My stack of books to be read (often referred to as TBR pile) grows and grows. I will be honest. Some of the books in there? I should have read by now. In fact, some have been in my TBR pile for over a year. They’ll rise to the top, and I’ll pick them up, look at the cover, thumb through the pages, then slip it further down in the stack again.
Every time I do it, a little voice in the back of my head whispers: Will this happen to your book, Katie?
Yikes!
Slush piles are everywhere. They don’t just belong to agents and editors. Readers have them too. So how do we stay out of them?
The truth? I’m not sure. I’m guessing there are a whole bunch of factors that play into a book’s time in a slush pile. I’m also guessing some of those factors aren’t in our control. But since that’s not a very helpful response, I came up with four factors that, for me, make a book rise quicker to the top (or bypass the pile altogether):
- Title
- Cover
- Back cover blurb
- First page
The importance of a standout cover: I got a book in the mail the other day. A free one. I’m sad to say I judged it by the cover and tossed it aside. Wow. That’s harsh, huh? But it’s reality, and most likely, our readers will respond the same way. We peruse a bookstore and look for those killer covers. I think that’s why I’m so eager to see the cover of my book–I know what a big role it will play in getting people to pick it up.
The importance of a standout title: Several weeks ago, Janet Grant with Books and Such Literary wrote a wonderful post about the importance of titles. Agents, editors, and readers see a ton of them each year, so it’s ultra imperative that we create, in Janet’s words, “something so stellar we blink our sleepy eyes, perk up and say, ‘Whoa…what did you just say?'” When a title does that for me, I turn the book over and read the back.
The importance of a standout blurb: This is the agent, editor, or reader’s first taste of the story, so we want to make it shine. We can’t disappoint, especially if the cover and title deliver. We want our blurb to introduce intriguing characters, major conflict, and the promise for something special between the front and back cover.
The importance of a standout first page: The title can be intriguing. The cover breathtaking. And the back cover blurb promising. But if the book doesn’t pass the final test, back to the bottom of my TBR pile it goes. And for me, the final test is the first page. I almost always read the first page of a book before committing to the whole thing, and if it doesn’t grab my attention immediately with a question I need to answer, then I just won’t make the time to read it.
So there you go.
Cover. Title. Back cover. First page.
Those are my four criteria for plucking a book off my stack and keeping it in my hands.
I know most of us don’t design our covers. We don’t write our blurbs. And many times, we don’t choose our titles. But still, as writers looking for readers (or agents, or editors), we should do everything we can to make sure these four stand out. And once we’ve done that, we need to make sure the story underneath them satisfies. Because satisfying our readers is the best way to not only get readers, but to keep them.
Let’s Talk: How big’s your TBR pile? What makes you shuffle some books to the bottom over and over again? How important is the title, cover, back cover blurb, and first page to you as a reader? Is there anything you think is more important than those four?
