Monday, May 13, 2013

Pitches that Grab Me

Despite the fact that my review policy says I'm not accepting books for review, I still get upwards of ten pitches a day for new books.  Add those to summaries I read on GoodReads, publisher's catalogs, blogs and elsewhere, and I'm reading tons of new pitches every day.  So what makes me curious enough to add something to my TBR?

Top ten words/subjects in pitches that make me take notice:

plague
time travel
fairy tale retelling
parallel worlds
afterlife
dystopian
road trip/globetrotting/travel
thriller
doppelgänger
music/dance/performing arts


Top ten words/subjects that make me not want to read a book:

fairies 
politics
ennui
cutting/self harm
stream of consciousness
womanizer
small town high school life
cancer
animal cruelty or death
drugs/gangs/street violence

How about you?

5 comments:

Natalie Aguirre said...

Interesting to see what you like and don't like. I don't get many requests for reviews because I mostly interview authors with ARC giveaways.

Alyce said...

What appeals to me: time travel and special powers. The number one word that turns me off from books is "lyrical." Most times that is code for "very flowery language loaded with too many bad similes and metaphors." I physically cringe when I see "lyrical" in a description. I've been burned too many times by that one.

The Insouciant Sophisticate said...

Fairy tale retelling is one of the big things that grab me as well-cannot pass them up!

Charlotte said...

A huge number of the pitches I get emphasize the Message of the book. If the pitch has "teaches" in it, I hit the delete key faster than a jackrabbit on hot asphalt. Or something.

Shapeshifter is a good one for me.Zombie is not.

Anonymous said...

What an interesting question! I am also dying to read a book about a plague (no pun intended). But anything about a small town appeals to me, whereas I am put off by the idea of a fairy tale retelling.