BUY or PASS? Time to put Steampunk through the #FridayFiveChallenge

 

Welcome to the ‘Friday Five Challenge.’

Would you BUY or PASS if you had only a thumbnail image and five minutes to decide?

Welcome to the #FridayFiveChallenge. The original idea comes from Rosie Amber, and you can join up at https://rosieamber.wordpress.com

The rules are laid out at the end of this post if you fancy having a go.

Here is my contribution for this week:

After attending a craft class with my mum this week; where we made cards using cogs and clocks, I decided to type ‘Steampunk’ into the Amazon search bar. After a quick sweep of the covers I stopped at this one:

The Wolves of London by Mark Morris

BLURB:

Alex Locke is a reformed ex-convict, forced back into London’s criminal underworld for one more job. He agrees to steal a priceless artefact – a human heart carved from blackest obsidian – from the home of a decrepit old man. But when the burglary goes horribly wrong, Alex is plunged into the nightmarish world of the Wolves of London, a band of unearthly assassins who will stop at nothing to reclaim the heart. As he races to unlock the secrets of the mysterious object, Alex must learn to wield its dark power – or be destroyed by it.

My Analysis:

I love that this book cover includes landmarks that I know well. The typography is spot on and I particularly like how the words appear rooted into the space beneath the city, tempting me into the story. If the cover hadn’t hooked me, then the blurb would. The Wolves of London is definitely my kind of book. Tick in the box for awesome cover design and one for the blurb.

The book has 352 pages and the kindle price is 99p – another tick in the ‘oh yes’ box! There are 27 reviews and the 21 of those were four and five stars.

There were a couple of quotes from press releases that had been added to the book page and one of them caught my eye:

‘Fast gaining a reputation as the most stunningly original dark fantasist working in Britain today!’ Added by Starburst Magazine. Tick, Tick, Tick – this is my kind of author!

Need I go on? I’m sure you can imagine what my next move is – it’s a BUY from me.

As a final note, I did have to chuckle when I saw that The Wolves of London was at #3 in the Travel and History UK category. I’m sure Rosie will have something to say about that – check out her brilliant ‘Wednesday Wing’ about book genres HERE.

The Wolves of London by Mark Morris – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wolves-London-Obsidian-Heart-book-ebook/dp/B00NS3ZMI6/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1437121978&sr=1-1&keywords=the+wolves+of+London

Want to read what other people are reading for the #FridayFiveChallenge:

Rosie Amber – https://rosieamber.wordpress.com/2015/07/17/would-you-buy-or-pass-fridayfivechallenge-z-a-novel-of-zelda-fitzgerald-by-theresefowler/comment-page-1/#comment-14455

Cathy – https://betweenthelinesbookblog.wordpress.com/2015/07/17/friday-five-challenge-a-la-mod-by-ian-moore/

Liz – https://lizannelloyd.wordpress.com/2015/07/17/friday-five-challenge-6/

Terry Tyler – http://terrytyler59.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/would-you-buy-or-pass-8.html

What is the Friday Five Challenge?

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?

The 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)