Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Swearing with Book Titles Oh My!

So I was looking through Amazon's kindle to see if anything good was available to download and for the second time I've come across a book with swears in the title.  I won't post the books here as C.B.S. is for anyone and I don't want to lower it by using distasteful words, but my question is are we in the era that the only way to put out a book is with a swear in the title?  I can tell you this it definitely puts me off from buying it.  While I am tolerable to a degree with four letter words in my books, in a title is another thing.  I mean I could just see a friend coming over and saying what is with that book???  As with anyone who owns books your friends end up seeing them when they come over and I couldn't see trying to explain that to anyone.  Talk about foot in the mouth.  I think these publisher's and editors really need to put the kabash on these titles.  Can swears really sell?  Maybe I'm just old fashioned all though my friends and family usually say otherwise go figure.  What are your thoughts on this theory?

4 shout outs:

Tesseract said...

It's a sad commentary on the state of the world when in order to grab attention, we needs to resort to foul language..

Maybe someday we'll go back to being civil again.

Chelle said...

On the one hand I completely agree with you. I don't like the trend of putting swear words on the covers. And I think it tells us something about how much out culture no longer cares about respecting people... because that's what good manners are - a way to show respect.

On the other hand, I respect an author's right to present himself as he see fit even if that means putting a swear word in the title. And I think it's sad that we must feel secretive about what we read, or censor what we read, just because we fear what people might think.

Will I buy a book for myself that has a swear word in the title? Probably not. Covers/titles are about marketing and I'm not likely to be that type of book's target audience. But considering covers/titles are marketing ploys, I try to remember not to judge a book by its cover! Rather I try to look at the book as a whole to determine if it has any merit.

Sorry if this got long! It's a strange world we live in.

Paula said...

yea I see what you mean about judging a book I'm just thinking it may not sell as well with a swear word in the title. Just a strange era we live in nowadays. I guess anything goes

janethsieh said...

On the one hand I completely agree with you. I don't like the trend of putting swear words on the covers. I see what you mean about judging a book I'm just thinking it may not sell as well with a swear word in the title.dissertation help