Discussion Judging a book by its cover?

I've met a curious case in "reincarnation of the strongest sword god". We have a cover that depict the image of kirito and asuna from SAO. The tag does include VRMMORPG. There is a mention of beta testers too. Also, it is a novel by gravity tales, a company under qidian last I checked (while I'm aware of the stigma qidian have, there is also some novel that is not too bad in qidian).

If I judge by the cover, summary and rating, I would not read this novel as there is an expectation when seeing the cover itself (that it would be a SAO-like game with the summary like that, not necessarily death game, but more like kirito "wank"). Not to mention second chance tag (which is the sole reason this appears in my radar).

So... When judging what to read ( and not whether to continue to read or not), what factor does affect your decision significantly? What makes you guys think, "I want to read this!"

 

Ratings<Review<Synopsis<My own judgement

 

Most covers are stolen from other things Eg all Qi novels...

 

Guts man, just use your guts.

 

Ratings>Tags>Review~

 

Tags, synopsis and bad comments, yes BAD comments for some reason I see that the bad comments are most of the time more objective about what the novels is about.

 

First impressions are the most lasting. If they had to steal from SAO, they could have, at least, chosen an image with clearer/higher resolution.

 

@HuskyBaby someone who might benefit from one of your suggestions haha

I looked at description and maybe reviews for a bit of a spoiler. Don't look at ratings, or tags much.

 

Don't listen to them, ratings have never failed me before. Join the mainstream, and together, we can rule the world!

Oh, and go read weird stuff if you have time, I guess.

 

Ratings<Review<Amount of Chapters<Synopsis<My own judgement

 

There are MANY novels under QI that are 'not too bad'. The problems is QI, not the novels. And the fact that you'll never get to finish reading those novels without getting jerked around with whatever their 'spirit stones' paywall ends up looking like. Are you really prepared to pay ~$100 to $200 for a webnovel?

 

I think the whole idea with people judging a book by it's cover is far-fetched...really now,a cover it's just that,a cover.
At most it will give you a really vague idea about what's in the book,like how the MC's looks,or maybe not even that..it could just have sword as it's cover,and then what?"wow,this book has a sword btw it's it's pages ooo"
NO.
I'm judging a book,when I'm doing it and not just picking it because it's really close,by it's author, title, and even then I take a little time to open it at random around 2-3 times to see if it is able to make me read it.
So no,a cover is not important for me most of the time,except when I'm reading some erotica or hentai))))

 

Title, summary, or image. Something has to get my attention before I'll try a novel.

 

It's a good idea to look through the negative reviews and see what they didn't like. If the complaints are about things that don't bother you then you'll probably enjoy it.

 

I just read the book if the synopsis is interesting enough, also if the story is funny enough, or there's a lot of chapter, and the author is very good at story telling.

 

hmmm... I don't intend to mean cover as literal cover. More like something that gives you first impression. For example in NU there's rating. Review, summary, etc. On the translator's own site there's usually a summary.

Well. I do agree that more prolific author does have certain guarantee in their works. Kind of like, they have successfully branding themselves and I have certain expectation in writing quality, humor, etc.

With titles of story like it has been made using random title generator nowadays, how do you choose based on title?

mm... To know that it's funny or not, you have to read the earliest chapter to make your judgment on whether you read it or not, right? If I may ask, so humor tag factors a lot for this decision (I can't think of other factors that indicate that the story will be funny or not except from review and tags). Well... Good point on the others though...

in case of contradicting review, what would you do?

thankfully (I may regret this later) it is under gravity tales. Well. I don't really want to pay for reading webnovel. If it is translated light novel though, since there's QC from the publisher I'll pay if I have money to spare.

so... Like above, in case of conflicting reviews, what would convince you to pick it up? I wish tony would let us see the review history by tags instead of title. Kind of wordcloud of the tags of the novel that has been reviewed.

it failed me a lot of times. Except in JP novel.

 

I will see which is the most detailed and if both are almost the same I will just read the first 5 chapters to see if the style interest me.

 

I generally read tags and look at genres, if those are fine, I might consider comments. In general though, I've found that I sometimes do not agree with people, so comments/reviews do not really help all that much. I just read until I come across something that puts me off. Sometimes I can understand why people keep reading, other times I'm confused as to why people keep reading.

 

I always asume every chinese web novel cover are a copy pasted ones that have nothing to do with the actual novel most of the time..
QI might just buy a license for some image stocker website and use em for their own.
While it isnt illegal copy pasting, it doesnt change the fact that it have nothing to do and not specially made for the novel or its content.
On the other hand..
Korean and japanese web novel always use its own graphic art specific for their own novel...
I never trust the cover of any chinese novels, but the korean and japanese ones are legid.

 

Own judgement > Synopsis > Prologue > Reviews with good explanation > Reviews > Ratings > Tags