Welcome to the ‘Friday Five Challenge.’
The original idea for the #FridayFiveChallenge comes from Rosie Amber at https://rosieamber.wordpress.com
In today’s online shopping age, readers often base their buying decisions on small postage stamp size book covers (thumb-nails), a quick glance at the book description and the review. How much time do they spend making that buying decision?
AUTHORS – You often only have seconds to get a reader to buy your book, is your book cover and book bio up to it?
My Friday Five Challenge is this… IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES…
1) Go to any online book supplier,
2) Randomly choose a category,
3) Speed through the book covers, choose one which has instantly appealed to your eye,
4) Read the book Bio/ Description of this book,
5) If there are reviews, check out a couple,
6) Make an instant decision, would you BUY or PASS?
(then write a little analysis about your decision)
Here we go…
After the horrific week I’ve had, I was looking for something light-hearted for my Friday Five Challenge. I ventured into Crime – not so light-hearted you may think – until I spotted the subcategory ‘comedy’.
The cover instantly drew me in, and from the font used, I knew it wouldn’t be a dark and gloomy crime novel. The image fits perfectly with the title, and it has a chick-lit feel about it.
The cost of a Kindle edition is £0.99. It didn’t say it was on promotion, so I assumed this was a permanent price. Perfect for my pocket and at 237 pages in length, worth it. Sadly it’s only received 1 review that was 5* (and quite possibly a friend or family member). It sits at number 3 in the sales rank for Kindle > Crime, Thriller, and Mystery > Cozy > Culinary.
Murder Al Dente: A Southern Pasta Shop Mystery (Southern Pasta Shop Mysteries Book 1)
BLURB:
From the bestselling author of The Misadventures of the Laundry Hag series comes a new mystery series of mouthwatering proportions…
Pretty please with spaghetti on top?
Andy Buckland has always dreamed of being a chef. But after a live studio audience is stricken with food poisoning during her debut cooking show, she finds herself blacklisted in the culinary community. The only job open to her is working in her family’s southern pasta shop, and, to make matters worse, her first assignment is serving baked ziti to her former lover and his spoiled bride-to-be at their engagement party! But a broken heart and a bruised ego are the least of Andy’s troubles when she discovers a dead body at the party with the words “welcome home” written in flour next to it. Is it a warning? A threat? Or a frame-up job? Andy is determined to find out. With the help of her over-the-top Italian family, Andy will prove that she has what it takes to not only cook the best dish in town but also catch a killer, too!
**Recipes included!**
I’m not sure what the ‘pretty please with spaghetti on top’ line was put in for, but the rest of the blurb sounds great. As I’m heading to Italy this summer, I will be able to get fully immersed in the tale, AND hopefully, try out the included recipes, bonus.
It sounds like the perfect easy read I was looking for, so it’s a BUY from me.
Shelley Wilson Author 
Sounds like a good fun read, these kindle categories Kindle > Crime, Thriller, and Mystery > Cozy > Culinary, show you just how a bit of thought about your content when submitting your book can get your book up in the obscure rankings. Not sure how many people would put that into the search bar though.
Anyway the book cover does a good job and the price is great, definitely one to consider.
Hope you’re feeling better soon.
LikeLike
Ha ha I did giggle at the Cozy>Culinary bit. The categories are so varied, but by having a play around with them it can help your book become more visible. I agree, some of them are a bit ‘out there’. Thanks, Rosie, I’m feeling human again now. Really enjoying doing the Friday Five Challenge too.
LikeLike
Worth a punt for 99p 🙂
LikeLike
Exactly what I thought 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree with Rosie re the obscure genre chart! But they all help Amazon visibility. This book sounds like a definite pass for me, I have to say – a cosy chick lit mystery sounds like my idea of reading hell, ha ha! Lucky for the author that the majority think differently. Perhaps she’s only got 1 review because it’s just come out, or she doesn’t know about marketing.
LikeLike
Ha ha if I didn’t need a cosy light read then it would normally be my idea of hell too! If there isn’t a werewolf, dragon or demon in it I normally pass – look at me, I’m growing! 😉
LikeLike
I just looked at the link, Shelley – another clue is that although it’s obviously selling quite well, she has hardly any reviews, which says to me that people don’t finish it. Also, she has published lots of books but only one features at the beginning of the ‘customers also bought’ section on the page – this tells you that people who buy her books don’t necessarily carry on buying them. Shame, cos it’s a great cover! I’d be interested to see what you think of it if you get round to reading it.
LikeLike