I Won't Do It

I hate when authors front load a description of their book in the book's title.  I just stumbled across one that was like "TITLE: A chilling psychological thriller, that will keep you on the edge of your seat."  (Yes, the misplaced comma was theirs.)

Seriously, folks?  This is how you're going to pimp your books? 

Have readers gotten so lazy that if the description isn't in the title, they won't read further to see if the book is right for them? 

:shudder:

Anyway, I won't do it.  It feels sleazy to me.  And I have a really tough time buying books that use that marketing scheme.  Cuz... sleazy.

Imagine if other products started that crap...

Cheerios: A tasty, heart-healthy cereal that will make your family smile.

Umm, yeah.  Maybe it's just me, but I don't want the commercial right there in the title.  If you can't grab readers with your title, your cover, and your blurb, sticking the description in the title probably won't do it.  Although in this 'short attention span theater' world we live in, maybe that's all the time you have.  :shrug:  I still don't like it.

And if I don't like it when someone else does something, I won't do it myself.  I keep hearing Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday in my head talking about hypocrisy. 

What do you think? 

And for a bit of fun, write a NAME: DESCRIPTION thing for a product like the Cheerios example up there.  (Mine was lame.  Can you do better?)