The Wife: The Reader

Research conducted by the Orange Prize for Fiction some time ago asked the following questions:

- How important is the gender of the author in our choice of books?
- To what extent are particular authors’ books perceived as being written mainly for women, for men or for both and on what basis is this judgment made?
- Do books written by women have to ‘work harder’ to sell to men than vice-versa?

Their work resulted in the following answers:

“From the survey, men are far more biased towards books written by men than women are to books written by women. They are easily put off buying books if they judge the cover design or title too feminine, regardless of actual subject matter of the book. Women on the other hand are less likely to judge a book’s suitability from its cover and less inclined to label a book a male or female read.”

It also showed:

“Of the 20 books chosen for the research…only one title, High Fidelity, was considered a male read and nonetheless over 50% of the female respondents said they would be interested in reading it. Yet less than 30% of men would choose to read the books deemed to be female reads (12 of remaining 19) which include The French Lieutenant’s Woman and Tales of the City (both by men).”

So I wonder, did Mr. Hornby’s fan base, which clearly consists of a strong male presence, need much convincing to read How To Be Good? And did the cover designers take this into consideration?

As mentioned in my previous post, Mr. Hornby’s stories involve predominantly male activities: music obsession; soccer; bachelorhood.

These book jackets use color and imagery to communicate the subject matter and to appeal to a broad audience.

* * *

Similar elements used for different titles are also meant to entice a specific audience: Nick Hornby fans. In maintaining a consistent look to some of the jackets and applying it to How To Be Good, male readers might be compelled to pick up this book, even if it is written from a female perspective.