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mcarterphoto t1_itpyr20 wrote

If it's a hardcover, there's usually a synopsis on the dust jacket's left flap, author info on the right. Often when it's a paperback, there's a short synopsis and review quotes.

But quotes are powerful marketing tools, if it's an author we like and trust. And in general in marketing, a testimonial is more powerful than a claim. Jean Louise-Gasse summed it up in Apple's early glory days, when they hired him as marketing chief. He was asked how he'd advertise Apple and answered "Not advertising, we'll use P.R." He was asked what the difference was:

"Advertising is if I tell a woman I'm good in bed. P.R. is if I sleep with a woman, and she tells ten of her friends I'm good in bed".

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VertigoOne OP t1_itq4jnz wrote

>And in general in marketing, a testimonial is more powerful than a claim

I get what that means, but I would still surely need to know what it's a testimonial for. It's like if a testimonial is

Anne Robinson "Household appliance is really good"

I surely would want to know what kind of appliance this is.

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mcarterphoto t1_itq6jt6 wrote

Well, books are different than appliances, and publishers can suck at marketing as bad as any other industry! But usually, a book's title and cover will give you some clue as to the mood, and if it's a new author and Stephen King says "A creepy masterpiece of bloody horror from a stunning new voice in fiction", you'll generally get a sense of genre anyway. If I spotted a book and the only blurb was Cormac McCarthy calling it "fantastic", that may be all I'd need though.

I do wonder about hardcover releases with very little info; publications haven't reviewed it yet, but if a publisher feels a book may do well, as I understand it they reach out to other authors they publish to read & provide a quote. Though usually a hardcover has a paragraph outlining the book on the inner dust flap; I don't see many paperbacks without a quick description of the story on the back though.

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