On tact, I wish the AAR reviewer had pressed more. I mean, if most people are going to come away and rip the answers apart–and surely that could’ve been foreseen–I think the interviewer should have made more of an effort to clarify and challenge Avon’s answers.

@katiebabs Might be worth asking some authors (quoted and quotees).

Common sense would dictate that pursuing potential readers online is the way of the future. Avon seem firmly rooted in the past. If that works for them, great, but reports in ‘Publishers Weekly’ would indicate otherwise.

Kat :@katiebabsI disagree to an extent. I think a quote from an author with a very loyal fan base can be a boost for a book in a similar genre or with a similar style.

I guess it can be personal preference. I would really love to see the statistics on how well a book sales based on a quite from an author.

@Sarah
I didn’t get that impression, and that’s why my opinion is slightly different from yours. I think they were trying to be honest about their view of the current market, but they could have done it with a lot more tact.

@Katiebabs While I visit AAR regularly and admire what they’ve achieved, their reviews hold no more weight for me than those of review blogs or other sites. In other words, I wouldn’t buy a book solely on the basis of a cover quote from AAR.

@Kieran Yes, that bugs me, too. While it’s probably impossible to quantify the exact effect of online buzz on sales, I’m sure there must be one. I’d love to know if the authors featured in DA-SBTB’s ‘Save the Contemporary’ campaign noticed a difference. I know I bought all the books they’ve featured so far.

To dismiss a tool that gives readers some degree of control over their relationship with the publisher is to say that Avon wants to maintain a very static author-publisher-reader relationship. As pointed out above, Avon PR knows this will not fly; it’s only the editors (and only those two) who think that their readership is important only at the register.

Based on your comment, though, I still think the original answer was answering a different question. I don’t know for sure but it seems to me that people who buy books based on cover quotes are more likely to be casual/impulse buyers.

Personally, I’ve seen a few books with cover quotes from review blogs, and even as someone who blogs and reads numerous blogs, I didn’t recognise most of them. I guess my feeling is that those quotes are targeted to print buyers, and people who are making buying decisions based on what they see in print. When buying online it doesn’t matter that much because buying decisions are made AFTER reading the review.

Um, am I making sense???

(As an example, I was talking to around 10 other readers last month and a couple of them had never heard of the Smart Bitches. To me, that just seems bizarre, but there you go. And one of those readers is a heavy book buyer (thinking of converting 2 empty bedrooms into libraries–OMG, I’m jealous!). She visits just one blog and it’s an author-run blog.)

Did you see that Pamela Jaffee, director of public relations at Avon, commented on Lynn Spencer’s blog piece? It read as though the PR department and the editors at Avon don’t communicate. Pamela J. asserts that Avon places great emphasis on author websites, blog tours, etc. In other words, she appears to recognize the potential of the internet as a relatively inexpensive and effective advertising tool. This is in glaring opposition to editor Lucia Macro’s comments on what she perceives to be the ‘casual reader’ and the person they are targeting when they purchase new manuscripts. Honestly, in times of economic hardship, I highly doubt readers are as inclined to randomly pick up a book at Walmart simply because of the prerequisite man titty and Avon label. It might work for Harlequin because their books are cheap, but many newer Avon titles are priced at $7.99.

I also have no respect for authors commenting anonymously, as a couple have done on Lynn’s blog. Say who you are and I might take you seriously.