Not reading: this year's must-read gripping thriller with a shocking twist

[Crusoe]

It's a little thing, but it really bugs me with ebooks (or even online sales of normal books) that a title isn't good enough - the marketing blurb has to be part of it as well.

From the top 15 books on Amazon:

X: The feel-good novel of the year
X: An absolutely gripping thriller with a jaw-dropping twist
X: A gripping serial killer thriller with a shocking twist
X: The stunning new psychological thriller you won't be able to put down!
X: The addictive Sunday Times bestseller everyone is gripped by (Addictive *and* gripping? I'm sold!)
X: The most gripping debut psychological thriller of year
X: A gripping emotional page turner with a twist that will take your breath away
X: A gripping crime thriller with a huge twist

Agh. Just give me the title. If everyone is appending this bullshit to every title, it adds nothing distinctive or useful anyway. And it's a safe bet that every thriller is supported to be gripping, and many will have twists. Is publishing so bereft of marketing ideas that this formulation really seems like a good idea?

I'm sounding increasingly curmudgeonly anyway, so I'll just say in response to these titles: I'll be the judge of that.

(Well, I won't, as none appeal in the slightest.)

[WOM]

Not reading: this year's must-read gripping thriller with a shocking twist

Crusoe wrote: Is publishing so bereft of marketing ideas that this formulation really seems like a good idea?

Just lost a fairly good (and lengthy) reply on this; so to recap: yes, marketing is bereft of new things to say about old 'categories', but you have to say those things over and over and over again for years on end.

There's only so much you can say about anything. Most products or services scratch a single itch, and there are only so many ways to describe that. The exception is something like Skittles, where they recognized the limitations of talking about fruit-flavoured jelly beans and just said "Have fun with it."

[Sits]

Not reading: this year's must-read gripping thriller with a shocking twist

How about a couple of pages of:

Praise for Ben Radox's The Viper in the Bin:

Then telling us what the Sunday Times, Heil on Sunday et al gushed about it.

[Sam]

Not reading: this year's must-read gripping thriller with a shocking twist

It seems to mostly be the self-published ones that go down this route, and it drives me up the wall when I'm browsing the Kindle store as well.

It is a handy way of signposting which books I'm probably not going to be interested in, though.

[Levin]

Not reading: this year's must-read gripping thriller with a shocking twist

It's not just self published ones at all.

I was just checking amazon and the listing of a book I'd been thinking of buying (keep a wishlist on Amazon, uy from actual bookshops) had changed to.

Compass : SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2017
by Mathias Enard (Paperback)

Who controls the listings? It has to be Amazon hasn't it? They don't let publishers do anything.

[Sam]

Not reading: this year's must-read gripping thriller with a shocking twist

I think there's a difference between mentioning it's been shortlisted for/won an award (which isn't much different to flagging it up via a sticker/signpost in a physical bookshop) and sticking some author/publisher-written praise of their own work in there, though. The latter is what screams amateurism to me.