Meet the New, Consumer-Friendly Alice Munro

“I saw the cover for the paperback of Alice Munro‘s latest collection, The View from Castle Rock, in an ad in the NY Times Book Review,” a GalleyCat reader emails, “and Vintage has given the book a Sessalee Hensley makeover.” I’ve stacked that new cover over the jacket for the original Knopf edition; and it’s not too hard to see what he’s talking about, although my reference point upon first glance wasn’t so much Hensley, the fiction buyer for Barnes & Noble, as it was all those chick lit covers with women’s legs and no faces. (Not to mention the hot pink lettering; nice touch, that!) “While I understand the effort to sell more copies, it seems like a desperate approach for such a great writer,” our source continues, addressing the “chick lit” question directly: “Is that Vintage’s marketing strategy? I guess, if it gets Munro into more people’s hands it’s a good thing, but for me there’s a real disconnect in tone between the cover and the contents.”

It wouldn’t be the first time; as many readers will be happy to tell you, there’s a lot of serious writing under some of those frivolous covers. But, now that I’m thinking of it, let’s approach the issue from a different angle: All other things being equal, in an imaginary world where Munro wasn’t so beloved by the literati that they make a special Canadian space for her in the Best American Short Stories, would a book with that newer cover have gotten reviewed, even if it had come from Knopf?

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.