Welcome to Tuesday Book Chat. This is where we encourage book lovers to answer our bookish question of the week.
Today’s question is:
Do you get frustrated when you read a book that’s marketed wrong?
We look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please join in the conversation by commenting on this post or on the blog post shared in our Australasian Christian Writers Facebook Group.
Let’s chat!
Simple answer is Yes. I have read or started to read a few in the past year marketed Inspirational Romance but were Women’s Fiction. Another was marketed Romance and while there was romance it wasn’t the focus. I am use to meeting both Hero and Heroine by chapter two a couple it still hadn’t happened by chapter 4. Another was women’s fiction or Contemporary fiction marketed as Contemporary Romance. I do believe there was a romance towards the end of the book but after 5 chapters I gave up. If it is self published it makes me not trust the author. If it is a publisher I will be more careful when looking at books from this publisher.
Readers are not stupid we don’t like being tricked. I have heard authors say they deliberately mislabel a book to get more readers. Ironically several of these authors are no longer writing. I know Amazon can put books in the wrong category but a couple of the books I DNF were from Netgalley under the wrong category.
Your turn.
I look forward to reading your comments here or at the FB group. Remember all comments go into the monthly drawer for a gift voucher.
I write historical stories with a slow-build romance and important nonromantic friendships beyond the romantic pair. I hear from readers that they love how the romantic pair end up with a HEA even though it seemed impossible, but they aren’t genre romances. Romantic suspense has its own categories, but romantic historicals, as opposed to historical romances, don’t have any categories especially for them. We’re forced to go into the historical romance category because we don’t have one of our own.
What’s an HEA please?
Happy Ever After
That makes it hard. I know they use to have historical fiction which would often have the slow romance build up. I would consider a lot of Gilbert Morris’s books dealing with wars historical fiction rather than historical romance. They don’t really have historical suspense either do they.
I figure a new reader of my books can check out the Look Inside and they will quickly see it’s not your regular romance where the romantic pair meet each other quickly. Plus I try to make sure the blurb describes things so it will be clear it’s not just about the romance. But one avid romance reader wrote in an Amazon review that the romantic pair was her favorite of all time even though they never speak to each other until at least 20% of the way through the book. Go figure!
Yes, I get so annoyed at books that are marketed wrong.
Thanks for stopping by.
Hi Jenny, yes! I’ll get cranky that my genre expectations aren’t being met. Whereas if I had started reading with the right expectations, I may have liked and enjoyed the story. Sometimes the book category at the retailers is outside the control of the publisher/indie author, but the book description can define the type of story and include tropes etc.
I agree although I sometimes get annoyed when books are listed as tropes. Sometimes I want to just read without being told its a enemy to more book. Cos I instantly think of enemy as different to what most authors think. the same with some of the other tropes. I often don’t even work out what the trope is when reading cos its not important to me. Unless its secret baby which if mentioned its a secret baby trope I will probably leave it and then may miss a good book.
I found this quite interesting. I like any reading or listening situation to be as advertised. Recently my daughter and I were attracted to a notice about problems with feet. We spoke with the lady promoting this and she gave some advice and invited us to a meeting the following morning. We went and feet were not even mentioned. It was difficult to hear the speaker as tge area was not conducive to being able to hear. We did not like to be rude and get up to leave, but it was a waste of time. Reading something that is not what I would expect, would also be a waste of time.
Thanks Heather. I so agree its like saying we are giving away free chocolates and you go in and its a flu injection.
One book the cover portayed one thing and it was the cover that got me interested, the blurb said romance after 30% there was no romance and it womens fiction. Which had I known I would not have bought the book. Especially as the story wasn’t anything like what the blurb said. Its one reason why I will look at a sampler first to see if the book is what I want to read.