Question for y'all working in print
My gut says it's a mistake at every end for a lit press to sell a writer's book and not offer any way to preview the featured writing. I can only see this as such a clearly terrible look, and I wonder if it's usually a hang-up because people don't mention it, or if resident webmasters are kinda suss, because I can't pin a passable reason. Why not drop a taste for prospective readers?
It seems like a lot of presses only display a title and cover and paragraph description/bio. My first impression is it seems rude and low-effort but surely that's off. I just don't think one or two pages will ever give too much away, album singles and free samples exist for good reason. When I look through a press shop tryna find new things to enjoy and see no type of previews, I stay asking what leads people to think this is the best way to promote a writer's work. Like who's buying this blind? Granted I've done that many a time, but I'm much less likely to.
What key piece of psychological logic am I missing, am I a clown buyer? Is there a fear that sneak peeks would actually deter people from buying more than the mystery does? I'm sure that plenty of consumers purchase because they're already familiar with the artists' work, but then it still makes more sense to consider the monolith of complete strangers. Like I arrive here wanting to explore and read peoples' verses, not someone gassing them up, so it's like I could've loved this artist but now I guess I'll never know-type shit.
I generalize and dramatize, but you get the drift. The alternative left for someone curious is to hunt down other works by this person, which can be annoying. Usually it's fine but it's not always easy finding someone's work, especially if they don't want it to be found, or it's trapped behind a paywalled journal or etc. I have to be missing something
