...except no. Not really.
People are talking a lot about book covers right now, and the fact that sometimes, the people on them don't actually look anything like the people inside the books. Sometimes they're bad. Sometimes they're terrible. And sometimes, yes, they're inaccurate enough to be insulting, presenting characters as the wrong race, gender, weight, sex, or species. (For a nice round-up on some recent cover issues, check out this excellent post by the always-charming
...except maybe this one.
Authors have a surprisingly small amount of control over a lot of aspects of how their books are presented to the public. I say "surprisingly" because when I was a kid, I ranked "Author" as a position of power just below "Doctor Who," "The Great Pumpkin," and "God." Most people knock "God" off that list by the time they reach their teens (I did), but still, there's this innate assumption that the author has a lot of control over where their work goes and what it does.
...except no. Not really. Check out these lists for details.
Things the Author Probably Controls
* Whether the book gets written.
* Which publishing houses the book gets sent to.
Things the Author Probably Does NOT Control (unless the author is Stephen King)
* The cover.
* The title.
* The publication date.
* The format of the book.
* The cost of the book.
* Whether there's an eBook edition.
* Whether the book is published anywhere outside the US.
* Whether the book is published in more than one language.
* Whether there's an audio edition.
* Which stores, including Amazon, carry their book.
* How many copies are printed.
Who You Are Punishing If You Boycott the Book or Review It Poorly Because of Format, Not Content
* The author.
Who You Are NOT Punishing
* The publisher.
Now, I don't want my publisher punished, for anything. Both my publishers have been amazingly good to me. I love them like I love candy corn and fluffy little blue kittens, and I want everything they touch to turn to gold, because then maybe they can start paying me in remote islands and genetically-engineered dinosaurs instead of boring dollars. Plus, people take very poorly to being punished. If you hit me because I didn't bring you the sandwich you wanted, I'm not going to go and make you a fresh sandwich. If, however, you say "I'm sorry, I really wanted tuna," well, we can negotiate. The message you send when you pan a book for not being available in the format/language/region you want isn't "I really want this but you won't let me have it"; it's "this sucks." Remember, that nasty review is only going to be seen if someone takes the trouble to read it. Most people will just see what amounts to an announcement of "this is a bad book."
If there were a mass boycott of Stephen King or Tom Clancy, the odds are good that the publishing world would notice. Those are, after all, some damn big numbers. Most authors are not in that neighborhood. Most authors can't even get an invitation to that city. So for us, losing ten sales actually matters. For us. For our publisher...not so much. The message sent by a boycott is not "I am offended by this choice," it's "I am not a fan of this author." If enough sales are lost, the author won't be able to get another book contract, and will need to find another job. The publisher will keep publishing. Some of these choices don't punish the people you're trying to punish, and their side effects can be killer.
So how do you get your point across? Pick up a pen. If you're actively offended by a book's cover, try buying the book and mailing the cover back to the publisher, along with a letter saying something like "Thank you so much for publishing a book that was so well-suited to my interests and desires as a writer. Unfortunately, this cover is unsuitable, because..." Indicate that you wanted the author's work, but not the poorly-chosen cover art, and that you would love to see the book issued again with a better cover. Don't punish the author. If you wonder why a book hasn't been printed in a literary region other than the one where it was originally printed (so American books in Germany, German books in France, etc.), it's probably because the local publishers don't realize that interest exists. Write to them! Say "I am a huge fan of Author T. Author's work, and I was wondering if you planned to print their latest book." They might not know they want the work if they don't know there's a market. But don't hit the author for things that are entirely outside of their control. It's just not nice.
(*If you somehow missed the mess, here's a very quick-and-dirty summation: MacMillan said "we want to charge more for our books than you do. We also want to charge less for our books than you do." Amazon said "no." MacMillan said "but they're our books." Amazon de-listed all MacMillan titles, without telling anyone that they were going to do so. MacMillan got upset. MacMillan authors got upset, since the loss of Amazon as a retailer could potentially mean they can't afford cat food anymore. Non-MacMillan authors got upset, because dude, there but for the grace of the Great Pumpkin go we. Everyone did a lot of shouting. People who want cheap eBooks called MacMillan a bully. People who want authors to be able to sell their books called Amazon a bully. There are some very good accountings of the whole mess floating around the Internet; I recommend you go read John Scalzi's post if you want a solidly-researched starting point. This is not that starting point.)
February 1 2010, 22:06:35 UTC 7 years ago
February 1 2010, 22:15:35 UTC 7 years ago
The overall MacMillan business plan actually does make a certain amount of (admittedly skewed) sense. Charging trade paperback prices for an eBook of a brand-new Stephen King hardcover makes a lot of sense, especially if that price will be dropping as demand drops off. It's called "trying to make back your initial investment." It may not be the smart thing to do, but I can see why they'd try.
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February 1 2010, 23:22:57 UTC 7 years ago
If MacMillan drops prices sharply after a bit, that'd probably be useful, and to a large extent I think it's reasonable for them to try the usual model of Premium, Moderate, Cheap. I just won't buy their ebooks till they're cheap enough to pick up on a whim! O:>
As I typed over in a different LJ recently, though... Until people see ebooks as the ultimate product and not a spin-off that's capitalizing mostly on work that is already being done for the physical book... Well, isn't the physical book paying for all that already? And won't paper costs and the lack of risk of returns cover the small fee for someone to pour the text into an epub file and mark the chapters? So why pay Final Product prices for something that's... a spin-off to the Final Product?
Of course, if publishers are secretly sure that ebooks are actually going to become Final Products, and paper books the quaint spin-offs, it does behoove them to start setting expectations for the price at paper-book levels.
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February 1 2010, 23:23:07 UTC 7 years ago
Basically, yet another Amazon failure and for many it will be one too many.
(I agree with you on the list of things about which the author does and doesn't have control. Many people obviously don't know enough authors and think that the author is responsible for everything. Oh, and to things over which authors have no control you can add "whether the words on the page are what the author wrote". I remember a book by a well-known author which was virtually unreadable, because they had re-typeset it after the final proofs and messed it up...)
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February 2 2010, 07:37:41 UTC 7 years ago
When two 700-pound gorillas get to brawlin', then what really happens is that all the little guys get crushed. So Amazon and MacMillan are being all big and bad, and all the authors and customers are getting shafted.
Thanks, guys. Screw you both.
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February 1 2010, 23:20:10 UTC 7 years ago
I can't remember what it's called, but it's very specific about hoe a writer has very little control over specific aspects of the book.
February 1 2010, 23:25:26 UTC 7 years ago
If it's not that song, can you give me a few keywords to google? O:D
February 1 2010, 23:30:09 UTC 7 years ago
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February 3 2010, 14:36:46 UTC 7 years ago
There's a bimbo on the cover of my book.
She is sultry she is sexy
She is nowhere in the text she
Is the bimbo on the cover of my book.
(All hail Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff.)
February 1 2010, 23:55:50 UTC 7 years ago
You forgot something very important. Readers got upset. Because we don't accept Amazon business tactics removing our choices for things to buy. Because we reject the idea that we the readers are negotiating tools in Amazon's arsenal. Amazon apparently thinks they own us, and needs to be reminded of the consumer/vendor relationship.
Check out the Amazon Shall Not Censor Me facebook group.
February 3 2010, 14:37:46 UTC 7 years ago
February 2 2010, 00:21:08 UTC 7 years ago
Seems the publisher of a new "steampunk romance" novel used a cover artist who basically copied a copyrighted photo (down to pose and accessories, including the buckle style on the goggles). Now that's not prosecutable, it's just bad form.
Then the PR firm for said house put up a "trailer" for the book online - using a host of uncredited photos and works of art without permission. This blew up like a house on fire, and the poor author was originally defending them, as they has assured her that the images were used with permission. Except they weren't.
Now the author is basically hiding under the bed and hoping it all goes away, the trailer has been taken down, and a lot of people are really really mad. They are just mad at the wrong people - they should be mad at the publisher and by extension the PR company, NOT the author.
February 3 2010, 14:38:12 UTC 7 years ago
I managed to miss this whole boom.
February 3 2010, 17:00:33 UTC 7 years ago
was the initial post about the video - by one of the people whose uncredited pic was used without permission. A couple of other artists weigh in further down. The author weighs in on the second page of the comments assuring people that she was told everything is on the up and up. Quite a few of the artists politely (and some not so politely) assured her this was not the case. There were no further comments from her and I assume that she is hiding until it all blows over/is resolved.
Looks like the post comparing the cover art with the original photo has been taken down.
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February 3 2010, 14:38:21 UTC 7 years ago Edited: February 3 2010, 14:38:31 UTC
February 2 2010, 04:16:41 UTC 7 years ago
This is *exactly* how Cornilia Funke got printed in English - great example of this working.
Plus Amazon needs a good kicking now and then - it's good for them.
February 3 2010, 14:39:30 UTC 7 years ago
February 2 2010, 10:57:57 UTC 7 years ago
In the spirit of your suggestions, I sent the following email to Baen Books:
February 3 2010, 14:39:37 UTC 7 years ago
February 2 2010, 16:44:03 UTC 7 years ago
February 3 2010, 14:39:47 UTC 7 years ago
February 2 2010, 19:17:38 UTC 7 years ago
If nothing else, this whole E-book argument has got people talking :)
February 3 2010, 14:39:59 UTC 7 years ago