Fashion in Book Titles - Annoying or Good Marketing?

[Meadow337]

Ok so you have a best seller and then next thing you know there are a host of copycat books with the same themes which is bad enough (the fashion for vampires as a case in point) but then you get the copycat titles. For example first there was "The Time Traveler's Wife" but now you have "The Shoemaker's Wife" and "The Aviator's Wife" and "The Pilot's Wife" just to name a few.

Does this annoy you? Or do you think it is just clever marketing? Does it indicate a lack of originality in publishing? Or perhaps a little too commercial approach?

 

[ChaosTheory]

*shrug*
It's just trend-riding. It happens with tv/music/movies too. Yeah, it's kind of annoying, but the writers & publishers are hedging their bets in a way; they want to sell to an established market. And sometimes the "copycat" books are actually pretty enjoyable.

 

[Meadow337]

Yes but then I prefer to judge that book on its own merits and it already puts me off when the title is not original. To me that indicates there is a strong possibility the content is not all that original either, but then I'm also the person who, on principle, will NOT buy things whose adverts irritate me. To me bad advertising is not 'good' advertising because I remember it. It is bad advertising, it annoys me and I will not support it with my money. Maybe if more people did that we would get a stronger emphasis on originality and less emphasis on a packaged 'product' to appeal to a mass audience. Maybe its time quality sold rather than what some advertising / marketing person THINKS the book needs to be in order to sell.

Fine if its going into the mass market of what used to be called pulp fiction but anything vaguely attempting to be 'good' needs to be individual and different and unique and well 'good' rather than put through the mass marketing meat grinder.

After all wouldn't you rather read a good book than one that is interchangeable with any number of other books?

 

[ChaosTheory]

Maybe its time quality sold rather than what some advertising / marketing person THINKS the book needs to be in order to sell.

Well yes, but marketing has always been that way. The mass is where the money is. The publishing industry, is like any other industry and for the most part they don't want to take risks.
If a book's synopsis looks interesting I pick it up; if it doesn't, I don't. Books that are good might get read by fewer people, but eventually they'll be remembered by more.

 

[Polly Parrot]

It annoys me, it suggests a lack of original thought and imagination on the author's (or publisher's) part. I feel much the same about the latest fad in the film industry of redoing films from the 60s onwards. Get your own idea already, I don't care if the remake can have all the shiny, new special effects.

I don't think having a similar title to that of a successful book is a guarantee for the new book to be sold in great quantities.

I much prefer originality over a rehashed subject.

 

[Meadow337]

I much prefer originality over a rehashed subject.

You said it!

And ditto on remakes of movies. Only in very rare instances is the remake as good as and even more rarely is it better. Is it so impossible to be creative? My understanding is that there are piles and piles of scripts in Hollywood, but if you don't present it in the right way, to the right person, at the right time, you can forget it regardless of how good it might be.

Books are obviously slightly different to movies - but why can't the publishers support authors with a low cost e-book? I really can't believe it costs as much to publish an e-book as a paper book bar a few cents for the paper. Formatting for e-publication is a whole lot less fussy than formatting and typesetting for printing. Publishers can even allow authors to format their own work, and submit ready to go work, bar a proof reader giving it the once over and that HAS to bring the cost down.

Anything to help boost original works getting into the market place with a bit of legitimacy attached to them because I think there is a stigma to 'self-published'. It isn't always necessary to have the whole homogenized to appeal to the masses thing.

It could start a whole new revolution.

 

[Sparhawk]

The whole appeal to the masses with a copy of something that has already been done is such a wrong way of thinking. Something new and original can appeal to just as many people as a spin off, it just has to be good enough. New and original best sellers do happen.

 

[Meadow337]

I agree!