Day 2 of Armchair BEA is all about the surface of things…books and blogs. You know those friends of yours who can effortlessly put together an outfit or decorate a room? They just instinctively know what colors, patterns, and textures look great together…they have “the eye.” Let me just say that I’m decidedly not one of those people. So, today’s topic is a tricky one for me.
The Books
I can confidently say that I’ve never read a book solely because I loved its cover, which probably isn’t that surprising aftre reading the first paragraph of this post. Covers just don’t really matter that much to me…maybe because I read 100% electronically. That being said, covers are a good way for me to quickly decide not to read a certain book. For example, I’m not a fan of romance or fantasy and covers for those genres tend to have an easily recognizable style, like these…
Covers also help me determine whether a book is likely to be considered light reading or might take more concentration. Take these two books for example…
The Blogs
I redesigned my blog (with the help of an awesome blog designer who is unfortunately no longer designing blogs) about a year and a half ago, which really forced me to think through my branding. Here are the key points I decided on:
- Sarah’s Book Shelves is a blog by a reader for readers. I’m not writing for authors, publishers, or other bloggers (well, with the exception of occasional posts like this one) and I have no background in writing or publishing. My sole goal is to help readers find their next great book…and save them time by sharing some books to avoid as well.
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I wanted my blog to look clean, modern, bright and clutter-free. I didn’t want it to be overly feminine because I do have some features (Books for Guys, Sports Books List) intended to appeal to male readers and I didn’t want to turn them off.
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I wanted the colors and feel to invoke honesty and forthrightness with a bit of irreverence. I’m not afraid to post critical reviews and tend to get a little snarky sometimes…while trying to remain as respectful as possible. So, I went with dark blues (apparently blue is the color of honesty/trustworthiness) and greens and a header graphic that is traditional…but with a twist.
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My review format has changed over time. When I first started the blog, I wanted to keep my “reviews” to just a few sentences, as I thought many reviews were just so long. But, my reviews eventually got longer and longer….oops! In an effort to get back to my roots, I started posting more mini reviews and changed my full review format to an easily scannable bullet style (example). I realized I always scan other people’s reviews, so why shouldn’t I make it easier for them to scan mine?
How do you feel about book covers? Do they influence you book selection? And, how do you think about branding for your blog?
My reviews started short and have gotten longer over time, too. I’m trying to get back to the knitty gritty of a book, but it’s hard sometimes. Confession: I had plans to armchair BEA this year and totally blew that one. *sigh* Maybe next time seems to be my mantra lately.
It is hard! And I blew Armchair BEA after the first 2 days. The topics after that didn’t really spark many words in my mind 🙁
Your cover examples made me laugh. Could hardly be more obvious, could they?
Seriously, cover designs can be really powerful. I think we’re in a golden age of cover design – sometimes I’m blown away by the creativity I see within the really severely limited constraints of that format.
And blog design is really important to me too; I agree so heartily with all of your points. Call me superficial, but sometimes I’ll follow a blog more because the look resonates with me than because we read the same kind of books.
Haha – I did pick obvious ones!
I’m not sure I’d follow a blog solely based on its design, but I’ll sure NOT follow a blog if it’s so cluttered my eyes hurt every time I go there!
I agree with you so much on design–I mostly blog about sci-fi/fantasy, which are stereotypically guy books, so I don’t want to drive away audiences with a super feminine theme. I think you struck a really nice balance!
I tend to be attracted to covers, but ultimately what determines if I am interested or not in the book is the blurb.
I too tend to have some reviews that are more guys orientated. My blog’s look has changed over the years, but I try to stick to the color palettes I like rather than make them attractive to both sexes.
Great point about the covers. I definitely use them as a way to narrow the field. I also started writing shorter reviews (categorized as “accent”) to help curb some of the length.
http://mwgerard.com/armchair-bea-16-aesthetic-concerns-in-books-and-blogs/
Oh, and I really dig your design, and the layout you used in your example post.
I solved the review thing, but not writing them! But seriously it is tricky. If I haven’t read a book yet, I am more interested in a sound byte. After I’ve read a book, I might go back to reviews to help me parse my reaction.
I love your blog design! It’s clean and fresh. Easy to read and to navigate. 🙂
I like wordy reviews but a mixture of wordy ones and simpler ones is a good plan. 🙂 Or meeting somewhere in the middle. Sort of a bullet section at the top and the wordier part underneath?
See you around ABEA! 🙂
I love book covers! But, I don’t choose books based on them. However I *am* very happy when I find a terrific book that also has a terrific cover. Like you, I tend to stay away from ones with covers like you showed above (romance, fantasy).
As for my blog design – ugh. My blog looks exactly the way it looked when I started over 2 years ago. At first I just wanted it to be simple and to reflect the ‘ink’ I am consumed by (ha!). So it’s very black and white. I do still like it, but maybe now I am just attached to it. Also, I don’t really have the time to figure out a new layout. Maybe someday…
I love both your design and review style! I use bullet form for some of my reviews, but others I find it easier to just write. It depends on the book and what I have to say about it and how easy it is to say it.
I agree with you about book covers. Your blog design is terrific. I’ve changed my design a lot. I think I am slowing down on that now though. It helps to know your direction and purpose for blogging. I try to keep mine blog clean and easy to read too.
Thank you! I do think it helps to have a “where am I going with this?” discussion with yourself every now and then.
What a great post, Sarah! I feel like you are an EXCELLENT matchmaker between people and book possibilities; when people ask me for a recommendation, I often send them to your website – ha! You do this so well. I have been known to judge a book by its cover; I can think of plenty of examples of times when I’ve selected (or at least researched further) books because of their covers and, conversely, turned books away due to a cover that was not appealing.
Thank you! I’d really love matching people with books to be my fulltime job and to get paid really well for it! I mean, I can dream a little bit, right?
I am a sucker for a good looking book cover. I don’t care what anyone says, we live in a visual world and a book cover that is eye-catching or eye-pleaseing will always be important to me.
Haha – so true that we live in a visual world!
Great post. Getting inside a book blogger’s head is always interesting to me. My only beef with book covers is when the marketing/designer people are obviously going for a certain audience who they think will buy the book. And when the blurbs are by authors I love, I pay attention. When they are by authors I don’t enjoy, I usually steer clear, though then I read reviews and check out what my favorite bloggers have to say. I suppose I need to update my blog design, but like someone said, it takes all the time I have just to keep up with posting my reviews. My mantra lately in life is “You don’t have to do everything, everyday.” Ha Ha.
For me, what my favorite bloggers have to say is far more important than a book’s cover.
I like your blogging mission statement: for readers. I try to blog by that rule too.
I’ve done bullet reviews a few times. I should do more of them
Thank you!
The cover is one factor I weigh when choosing a book, but it isn’t a particularly weighty consideration. That said, the book I’m reading now is on my kindle solely because I liked the cover (Apparently, I’m a sucker for cups of tea on book covers).
Haha – let me know how it turns out!
I love the way your blog looks! It’s got such a clean design. And your reviews are excellent, the way you format them is so easy to read.
Thanks so much!
I meant to say this yesterday, but I love how your blog coordinates with the Armchair BEA badge. I feel as if you planned it that way. 🙂
I hadn’t thought about covers for genres I typically don’t read, but you’re right about that. My love of covers is certainly targeted to my preferred genres.
I didn’t get the chance to write about my blog, but I had mine designed six or seven years ago. I updated it four or five years ago to add the headphones because my love of audiobooks became a huge focus of mine. Otherwise I’ve left it alone. I still really like it. It’s a part of who I am. Someday I’ll probably need to spruce it up, but I cross that bridge then.
I like your bulleted review. You make a good point about skimming. If I’ve not read a book, I skim the review to try to get to the read or not read decision. My reviews have typically been three to four paragraphs, but I’d gotten to the point where I almost stopped blogging because I just couldn’t do it anymore. Litsy helped me with that because I couldn’t write more than 300 characters at a time. It got my reviewing juices going again. After seeing what you’ve done for your reviews, I think it’s time for me to get creative and seriously make some changes to my format.
Haha – thank you and that’s definitely a coincidence!
Wow – your design is fantastic…especially for being done 7 yrs ago! It must have been super cutting edge back then!
And – I’m so curious about Litsy! I tried to download it, but needed to upgrade my operating system and didn’t have enough space on my phone to do that. I think I’d love to browse, but I read almost entirely electronically, so it’s hard for me to maintain a social media account based on pictures. I’m terrible at Instagram too.
Like you, I wanted a gender-neutral theme because my readership is pretty split along gender lines (most of the time), so I hear you on that one! I don’t know what I would do without premade themes with custom options – I change my mind so much I can’t imagine building one of my own!
Oh, you know I didn’t build mine! I brought in a professional! I don’t even know enough about what I’m doing to attempt a premade theme with customizations on my own!
My attitude towards covers is similar to yours. I use them to judge tone and I tend to avoid books with genre-specific covers in fantasy, romance, and science-fiction. I have to admit that I get a little disappointed when I see an AMAZING cover, but I am not interested in the content at all!
I love the style of your blog! It is so organized and easy-to-read. Great point about the scanning. My reviews have gotten longer over time too. I start out with a list of about 10 words/short phrases and somehow those morph into five paragraph monstrosities! 😀 They’ll be fun to look back on later, but I would like to work on brevity!
Thank you! And it’s so hard to keep things brief, but feel like you’re doing the book justice! Cheers to attempts at brevity!
Heh. My house is decidedly not decorated and I have a terrible time pulling together outfits. I guess maybe that’s why I struggle so much with the blog! I’ve JUST started trying to use the same fonts and color schemes but I really admire bloggers who can pull everything together so cohesively! I also wish I knew more about coding (and had the time/energy to learn).
I never thought about looking at book covers to determine whether it will be a light or heavy read but I think you’re absolutely right! Which is also why we’re able to judge a book by it’s cover (which can also lead to mistaken judgments!).
I feel like you’ve either got the design eye or you don’t. Sad that I don’t 🙁 Means I have to recruit outside help! And I’ve been burned by book cover misjudgments before.
I definitely judge books by their covers; they’re such a great tool for getting an idea of a book’s genre, mood, complexity, etc. Plus, I’m a sucker for good design.
You must be one of the lucky ones with “the eye!”
I love this topic. I’m with you on the romance/fantasy covers — they never do it for me. I tend to like covers that are all typography/text, or really stand out in some way.