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There are three things that will reliably get people’s attention, and the title says it. All three are to the human brain what interrupts are to a computer chip. They pull the mind’s attention off whatever may be on hand and focus it on the incoming data packet.
This theory isn’t hard to test. Run down the list of headlines from your customary news source and see how many of them fall into one of these three categories. The clickbait which everyone who surfs the Internet is barraged with on a daily basis is almost entirely composed of variations on these three themes. They get used continually, and they work continually.
More sober commentary points out that this concentration on the negative results in a very skewed world view among many people. The gruesome murder gets the headlines. The fact that it is one of a few in a large population doesn’t.
Literary genres can, really be classed by which of these three themes are dominant. Romance, obviously, is about sex, often with side orders of danger. Money makes appearances under the limelight, too, with titles like “The Billionaire’s Baby” or “Bad Boy CEO”.
Thrillers are, not surprisingly, about danger, though sex will usually get a look in during the breaks in the action. The James Bond movies and books are a well known example. There is the obligatory villain threatening the world, the obligatory improbably gorgeous Bond girls. Money is implied rather than stated. 007 gets paid as a Commander in the Royal Navy (not much) but when he’s on the job the sky is the limit. None of the Bond movies are set in poverty-stricken mean streets.
I could go on about other genres, but the point is made and I will leave that as exercise for the reader.
I’ve read critical commentary where it was pointed out that you can classify romance sub-genres by the gender of the half-nude person(s) on the cover.
By the same token, a lot of fantasy novel covers include a sword and a good-looking woman. Two out of three.
I am reminded of a (probably deservedly) obscure bit of doggerel “The Art Director’s Fight Song”.
There’s a bimbo on the cover of the book
There’s a bimbo on the cover of the book
She is dumb and she is sexy
She is nowhere in the text, she
Is a bimbo on the cover of the book.
It goes on from there in much the same vein. That’s a clue, Sherlock. I’m not the first to have that insight.
Coming down to the world of indie fiction, the first things the reader sees of a book are the cover and the title. They have to grab the attention right away, or the potential reader will skim on to the next. The trinity are a good way to do that.
When you are picking the title of your book, ask yourself if it suggests one or more of the trinity. If it doesn’t, consider changing it. Crass commercialism? Yes. Do you want to sell books?
The same for the elements of the cover, which have to grab the browser’s eye long enough to read the title and the blurb.
My own Portal Contract Authority books have a title which suggests money (contracts are about that) and cover elements about worlds in danger. I do my own covers, and I don’t include a bimbo. I do have some standards, after all.
The foregoing is neither cynical nor disapproving, just factual. This is how the human brain is wired, and it’s wired that way by millions of years of evolution and survival. Use the knowledge responsibly when practicing your craft.
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