[ SECRET POST #6037 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #6037 ⌋

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


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[Brother Complex]



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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 30 secrets from Secret Submission Post #863.
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.

Comments

[fscom]

03. https://i.imgur.com/tfgIinj.png

[(Anonymous)]

I haaaaaate this trend so much. And none of the books that are advertised as “for fans of X and Y” have ever matched up to the works of X and Y. I also hate the back of the book being a list of reviews instead of an actual summary or excerpt.

[feotakahari]

I’ve seen posts from writers about how their publishers insisted on “X meets Y” marketing even when they thought it was stupid.

[(Anonymous)]

I get why authors feel like they have to do it, but yeah, hate it too. It's so reductive and unappealing to me.

[(Anonymous)]

I lurked in a writing subreddit for a bit and saw that authors were literally forced to pitch their stories like that to publishers. And it was enough to remind me that I get much more personal satisfaction and direct feedback worrying fanfiction than I would trying to write something a publisher thinks will be the next Twilight or what have you.

[(Anonymous)]

I would read the hell out of the book the second part of the secret describes!

But I also get the secret. What makes me cringe is romance novels that literally have the tropes ("grumpy boss" "second chance romance" "just one bed") in the title or subtitle. And I like romance novels.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree completely, anon. I'd much rather get something more like a super-brief novel synopsis with the ending chopped off than these misleading pastiches of cliches.

And a lot of the time, the latter feels like it's setting the book up for failure instead of letting it be what it is: something (hopefully) different and distinct from what other, more established authors wrote.

[(Anonymous)]

I understand it's a requirement now. But people insist on doing it even when they rec books. And podcasts. I've seen one indie author describe their own podcast checkbox style, I noped out immediately

[(Anonymous)]

The only case I really know of a) happening is when books (manga too) are given as recs. The other two are real publishing industry problems, but I have never, ever read a book summary that was nothing but a checklist of identities. I read a lot of books in subgenres where the appeal could uncharitably be said to be "identity checklists," and see other readers recing them that way, but never the official summaries.

[(Anonymous)]

I used to work in bookstores, and then publishing-adjacent. What you're descriving is a marketing cliche; it's also terribly effective. Especially in genre fiction, which is trying to convert sales from non-genre readers (which is why crossover hits are always referenced - Gone Girl for crime/thriller, Game of Thrones for fantasy - they're reference markers that work outside their own genre)