Saturday 21 October 2017

Not a Love Story...

Would you? Image from Blind Date With a Book
 Blind Date With a Book 
My husband is not a man for a blind date, of any kind, but even he was tempted but the latest book marketing ploy. It’s a blind date with a book. 

I don’t know whose idea it was, but it’s a cracker. A book sitting on a supermarket shelf, wrapped in brown paper and tied with string, tempting you with just five phrases. And he bought into it. ‘Shall I?’ he asked, turning the top one over in his hands and dropping it in the basket without waiting for the reply. 

Sold, in just seven words. Inheritance. Romanovs. Secret diary. Revolution. Love lost.

I won’t say the excitement was mounting as we drove home. That would be a little bit of an overstatement. But when we’d unpacked the shopping and he’d picked up his little treasure and untied the string, I was hovering at his shoulder to see what he’d brought home. 

If it had been a real blind date, it would have been an unmitigated disaster. He’d have hung on out of politeness and endured a terrible evening, leaving the restaurant vowing never to date again . He’s a reader of suspense and history. He loves Nordic noir and Robert Harris, historical detective stories set in Berlin and in the alternative history of Western Europe. What he got was touted itself as perfect for readers of Kate Morton when he’d have preferred something for readers of Philip Kerr. 

The book in question is Gill Paul’s The Secret Wife. Neither of us had heard of it before and it looks, in fairness, a very good book. It has rave reviews. But it isn’t the book for him, nor even for me. 

What went wrong? I think if you’re going to sell a book in a poke, you really have to get the description right — and the missing thing is the genre. Okay, you can say that ‘love lost’ suggests a romance, but does it? He didn’t think so and neither do I, and in fact I don’t know that the description really helps very much. 

The concept might work a little better if the genre is clear, and it might not matter if you’re someone who enjoys reading outside your comfort zone or whose comfort zone is admirably broad. But for me there’s no substitute for browsing before you buy. The Silent Wife is sitting on a side table in the living room, waiting for me to get fed up and read it so that the money wasn’t wasted. maybe I’ll enjoy it, maybe not. 

I'd try this kind of blind-dating myself, I think, and I'd recommend it to an adventurous reader. But I'd pay more attention to the five key phrases. 

Would you? 

10 comments:

  1. I have never heard of this. I think I am too tight with my money to take the chance on buying a wrapped book. :D

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  2. I'm reserving judgment until I've read it. Perhaps it would work better if it was a bit cheaper, and reduced the risk?

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  3. Interesting experience Jennifer. I have heard of this and not been keen, possibly because I'm not someone who likes to read outside my comfort zone. I wonder if this counts as a success because the book was purchased, or a failure because it wasn't read (and another by that author unlikely to be bought)?

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    1. I'd say a failure. I don't know if I'd buy another one, and my husband certainly wouldn't. So it's short-term gain, really. But you never know. I might love the book.

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  4. Okay, while I agree with Jennifer and the previous comments to a degree, I actually think the clues were all there for the kind of book it turned out to be. Inheritance. Romanovs. Secret diary. Revolution. Love lost. All ingredients found in current women's contemporary fiction in both romantic and historical genres. Also, another clue would have been - where was it placed on the supermarket's shelves? As a marketing ploy it has certain drawbacks, the biggest one for me being the price, few people are likely to want to buy 'sight unseen'. Aside from all that I wonder why this particular book was chosen by Avon for that promotion - looking at the reviews etc it has sold well previously. Interesting.











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    1. Good points - and I do see that, but with hindsight. Romanovs and Revolution were the catches, but I would argue that Inheritance and secret diary point to mystery. So who knows?
      I would love to know what lies behind the marketing.

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  5. When I read your descriptions of the teasers for The Secret Wife, Jennifer, I thought it sounded exactly like my kind of read, so I went to Amazon to find out more (so far, so mystery marketing working well), only to discover I already own The Secret Wife by Gill Paul on Kindle! : ) Thanks for the reminder. If you really feel it's not your kind of read, might it make a nice gift for someone?

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    1. I think I probably will pass it on. But you never know - i might just find myself in the mood for it!

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  6. Oh my goodness! I don't know that I'd be brave enough to buy a book if I couldn't see its cover or read the blurb on the back. I mean, in theory, those words should really have sold it and said everything but for you and your husband they didn't. A blind date with a difference..... hmmm, story coming on here!

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    1. Ha ha! Yes, what a brilliant thought!
      It must work for some people. I think it might work if you were discounting books - perhaps that would give a reader more incentive to try it, but at full price...not so sure.

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