Judge a Book by Its Cover: An Exploration of Book Marketing in the Young Adult Genre

Abstract

When we're young, our elders tell us to never judge a book by its cover. But when we grow older and develop our own browsing behaviors, we can admit to relying on the cover to catch our attention. This thesis explores the overall importance the cover plays in consumer browsing. Furthermore, it examines the marketing involved in book sales for the Young Adult/New Adult genre. Three research questions were developed; (1) what characteristics drive readers to further investigate a book; (2) how does browsing behavior differ between bookstores and online retail platforms; (3) what hedonic cues are interpreted by various cover images. To assess the research foci, I conducted prior and primary research; the latter includes an online survey and five in-depth interviews. Overall, the results suggest that the cover is one of the most important features of a book's packaging. I also found that; (1) apart from the cover, the synopsis and price are the other significant features that lead to reader interest; (2) the cover of a book is more essential in an in-store setting; (3) many readers of the genre hold expectations of commonly used cover images, but each image is interpreted uniquely to the reader.