Thinking About Images for Books and Ads

[wyld_dandelyon]

I’ve lately been frustrated by an odd thing. I see a (Facebook) ad for a book, and the image on the ad is intriguing. It might be a strange fantasy boat, or a character in unusual clothing doing something uniquely magical, or in a weird and lovely garden—whatever it is is unique and riveting. Then I click on the ad and go look at the book, and find that the book has a very generic cover for the genre it’s in. Generic enough that I find it boring.

The image that caught my attention, that made me want to check out the book, is not only nowhere to be found, but the style of the cover is nothing like it. To me, the images look like they belong to not only different stories, but to completely different kinds of story.

And I find myself immediately feeling very disappointed and also less interested in reading the book.

As a writer, I guess I can appreciate that the picture in the ad did what it was supposed to do—catch my attention and get me to click through to where I could buy the book—except that the let-down of seeing a cover that’s nothing like the ad usually leads to me not buying the book.

Now, for the purpose of convincing FB to show me ads for books instead of ads for stuff I'm less interested in, a click-through is a click-through. But for the purpose of actually finding the kind of magical books I want to read this is just not working for me.

I’m wondering if other people have the same or similar experience.

Is this one of those things where my brain just doesn’t work like most people’s? It is the me-as-artist wanting something that is unreasonable to expect? On the other hand, is the “prevailing wisdom” about what types of images to use in ads and covers missing some significant part of the readership? Or …?

As a reader, I find this frustrating, but as a writer I’m curious!

Comments

[pyraxis]

Hm, I don't use Facebook so I haven't seen book ads there, but I do get turned off by bad covers. I'd almost never buy a book with an amateur cover, unless it had really strong personal recommendations, because I'd assume that the story would be just as amateur.

Not sure why a writer would have compelling looking ads if they didn't have a cover to match, since both would require hiring a graphic designer.

Or maybe there are cover trends I'm not familiar with, that aren't to your taste personally?

[wyld_dandelyon]

Well, the most recent one, the ad had an image of what I might think of as an elven boat, all silvery and leaf shaped, delicate and pretty, in a fog or mist. The book cover was one of those young woman witch images, in bold colors, with a busy background.

The cover might have been a pre-made cover, bought to signify the genre more than anything else. The other image? Who knows where the author (or her publisher, if she wasn't her own publisher) got it?

The facebook ads typically have text and a photo, there are usually no words on the image unless it's a picture of the book itself.

[kelkyag]

Having a generic genre book cover and more specific, narrowly targeted ads is likely about getting more people to click through and actually consider the book. This person gets the politics ad, that person gets the misty magic ad, that other person gets the bodice-ripper ad, all three aspects actually appear in the book, and the book cover is a relatively mundane portrait of the main character with perhaps some symbolic references to the content of the book. Slicing and dicing the market sells more advertising art, which might be a feature?

[wyld_dandelyon]

Maybe. That probably is the theory. It certainly didn't work on me.

[kelkyag]

The sellers of highly specialized advertising slots have to claim they're good for something. I'm dubious. Also I gather that measuring the effectiveness of advertising is not so easy.