Friday 3 February 2017

The Future begins with F





Damnit to hell, have I missed a trick! Publishers, who are supposed to know about these things, have discovered that inserting a profanity in their book titles increases sales. The profanity has become a marketing tool. Apparently those titles using the F… word have increased threefold. The mere insertion of ‘Shit’ in a title will see sales double. So we see such books as ‘The Life Changing Magic Of Not Giving a F…’ ‘The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck (A sequel perhaps but pushing the boat out with just the one asterisk) Even grammar has become sexy, given that extra bit of swagger with titles like ‘F…ing The Apostrophe.’ And colouring books, too, are getting in on the act. with titles such as ‘Color Me F*cking Calm.’  Mercifully the Victorians were immune from this madness, though then again, some new editions of Dickens or Austen could possibly be sexed up. I'll leave you to consider the possibilities.  I certainly am, with my own work.
I can't afford to miss out on such marketing wisdom and am busy considering my options. 
‘Cheyney F…ing Behave,’ might work.  And if there is to be a sequel to Murenger Tales, it will likely be ‘More F…ing Murenger Tales.’

Yes, I have seen the future and it begins with F. In the immortal words of Country Joe McDonald and the Fish: 'Give me an F. .. 

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3 comments:

Maria Zannini said...

And yet, I've never bought a book with an expletive.

Shock value always sells at, least until expletives are on every other book, then it will be cool to have a book title that doesn't curse at you.

Mike Keyton said...

It was tongue in cheek, Maria. I agree wholeheartedly. To me it smacks of cynical patronisation. And yet, as a fad it clearly has a measure of success. A bit like Pokamon

Unknown Soldier said...

We'll see