Packaging Books
Cheri Cheva's She's So Money is on my nightstand, waiting to be read. Yesterday, I flipped to the back flap to read about the author: 
Cherry Cheva (full name: Cherry Chevapravatdumrong) is originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan. She currently lives in Los Angeles and writes for the animated series Family Guy. She's So Money is her fist novel.
Then, below the author's bio is a logo. Alloy Entertainment. Immediately, my heart sank. For me, that logo conjures up flashbacks to a couple of years ago when a certain Harvard-bound beauty got annihilated in the media and blogosphere for her first plagiarized novel. For a hopeful, would-be first time South Asian author like myself, this was not awful. It was HORRIFYING. My opinion during this time wasn't a popular one as I didn't feel the burning desire to see said plagiarist drawn and quartered, preferring to see instead, that she was a kid who was dazzled by the prizes in front of her, and got entangled in the sticky strands of a powerful money-making machine. And maybe lost all capacity to see things clearly.
*Flashback over. Shakes head to clear awful memories* Anyway. My understanding of book packagers is that they "come up with ideas" (hard not to have suspicions of some businesses that arrive at ideas as they sift through piles of submissions from writers) for stories, then find writers to write them.
If this is the case, my super-crazy excitement at reading this novel has been knocked down a notch or two. If someone else (or a group of someones) came up with the story for one of the few YA novels out there written by a Thai author, I so terribly want to know what story SHE would have written. What would her storyline have been? Would it have been the usual identity crisis? Would it have been a fresh story of a Thai teen in an urban context? Either way, *that* is the story I thought I was going to read -- her story. Not their story, assembled and orchestrated for commercial success. Not that commercial success is a bad thing, mind you. I would LOVE me some commercial success. But it would be a by-product of writing my own story, not the end result of a put-together package.
Nonetheless, I will read the novel with enthusiasm because it is still written by Ms. Cheva, but I can't help feeling let down. I know there are plenty of great things about book packagers -- for one, they offer opportunities to writers who might not otherwise get their foot in the door of the publishing biz (though, what with writing for the Family Guy, my guess is Ms. Cheva already had more than a foot in the door). But still. It's feeling kind of mass-markety. And a little assembly line-ish.
What thinketh ye, dear reader?
Cherry Cheva (full name: Cherry Chevapravatdumrong) is originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan. She currently lives in Los Angeles and writes for the animated series Family Guy. She's So Money is her fist novel.
Then, below the author's bio is a logo. Alloy Entertainment. Immediately, my heart sank. For me, that logo conjures up flashbacks to a couple of years ago when a certain Harvard-bound beauty got annihilated in the media and blogosphere for her first plagiarized novel. For a hopeful, would-be first time South Asian author like myself, this was not awful. It was HORRIFYING. My opinion during this time wasn't a popular one as I didn't feel the burning desire to see said plagiarist drawn and quartered, preferring to see instead, that she was a kid who was dazzled by the prizes in front of her, and got entangled in the sticky strands of a powerful money-making machine. And maybe lost all capacity to see things clearly.
*Flashback over. Shakes head to clear awful memories* Anyway. My understanding of book packagers is that they "come up with ideas" (hard not to have suspicions of some businesses that arrive at ideas as they sift through piles of submissions from writers) for stories, then find writers to write them.
If this is the case, my super-crazy excitement at reading this novel has been knocked down a notch or two. If someone else (or a group of someones) came up with the story for one of the few YA novels out there written by a Thai author, I so terribly want to know what story SHE would have written. What would her storyline have been? Would it have been the usual identity crisis? Would it have been a fresh story of a Thai teen in an urban context? Either way, *that* is the story I thought I was going to read -- her story. Not their story, assembled and orchestrated for commercial success. Not that commercial success is a bad thing, mind you. I would LOVE me some commercial success. But it would be a by-product of writing my own story, not the end result of a put-together package.
Nonetheless, I will read the novel with enthusiasm because it is still written by Ms. Cheva, but I can't help feeling let down. I know there are plenty of great things about book packagers -- for one, they offer opportunities to writers who might not otherwise get their foot in the door of the publishing biz (though, what with writing for the Family Guy, my guess is Ms. Cheva already had more than a foot in the door). But still. It's feeling kind of mass-markety. And a little assembly line-ish.
What thinketh ye, dear reader?