What’s Your #1 Factor for Judging A Book Before You Buy?

They (that magical, mysterious “they”) say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” But how well does that work in practice? I would say there are four factors that influence my decisions to buy a book – so I wanted to run them by you and get your thoughts.

1. Title and Blurb. I’m combining them into one factor because for me, these are the two most critical pieces and the things I look at first. If the title doesn’t make me want to read the blurb, then I’m moving on past. And for me, since I’m usually browsing on Amazon (yes, yes, I know, bookstores are dying and I should be out there helping support them…but the closest one is 30 miles away. And when was the last time you dragged 2 kids through the bookstore? It’s not relaxing), the words (i.e. title) jump out at me before anything else.

2. Reviews. Generally after title and blurb, I check the star rating and skim a few reviews. Now, having some 1 and 2 star reviews doesn’t automatically make a book a no-thank-you for me. But I do like reading a well-written negative review — honestly sometimes the negative reviews talk me into buying more than the glowing “oh this was so great” 5 star reviews that don’t tell me why the book was great. But if the negative review focuses on something I don’t mind (or don’t consider bad) then it can definitely tip the scale into a purchase.

3. Price. Honestly, you could have the most fascinating title and blurb with amazing reviews and I could be DYING to read the book, but if it’s more than $5 (possibly $6) for the ebook, I’m adding it to my wishlist and moving on. I use my wishlist to keep track of things I’m interested in – and I click through it periodically to see if anything’s on sale. But I’ve got stuff languishing on my wishlist from five and six years ago still because it’s simply never hit the price point I’m willing to pay. And I still want to read the book! Hmmm…maybe I should take my wishlist to the library with me.

4. Cover. Now we get to the cover. I do look at them. But I’ve read fantastic books with horrible covers and I’ve read horrible books with fantastic covers. I’m kind of over the cover meaning anything. (Granted that doesn’t mean you should just slap something tacky on a book and call it a day, it’s worth some effort. But the trend for writers – particularly indie writers – trying to push other indie writers into spending $600 for a book cover? Eh. For me, spend the money on editing if you really need to spend it on something. Get a cover that’s cheaper and ‘good enough.’) I suspect this is where I differ from the majority of people though. Still, even if you have such an amazing cover that I click and read the blurb…if that blurb doesn’t sell me then you’re probably not even going on my wishlist.

So…what about you? Do you have anything you’d add to the list? What order do you put them into?