Cover designers may loathe this type of activity, but Bantam is doing what Wiley did some months back on our blogs and asking the public to choose a new cover for their upcoming book Super Crunchers. Publishers are doing this as a way to quickly engage readers and buyers (I saw an ad for this on Shelf Awareness) and generally it does work. I’d hate to think of someone NOT buying the book because his or her favorite cover wasn’t picked, but hopefully customers will still feel attachment to the title. Me, I’m voting for red, because I’ve seen too many white cover business books fading out on the shelves, and want to declare that trend over.
May 13, 2008
May 13, 2008 at 11:43 am
Ellen, are there any effective ways to thank voters in the final book? I’m just wondering how practical it might be to list all the participants on the inside covers, for example. Yes, that could be a really long list, but remember that book Microsoft published several years ago? It had the names of all the current employees on the inside covers. Sure, you needed a magnifying glass to find yours, but still, it was a cool idea and I’m sure quite a few people spent a lot of time looking…
May 13, 2008 at 12:07 pm
How cool is that! I want that book!
May 13, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Joe, assuming there is no great added cost to print on the inside front covers (as opposed to adding extra pages - always considering EBITA, big guy) that would be a cool thing to do. You could also use a web site to thank folks, but I think print is a cooler thing.
PVE - I’ll check around BookExpo later this month and see if I can snag a galley copy for you.