How Gehayi Chooses To Buy A Book

[gehayi]

Prompt submission for LGBT FEST is now open!

Please, go post your prompts! You don't have to participate to come up with prompts, so even if you don't want to be part of the ficathon, you can still toss out a few ideas.

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Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent asked today how people judge whether or not they're going to buy a book. I wrote up an

Comments

[rikibeth]

This is a fantastic post!

Also, it looks as though I have lined up a mower for Mischa to use in your yard when the grass starts growing, so your year-round yard maintenance needs are assured.

How do you think you'll be feeling on Sunday?

[gehayi]

Pretty good, I think! So back to the attic, yes? And yay for the mower for Mischa!

Oh, and the roofer guy, Jay Signore, called yesterday. He's coming by either this afternoon or Monday afternoon to see if we need to do much more cleaning for the roofing to start. He's looking to start late next week--around Thursday, maybe--or early the week after that.

[rikibeth]

Super! Back to the attic on Sunday, then.

[lee_rowan]

set in the historical 1940s--not an alternate universe, in our universe--and the hero, a spy, was using an iPod. Uh, NO.

No kidding. Being old enough to remember recording Star Trek on AUDIO TAPE, I have little patience for wannabe Authors who can't be bothered to look up the technology. Hell, Napoleon Solo's communicator-pen was science-fiction in 1969. Now we have Star Trek communicators!

[gehayi]

I know!

And it seems idiotic to me, because iPods haven't existed that long. They were first released in October 2001. Not even nine years yet. Anyone who is not nine years old or younger can remember a time before iPods. And yet so many people seem determined to envision them as always having existed. It's bizarre.

[lee_rowan]

It's lazy. If you challenged that writer, you'd probably get a whine about "historical is too much worrrk..

I think the prize on ipod anachronism goes to that book Erastes mentioned once, where Princess Elizabeth (the first) was playing with hers.

Why bother? Or why not make it fantasy? (Not that a good fantasy universe doesn't have rules, too, but ...!!!!)

[gehayi]

Exactly. It could work in an alternate history universe. Of course, then you'd have to figure what had changed and why technology was so far advanced in 1940s. And if they were sixty years ahead back in the 1940s, what's the tech like in the alternate history's 2010?

I'm dealing with alternate history now in one of the two novels I'm working on. This one is urban fantasy--with a disabled protagonist. (Magic, regrettably, does not fix everything in this universe. Mostly, it just makes things more complicated. Also, there are no vampires or were-anything in this universe because I do not want to drive myself insane. Making up an alternate history and the rules of magic for what I hope will be a series is quite enough.)

[sunnyskywalker]

That's pretty similar to my process. I also have an "author's sales" level - if it comes down to a choice between a book by a big name author (like King) who would have to write teh worst book ever not to get published at this point vs a book by a newer or lesser-known author like Nalo Hopkinson who I'd like the opportunity to keep reading in the future, I go for the author who could use the sales rankings and money more. Not that my one purchase will make the difference between that author getting a contract for another book, because it probably won't, but every little bit helps.

[gehayi]

I think that's similar to my "how available is this book?" question. I'm very much in favor of buying books that could use more support; otherwise, there's a good chance that you won't see the book (or the author) again. And that can be quite enormously frustrating.

[sunnyskywalker]

Very frustrating. I'm still disappointed about the fourth book in Tobias Buckell's series getting canceled - at least they signed him to write a different book, and it sounds awesome, but I was looking forward to Duppy Conqueror.

[lareinenoire]

I picked up a book a few weeks ago in which the prologue was set in the historical 1940s--not an alternate universe, in our universe--and the hero, a spy, was using an iPod. Uh, NO.

I won't go into the author fail involved there, but how on earth didn't an editor notice that kind of gaffe?!

Your book-buying process sounds a lot like mine! Even if regular visits to Smart Bitches, Trashy Books have made me rather less ashamed of of my guilty pleasure romance novels.

Also, speaking of alternate histories, have you read Harry Turtledove's Ruled Britannia? Wonderful look at what might have happened if the Spanish Armada had defeated the English in 1588.

What to buy

[lurkerm1e]

Book of my dreams. I agree with Vampires and shape shifters getting the boot. And any naked girl, boy or other strange creature needs to go. I also give most fantasy the cabosh and if there are elves, elfs or darklings, etc; I won't even touch those. Ugh. Once winnowed into possibilities, I ask myself, will the library buy this and can I read it for free? If so, no buy is my rule. It is the weird tiny press books which usually end up in my shopping bag.