga class i found a raging discussion regarding my cover...Whao!!! I tried to stay neutral after all, i okay the cover, heck, I love the cover. The book is Bosom Bodies, on my way to post it on my page.

i can't find the book on goodreads. what is the discussion called, ill stick up for u! :)

Jolie Rolie Polie :D wrote: "i can't find the book on goodreads. what is the discussion called, ill stick up for u! :)"

It is on my Facebook page, then the ugly part moved into private messaging. I love it, can make stuff like that up for marketing. I wasn't even involved, it all went on while I was at the gym, no phone. Trying to get the book posted on Goodreads right now. Thanks a bunch

Jolie Rolie Polie :D wrote: "i can't find the book on goodreads. what is the discussion called, ill stick up for u! :)"

Guess what? I finally got it posted on Goodreads. Well, it's very..purple.

what other choice do you have in a busy world? although ... i may be unique in having absolutely no problem putting a book down after page 1, page 20, page 200, etc. if i decide that i don't care what happens to those idiots... :)

:)

If the blurb sounds good, I will give it a shot. If it's a recent YA book, I have to pretty much go solely off the blurb, because the cover tells you nothing - the trend of trying to look like Twilight is a huge turnoff for me. The cover may catch my eye, but if the blurb sounds thoroughly unenjoyable, I walk away.

yeah, looooooooooooooooooove the Twilight cover! :)

I am often drawn by the cover artwork... I've found some amazing reads doing that,I really like work by new authors I have often found some fantastic reads that way too. I like friends to suggest books but I will only read if I like the look of the keywords.

I judge a book by its cover, I'm pretty shallow sometimes. But the description helps me screen further

:) that doesn't make you shallow. don't be hard on urself. :)

Jolie, I agree.

:)

If you only read books based on reviews...not only are you missing out, but you're looking at the world through a very one sided lens. There's so much to say about that, really.

exactly! people can post very negative comments about books, so if you're looking @ that, you're, as you say, missing out. :)

Lord Rose wrote: "If I'm buying a book, then I'll usually only do so after checking reviews or if it's an author I'm familiar with. Actually, If I'm not familiar with the author, then I'll only buy it if I hear lots..."

Make sense.

hey btw ... my second comment on this subject ... i don't even apparently need the description on the book cover as when i am paging thru the give-aways section, i can nearly eliminate what books i pause to read more about simply by the cover art ;) lol ... it's a big time saver for those who like the give-aways here at goodreads (a very cool aspect of membership here) :)

yes, that is very cool.

If it's a library book, of course. If I'm buying it, I prefer to read at least the first paragraph.

that's a very smart obsrevation.

i mean, "observation" :P

Ana wrote: "Of course. I love giving a chance to authors and titles I never heard of. That's how I've found many of my favorite titles!"

Hey Ana, I have a very purple cover on my latest release, the kindle download will be free on the 29th-30. Hope you try me. Thanks. Oh, it's Bosom Bodies

Maria ... i wonder if anyone's ever done a study on book cover color schemes and purchase likelihood ... purple would catch my eye definitely :)

See? So am I. However, the day the cover posted on my Facebook page a big nasty discussion ensued. As usual, I was doing yoga and found all the nasty postings after that blissful hour. It was all directed at the cover not at me, so I tried to calm the mood and prayed the attention increased the sale numbers.Let's see if I can post the cover here.

Cormac wrote: "Maria ... i wonder if anyone's ever done a study on book cover color schemes and purchase likelihood ... purple would catch my eye definitely :)"

Interesting point Maria… as a designer/photographer I can say it works the other way around when designing marketing material we often look at the current best seller list to search for inspiration, trends, imagery, typefaces and colours.
But with book covers to sell books possibly if not most importantly Icons giving an idea to what the book may be about, and provoking simple questions, such as what the relationship might be between picture and title is surely of major importance much more so than colour. Best Sellers with a charismatic cover, when channelled to the appropriate audience, must be in some way reflective in their achievement of the books popularity. But like all popular brands if the content does not delivery what is promised by the cover the brand will fail to influence any sales no matter how good it looks. Is it not true to say you can’t judge a book by its cover… so if the contents are excellent the book will sell regardless of its cover.
Whilst purple coloured books would be fabulous with all the promise of a box of chocolates it could be confusing at the bookshop.
Interesting would be if a bookstore placed a shelf of coloured books same size and collected data for which colour would be picked off the shelf first, I wonder if the results would be surprising? Put me down for Brunt Amber :)

Not saying they do but I could easily believe publishing house designers would participate in similar research whilst taking care not to breach any copyright laws.

A link to you may find interesting… http://www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=...

Wish I read your post before I hired the person for the cover. I had an idea of what I wanted, but in the end I had to settle some. This is my first self publishing adventure, my other books were with regular publishers and I never agreed much with the covers, somehow both my books ended up with a red car on the cover, one book is non-fiction, the other one suspense, go figure. I was not going to have any red care this time for sure. Thanks for the link.

I do this ALL OF THE TIME, ANYWAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, the book will be free from Kindle on 11/29 and 11/30 also 12/1, hope you get a copy and maybe give me a review?

This poll confuses me. Reading a book based on the description isn't taking a chance; that's... the normal way of choosing a book, I thought. Reading a book that has no description, now that's taking a chance - and I almost never do it.

exactly! that's what i don't get! :1

Isn't this what most people do...?

exactly! that's what you do when ur looking for a good book.

I've read a lot of terrific books based on the description. If the cover doesn't catch my eye then I won't bother.

I have always been deceived by the discription at the back cover. And most of the time, they turn out to be the opposite of what I thought at first.

This is 95% of the time why I pick a book up, I just wander my library and if I see something eye catching, I pick it up, inspect the cover, read the back, read the flap, and then if I've made it through all those steps and haven't put it down (which happens a lot) I'll check it out.

I do that all the time. I read the description, and the first couple pages. If it interest me, I read the whole thing.

None of the above. I prefer to look inside and flick through quite a few pages first, and yes, I am the sort of person who will read the last chapter whenever possible prior to making that momentous decision to read or not to read the whole book.

I said maybe if it sounds good. That’s pretty much what I do, and that’s what I used to do all the time before signing up on Goodreads. Goodreads lets me check out the book further with reviews/ect~

How else would you choose than by reading the description? The cover attracts my attention, then I read the blurb on the back, read the first few sentences of the book and then either take it or not. If a book does not have a description, I do not buy it. I want to know what it is about.
If I am at home, I will also check out reviews by others on goodreads or amazon, before making my decision.

Most definitely. I rarely do anything else!