The Bologna Book Fair is the current buzz, and even though children’s books don’t touch Crème de la Crime’s life it’s hard to ignore this year, what with British Airways cancelling all the flights because of the cabin crew strike. And the London Book Fair is the next-but-two big event on my calendar.
I always think Book Fair, in both these cases and Frankfurt as well, is a bit of a misnomer. To me, a book fair is a place where books actually get sold, rather than hyped, displayed and discussed.
But hey, what’s in a name, as a slightly famous writer said a few centuries ago. And that’s not really what’s on my mind anyway.
Occasionally, as I may have mentioned, we take a stand at the kind of book fair where books do get sold, and one such took place last weekend. We raised a bit of interest, sold a few backlist, made a couple of useful contacts – and a train of thought which is never far from my mind was stimulated again.
Just exactly what is the magic something that makes people pick up one book in particular when several dozen are laid out in front of them?
When I suggested a few months, or possibly years, ago (have I really been part of the Dead Guy team for three years? Doesn’t the time fly by?) that the cover was a vital part of this attraction process, I was shouted down by the largest number of protesting comments I can ever recall receiving. Real readers refuse to be influenced by such manipulative devices, I was told. No doubt titles are equally manipulative, and not to be trusted as an indication of the quality behind the soundbite. OK, OK, I’m not arguing. We’ve been down that road already.
So what is that little bit of magic? Why one book and not the one beside it?
Mostly at these events I get to talk to people. Occasionally they just take a book and hand me the money; and sometimes several people all arrive at once, and unfortunately there’s only one of me. But I try to point as many people as I can in the direction of the Crème author who comes closest to their favourite bestseller. Ian Rankin and Reginald Hill fans get Maureen Carter; for Harlan Coben, Lee Child and Michael Connelly try Adrian Magson; J D Robb equates to Penny Deacon; Janet Evanovich lovers will enjoy Kaye C Hill… I could continue through nine more authors, but I’m sure you get the picture.
Sometimes – actually mostly – it seems to work. Crime readers are always up for a new experience; favourite authors rarely produce more than one book a year.
But some people don’t want to talk; they prefer just to browse. And often they pick up a book. What I really need to know is, why do they choose this one and not that one? It absolutely is not the cover blurb or the first couple of pages; that comes seconds later. I’m prepared to concede that that’s what makes them decide to buy, or not, as the case may be. But in order to arrive at that point, there has to be an initial attraction. And once they start to read, and attraction turns into connection, we have another aficionado.
And if I knew what caused that initial attraction, I could apply it in a way which made our books the ones which stood out from thousands in a bookshop, not just dozens at a fair.
