My title applies to life in general, but more specifically to designing book spines.

We all know the old saying, ‘Don't judge a book by its cover', but we literally do that with books (and probably with people too). Basically, unless you're a known figure, it's challenging to get your book into a bookstore as it is so you will probably not have the luxury of having a huge display with your books on it, facing outwards and languishing on silk with a fresh vase of flowers next to them. In fact, if you're lucky, you'll only have a few on a shelf with only a small piece of real estate, the spine, doing the job of selling.

If the potential book purchaser doesn't already know what book they're looking for—that being your book—if the spine isn't appealing, your chances of going home with the book buyer are about as likely as my current obsession Jo-Wilfried Tsonga asking me out for a coffee the next time he's in Melbourne (but, hey, Jo, if you're reading this blog, email me, *laugh*).

So, what can you do to make your spine sexier? Here are a couple tips:

1. First of all, please, please carefully consider the font. I'm a sucker for decorative fonts, you know the ones with the curves in all the right places, but people literally GLANCE at spines, so it has to be readable as well as enticing.
2. Think about using colour, or at least an interesting motif for part of the spine. Be really careful with your colour choice as they convey and trigger subconscious moods.
3. Most people don't have necks that tilt to the side so if the spine is wide enough to keep the writing horizontal, why not do it? My Australian Oxford Dictionary is a prime example of this principle in action.
4. Finally, and I've actually jumped ahead, as I'd start with this: Do your research. Go to a bookstore (or three) and have a look at where your book would appear. Look at spines ... really look at them. Which ones grab your eye? Which ones do your eyes slide over? Why? The insights you collect during this phase of the design process will give you some awesome insights into what works and what doesn't.

OK, I'll close for now and let you get back to it. If you have any questions, or want to share a tip, feel free to email me on renee@risingstardesigns.com.au.

I just finished a book called SheMarketing: the science of marketing to women by Amanda Stevens. I bought it several months ago, but saw it on my shelf two nights ago and decided I should actually read it!

It's quite funny that because I'm a woman and a marketer, I probably thought at least subconsciously, ‘What can this book teach me?', but reading it helped me slow down and think about the mental processes involved in marketing. That served to give me a fresh outlook.

What I found most interesting about the book is it explored the neurological aspects of the differences between men and women. It also provided segmentation information based on lifestyle stages and provided concrete examples of the do's and don'ts of marketing to women. It also keenly reminded me of the information I greedily absorbed during my Consumer Behaviour studies. From what I remember though, they definitely need to revise the sections on psychographics to include some of the techniques mentioned in this book, but that's a topic for another post!

It made me smile when Amanda indicated that some marketers (presumably male) still think of women as a niche. How on earth can more than half of the population be a niche, especially when they purportedly at least influence 80% of purchase decisions? That kind of thinking is probably on the don't list!

SO, in summary, this book will definitely remain on my marketing bookshelf as a reference, both for its inherent usefulness, but also simply because it encouraged me to ‘think pink'.

PS  I've just noticed that the cover is, indeed, pink, but Amanda does caution companies against thinking that turning a product pink will automatically endear them to women.