Weird trend in middle grade fiction titles

[conuly]

Not sure if I brought this up before. I may have.

For some reason, realistic fiction (contemporary or historical) featuring Asian-American female protagonists is substantially more likely to have a title along the lines of "Do a Thing, Firstname Lastname!" than other middle grade books.

Do the people responsible for handing out titles know they're doing this, do you think?

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Comments

[wpadmirer]

Yes, because marketing departments copy what was successful for someone else.

[sabotabby]

I avoid middle grade books like the plague but I just looked and yep, you're right.

They absolutely know. All publishing seems to amount to "I want a book that's exactly like this without violating copyright."

Novocherkassk

[dewline]

1962 was a trauma that town has yet to begin recovering from, yes?

[conuly]

They absolutely know. All publishing seems to amount to "I want a book that's exactly like this without violating copyright."

To be fair, while the titles and blurbs are similar, and of course the characters have a few distinct similarities, the books differ greatly from one another. I do not avoid middle grade at all, I've always liked it.

[conuly]

It is such a weird trend. And I don't know if it helps sales or hurts them in the end.

[crystalpyramid]

In this case publishers' desire to get people to accidentally buy books thinking they are other books sure seems like it plays into the "All Asians are the same" trope. Sigh.