I've noticed a trend in paperback books that I really don't like

[thewayne]

On the inside cover splash page, all you're getting is sycophantic praise from reviewers of the author's previous books. No chapter excerpt, just a short bit from some review. So you're left with the back cover, and that frequently has one or two reviewer's blipverts there, too. This particularly sucks if it's an author that you are not familiar with. So do you read a reviewer who is head over heels in love with a previous, possibly unrelated, book? Do you open to the beginning and start reading?

Oh, and then you have the authors who rate two or three pages of praise! Why not have a page for an excerpt, THEN have a page or two of suckup?

It bugs me.

Comments

You must be talking aout TOR

[paulmc.livejournal.com]

Are you talking about TOR? I see that with their fantasy paperbacks alot - quotes from reviews of the author's other books, no excerpt, and not even a freakin' plot summary.

At least Baen still do summaries and excerpts, last I checked.

Re: You must be talking aout TOR

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I don't remember specific publishers, so it could well have been Tor. Baen is definitely, in my ever so humble opinion, the premium publisher of SF. I just finished 1632/Eric Flint that I downloaded from them, I'll be starting 1633/David Weber from a CD that I got with the latest Honor Harrington. I saw they have 1634: The Galileo Conspiracy(?) and it looks like two books of short stories. Deborak doesn't like the book (IIRC), I don't know why.

[cardigirl.livejournal.com]

Don't tell us, tell the publishers. Or at least, tell them in *addition* to us!

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Good idea! I'll do that!

[apostate-96.livejournal.com]

I've sometimes seen what you're talking about, and it's an instant turn-off for me for buying a book. It makes me wonder if the book itself is so bad they can't find anything out of it to either quote or summarize to entice the potential reader/buyer. Instead, it makes it look like they've gone to the length of coming up with statements from a bunch of people I don't know and/or haven't heard of saying it's great. To me, that's got about the same degree of credibility as a guy standing in an alleyway saying "Got some good shit here, man, wanna buy some? Get you REAL high...."

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

LOL! Yeah, that's about what it feels like. :-)

[apostate-96.livejournal.com]

"Flip a few pages of this. Mess you UP, Jack! My homie, Wingnut, he cain't get 'nuff of it, sell his own mamma for some!!!"