Thursday, October 23: Femme Fatale
PACKAGING MURDER
by Deborah Elliott-Upton
A few of my friends know I’m the one they can count on to help them hide the body. Maybe not literally – or wait! Maybe literately is the only way I could. Still, anyone who thinks about the subject would realize murders are usually messy.
Ask any writer and she’s bound to say it’s most important to get the words down on paper first. True, but if you’re going to have to go back and tie it up pretty so an editor will take a look, it might be nice if the writer researched the proper way to format a story according to the magazine or publishing house’s submission guidelines. Packaging is important with any product and short stories and novels are no different.
“Never judge a book by its cover.” – attributed to Jean de la Fontaine
Oh, but we do. In fact, many people make quite a nice living by doing just that before the book makes it to the reviewers in an Advanced Reader Copy form a.k.a. an ARC in publishing vernacular.
Writers and artists are involved in every package we see. Labels on everything from coffee makers to bed pillows and cereal boxes are written and designed by someone. We do judge books (and magazines, restaurants and other products) by their exteriors made more pleasing to the senses by extensive study and design by experts. A recent study said we make mental judgements within 2-8 seconds of meeting someone. First impressions do count.
Readers do select books from shelves based on author name recognition, but if we’re selecting a book by a new author, it usually stems from a word-of-mouth suggested source or honestly what or who’s gracing the cover.
Romance book publishers knew this long ago when they started featuring what is referred to a bodice-rippers. Beautiful women were portrayed, but more important were the usually shirtless, muscled hunk the female buyers could appreciate. Personally, I never got the Fabio thing, but I was always more of a mystery reader than one of romance. My major indulgence in the romance genre has to be Gone With the Wind, a book I read the first time between my eighth and ninth grades. I remember reading daily through the summer, wanting to be at the end and yet, dreading when it would. I didn’t want to let go of the characters or the setting or the magic Margaret Mitchell created. I’ve re-read the book several times since and I always sigh when I’ve finished. I suspect most women who read romance novels experience that feeling when they read their own favorites. For some reason I have never once sighed when I finished a Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler or Dorothy L. Sayers story, although I may have grinned. There’s nothing like a great mystery to soothe my soul.
I’ve already admitted my penchant for the hardboiled detectives from the golden era of pulp fiction, but I also read a lot of Ian Fleming, Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury during my formative years. Did the covers convince me to give these authors a try? You betcha. 
Give me John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee stories with colorful titles like The Deep Blue Good-bye, The Turquoise Lament or The Empty Copper Sea. Sure, the covers were as vibrant as their titles, but after reading my first McGee adventure, I was hooked. That’s what good writing does to a reader. Initially we’re lured by the covers to pick up a book, run our fingers over the wording when the author’s name and title are raised. We probably turn it over and read blurbs or endorsements before making our decision. It’s all in the packaging.
I’m still stopping and admiring John Grisham’s newest novel on the end cap. Stephen King covers call to me – okay they scare me a little, but I can’t ignore them. And how could I pass up anything with a dashing pirate on the cover?
For those of you who insist you aren’t as judgmental and would buy a book no matter what the cover art happened to be, consider this: Would you likely purchase a book whose cover depicted:
- Not your political party’s person seated in the Oval Office
- The Hollywood Starlets Who Cannot Be Named On This Web Site, but you know them by their escapades more than their talent
- Terrorists killing Americans
Perhaps that bodice ripper looks a bit more appealing now.
Good thing everything isn’t judged by its cover – otherwise i never would have found a woman willing to marry an ugly guy like me.
Sorry should have read isn’t judged by its cover.
I understand the sigh at the end of a book. Sometimes, it’s like saying goodbye to a friend.
What I really like, though, is when I’m reading along so caught up in the story and something funny happens – I laugh out loud. My husband understands, but I’m not so sure anyone else would unless they get as involved in reading as I do.
Hopefully, one day, the words I write will touch someone half as much as some of the words I’ve read have touched me.
And just so you’ll know, Debbie, your words always make an impact, too. Thanks for the article.
Funny how often Travis McGee was mentioned at Bouchercon, usually in a paragraph that began, “He’s dated, but…”
But it’s good story-telling.
My perception of GwtW was shaped by my mother wanting to see the movie but having three young boys to deal with. Her solution was to pack us in the car with sandwiches, homemade popcorn, and Kool-aid, and take us to the local drive-in, which had the feature of freight trains rumbling past at critical moments.
Movies were a rare treat and we boys thought we were seeing a movie on a double bill with a mystery-sounding film called Butterfield 8, not knowing we were in for 14 hours of adult womanly angst. My mother shushed us and dabbed tears as we boys wrestled and lay upside down, wondering where the cartoons were.
When the words came, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” it echoed my sentiments exactly.
A discussion in themysteryplace.com asked whether people preferred lurid or sedate covers, and I consciously lean toward restrained, conservative covers. However, I mentioned to Janet Hutchings at Bouchercon, when I saw the 1940-1950s covers of sinister men and nearly naked women remembered from my aunt’s bookshelf, they brought back powerful memories. Likewise, when James mentioned buying the two volume Treasury of Science Fiction for 10¢ forty+ years ago, its black, red, and white cover flashed into my mind.
Yes, there’s something about the covers.
I don’t read books because of the cover. I read because of the author or what I want to know. I don’t care for the Fabio stuff either, but became a romance addict reading my mother’s Frank Yerby books I found and Peyton Place.
To answer the other questions:
*Not your political party’s person seated in the Oval Office — You Betcha
(yeah I noticed)
*The Hollywood Starlets Who Cannot Be Named On This Web Site, but you know them by their escapades more than their talent—No
*Terrorists killing Americans-Yes. I like to be reminded of why I enjoy freedoms. But I’ve always loved espionage books/movies etc.
I didn’t like the movied GwTW, but I enjoyed the book the six times I read it.
alisa — I am a fan of the GWTW movie and now when I read the book I always see Clark Gable and Vivan Leigh as Rhett & Scarlett. Rats, I’m remembering being sixteen and reading that book the first time and now I’m sighing again.
Leigh — I think some covers are more memorable than others, the same with movie posters. I wonder which are the ones that are most memorable for the rest of you. For me, movie posters of GWTW, Casablanca, The Graduate, A Few Good Men and oh yes, all of the Pirates of the Carribean — but that’s a given. For books, my mind immediately goes to the Bond series and Mickey Spillane, but there are so many Stephen King’s that beckon my memory, too.
Then there’s that plain, red cover of Catcher In The Rye…