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

[Tessliketrees]

I don't mind a bit of a thriller but I honestly can't bring myself to buy anything with those bizarre subtitles they are tacking on to the end of every title.

It just reminds me of a self published pile of shite. Is anybody actually swayed by this? To be clear I mean when the actually title of the book has a colon then a naff subtitle such as-

"The Girl in the Letter: The most gripping, heartwrenching page-turner of the year"

"Nowhere Girl: Shocking. Page-Turning. Intelligent. Psychological Thriller Series with Cate Austin"

Or this one which really confuses me-

"The Dream Wife: The gripping new psychological thriller with a twist you won't see coming in 2018"

I don't get the reference to the year at the end.

I just had a brain wave as I was writing this, could this be a search optimisation thing?

I agree (and like your thread title).
I think the only time there should be a subtitle is when it clarifies what the book is about. For example (basing these off yours but making these up):
Dream Wife: the Diary of a New German Bride in London, 1860
I Find It Off-Putting: the 100 Character Traits I Cannot Stand in a Date

I totally agree and my initial stance was also to refuse to buy the book. However I'm fast running out of options

I've worked in digital marketing for a long time. It could be search engine optimisation but more likely there to 'help' customers shopping on a mobile device where space is limited.

They will have tested with and without annoying straplines, as seen buying conversion rates higher on the longer ones.

I very nearly started a thread about this. It does my head in!

I hate too! That and 'for fans of Gone Girl', god Amazon - get over it!

I thought it was just me! The annoying straplines guarantee that I won't even be reading the blurb, never mind the book.

I thought this was going to be a book about the horrors of making subtitles for Amazon, was already invested in what the big twist could be

But now I’ve read it properly I agree with you.

I agree! If I see one more book description with 'the most gripping psychological thriller of 2018' on it, I will scream.

And they're usually not.

Agreement: The most agreeing with post that you will see on this thread in 2018.

Spoiler: stop telling me there is a huge/stunning/breath-taking plot twist.

They are usually visible a mile off.

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.

"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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Yeah I know this

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.’

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