i feel like i'm picking at a scab here, but i'd like to push this discussion a little further. i'm not one of those people who 'just won't listen'. a quick look at the first and last drafts of my novel will show you that much.
but i've been doing some thinking, and i'm not yet convinced that my proposed tagline (which i've now changed to "shit is about to get real") is that big a problem... or even a problem at all.
Re: the tag line.
I'm no prude, but are intending to try and get the book stocked in bookshops, on Amazon? Not with the swears you won't.
i just had a look at amazon. i typed "shit" in their ebook search engine, and got several pages of books with the word "shit" in their titles or taglines.
Do you really want to be the author in the middle of a Daily Mail style witch-hunt?
i don't know. maybe i do. you can't buy that kind of publicity, right?
As for self-published books in actual stores. Yes it can happen, if you are a good salesman and get on well with the manager of your local bookstore.
i live in korea. my local bookstores aren't going to do me a whole hell of a lot of good.
I have plenty of friends who find the word "shit" just as offensive as the word "fuck", and who wouldn't consider your book simply because of that tagline. It doesn't matter how compelling your premise, or how good your writing is once they start to read: they won't even pick the book up and read the back cover copy because of that single word.
i'll save your friends the trouble. they aren't going to like the book.
But they're not likely to come across it, because many retailers won't even consider stocking a book with a tagline like that.
If you keep that tagline on your front cover you're going to restrict your potential market by a huge degree. I'm with gothicangel on this one.
okay... this is what i'd like to hear more about. who are the retailers who won't consider stocking a book with a "bad" word on the cover? and i'd like to emphasize that i'm not arguing with you, or claiming that you're wrong about this. it's a question to which i have no preconceived answer, and i'd genuinely like to know.
amazon was mentioned before, but i've discovered that doesn't seem to be the case.
i did a google search for profanity on book covers, and i got a bunch of blogs that centered on a few books, such as "shit my dad says", "go the fuck to sleep", "assholes finish first", and one more which i've forgotten the name of. they're in bookstores, aren't they?
one more point i'd like to make... covers can be changed, can't they? i mean, if i were to go ahead with it, and then decide later that it was a dumb idea, i can just go ahead and change the cover, can't i? start over?
please don't write me off as someone who is just going to ignore you and do whatever i want anyway. as you can see in post #57, i dumped the idea at one point because of your advice.
i want to do what's best for me and my book. but i also don't want to make any judgments based on the opinions of two people who might just not like "bad" language... even if one of them is old hack, who has demonstrated time after time that she's someone who knows her shit. (no offense intended.)