I Find It Off Putting: The gripping new thread about Amazon subtitles with a twist that will leave you breathless.

Thanks for link @Piggywaspushed, soooo spot on!

Thank you for the link Piggy
My bugbear with titles is the wordy ones that suggest a thinking, vaguely philosophical novel, that invariably turn out to be pretentious tripe. Eg “The seven people you will meet in heaven”; which spawned a whole load of copycats.

Top of The Staircase
I agree with the pp who said that if it’s declared that the book has a twist you won’t see coming, I’m continually trying to outsmart the claim and question everything throughout the story.

I hadn't noticed the thing with the stairs on the front of psychological fiction before (covers are less obvious on the kindle) but yes, that's so accurate.

Found it:

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5XmjRsgywfr97t4VJ2tkDyh/judging-books-by-their-covers-five-publishing-design-cliches

BookWitch there was quite an amusing thing on the internet I once encountered where someone had mocked up generic book covers. Will see if I can refind it. It was amusing. I think I may have posted it on the MN 50 Books thread ages ago.

Oh yes, me too! What's it all about?? It seems very American in style (their book covers tend to do this, too, in the spirit of their journalism being more 'loquacious, too)

I have decided any book with an Amazon subtitle is shit.

I dislike it as well, it's unnecessary.

In the same vein, does anyone else think the mass Amazon/supermarket appeal requirements are making all book covers look exactly the same? Like these (which may be fabulous books) - they seem to merge into one (yellow typeface, dark mysterious background). Likewise, the required cover for romance seems to be large curly font on seaside background?

My sister works in illustration and I know the briefs she gets are so prescriptive. (And if the cover is aimed for the US market as well as the British one, there is so much she has to steer clear of)

Me too, I fecking hate them.

If you want to tell me it's book 2 in a 5 book series, that's fine. If you want to tell me this book is "for fans of xyz", well, I often disagree but I can live with that. But I will not buy anything that comes up with one of those bloody "the gripping thriller that EVERYONE is talking about" subtitles. I hate them beyond all reason.

No, I didn't write paragraphs detailing the complex relationship between publishing industry, supermarkets, book-shops, Amazon, editors, agents and writers. My bad.

Oh, it’s just that you didn’t say, ‘I understand the publisher is stuck between a rock and a hard place, and that if they don’t do exactly what’s required of them, the retailer just will not support it, and then it will sell approx 4 copies, then the editor will have the joyous task of explaining THAT to my agent and me.’

Yeah I know this

Oh for goodness sake, authors! Do you really think publishers are like, yeah I don’t really care but I thought I’d just put this hideous strap line on because you know, that was my aim when I decided to spend my life working with books? Or do you think they are under huge, relentless, endless stressful pressure from retailers like amazon, Tesco, Asda.

I have been with a major buyer as she flicked through a book of upcoming titles and the length of time she spends looking at a jacket/title/strap line before saying ‘nah, I don’t really like it, I don’t think we’ll take it’ is approx 6 seconds.

When the alternative when you do EXACTLY what they want can be ‘great, we’ll take 10k copies’. Of course the publishers have to bed over backwards for them.

I do agree. The Girl in the Letter is a good read though!

That's very interesting about publishers not listening to the author.
I read the novel Spitting by Fay Weldon recently, for a psychology course I was taking in which I had to choose a book relating to psychology and write about it. The publisher description said that it was a novel about multiple personality disorder/dissociative identity disorder.
The main character most definitely had issues, but she did not have MPD/DID. In fact, the words "multipe personality disorder" were oever mentioned in the actual text of the book. Good story, but horrible representation of a very real condition.

Yes, agreeing with pp, we authors can find them mortifying.

We say to the publishers, ‘please don’t say it’s a laugh out loud, wet your pants, hysterically funny’ etc. Because It isn’t.
They say ‘oh it’s fine’
It’s published then all the bloody reviews say, ‘it was ok but it wasn’t laugh out loud, hysterically funny’ etc etc.

My Writing Hell: This Behind the Scenes Author Tell All Will Open Your Eyes

or: believe me, speaking as an author, there is nothing worse than writing a book and having an Amazon-algorithm-friendly strapline walloped on the end of a title you probably didn’t choose. Because of course we have to have Amazon/supermarket friendly titles too. And don’t even get me started on the covers - we don’t get a choice on them, either.

OP, I couldn't agree more and I love your thread title.

I hate it when books trumpet that they have a "twist that you won't see coming". From page 2 I am second-guessing everything: is the narrator actually dead? is the person with a man's name that you assume is her partner actually her cat? When you get to the actual "twist" it's inevitably a let down.

And I love a book with a twist, when you don't see it coming. When it properly takes your breath away and you have to put the book down in shock.

Tbh I think that's exercising good judgement, though. You know what you like and don't like, there's no law says you have to read everything even if it's won a prize or is a best seller. Personally when I see books being yelled about as "the next big thing" I run in the other direction and wait for six months of reviews to settle down. I really find I appreciate the story more that way, rather than giving in to FOMO. I suppose you could say I'm part of the problem as I do pre-pub reviews myself, but I pride myself on not being scared to hand out a low rating if I didn't like it.

I think a lot of the books you describe are massively overpromoted because of the way we buy books now - bookshops are not as prevelant as they once were and most people don't see an hour browsing for pop fiction as well spent. We buy books at a steep discount in Tesco, at the airport, online, and those covers and titles have to catch your attention immediately. And they do try to tap into the social fear of missing out on what "everyone's talking about" because they're competing for water cooler time along with the latest reality TV, blockbuster film and video game. The rise of the celeb author has also been part of that, although the backlash has been rumbling for the past couple of years now. It's clever, but becoming mighty tedious after many years of it.

I am getting so judgy about books.

I used to have a rule that I would not read books with cupcakes or shopping bags on the cover.

Over the last year or so, this has expanded to a refusal to read:

No cupcakes or shopping bags on the cover
Anything that claims to have a twist I will never see coming
A "must read" of the year
Books about sweet shops/coffee shops/bakeries/chocolate shops/cafes by the sea
Thrillers with three short word titles like "I lost you" "He sees you" etc etc
Misery lit with "Daddy" or "Please" in the title.

I may be missing out on some real gems doubt it though

Thank you so much for clarifying that for me. That makes a lot of sense.

In itself, it's fine and can be useful - linking books together is normal and I do it all the time (mostly in a "if you liked Wimpy Kid, for the love of God try this, this and this" fashion ) It's when it's plastered over every new book that comes out that it gets tiresome. Harry Potter is the big example in kidlit - for years and years every book that had even a hint of magic or boarding schools or orphans or even more than three books in the series was "the next Potter". Complete marketing rubbish; people stop taking notice when it's overplayed.

"For Fans of Gone Girl"
But isn't that OK? IME, if a book description says "for fans of", does that not mean that either it is about a similar topic, or many customers have brought both books?
I have found a few new authors this way.

Drives me mad too, and it does seem to signal "self-published tripe" even when it's not. But it's not all at Amazon's end - I get a fair number of advance copies due to my job and this claptrap is all over the promo emails from publishers. Pretty much guarantees I won't request it. Doesn't seem to be applied to children's books, but it's all over thrillers and "chick lit" (ugh, but you know what I mean) and is creeping into SFF and historical.