I am such a snob.

[tahariel]

So, I guess I'm kind of a book snob.

(BTW, I am totally over all the freaking out today. It seems to have blown over. And also I have finished all my exams! Yay! So happy happy la la today. Tomorrow gotta go have my hair cut and buy Dad and Gail a happy engagement card. For those who don't know, they got engaged last week and told me on Monday, at which point I proceeded to freak out over all the change that implied, but I'm over it now.)

Over on Smart Bitches, Trashy Novels a male author who has just been told by his publisher that he has written a paranormal romance wants a primer in paranormal romance, and so has asked for recommendations.

Now, I love paranormal-type novels, and alot of them are paranormal romance. So off I trotted to Amazon with many of the titles from this list to see what they were about, what I thought by reading the summaries, that sort of thing.

But so many of them had really bad trashy covers, and as soon as the pages loaded my finger tended to hit the 'back' button without even scrolling down to read the blurbs.

I'm sure there are very good trashy novels out there, and aren't you supposed to not judge a book by its cover? But so many novels with bad covers are bad inside. How do you tell the difference? And does this make me a snob? If so, do you now look at me with less love and respect than you did before? (Surely it is not humanly possible for you to have less respect for me than before, I hear you cry.)

And when I'm looking at agents, and who they've got on their client lists, and not only see no names I know but see novels with trashy looking covers from publishers who publish that sort of thing all the time, should I be looking for other agents or thinking, 'this agent got that author published in the right place for their novel', rather than, 'do they have the contacts for the kind of novel I want to publish? And do they even publish novels of the standard I hope I'm writing at?'

Am I just an incorrigible snob?

Comments

[ionaonie.livejournal.com]

Nope. It just means you have some level of taste. Notihin wrong with a level of taste.

[cybel]

It's a tough question. If the covers make you cringe, you'd be embarrassed at having them represent your work, even if that kind of trashy cover sells books, right? Is it even possible to have some input into the cover put on your book? It would be great if you did, but I may be living in a dreamworld here.

Congrats to your father and Gail! I hope they're very happy.

[tahariel.livejournal.com]

I don't think you can have a ot of input, but certainly I might be able to say something like 'I'd like to have a cover that could be the same basic design for all the books in the series so that they're instantly recognisable, not only as a series when all together, but also so any fan who bought the first one would recognise the second one as soon as they spotted it.'

Other than that, not really, I don't think, though they may listen to you if you hate it, I suppose.

[silvey.livejournal.com]

Sorry I didn't reply to any of your posts earlier, I've been a little stressed so just taking the time to catch up now, glad you're feeling better. Will you be coming back to screening next friday?

[tahariel.livejournal.com]

I would have been, but now I'm going home for the weekend for an engagement party so I can't. And I have two huge bags of manga to donate, as well! Dagnabbit!

Don't worry about not replying, I'm just happy for you about the PhD thing :)

[pobbit.livejournal.com]

There is nothing wrong with being a snob in that sense. It just shows that you want to be able to respect the publishers of your book and you want the publishers and your readers to be able to respect you through your work and a crappy cover does not always have such a desired reaction.
Congrats to your Dad and Gail.