Review quotes by authors. Nay! Nay! I say.
Oct. 6th, 2009 07:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serynI just read something interesting by Jennifer Crusie.
http://www.arghink.com/2006/09/25/confessions-of-a-reformed-quote-whore/
I hate those quotes on book covers used to sell books. All of them. If I find a quote I agree with, then I can sort of understand it, but some of my favorite authors read particular sub-genres I find unappealing. (Which is the polite phrasing of, "You read that? It's pure crap.") But I've always known that Steven King doesn't read 500 books in a year, so after the 10th book someone's got their name tagging a quote on, I know that's not someone's who is recommending the book.
Probably most authors don't read the things they're quoting for.
The post (linked above) says authors want to help each other out. I understand that since it's hard to get an agent without an established author vouching for your completed book. It's hard to get a publishing contract without an inside pathway. It's hard to get your foot in the door anywhere if you're not a social git whose extroversion swamps any intellectual accomplishments you might have. So basically authors' first loyalties are to themselves, their family, their story, their editor, their publisher, their agents, other authors, the industry supporting them, people who can get them inside the bubble....... it's not until somewhere just above frog spit that readers even register with authors.
To quote for a book without reading it is to lie to readers.
I have assumed, for a very long time, that all of the quotes were lies. I try, whenever I see an author's name quoted recommending the book, to not buy that author's books. Really.
This is quadruply true whenever a book has no summary on the back and just quotes. Like Sunshine by Robin McKinley. About half that book was decent-ish, but the other half is a completely different book that is unrelated and incoherent. EVERY SINGLE PERSON who is quoted as loving that book is WRONG. It's not just that I didn't like Sunshine, it's that no one could have liked it. It should not have been published without someone reading the whole thing through and realizing it was half of a book and the rest sounded like a cold medicine induced delusion. Sunshine doesn't have a summary anywhere, probably because the author forgot what the book was about and then wrote that. The front cover has 5 quotes, the back cover is all filled with quotes. They even had to put in extra pages before the story to fit all the quotes.
I never put up Yelp reviews. I don't write reviews of Amazon items. Simply put, if I cannot say anything negative, then they are telling me what to say and I think they should write the comment themselves and leave me out of it. Publishers aren't going to include quotes unless they're wholly positive. So they might as well not bother having someone read it, they'll just write the quote themselves and ask someone famous to tie their name to it.
I figure with that kind of situation, no matter whose name is tied to it, anyone who is quoted on the book is lying. Chances are they didn't read the book. Chances are they didn't even write the quote their name is on. So whenever I see an author's name quoted as liking a book, I think that author is someone who doesn't give a shit about their own reputation or the quality and truth of their words. If an author is known to not care what they say, why would I read their books?
If an author is quoted on the front of a book recommending it. I might still buy the book, but I haven't read a single thing in 2 years which was worth staking a professional reputation upon, except the brand new book I read when it was new, The Warded Man, which did not have any quotes. I am holding every quote against the person whose name is tagging it.
If you quote for a book you haven't read, you have no interest in the quality of your words and I am not going to buy your books.
http://www.arghink.com/2006/09/25/confessions-of-a-reformed-quote-whore/
I hate those quotes on book covers used to sell books. All of them. If I find a quote I agree with, then I can sort of understand it, but some of my favorite authors read particular sub-genres I find unappealing. (Which is the polite phrasing of, "You read that? It's pure crap.") But I've always known that Steven King doesn't read 500 books in a year, so after the 10th book someone's got their name tagging a quote on, I know that's not someone's who is recommending the book.
Probably most authors don't read the things they're quoting for.
The post (linked above) says authors want to help each other out. I understand that since it's hard to get an agent without an established author vouching for your completed book. It's hard to get a publishing contract without an inside pathway. It's hard to get your foot in the door anywhere if you're not a social git whose extroversion swamps any intellectual accomplishments you might have. So basically authors' first loyalties are to themselves, their family, their story, their editor, their publisher, their agents, other authors, the industry supporting them, people who can get them inside the bubble....... it's not until somewhere just above frog spit that readers even register with authors.
To quote for a book without reading it is to lie to readers.
I have assumed, for a very long time, that all of the quotes were lies. I try, whenever I see an author's name quoted recommending the book, to not buy that author's books. Really.
This is quadruply true whenever a book has no summary on the back and just quotes. Like Sunshine by Robin McKinley. About half that book was decent-ish, but the other half is a completely different book that is unrelated and incoherent. EVERY SINGLE PERSON who is quoted as loving that book is WRONG. It's not just that I didn't like Sunshine, it's that no one could have liked it. It should not have been published without someone reading the whole thing through and realizing it was half of a book and the rest sounded like a cold medicine induced delusion. Sunshine doesn't have a summary anywhere, probably because the author forgot what the book was about and then wrote that. The front cover has 5 quotes, the back cover is all filled with quotes. They even had to put in extra pages before the story to fit all the quotes.
I never put up Yelp reviews. I don't write reviews of Amazon items. Simply put, if I cannot say anything negative, then they are telling me what to say and I think they should write the comment themselves and leave me out of it. Publishers aren't going to include quotes unless they're wholly positive. So they might as well not bother having someone read it, they'll just write the quote themselves and ask someone famous to tie their name to it.
I figure with that kind of situation, no matter whose name is tied to it, anyone who is quoted on the book is lying. Chances are they didn't read the book. Chances are they didn't even write the quote their name is on. So whenever I see an author's name quoted as liking a book, I think that author is someone who doesn't give a shit about their own reputation or the quality and truth of their words. If an author is known to not care what they say, why would I read their books?
If an author is quoted on the front of a book recommending it. I might still buy the book, but I haven't read a single thing in 2 years which was worth staking a professional reputation upon, except the brand new book I read when it was new, The Warded Man, which did not have any quotes. I am holding every quote against the person whose name is tagging it.
If you quote for a book you haven't read, you have no interest in the quality of your words and I am not going to buy your books.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-07 04:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-07 05:47 am (UTC)[I am not making that up. I read it in the newspaper. Someone might have been making it up, but there were RealName interviews with photographed business owners who described the experience.]
Yelp skews its results based on criteria that are not known to the reader. And they definitely remove negative reviews of their ad-buying business customers.
Amazon removes negative comments and reviews all the time. If someone complains, they go through and delete any comment or rating below 3 stars. I think it's a manual process, but a tirade on a 5 star review doesn't usually get deleted.
Currently I'm considering mixers and the horrible reviews of the KitchenAid brand mixers are almost all gone. There was review after review talking about motor burn-out, plastic gear boxes splintering, dripping motor oil spraying over the food bowl and KitchenAid's horrendous customer service. Really graphic descriptions. They're all gone. Just a few remnants where a 5 star review said, ~"I read that other people had problems, but mine is fabulous!"~
They pulled a bunch of reviews on a pro-baby book a few years ago because they got a slew of them all at once. But I know a lot of the people read the book before posting appalled comments. Amazon did not pull the bitchy and antagonistic reviews on a childfree oriented book even when the reviews said, "I haven't read this but...."
Amazon deleted my review of the drecky book by Naomi K* published by Bantam that was supposedly science fiction but was a thinly disguised screed against fantasy novels. It was a book about how Gesu was going to save people from the destruction caused by Guidas's use of magic. The main character was a lesbian who ran away and then slaughtered tens of thousands as the sub-general of an army that kills anyone with a trace of magic. She keeps saying she knows killing is wrong but it's the only thing that keeps her from wanting to fuck women. And she's not the actual leader because it's women's place to be subservient to men, even if the men are less successful generals. Really.
My review of it mentioned that it was a pro-Christian book with an agenda that runs counter to most science fiction themes. In about that kind of language. (Definitely no screed.) It's gone and most of the reviews are from people who say it's so nice to read a nice book from a genre they think is usually full of devil worship.
[Personally I no longer read books published by Bantam, or writers named Naomi anything.]
Travel sites are the worst. They have an undisclosed policy to always remove negative reviews. It's common practice everywhere.
I don't write "reviews" for fanfic stories either. No one wants any sort of comment unless it's a squee. I just don't see why they'd need me to participate in that. The author's note usually says only positive comments are welcome. So the author has a script in her head already and doesn't need me to write it. I'll just poorly transcribe the exaltations because my mind reading really sucks.