Authors Who Buy Bad Books

[Stewart]

Just a quickie, see if it whips up any thoughts. Excuse while I flit between realism and complete fantasy without warning.

We've been reading for weeks now about mainstream, about literature, about the different levels of readers, and also learning who isn't intelligent.

This one is for the board's authors: published, self-published, and aspiring.

If your influences are Dan Brown, Stephen King, Anne Rice, Clive Cussler, James Patterson, Jeffrey Archer, Dean Koontz, or some other mainstream author, and you buy their books, do you not feel that you are then holding yourself back - with respect to publication - as, by supporting mainstream authors, the commercial aspect kicks into play and the shelves fill with more and more Brown, King, Cussler et all

I was in Borders yesterday, nipped along to the horror section, and one whole bookshelf was King, one was Rice, one was Laymon and Koontz, one was Barker, Hamilton, Hutson, and Fowler. There was, perhaps, half a shelf of lesser known authors - from big and small presses - making up the rest.

By buying more King he'll eventually swallow up that half shelf with his books. But, by buying the other books, you show the moneymen that there is a demand for new fiction and, in the long term, this could lead to more of a chance for yourself.

 

[sirmyk]

Getting a self-published or small press book into popular bookstores (Borders, Waldenbooks, Doubleday, etc.) is nearly impossible, so, of course, you are going to see popular authors on popular bookstore shelves. I visit (and support) the local 'mom and pop' bookstores quite often, where it's much easier to find small press and self-published books.

From 'bigwig bookstore' perspective, self-published and small-press books do not sell, and don't bring in the revenue trendy books do so well.

...by buying the other books, you show the moneymen that there is a demand for new fiction and, in the long term, this could lead to more of a chance for yourself.

While this is a good idea... it will never happen.

 

[Shaun]

It would be great to see more variety in the bookshops horror section, but it's never going to happen. I remember reading an interview with a bookshop owner, who said 'if I can preorder over 100 books by King and sell them all, and I order 1 book by an unknown author that doesn't sell, which makes more financial sense?' Here in the UK, I think the situation is even worse. Luckily, there are online shops (which seem to be mainly based in the US) that deal primarily with horror, such as Shocklines. I've sold a number of copies of my book through this online venue, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to sample authors whose work they are unable to find in brick and mortar shops.

 

[Stewart]

That was the fantasy bit I was referring to.

 

[namedujour]

My literary influences could probably be summed up into three books: "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" for the simplicity of language and the directness of thought, "To Kill a Mockingbird" for its beautiful lyricism, and "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" for its honesty. I read all of them before I was 15 years old.

All three books have one thing in common: They are all SUCCESSFUL attempts by their authors to reach into your heart and pull you up a notch. You can't read them and remain unchanged... unless you're a total nimrod, which of course, some people are...

When I'm writing, I read nothing by anyone (other people's writings are static and interference), so I am influenced by absolutely no one who hasn't already found his or her way into my psyche from previous reading. There are things in books that I love, but it's kind of like admiring someone's beautiful hair that happens to be completely different from my own. I don't try to copy it - I can't have it anyway - because I'm tapping into a different "source" so to speak. They have their own, and I have mine.

I don't know if I'm different in that respect. I don't draw on anyone else when I write, emulate anyone's style, or have anyone else's anything in mind when I create something. I wouldn't know how to do that anyway because the creative process involves flipping into an altered mental state (If you say "Creative Mode" to any creative person, they immediately nod, knowing just exactly what you're talking about. You don't have to explain. Try it.) That mental state involves tapping into something that feels as if it's outside of you. It doesn't involve intellectual choices of how to structure scenes or how to incorporate someone else's successful techniques into your own writing. You don't "make decisions" when you're in Creative Mode because the words flow into you. You simply type them. I have never found creativity to be intellectual at all. It's more sensory - even telepathic, if that's the right word. It's instinctive. Too much thought will bollox it up.

I follow my own drummer, so my book (the one already published) is typically described as "very different." This makes a few people uncomfortable as they try to force it into a category they're familiar with. Others applaud it because it's obviously original.

However, I never worried about any of that. I began to worry the first time I spotted what was obviously another author's attempts to emulate ME. We'd each read the other's preliminary manuscript before publication. His final manuscript changed before publication, and was quite clearly influenced by my book. I looked into it - it wasn't quite EXACTLY plagarism - but I suddenly realized you don't keep what's yours forever.

 

[namedujour]

PS. As you can see, I'm presently reading "Cybill Disobedience." Sometimes I also like to read People Magazine. Sometimes you just want "mental candy," you know?

 

[Robert]

Just a quickie, see if it whips up any thoughts. Excuse while I flit between realism and complete fantasy without warning.

We've been reading for weeks now about mainstream, about literature, about the different levels of readers, and also learning who isn't intelligent.

This one is for the board's authors: published, self-published, and aspiring.

If your influences are Dan Brown, Stephen King, Anne Rice, Clive Cussler, James Patterson, Jeffrey Archer, Dean Koontz, or some other mainstream author, and you buy their books, do you not feel that you are then holding yourself back - with respect to publication - as, by supporting mainstream authors, the commercial aspect kicks into play and the shelves fill with more and more Brown, King, Cussler et all

I was in Borders yesterday, nipped along to the horror section, and one whole bookshelf was King, one was Rice, one was Laymon and Koontz, one was Barker, Hamilton, Hutson, and Fowler. There was, perhaps, half a shelf of lesser known authors - from big and small presses - making up the rest.

By buying more King he'll eventually swallow up that half shelf with his books. But, by buying the other books, you show the moneymen that there is a demand for new fiction and, in the long term, this could lead to more of a chance for yourself.

Great post, Stewart! I'll have to check out some of those authors.

 

[mehastings]

While this is a good idea... it will never happen.

It's too bad, but it's true. I visit a small book store very often. In response to another thread on a sort of similar topic, I asked their policy on unknown authors. It was really neat. If three people request to have a book by an unknown author ordered within 18 months the store will order a fourth copy. The manager or an employee will read it and then it goes into consideration for stocking. The girl at Barnes & Noble said "I don't know. I guess you could send a copy to the cooporate offices for review or something".

 

[czgibson]

I'm not an author myself, but as an aside I hear Goerge Orwell used to keep a shelf in his house for romantic novels and women's magazines - it's surely very useful for an author to find out what people are reading, but that's true dedication to the cause!