My weekly round up of “interesting stuff I found while procrastinating”:
#1: Blogger King Rat on authors behaving badly towards reviewers who write negative reviews. I agree that authors have the right to respond to negative reviews. It may not necessarily be productive depending on how it is done, but if they feel the need they are entitled to do it. I don’t think authors have the right to encourage stalking by handing out reviewers’ personal contact details and trying to inflame readers to contact reviewer (or worse).
#2: An interesting piece over on Tor.com by Brian James on whether we should judge a book by its cover. I have to admit that I’m guilty of this. This is one area where self-published books really shoot themselves in the foot because the covers invariably have a quality that marks them as self-published.
#3: It looks like Alan Dean Foster is writing the first book in the new Star Trek universe, following his novelization of this summer’s movie. The novelization was listed at $20 for the paperback which I thought was a ridiculous price–even regular Star Trek books are priced ridiculously for the “Harlequin” of sci-fi. No news on whether regular pricing will return with this book. If you read the article closely you’ll see that there is already a sequel to this summer’s movie in the works (news to me, but then I don’t keep up on these things).
3 Comments
In my typical BookChook way, I was unaware of the bunfight about Hoffman’s twitter comments etc. I agree that it’s harassment to put the personal details up and invite rebuke.
So much snark seems a waste of space, to me.
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uhh-ohh ! I m guilty of judging a book by its cover!
veens´s last blog ..Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
Any teacher will tell you that kids will pick up books based on their interest in the cover. The cover is everything when your new to reading. A bad cover completely destroys interest and a cover that’s misunderstood can also destroy interest.
For example, the first Bobby Pendragon book has a star in a circle on the cover. You will not find this book in the library of my school (we’re a private Christian school) even though it’s a fantastic read for our older students. Why? Because the star looks like a pentagram. It’s silly, but there ya are. The first 39 Clues had flying skulls all over it – most students thought it was a horror novel and I had to practically read out loud the first chapter to get them interested.
However, Tamora Pierce’s books are readily snatched up by girls because the girls on the cover wear armor – and perceived as being action heroes (which they are).
A cover can hurt or help an author…it just depends on the genre.