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?

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.

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)

I dislike it as well, it's unnecessary.

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.

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.

Found it:

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

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.

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.

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.

Thanks for link @Piggywaspushed, soooo spot on!