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Daniel Nester
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Posted by Chip Kidd, June 7th, 2006
16 Comments
Filed under: Guests.
Hello, my cherubs,
As we in publishing know, there is relatively little money in the book business — compared to other forms of entertainment, say Television, Music, or Movies. And for years I've taken solace in one of the few advantages to this fact: at least we as creative people in this industry don't have to deal with, shudder, Focus Groups. You know, those little Nuremberg trials people in Advertising hold to determine if the great unwashed are going to prefer Stayfree Maxipads in a blue box or a yellow box. Let's face it: We're simply not going to test the ending of John Updike's latest novel to see if it skews well with girls between the ages of 12 and 16. Ditto the jacket design. And I thank God for that, every day.
So imagine my horror at reading an article, in this week's Publishers Weekly, about a publisher of legal advice books named Nolo Press which announced it has "taped more than 50 hours of focus group feedback and tested redesigned books in mock stores to come up with a compelling design" for its titles. And that this process took "Two years and 'hundreds of thousands' of dollars," and that "After field-testing several redesigns, the company decided on its new look: less text-heavy covers that feature Astrid, the golden Labrador retriever. 'What is more companionable than a dog?' said [Pat] Jenkins," Nolo's marketing director.
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This would be hilarious if it wasn't so pathetic. And wrong-headed. Nearly a quarter of a million dollars, and they end up with a dog that's going to help you with legal advice about your divorce?
"Gee Astrid, she wants the beach condo too. What do I do?"
"Arf!"
"What the fuck does that mean? Astrid! She's out to destroy me! Everything I've worked for!"
"Rrrrrrough!"
"You're Goddam right it is. Hey, get off of the couch and help me bury these assets!"
Seriously — this is really, really dumb, and if other publishers follow suit it is at their peril. Nolo, you should change the name of your company to Big Fat Suckers. Because that is precisely what you are. If I were you I'd get your attorneys on this right away. You've been scammed.
I have found that marketing and sales people in publishing can be very useful in terms of PROMOTING AND SELLING BOOKS. Period. That is their job. NOT DESIGNING THEM. That is my job. I don't tell you how much front-of-store space to buy at B&N, and you don't tell me that the latest Cormac McCarthy design won't appeal to Soccer Moms in Des Moines, and we'll get along just fine. Knopf is very good about this, and that's a large part of why I am still here after twenty years and counting.
If anyone out there wants to chime in on this, either pro or con, be my guest.
And if PW wants to be taken seriously as an arbiter of the industry (and I do, for the most part, like very much what Sara Nelson's done with it) they should do a follow-up article in a few months to see if this idiocy is actually working. (And if it is, please bury the article. Just KIDDing.) Of course Nolo's going to say it is, regardless, but the real evidence will be whether or not Astrid is still marking Nolo's company territory by this time a year from now. Or if she's been put to sleep.
Arf!
Books mentioned in this post
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Terrorist: A Novel
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No Country for Old Men
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Chip Kidd: Book One -- Work: 1986-2006
Chip Kidd
Oh yes - I completely agree. This story just reminds me of all those times I see results of a poll and fulminate, "But they never asked ME!" Mind you, satisfying the sort of people who turn up and eat the free cheese on a wednesday afternoon (life, anyone?) at a focus group meeting seems a bit dodgy anyhow. For example, the sort of people who turn up for free movies only to be polled about them are the sort of people who are never going to pay for a movie in the first place. Why trust their opinion anyhow?
I'd love to ask you a not terribly related question however, if you don't mind. Do you have any thoughts on really awful publisher copy for dustjackets and promotional copy? One of my recent favorites as far as really terrible stuff is for a yet unrealeased title called Falling in Love With Natassia (click title to read the publisher blurb). I've always wondered who writes this stuff (interns? the author?), and if anyone is every held responsible for a book tanking because of its blurb.
I've been known to buy anything with a squirrel on it (Don't tell Nolo). But their titles look like they should have a flea collar with every one. They are funny though. Like, this is what the dog has come up with - "Let me tell you what I've learned bout divorce, wait a sec bitch, I have to lick my butt". Ha! I have heard if you give a hundred monkeys a hundred typewriters and a hundred years...was that it?
Meanwhile, yes! I totally agree. It RARELY works out listening to people who have no idea what they are talking about and who think they could do your job. And if you succumb to their suggestions, don't you just feel like a monkey? (with a typewriter)...
Thank goodness Knopf doesn't succumb to such idiocy. Nor do you succumb to such monkey business. Now, if I weren't in the middle of designing a T-shirt for Fup, Powell's store cat's 18th birthday - my point might actually hold water.
I'm reminded of one of my favorite quotes, which I'd thought was attributed to Samuel Goldwyn:
"No one ever went broke underestimating the American public."
Alas, a Google search turns up this WikiQuote page that attributes the actual line as, "No one ever went broke in Hollywood underestimating the intelligence of the public," and credits the speaker as Elsa Maxwell. But it's Wiki, so I'm dubious.
Anyway. I lost my point here somewhere...
Oh, yes. I'll bet the Labrador sells books. Because people are kinda dumb.
frankly, those covers make me think they're a series of pet obedience guides. which adds a whole new and very bizarre dimension to "Divorce Without Court" - does this mean a bunch of dogs are suing for legal emancipation from their owners?
Egads and I must conCUR 'bout the whole Nolo marketing schtick. I suppose Justice is blind and maybe Astrid is a seeing eye dog? The steadfast and staid companion who'll see ya through those tense litigating intersectinos where you just might get run over by the alimony cement truck. It's not so much a bad design but a no brainer design that seems ridiculous in terms of its research and cost. It shouldn't a take consensus of overpaid, demographic crackheads to know that if you put a nice doggie on it they will come. Maybe Nolo's retained kennel of elete marketeers will wrest another hundred K(9) for a follow up study that shows the efficacy of red & black in graphic designs? Jeez. When it come to making the money for nothin' they are the big Dawgs! And speaking of Big Dawgs, I wanna see Hartz start a new advertising blitz that shows the corporate lawyers who attempted to defend Enron's Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling sporiting a new, cutting edge line of parastie-proof collars. But I digress.
You know, I actually bought the Nolo guide to the public domain, and just received it this week from Amazon. I read a bit of it every night (I'm nerdy), but all week I've been looking at its cover thinking, "What the fuck does this dog have to do with the public domain?" Literally every time I look at the book that is what wanders through my brain; not "great NOLO guide" or "wow let's hear it for the public domain," but "Dog? Why a dog? I hate dogs, but even if I didn't, why a dog?" Distracting, to say the least. So thank you for solving that mystery.
Hi Chip...
The book arrived yesterday...Lisa & I both send our thanks & best wishes. And just for the record, other than Hayden, Kerry, Kevin & Molly, the only companions we have at the house are the cats, so no Nolo publications for us!
Come see us in the ATL...
Superb to hear from Chip Kidd! Big fan here.
Book jacket design is an art, and no good art has ever been made by commitee or focus group.
A small tweak to Venkman's bet that "the Labrador sells books. Because people are kinda dumb." Actually, that should be "the Labrador sells books. Because lesbians buy books." A small quibble, for sure. But why not get it right?
Meow Amy, meow meow meow! Purrrrr.
Well, it's worked for O'Reilly.
Well, if you're intending to put out a series of books, having some sort of common theme for the covers is probably a good thing-- witness the dozens of computer manuals published by O'Reilly. Of course, the appeal of the O'Reillys is that you can identify the books by the animal on the front. The llama is their Perl book, for example.. at least I think it is, it's been seven years.
You could also compare this to the yellow-and-black of the "XXX for Dummies," but that's not really the same-- the Dummies books are more a deliberate lack of design, to bring attention to the words.
Am I the only one who thinks these covers look like a mightily watered down version of the O'Reilly book covers?
Focus groups are on the far side of unscientific, and the information that comes out of them is of no real value. Marketing folk use them for two reasons that I know of.
1) The results, after being sufficiently spun, are used to confirm the original, prefered direction for a campaign.
2) To spread the blame for failure. "Hey, we did what the focus group told us."
If you buy marketing services and your agency suggests a focus group, as opposed to statistically verifiable sensory evaluation, put your hand over your wallet, and back slowly out of the room.
I work at a book store. We were making fun of the new Nolo covers just last night, and here I see your article today. We almost shelved them in the pets section before noticing that most of them are law-related.
My own 'scientific' research proves, of all the book designs I have created the most unsuccessful, without exception, have been those which were designed by committee.
The books cited here only prove that trend.
Why oh why can't they just let designers design?