Until the never-ending drought and the Napa earthquake debacle in California, the American wine industry has been booming. Micro-wineries have been opened across the country; wine and beer go hand-in-hand in popularity. There's only one hiccup: the regular consumer unfamiliar with varietals, aroma, piquancy, etc. can get overwhelmed by the selections. The industry's answer? Create eye-catching labels. That's right. Who needs to know anything about wine. You can go to the discount section, see a label with a bared leg, bright yellow design or colorful geometric pattern. . .Cheers! A votre sante!
Interesting that for wine, Chateau Mouton Rothschild, for example, decorative, one-of-a-kind labels have been around before the current trend took hold. Beginning in 1945, Picasso, Matisse and other famous painters designed labels exclusively for the Chateau.Nothing new, except that the labels arguably matched the quality. Early marketing experts foresaw what others had learned later. The eye is mightier than the mind.
No one can agree on which wines they like, palettes differ after all, and when it comes to popular reading, the divide is growing. We expect promotional eye-candy in the entertainment/publishing industries--glossy magazines, action/adventure movies, and airport book stands, but when did the superficial almost completely replace the substantial? It used to be that fiction mass-market sales centered on Favio and those torrid romance novels that people secretly read under the sheets or pulp fiction.
Today, sex not only sells it has become the standard-bearer for stories produced by the major publishers. (I'm not prudish, loved some works by Erica Jung and Anais Nin, though they could write!) Content, Fifty Shades of Grey, aside, covers, thousands of them, have no imagination, and isn't that what fiction should have? Instead, a complete turn-around has occurred as a glossy, eye-popping cover supersedes a well-told story. More so, the jacket synopsis has to be as enticing as the forbidden apple. Naysayers will argue that great fiction rises above the rest. Sometimes, that's true, as with Girl with Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (clever, non-glossy, Vermeer cover, by the way) or Toni Morrison's Beloved.
These stories are rare exceptions, however, that don't follow formulas now expected by readers, even along genre lines. Mysteries: author must have death in first chapter. Romances: hero/heroine must be so attractive that Hollywood will option the rights and already have casting in place. Action/crime: hero, still few heroines here, makes cameo appearance during an elaborately staged scene that often involves stalking, skulking and a grisly murder, providing a perfect set-up for a film trailer. Then there is fantasy. I may not be a huge fan of Stephenie Meyer's books but those covers are brilliant. Most are not. One more blood trickling, glossy vampire/zombie/werewolf novel jacket. . .I'd write I'd begin a protest, but there are too many causes out there, and not all have merit.
I'll admit I'm a self-published author who made her share of mistakes (since CORRECTED) with her first book. I capitalized "corrected" because I had a few readers go nuts over a mistake, Spellcheck-driven, with a non-fiction name in the story. We, who believe in our talent and have been told as such, that dare to produce our own books have been vilified among the publishing establishment. I won't report the multiple typos and blatant mistakes I've found in well-established periodicals or books produced by once revered publishers. There are newspapers, magazines here on Cape Cod that won't review or let their reporters do a story about self-published writers, even though one of the most beloved writers at the moment, Lisa Genova, originally self-published Still Alice, which was then picked up by a publishing house. Those same media folks mention Genova regularly.
The only reviewers who will consider a self-published book charge as much as $500 if not more (Kirkus Reviews, Publisher's Weekly being prominent examples). Along with these practices, emphasis on having a gorgeous cover that captures the reader's attention is a must. In my case, I've often been complimented on my choice, though I've had marketers/authors write me suggesting a snazzier design.
The worst custom I've observed in promotions is prize giveaways. Writing as a struggling author with no means to provide this option--who can compete with "If you buy her/his book, you will be eligible to win a free trip to. . ." or "Buy this book and you will receive a tote bag!, the cover design embossed on the canvas. And even more infuriating, certain "funding" sites say you will receive more money from donors if you offer substantial rewards. Don't these websites realize that people are raising funds because they don't have any?
Finally, I won't condemn spin-doctoring jacket synopses (unless they're deceptive), video plugging or those who have the means to buy ads. That's Marketing 101 and I get it. I've done publicity, for not-for-profits. I'm familiar with the drill. It's a competitive world with a huge market share of readers. However, where have all the book-lovers gone who used to read a story because it had an original idea, thought-provoking writing or just a good story? Karen Blixen, a.k.a.,Isak Dinesen, of Out of Africa fame (younger readers, look her up), said: “I start with a tingle, a kind of feeling of the story I will write. Then come the characters, and they take over, they make the story.”
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