Judging a Book by its Cover- Fifty Shades of Grey

This is not Monday’s post. I repeat this is NOT Monday’s post. 🙂 But since I seem to analyze everything and we are looking at book covers and not judging them, I wanted to use “Fifty Shades of Grey” as an example. So here’s the cover…

Last week we looked at different things that makes a cover stand out. We looked at titles, photos, and different colors.

First I have a question; It is a well known fact that more men are color blind than women, so guys tell us, Does the color make a difference when you choose a book?

Okay let’s look at “Fifty Shades of Grey” Well the color is grey…or gray…

The photo is a man’s tie.

The title doesn’t tell us much.

There is no mention on the front cover that this is an erotica novel, heck it’s not even said that it’s a romance of any kind.

There’s no pictures of sexy men or women. So how do we know what this book is about? With a cover like this, it could be a story about a stockbroker doing shady business, or maybe a man running for president worrying about the grey areas in his past.

So if you had never heard of this book or this author, would the cover alone intrigue you to pick it up?

Turn it over and read the blurb…

“When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.
Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.”

Is there a hidden meaning of that blurb that I’m not seeing? To me it looks like a basic blurb on the back cover of any romance novel. It really doesn’t tell me it’s erotic. There isn’t really anything that jumps out at me to entice me to pick it up and read it. 

Oh wait there it is; 

Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever. This book is intended for mature audiences. Sorry I missed that part 🙂

It’s been tagged as being “Mommy porn” Does that mean a guy wouldn’t enjoy it?

So tell me, If people are judging books by their covers, how did this get to be a best seller?

Word of mouth? Reviews? Or maybe the writer was just in the right place at the right time. 

And the reviews, well let’s just say the people are divided on this one. 

Reviews 4,172 — 1 star reviews

this is a link to a 1 star review
http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Shades-Grey-Trilogy-ebook/product-reviews/B007J4T2G8/ref=cm_cr_dp_qt_hist_one?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0
Then you have comments and replies to the 1 star reviews

http://www.amazon.com/review/RKIBAAGVXALXY/ref=cm_cr_pr_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0345803485&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=#wasThisHelpful

And when I checked there were 5,246   5 star reviews

This is a 5 star review

http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Shades-Grey-Trilogy-ebook/product-reviews/B007J4T2G8/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_5?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addFiveStar&showViewpoints=0

And here are replies and comments to the 5 star reviews

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1I7Z8AL3RF56H/ref=cm_cr_rev_detup_redir?_encoding=UTF8&asin=0345803485&cdForum=Fx1KENS7MNQMSZM&cdPage=1&cdThread=Tx107BV6SVW7LH&newContentID=Mx25VDHG0XN0OYW&newContentNum=26&store=books#MxKCD92RJQ9I49
There were 2, 3, and 4 star reviews also, but each of those came in somewhere between, 1,000 and 1,500 so my guess is you either loved it or hated it. Just black and white with barely any grey area in between.

Have you read the book? Did you pick it up based on the cover? Or just because people were talking about it?

I want to know! Let me hear your thoughts.

Also, I will be posting Monday’s post later tonight!

• Posted in: Book Covers ♦ Uncategorized
• Tagged: books, covers, fifty shades of grey, gray, grey, judging, reviews