Market Research
As I have been exploring the question “Who are you like?” this month, I’ve also been exploring what other books in my genres look like. This is sometimes gratifying on the base level of my fonts are so much better than yours and also sometimes mystifying on the level 
of why are there so many bared midriffs in contemporary fantasy? On the topic of midriffs, and purely for example’s sake, I’ll put the cover of Shifting Jock in Love here. The cover is obviously… uh… fully functional, because I can’t stop staring at the uh… weight lifting bar. Now that we’ve covered that topic (no, we haven’t covered anything?), let me move on to my point.
Market research, which is what I call shopping and (gently) making fun of book covers over a glass of wine, is important. It’s hard to review my own book cover submissions if I don’t know what the trends are. Not that trends should inform every decision, but I like to know how far out of the current I’m swimming. In addition to finding the occasional good idea that I could be copying, I also find really interesting authors. Research shows that most people buy books based on word of mouth, but in this online age, that can’t ALWAYS be true. From Facebook to google ads, to the wonders of Amazon, we get a lot of recommendations about authors and books online. And without a person to ask, readers are stuck trying to answer “so who are they like” question based on the marketing surrounding the book. But as we all learned in grade school, you can’t always judge a book by it’s cover.
One great resource I’ve found in my wading around the internet is a great website – www.literature-map.com Simply type in an author you like and it will produce of an animated cloud of similar authors aka a handy new To Be Read list. And you can click on the question mark in the corner if you want to add authors to the database to improve results. And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go enjoy a little more market research and a Riesling.
Originally published on 8/24/16 at the Stiletto Gang
