Spying On The Consumer
© 2003, Wendy Webb

      I don't wear a trench coat with epaulets, dark glasses at night, or mumble into a hand held microphone in public places, although I dated a guy that did. But that's a different story. What I do is spy on the book buying consumer. And ask a lot of questions.
      Why? Writer's self defense and for the purpose of obtaining a little, admittedly subjective, information.
      Our books and stories are carefully packaged by publishers to entice consumers into opening their wallets to take that little tome home. The consumer, on the other hand, is faced with a choice of hundreds of titles usually presented spine out where all they see is the title and the author's name. This means the reader seeks a "name" they already know, or must make an effort to pull the unknown book out and study it further. One can only hope that your book is at hip height or higher. Stooping is an additional effort.
      Enter genre books.
      Genre books offer the consumer a kinder, gentler way of identifying the type book they're looking for. These books are clumped together in a specific section, and their titles and graphics reflect a packaging approach adopted by publishers as a way of cluing the reader to the text. You can spot the horror section by the sea of black covers all the way across the store. Ditto romance by the shades of pink, and poetry by white and pale yellow. Am I making generalizations? Perhaps. Could this system backfire? Yes.
      Enter the spy game.
      My own interest in Gothics and supernatural fiction made me take a hard look at that black-cover section of the bookstore. It seems the publishers are doing the same thing and are taking "horror" off the spine of many books that would otherwise have disappeared into that black hole, so to speak. So I watched who came to that section and who didn't, and waited, and watched some more, then questioned.
      The spy game started with chain bookstores and specialty stores, then found itself in the aisles of grocery stores. Assuming the reader was not actively looking for a "name," the routine went like this: scan the cover (2 seconds), flip to the back cover (2-10 seconds) and either the book was returned to the shelf, or there was a cursory glance to the type inside and then the book was returned. Occasionally the book was tucked under the arm for purchase, or tossed in among the produce and frozen foods for same. This is what some would call "impulse buying." This system backfires, however, when a cover or copy or genre doesn't accurately reflect the story and the sale is lost.
      Now comes the questioning part. After covertly watching potential readers while feigning interest in new age dog food, or recycled giftwrap and bookmarks, I started asking questions. Keep in mind my slant toward quiet supernatural. So what did I find.

1. That asking questions will get you raised eyebrows but not arrested.

2. Most consumers of books were women in their early thirties through fifties.

3. Some buyers compare the price of the book with the number of page it contains. A longer work was a better investment.

4. The cover is nice, an initial grabber, but the copy on the back was more of a pitch. Did the story sound like something they would consider trading for a night of Doogie Howser or Monday night football? And was it a story they could keep track of if they could only read one chapter a night?

5. Was it pleasure home reading, or something to take on vacation? There's a difference.

6. Some genre books were carefully avoided. For instance, some women readers I talked to love contemporary, supernatural fiction, but passed over those black covers like old leftovers. They drifted over to mystery/suspense for their supernatural fix.

7. The characters had to be real, believable in their circumstances, and someone the reader could sympathize with and relate to.

8. An unknown writer had one shot. That is, if the consumer took the plunge and bought the book, and then was disappointed in the book, they wouldn't buy another one by the same writer. Why? The answers were always the same. The cover or copy had nothing to do with the story and misled the reader, the characters didn't ring true and believable to the reader, there was too much violence/gore/sex. On the other hand, if the reader liked the work, they would try to find additional books by that author.

9. Many authors were "discovered" by a single book purchase that was passed around among a group of friends, so the first purchase of a writer was not necessarily a cold find. Not that they became a "name" either, but something on the cover (title from a past book, similar theme) jogged something lose in the reader's memory.

10. Specialty stores obviously culled down the choices, but still left the rambling reader at a loss. This is where the recommendations/opinions of the owner or cashier swayed a potential sale.

      This is just a quick overview of general findings. No mainframe data, no CPAs with little white envelopes, no Arbitron ratings. But it makes you think. And watch. And maybe, it makes you want a trench coat with epaulets.