fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #4236 ]

[ SECRET POST #4236 ]

⌈ Secret Post #4236 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 08 secrets from Secret Submission Post #606.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Are book summaries always just...*bad*?

I went to Amazon to read the summary of the book in the secret (and some reviews, out of curiosity), and that summary is so...cliched. It's like every *other* 'human and fae/magical world in peril' book summary ever.

I swear, book summaries are just *dreadful*, and it kinda puts me off wanting to read much of anything.

So basically just like my fic summaries.

If you say so. I know my own fic summaries are more of a fucking struggle to write than the damn fic usually is.
Argh.

Heh, mine are like that too, anon. Summaries are hard.

Yup. In my experience, book summaries are terrible, a least for fiction. Sometimes nonfiction summaries are okay.

They really are. WTH. It's like you are allowed only certain words in certain combinations or something. Dreadful.

Yeah, more often than not, they're just awful and don't really give you an idea of what to expect at all. I don't think authors or publishers put much time and effort into them.

I really hope authors have no control over them, 'cause otherwise...wow. That's how you get people to read, guys!

DA

Publishers have blurb writers that are supposed to do the blurb and much hoopla is given to how important they are along with the book jacket and the art team. And this all comes out of the author's cut basically that the publisher does all this for them.

Summary writing is difficult (as a self pubbed I do my own and base it on the query shark method in my own voice.) It's more difficult when it feels like the blurb writers haven't even read the book... that's gotten one edit. So if it sounds cliche, it probably got pulped out with every other YA blurb the blurb writer had for that month and possibly from a synopsis.

Yes. I'm a cynic.

Probably not so much cynical as realistic. I mean, considering how fucked up and wrong a lot of book art/covers are.....

Well to be fair, from what little I remember, “like every *other* ‘human and fae/magical world in peril book’ is a pretty accurate summary of this one. I just finished Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik and liked it a lot better. Also Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge and The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic by Emily Barker, and—uh, wow, I read a lot of these.

Heee!

Cool. I'll check them out.

Currently reading Spinning Silver right now and enjoying it but the thing that bothers me is everything is in first person and when it switches characters it doesn't actually warn you. The first time it happened I was really confused and then I got used to the way it switched and then all of a sudden another POV character started talking and I got confused all over again! Kind of takes one out of the moment.

I haven't found any on Amazon, but a long time ago (maybe 15-20 years ago), I found a book at a bookstore with a summary that read something like this: "She ate the candy. She smiled. It tasted good."

It was a Middle Grade (so late elementary/primary school) level book, but... still. And no, "candy" wasn't a metaphor for drugs.

.........wow.
That's just.....

Wow.

They're always pretty bad and, in some cases, misleading. I've read books where the summaries made it seem like the books were gonna be light beach reads, when in reality they're super dark and everybody dies.

Yeesh.
DNW!!

Yes! I remember one book in particular that I'm still traumatized by. The summary actually called it a "light, fun beach read" but it was super fucked up. The main character, who up until a certain point had only had consensual sex with other adult dudes, decided that being gay was already morally wrong so he might as well molest a kid too, and then he ended up killing himself. Just...WTF.

A lot of the time! I always get the free Kindle books, which are mostly unknown authors, and usually get like 10 at a time, picking them by the summary. Usually by the time I get around to reading them, I can't remember what they're supposed to be about and I think "well, I know the summary sounded good, I'll give it a shot" and the book ends up being completely off the wall and I go back and read the summary and it's nothing at all like the actual book. I've found a few really good books through the free ones, but most of them are...not great.

At least they were free.... :D

Super late reply on this, but I think that book/series is just bad, lol. I have not read it, but listened to the episode about it on The Worst Bestsellers podcast, and it sounds like every other generic fae story out there. But then I think a lot of things are bad, which is why I love that podcast. They kept referring to it as "the horny fairy books."

Yeah, I think some book summaries are dreadful because the books themselves are.

Heee!
Sheesh.

I dunno - even the summaries for books i like pretty much suck. I think the industry is stuck in a kind of groove re: certain words and phrases.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #4236 ]

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