Am I....

[LordMagicMan]

The only one that wont buy a book if the Authors name is bigger then the title?

 

[RudeNastyAssBitch]

Yes.

 

[morninggirl5]

I buy lots of books with the author's name larger than the title. It's a very simple method of attracting customers who may like a particular author but not know the title of the book.

There are four books I'm looking for now and I have no idea what the title of the books are. I do know the author's name for each and approximate street dates because I always buy these authors' books.

 

[Weird Harold]

The only one that wont buy a book if the Authors name is bigger then the title?

It depends on who the author is and how long I've ben waiting for the book.

What turns me off buying a book is when there are more citations from spurious people than there is brief description on the fly of the book cover (or back of a paperback.)

 

[LordMagicMan]

I ment if you went to a book store with no idea what to buy ... and you saw a Steven King book where his name is in big silver letters and the title of the book is in small black letters on a dark black background would you buy it... seems to me that they are selling the author, not the book.

 

[morninggirl5]

They are.

No, I wouldn't buy a Stephen King book, because I don't read mysteries or horror books.

Some authors when they get to the point that their name is bigger than the title do begin writing less and their work suffers. I avoid them thereafter. Other maintain the same quality and I continue to buy their books. Covers mean nothing.

 

[lovetoread]

I ment if you went to a book store with no idea what to buy ... and you saw a Steven King book where his name is in big silver letters and the title of the book is in small black letters on a dark black background would you buy it... seems to me that they are selling the author, not the book.

Personally,I dont pay attention to what is on the covers once the book is in my hand. When I am in the bookstore,I just walk up and down the aisles,picking up books and reading the first few pages. If I am not sucked into the book by those few pages,I dont buy the book.


I would buy that book,only for the fact that the author would be the reason I wanted it. I love Stephen King,although his books lately have been really bad.

On the other hand,I read romances,and lets face it,titles for those mean nothing as far as what the book is about, so I do go for the authors names.

 

[Weird Harold]

...you saw a Steven King book where his name is in big silver letters and the title of the book is in small black letters on a dark black background would you buy it... seems to me that they are selling the author, not the book.

To a certain extent, they are selling the author's name. In another sense, they're making the author's books easier to find for his fans.

I wouldn't buy a book with Steven King's name on it unless it was in fine print so small I never spotted it.

Now Anne McCaffrey, David Webber, Lois McMasters Bujold, and several other authors I like are an entirely different story -- I'll pick those books up and look to see if I've already got a copy of the stories it contains. Often complilations and reissues have the author's name in larger type than the title. The most recent book by Lois McMasters Bujold is a good example -- It combines three titles in a series I'm collecting that I've arleady got in single volumes (first PB printings.)

I've got several series where the author's name is larger than the titles on the editions I own on every volume -- Mercedes Lackey and Dennis McKiernan are two that stand out on the bookshelf. I'll buy each new addition to those series when they come out regardless of the type faces on the cover.

To me, it's the content not the marketing that matters most.