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Jumpin' On The Old Bandwagon: When Publishers Get Lazy.

Started by Serge, November 24, 2017, 09:50:46 PM

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Serge

Inspired by this post in the Costa thread:

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on November 23, 2017, 10:49:41 PM
Ha ha! Not quite a rant but sometimes publishers seem like such sheep. The post Gone Girl tendency for thrillers to have black and white covers with block yellow titles is the most striking one but, yeah, so many of those books aimed at women use Rob Ryan style cut outs. There was a time when women books used to be all fluorescent with pictures of heels and bottles and shopping bags but now it's all cutesy ribbon writing and trees. Even the titles of certain types of fiction seem really similar.

Since moving back into 'proper' bookshops, it's really hit me how samey a lot of books seem, which is obviously because publishers think that when a book suddenly takes off, if they replicate what they think made it a success, they'll have another multi-million seller on their hands. It doesn't work, of course. There is also some crossover here with the 'Shit For Cunts' thread that I started in Comedy Chat, when publishers see what was a smash one year and try to jump on the bandwagon with something similar next year in the hope that it'll catch fire. This also rarely works, though sadly, the example which made me start that thread - the 'adult' Famous Five books, actually caught on, and are close to matching the success of the 'adult' Ladybird books (which are limping into their third year of flogging a dead horse.)

As hzj points out above, there is definitely a trend in crime fiction for publishers to go for very similar looking covers - it was something we observed at work when putting a small table of recent crime titles together and noticing that pretty much all of them had black and yellow covers. There was (is) also a run of books with the word 'Girl' in the title after the success of 'Gone Girl' and 'The Girl On The Train', which is annoying because the protagonists in all of these books are adult women, and if they had been male characters, the titles wouldn't have had 'Boy' in, would they? One example is the Millennium books by Stieg Larrsson/David Lagercrantz, which in their English translations are all 'The Girl With/Who....', whereas in the original Swedish, only the second book in the series has a 'Girl' title, and it works in that instance because the title has a double meaning that relates to when Salander was a girl.

How about all of those twee books about Little Shops? 'The Little Coffee Shop Of Kabul' (and its sequel), 'The Little Paris Bookshop', 'The Little Shop Of Happy Ever After', 'The Little Wedding Shop By The Sea', 'The Little Teashop Of Lost And Found', 'The Little Bookshop On The Seine' (hmmm, that sounds even more familiar than usual), even 'The Little Bed & Breakfast By The Sea' - nearly all published in the last couple of years or so.

Even cult novels get cloned. After Emma Cline's excellent 'The Girls' became a word of mouth sensation, it was followed by the none-too-subtle 'My Favourite Manson Girl' by Alison Ummiger (whose original title was 'American Girls', which is still a bit too close for comfort) and 'Charlie And Me' by Stuart Millard.

Over in non-fiction, the success of the ridiculous 'Hygge' books ('Hygge' is Swedish for 'Meaningless Bollocks', I think) last year - as I pointed out in the Shit For Cunts thread, there were even two parody books about it even as all the various different cash-in versions were piling up - means that this year, you can buy more crappy would-be self-help spiritual woo-woo crap such as Lagom ('the Swedish art of balanced living'), Lykke ('the Danish search for the World's happiest people'), Ikagai ('the Japanese secret to a long and happy life') and Kakeibo ('the Japanese art of saving money'). All tastefully packaged in miniature hardbacks with covers that don't hurt the eyes.

And last year's unseen runaway success 'The GCHQ Puzzle Book' means that this year we have 'Bletchley Park Brainteasers' and 'Spy School: Are You Sharp Enough To Be A KGB Agent?', not to mention, 'Puzzle Ninja: Pit Your Wits Against The Japanese Puzzle Masters'.

Depressingly enough, they all seem to sell well enough for the cycle to carry on - though never in anything like the piles they'd hoped for - until they've squeezed the life out of them and they jump on the next bandwagon when something else takes them by surprise.


Serge

Still is, to a degree. One of the biggest selling books of the last year is 'Eating The Elephant', about a woman who discovered her husband was a paedophile. Not to mention 'The Hospital', admittedly one of more local interest, about a hospital just outside Derby where they apparently experimented on kids - can't keep up with the demand for that one. But I do remember being staggered when I first noticed that WHSmith had a whole section devoted to what they called 'Tragic Life Stories' - and that it ran to two whole drops of books. 'A Child Called It' has a lot to answer for. (And didn't he make a lot of that up? I haven't read it, but I did used to like upsetting people who had by telling them it was all a pack of lies.)


holyzombiejesus

I saw a table of thrillers in Leeds' Waterstones the other day and it was like staring at a magic eye poster trying to single out a specific book.

holyzombiejesus

Maybe it's my cynicism getting to me but sometimes I just want to go in to my nearest bookshop, pull my pants down and do a big shit on the floor. It's all so fucking 'lovely' nowadays. Lovely novels with nice names in the titles and nice drawings and writing on the cover, lovely old board games in wooden boxes, lovely anthologies in hardback with a lovely picture on the front called shit like 'fireside ghost stories', lovely nature writing about hares and badgers and meadows and trees. Y'know, I like Chris Packham but what kind of cunt calls his autobiography Fingers in the Sparkle Jar? He should be castigated for that and his book should be burned in the street. Instead, people smile at it. They walk round [a bookshop] smiling, feeling all cosy because they're surrounded by lovely cosy snug books with pretty covers. I really really want to do that shit.

bgmnts

What kind of book titles do you want?

The Cunt in the Darkness?

holyzombiejesus

Ha! I know what you mean. Maybe I'm just thinking of excuses for shitting on bookshop floors. I'm heading to Derby soon so might try it then.


holyzombiejesus



Obviously if this was published, the title would have to change to something like 'The Desperate Befuddlements of Jenny Petticombe'.

jobotic

Quote from: Serge on November 24, 2017, 10:25:40 PM
Still is, to a degree. One of the biggest selling books of the last year is 'Eating The Elephant', about a woman who discovered her husband was a paedophile. Not to mention 'The Hospital', admittedly one of more local interest, about a hospital just outside Derby where they apparently experimented on kids - can't keep up with the demand for that one. But I do remember being staggered when I first noticed that WHSmith had a whole section devoted to what they called 'Tragic Life Stories' - and that it ran to two whole drops of books. 'A Child Called It' has a lot to answer for. (And didn't he make a lot of that up? I haven't read it, but I did used to like upsetting people who had by telling them it was all a pack of lies.)

"You got any of those books about abused children?"

"Yeah two bays of the fuckers".


Fortunately that craze seems to have died down a bit. Anyway, the space was needed for celebrity cookery and mindfulness books.

Serge

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on November 25, 2017, 12:59:48 AM
Ha! I know what you mean. Maybe I'm just thinking of excuses for shitting on bookshop floors. I'm heading to Derby soon so might try it then.

Heh, given that the carpet in our shop hasn't been changed since it opened over 20 years ago, and on a windy day the ground floor fills up with leaves, not to mention the fact that people think nothing of dropping manky snotty tissues on the floor after they've blown their nose, someone having a shit on the floor would barely cause my eyebrow to raise.

Serge

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on November 25, 2017, 01:27:47 AMObviously if this was published, the title would have to change to something like 'The Desperate Befuddlements of Jenny Petticombe'.

'The Little Shop Of Cunts Somewhere In Paris'

holyzombiejesus


Brundle-Fly

Isn't it the case that toilet books/ humour are the main revenue for publishing houses and without the likes of the adult Ladybird books (which I think are still funny), Bunny Suicides, Everything Is Crap, Haynes manual for Kylie Minogue's arse etc etc etc, they wouldn't be able to stick out some of the more weighty novels and niche stuff?

It's like how the success of Tubular Bells rather ironically paid the record advances  for loads of punk and New Wave bands on Virgin? Something that Mike Oldfield probably brings up with glee everytime punk is mentioned.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Serge on November 24, 2017, 10:25:40 PM
Still is, to a degree. One of the biggest selling books of the last year is 'Eating The Elephant', about a woman who discovered her husband was a paedophile. Not to mention 'The Hospital', admittedly one of more local interest, about a hospital just outside Derby where they apparently experimented on kids - can't keep up with the demand for that one. But I do remember being staggered when I first noticed that WHSmith had a whole section devoted to what they called 'Tragic Life Stories' - and that it ran to two whole drops of books. 'A Child Called It' has a lot to answer for. (And didn't he make a lot of that up? I haven't read it, but I did used to like upsetting people who had by telling them it was all a pack of lies.)

From Wikipedia:

QuoteThe assertions in his memoirs have led to some skeptical commentary.[16] In a 2002 New York Times article by Pat Jordan the author questioned the reliability of Pelzer's recollections. He said that "Pelzer has an exquisite recall of his abuse, but almost no recall of anything that would authenticate that abuse", such as any details about his mother.[2] Two members of his family, his maternal grandmother and brother, have disputed his book. One of his younger brothers, Stephen, denies that any abuse took place, and says that he thinks David was placed in foster care because "he started a fire and was caught shoplifting".[2] However, his other brother Richard Pelzer is author of the book A Brother's Journey, which confirms much of what David has said and describes his own abuse when David was finally removed from the home. In regard to this, Dave has said that Stephen had affection towards his mother and that "he misses her terribly because she protected him".[7] Due to the criticism from the New York Times article Dave does not give interviews often.[7]

In an article in The Boston Globe Pelzer's grandmother said she believed Dave had been abused but not as severely as he described. She also said she didn't believe his brother Richard was abused. It was revealed, however, that Pelzer's grandmother did not live in the same state as his brothers and family and was not in contact with them when the abuse happened.[17]

An article in The Guardian notes that gaps in the background narrative "makes the foreground harder to trust".[13] The author writes, "My own hunch is that, substantially, he's telling the truth ... But there is a definite feeling of exaggeration in the later two books..." The author then states the same feeling Plotz also covered in his article, that she feels Pelzer is profiting from his abuse and minimizing the seriousness of the crime by making the writing "entertaining".[13]

holyzombiejesus

There was another one about an alcoholic that was proven to be lies as well, wasn't there?

Catalogue Trousers

Yeah. Then The Devil Poured Me Another Sherry by Edwin Dogbotherer.

Serge

Serious answer: Yes, it was this one. Which I haven't read either. The idea of wading through a misery memoir just doesn't appeal to me, which is why I was fucked off when I read J.D. Vance's 'Hillbilly Elegy' earlier this year, which presented itself as a polemic, but was just a misery memoir in disguise. And his life wasn't even particularly miserable!

Brundle-Fly

Serge? Talking to someone in the know,  is there a grain of truth in what I posted earlier about bog books?


BritishHobo

Vlogger books seem to be the rage right now as well. Obviously they've been a thing for a while, with yer big hitters like Zoella or PewDiePie (both subjects of mad controversy this year), but more recently it seems like they're giving one to any fucker with a camera and half a dozen YouTube subscribers.

Serge

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on November 26, 2017, 11:23:04 PM
Serge? Talking to someone in the know,  is there a grain of truth in what I posted earlier about bog books?

I'm not really in the know! Those books sell well, but then, so do many 'real' books - I'd say it's half and half.

Jockice

I've never read a single word of either - being an adult and all that - but isn't Percy Jackson meant to be a Harry Potter rip-off?

holyzombiejesus

I never visit the Erotic Fiction section of my local Waterstones but I bet there are so many 50 shades rip offs, all published about 5 years ago. Grey covers, lips/ shoes coloured red, with titles like 'I Have Sinned' and 'Put Your Finger in my Bottom'.

Phil_A

Quote from: Jockice on November 27, 2017, 02:07:37 PM
I've never read a single word of either - being an adult and all that - but isn't Percy Jackson meant to be a Harry Potter rip-off?

Pretty much, yes. Every publisher of Young Adult fiction was trying to have their own Potter and "Percy Jackson" was one of the more egregious examples of that "Magical Boy and the Thing of the Things" trend. Subsequently overtaken by every YA publisher trying to produce the next Twilight.

Serge

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on November 27, 2017, 08:45:24 PM
I never visit the Erotic Fiction section of my local Waterstones but I bet there are so many 50 shades rip offs, all published about 5 years ago. Grey covers, lips/ shoes coloured red, with titles like 'I Have Sinned' and 'Put Your Finger in my Bottom'.

All the fiction gets lumped together, but I do like the fact that if we have to look up an 'erotic' author on Fantastic Fiction, you get taken to a 'special' section of the site devoted entirely to them. Talking of 50 Shades, E.L. James has another one in the series due out tomorrow. In the same vein as her rewriting '50 Shades Of Grey' as 'Grey' and telling the same story from the blokes point of view (obviously I haven't read any of them, but I understand that it is literally the same book with all the uses of 'he' changed to 'I'), this time she's rewritten '50 Shades Darker' as 'Darker' by doing exactly the same thing! And the pre-orders are through the roof! Money for jam.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Serge on November 27, 2017, 09:33:25 PM
All the fiction gets lumped together, but I do like the fact that if we have to look up an 'erotic' author on Fantastic Fiction, you get taken to a 'special' section of the site devoted entirely to them. Talking of 50 Shades, E.L. James has another one in the series due out tomorrow. In the same vein as her rewriting '50 Shades Of Grey' as 'Grey' and telling the same story from the blokes point of view (obviously I haven't read any of them, but I understand that it is literally the same book with all the uses of 'he' changed to 'I'), this time she's rewritten '50 Shades Darker' as 'Darker' by doing exactly the same thing! And the pre-orders are through the roof! Money for jam.

I'd like to read M.R.James take on this genre. Fifty Shrouds Of Grey?




Thomas

Quote from: Serge on November 27, 2017, 09:33:25 PM
In the same vein as her rewriting '50 Shades Of Grey' as 'Grey' and telling the same story from the blokes point of view (obviously I haven't read any of them, but I understand that it is literally the same book with all the uses of 'he' changed to 'I'), this time she's rewritten '50 Shades Darker' as 'Darker' by doing exactly the same thing! And the pre-orders are through the roof! Money for jam.

That's exactly what the author of Twilight was planning to do - re-writing the book from the bloke's perspective - before someone leaked the manuscript and she didn't bother. And didn't 50 Shades of Grey begin life as Twilight fanfiction? Money for jam squared.

Panbaams

Quote from: Thomas on November 28, 2017, 01:00:04 PM
That's exactly what the author of Twilight was planning to do - re-writing the book from the bloke's perspective - before someone leaked the manuscript and she didn't bother.
Wasn't this Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined?

Spoon of Ploff

going off on a tangent here, but comments on similar book covers got me thinking. does anyone else get miffed when they've a series of books by the same author which have matching cover styles, and then find their next book has a completely different style?

For example. Lovely:


but then. wtf???


send replies to sploff@idontlikethingsthatareDifferent.com

Serge

A few weeks before the new Phillip Pullman book came out, there were new versions of the original trilogy in a new design in hardback, so I assumed that the new book would be in the same style to complement them. Nope, it was about two inches bigger and with a completely different design. How hard would it have been to have done versions that fit in? I mean, I haven't even read them, and it bothered me, so there must be fans out there who are hopping mad.