Take 30 authors, editors, booksellers, and readers in the horror and dark fantasy fields. Give them a virtual home with plenty of room to write. Tell them you want informative, interesting posts about the writing life, the publishing business, the horror genre, and their work in general. Turn them loose on the world and what do you get?
Welcome to our corner of the internet. We hope you will join us daily as some of the best and brightest stars in the genre spent time here each day talking about their trials and tribulations, their dreams and their goals, their agonies and their defeats. We’re going to strip the body down to the bone, to look at our genre and our industry through as many different angles and viewpoints as possible. In the process, we hope you’ll join us, sharing your thoughts and comments to make this a two-way street.
In the end, we all should come away with a little something new.
As the organizer of this project, its fallen to me to kick start the engine and get us underway. To do that, I want to talk for a minute about the process of recommending a book to another person.
You see, I have a new book coming out in October called HERETIC. And so for the last few months, I’ve been preparing for the book’s launch, helping my publicist gather reviewer lists, sending advance reading copies out to fellow authors for some feedback, and other similar activities. When talking to one of my colleagues, a writer who’s advice I value highly, I received some high praise for the work. I was encouraged by the comments and asked if it would be okay to pass them on to my editor for use as a potential blurb.
That’s where things got interesting. While the writer in question was gracious enough to grant me permission to do so, the question of whether the quote was really worth using, whether it would really influence a potential reader to take the book to the counter and buy it, was asked. And in thinking about it, I realized that I was thinking like a WRITER, rather than a READER. As a writer, I was thrilled with the comments. As a reader, I’m not sure it would have an impact on me at all.
So, after pondering the issue for several more days, I decided to bring it here to you as our first discussion topic.
Imagine you’ve just finished a book, one that you could quite honestly say was excellent. You want to recommend this book to all of your friends.What do you say about it?What is it that most catches your attention, that makes you decide a book is worth passing on to another person? What do you say about such books when the opportunity presents itself? Do you talk about the writing? The characters? The plot? Do you call it intriguing? Exciting? Overwhelming?
As a reader, how do you let others know a particular work is worth picking up and spending time with?
-Joe Nassise
20 Comments, Comment or Ping
Peadar Ó Guilín
Whether the comments will appeal to a reader will depend on what that particular reader wants from books (or feels he should want). The word “original” always gets my attention. I also prefer excerpts from real reviews to blurbs from an author’s friend. The amount of times I’ve been burned by writers I admire who praise some useless waste of shelf space to the moon just isn’t funny any more. I’ve got to the point where I won’t read a book that has lots of blurbs from friends, but none from magazines or newspapers. Just my 2 cents.
Peadar
Jun 15th, 2005
Steve Vernon
Let’s break this down into a couple of steps.
When I choose a book for myself to read, the first thing I do is look at the front page. If the first paragraph or two draws me in, if it promises a fast ride, then I’ll climb aboard.
Sadly, font can sometimes play a role. I have 46 year old eyes, and itty-bitty print’s going to leave me unimpressed.
But now, to the more direct answer to the question. Once I’ve read the book, and enjoyed it enough to recommend it to someone - how do I do that?
I hand off about 10 percent of the books I read to my wife. She’s the number one person I personally recommend books for. For her, I look for pace, plot flow, and excitement level. My wife’s a busy lady, and when she reads she wants something that’s going to grab her right from the get-go.
I recommend books professionally, as well. As a book reviewer for Cemetery Dance, Flesh & Blood, reallyscary.com and others, I review books all of the time.
I try to remain objective. There are some books that I might recommend, even if I didn’t particularly care for it myself. A lot of “liking” comes from personal tastes, and I try not to inflict my personal tastes on a reader.
What I look for in a book to review:
1/ Pace. I love a good gallop. I find it hard to enjoy books that wallow.
2/ Characterization. I want to find myself caring for the people I’m reading about. I want to get to know their lives. So many books these days seem written for the SCREAM AT BUFFY set, with glib punks and faceless cosmetic jobs spouting lips and barely half a brain. Paint me a portrait, make it sing.
3/ Continuity. Nothing irks me more than that whole sort of third quarter wanderlust that some books seem to grow. A kind of senility, as if the author had really just wanted to write themselves a good rousing novella, but had sort of faked the rest of the manuscript.
4/ Dialogue. Give me something quotable. Something I’ll laugh out loud at, or at least grin broadly. Try not to sound like television.
I’ve recommended three, maybe four books this month. I’ve read over a dozen, started and dropped a few more besides that. It’s just that hard to find a book to recommend.
Jun 15th, 2005
alaneye
I just tell a friend that I enjoyed it and it’s worth taking a look at. I never gush about a book, or a film for that matter, because I don’t want to make it seem bigger than it really is - if you do it nearly always leads to disappointment.
Alan
Jun 15th, 2005
Nick Kaufmann
When I like a book enough to recommend it to others, I’ll talk it up both in person and online.
As to my own reading habits, I agree with the others who said blurbs taken from reviews always trump those taken from other authors.
Jun 15th, 2005
James A. Moore
For me, as a reader, I prefer comments from reviews. There are a few exceptions, of course, like if Stephen King gives a comment, I tend to take note. Why? Because Stphen King doesn’t give comments out much these days.
Still, a good line from a review and from a reviewer I trust goes a long way.
Jun 15th, 2005
Paul Puglisi
Personally if I am recommending a book to a friedn of mine I usually say that if they don’t dig it I will buy the book back from them. Of course this isn’t a practical way of doing business in teh world as a whole but on a friend level it works. My friends end up liking the book anyway so I have yet to buy one back. But I think with that type of incentive, that no risk thing, they are more likely to put the time in.
On a grand scale it is tough to recommend books since tastes differ. I pretty much say that I liked the book and what I liked about it and let people take a chance.
Jun 15th, 2005
gabe
It’s funny, I’m never influenced positively by blurbs on a book. Seeing a blurb from an author I happen to like doesn’t make me pick up a book - it’s my curiosity and my need to read that makes me pick books up.
However, there have been many instances where the cumulative blurbs have made me dismiss a book out of hand, without even giving it a chance. In the broadest swath, if a book is peppered with quotes from the Baen stable of writers, I tend to skip it, for instance. Or if there are ten quotes proclaiming the brilliance of this new author a la “The best new writer since Author X was proclaimed the best new writer ten years ago!”, I’ll generally pass.
Of course, there have been a few noteworthy cases where I was wrong. Then it took the recommendations of people whose taste I trusted to harp and cajole me until I got the book in question. So for me, blurbs won’t make me buy a book… but they will make me pass on a book, unless reviewers or friends convince me otherwise.
Jun 15th, 2005
Michelle Pendergrass
In all honesty, blurbs and reviews don’t mean a whole lot to me unless they have credentials. What does the NY Times say? What do I care? What does a well-known or award-winning horror author say? I’m paying attention now. 10 people read a book and you get 10 different reviews. How do you know which one to listen to? You know only because they have some kind of expertise in the field or they have already *proven* themselves to me by their own pen. But of course that’s me and I’m hard to please.
I read the back cover. If it sounds good, I read it. I don’t like cliche back covers and I don’t want “same story, different book” Phrases I can’t stand? “the news rocked the foundation of her world” “but is he really dead?” If I’m reading horror, I want to be scared, not grossed out. I don’t want violence just for the sake of violence. I want to be scared to come out of my room. Boogeyman fear is not true fear if there’s not a REASON to be afraid of him. I’m not afraid of the dark because it’s dark, I’m afraid of the dark because there is something out there that I don’t know, I don’t understand and I’ve heard a lot of bad things about.
I thrive on character driven stories. They need to have depth. They need to have secrets. They need to have–gues what? Character! Not just cardboard cutouts in there to move the story somewhere else. I want emotion. I want stress. I want to be written into the story. I want to be able to pick up the book and be somewhere else. I am not your reader any longer, I’m living the story and as a result, my life will somehow be changed and my memories affected by what happens.
If you can do that, you’ve sold me and I’m talking about your book for years to come. I’m buying the next book you put out and I’m also going to read other books that you recommend. You have effectively proved your standard to me.
~michelle
Jun 15th, 2005
David Niall Wilson
Interesting.
Personally, I think most blurbs are dismissable. If I see someone’s book praised on line in a popular forum, I generally dismiss that as well, because MOST forums tend toward the constant positive.
Personal recommendations from other authors, or friends, I take seriously. Blurbs from sources like the NY Times, Kirkus, etc. I give some credibility to.
Mostly I have to dig deeper than the cover to decide I want to pay money for a book.
DNW
Jun 15th, 2005
DNW
After re-reading Joe’s initial post, I realized he might not be asking us what we think about blurbs…but what we would say to recommend a book to someone…what would cause us to do so.
That’s a much tougher nut to crack. I like a lot of different books for a lot of different reasons. I try to recommend books to others based partly on what I think rocks, and partly on what I know of that person, and their taste. I listen to a lot of books on tape, and what I will listen to, and what I’d buy to read are completely different at times…
In independent books / small press a lot has to do with production and design, whether or not the book is full of typos, etc. I won’t recommend a book I didn’t enjoy, but I’m not THAT hard to please.
Usually if I recommend a book its because it completely blew me away, or because something comes up that causes me to think another person might like the book I’ve read…I don’t go out of my way to recommend books. There are already too many for folks to choose between - what if they disagree with me, and I’ve wasted their money? (heh).
DNW
Jun 15th, 2005
Anonymous
I apologize for the off-topic, but am not sure how else/where else to ask this…. is it possible to get an RSS feed to this blog? That would be a lot easier than trying to remember to check it every day.
Thank you!
Jun 15th, 2005
gabe
Amy,
The feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/StorytellersUnplugged
Jun 15th, 2005
Jennifer
The thing that would make me interested in a book is a blurb that says “I couldn’t put it down and stayed up until 4am reading it!” I want a book that will make itself my world, and a blurb that says it will do that will grab my interest.
Number one turn-offs in blurbs are “new voice” or “innovative style” or any other thing that says presentation is valued over good old fashioned story. If I see a bunch of blurbs touting that, I’ll skip the book.
Jun 15th, 2005
Anonymous
You can add this RSS to your Live Journal here http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=storytellunplug
Sorry the name was too long for Live Journal so it had to be snipped.
~Nikki
Jun 15th, 2005
Ellen Datlow
If I love a book or story, I talk about it all over the place. On whatever BB’s I’m active on, to my friends and colleagues–on panels at conventions, etc etc.
Jun 16th, 2005
James Goodman
Blurbs…I rarely read them. If I am pursuing the shelves at my local book store, I pluck a book and read the back. If the back piques my interest then I turn to page 65 and read it in its entirety. By the time the story gets this far it should be well into its gallop. I also read one or two other random pages, before making my decision.
When recommending a book to a fellow reader, I generally just tell them that I really enjoyed it and I think they would as well. I agree with the earlier comment about hyping the book to much could just lead to disappointment. Worse, it could take big chunks out of your credibility when it comes to book selection.
-JamesG
Jun 16th, 2005
terry
I think the key to getting others to read a book I’ve really enjoyed is to match the book with the right person. There are things I love but would never reccommend to my sister-in-law for instance, because I know it wouldn’t be her cup of tea.
Enthusiasm is contagious. When I like a book everyone on the message board I go to knows about it because I promote in my signature. I think the biggest factor to get me to recommend a book is that hard to define ‘wow’ factor.
I’m going to tell them that they will love the characters, that the plot will keep them reading, that the writing is going to work for them, and that they will have fun reading it. That I went WOW when it was finished.
When I write reviews, I focus on those same things; my personal enthusiasim, readability, characterization and the power of the plot to let the reader have a fun (or at least a positive) experience.
Jun 16th, 2005
Nicole
I began a local writing group since graduating in December with my M.A.
This small group is comprised of folks I had in previous creative writing workshops. So, I know their work and they know mine. But I am the only one in the group who reads horror (or any kind of fantastic literature), and I have taken it upon myself to “enlighten” them.
So, besides critiquing each others’ work, I have begun to recommend stories that have really affected me…with the hope they will feel the same way.
The first story I offered out was “And The Rock Cried Out” by Bradbury. The first time I read it, I got to the ending, and I was floored. I mean, it really got to me. I knew what was going to happen, but in a way I did not.
Throughout the entire story, I was on unsteady ground. But I liked that…that was good, that was exhilirating, the uncertainty, the pleasure…
That is what a story needs to do for me. It can be loud or it can be only a whisper, but it needs to overwhelm me.
Everyone in the group read it, and thankfully all were impressed.
They are even open to more suggestions from me. Whoo Hoo!
Lucked out on that one…
-Nicole
Jun 16th, 2005
Nonny
Unrelated comment, but I’m not sure who to contact … the XML feed you have listed does not seem to work; it opens a blank page or a “XML Feed Not Available.” I’m using the current version of SharpReader, which supports Feedburner. Any ideas?
Jun 17th, 2005
J. M. Cornwell
As a reviewer, I pay very little attention to blurbs, even my own. I read the books I have to review no matter what they are. It’s my job. When I choose a book for myself I glance at the blurbs but I read the first page or two to see if it’s worth the money I have to pay or the time to lug it home from the library. Interesting cover art will catch my attention, but the words keep it — and they have to be good.
When I recommend a book it’s because the writer transported me. When I recommend or review a book I base my recommendation on characterization, plot, language and description. If the story rings true — in any genre — it has my attention and will get recommended a lot.
Jun 18th, 2005
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