Marketing Analysis: “Need A Distraction? Read “Embrace The Wild” — Short Story Scribe”

Study the marketing strategy and tactics of this article for a moment, then read my analysis following it.

In these times, reality is getting to us all. Take a little sexual escape into a fantasy world which only Scono Sciuto can conjure. Are these wildly erotic tales based upon many people, or one special muse? Scono has yet to tell. Click the picture below and read a free sample, then hit purchase and […]

via Need A Distraction? Read “Embrace The Wild” — Short Story Scribe

Let me be clear about something right off the bat: I have never read this book and probably never will read it simply because it is in a genre whose books generally don’t appeal to me. That said, I have nothing against this book or its author and, as far as I know, she might be the next Nobel laureate for literature. I just want to take a look at how it’s marketed in this instance. The fact that in spite of its genre it grabbed my attention is what intrigues me.

I strive to make my collections’ covers striking to gain the reader’s attention as he/she is scrolling through Amazon. For that reason I am now leaning toward very dramatic covers like on A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror. Another style I favor is a close-up of a full-color face looking directly at the reader. See the cover of The Scent and Other Stories: The Dark Side of Love. From what I can gather from a few sources, the human mind has evolved to remember faces and their expressions and to pay particular attention to them. So having a cover of a face looking directly at the reader will probably be more memorable and more attention-grabbing than a painting of two lovers looking into each other’s eyes, particularly if the person on the cover is attractive to the reader.

This is what I find interesting about this ad:

Its bright, single color, pink, that is often associated with femininity overwhelms the reader while conveying a single, unstated message: This book is about things feminine. It is a not-so-subtle use of a common symbol that overwhelms the readers as soon as the page is opened.
The titles are in what could be described as a very feminine handwriting, again hitting the reader with the idea of femininity.
The stark contrast in colors, tones, and shades of the woman’s body with the text. However, white is a color used to link the two together. Not only is it used for the headlines and text, but it is also subtly used in the highlights of the woman’s body.
Obviously, the woman is young and beautiful and sexually very attractive to probably a very large percentage of the population whether male or female. The photo is also very teasing as the woman’s hand and arm cover the public area and breasts.
The print of the text is small. So to read it, one has to draw closer to the ad (at least at my age), which, depending on your sexual orientation, may or may not be an unpleasant experience.
If you click on the ad, you will be taken to a sample of the book. Getting the reader hooked into the story with the first few, if not the very first line is crucially important in marketing books.
One one has gone to the sample text, the sample is not brief and gives the reader a good taste of what reading the entire book will be like.
Note this not an ad designed for the Internet, this is the front, spine, and back of the book. This bright pink will definitely make it stand out from all the other books on its shelf, whether the reader can see only the spine and particularly if the reader sees the entire front cover.
All this being said, the one recommendation I have as to how to improve the marketing of this book is to make the print on the spine much larger. As it is, the reader’s attention will not be grabbed by the title “Embrace the Wild Fantasies”, because the print is simply too small to be noticeable, whereas a dramatic title like that would grab anyone’s attention if it can be seen. Likewise, the author’s name should be larger on the spine. Occasionally, I will walk through a bookstore looking over the stacks and asking myself about what makes any one book stand out from the rest, particularly if all I can see of it is the spine, which is what anyone sees of the majority of the books in a bookstore. What I have found is an interesting methodology for publicizing a book when one can see only its spine: if the author is famous, his/her name is in much larger, clearer font than the title. If the author is not well known, the title is in larger, clearer font than the author’s name. I suppose this is because the name of a well-known author will attract the reader, who can then read the title. On the other hand, if an author is not well-known, then it’s up to a dramatic, intriguing title to attract the reader.

Anyway, that’s my analysis for now. Let me know what you think in the comments. Don’t forget to hit the like button and to subscribe to this website. And, for God’s sake, don’t forget to visit my Amazon author’s page and check out the selection of my works.