Two Encounters

[lurkerkate]

This morning, waiting for a meeting, I sat down and picked up a book; Owlflight, by Mercedes Lackey, which I find useful for filling up small doses of time without me worrying about being so engrossed that I can't put it down when I need to. A short while later, a co-worker came up; let's call her R

Comments

[spoothbrush]

Sure, Owlflight is kind of "fantasy trash" but that's not a bad thing... I enjoyed that series quite a bit more than her previous few Velgarth novels, actually, because it was a nice step out of the "Look, the same small group of people JUST SAVED THE WORLD AGAIN!!!!!" She was heading down the road to Anne McCaffery Doom.

[lurkerkate]

See, the problem is, she doesn't know the book in question. She doesn't know the author in question. She just made that judgement based on the slipcover art. And made it fairly clear (at least, to me) that it wouldn't have mattered if I were reading Lackey/McCaffrey/Eddings mind candy or one of McKillip's/deLint's intricate tapestries, Terry Brooks copperplate or Terry Pratchett satire. To her, if it's fantasy, it's trash. And here I thought people only used those negative stereotypes on romance!

[spoothbrush]

Mmmmmmmmmmm, mind candy.

[rbb]

You do have to admit that the cover art is pretty bad. For just about all of her Valdemar books, come to think of it.

[spoothbrush]

What's a Valdemar book with *good* cover art?

*goes to shelves*

*examines*

*gives up and decides to re-read either the Owl books or the Exiles duology*

[rbb]

What's a Valdemar book with *good* cover art?
Any of them have great cover art ...when covered with a paper bag. Or any where a small child has thoroughly re-decorated the cover. The spines of most of them aren't too bad if you don't look closely.

You've got to wonder how they became popular with such terrible art. The cover of a book by itself won't guarantee great or terrible sales, but it does have a large influence on sales, audience, etc. (And then there are the Acorna books, which, while I don't recall the cover art, I think they're absolutely terrible books and I have no idea why she's still writing them [and why they're still selling].)

[lurkerkate]

Well, if you get the hardcover Lackeys, you can always remove the slipcover and have a very respectable plain cover. And I think they're selling for the same reason the Acorna books are selling -- by now, the authors are so famous that you could cut up a paper bag that's been used to hold kitchen trash, and as long as you printed the authors' names in large enough letters, somebody would buy. (Even if that paper bag were the contents of the book instead.)