[Note from Steve: I’m not superstitious, but, for those who are, have a safe day today.  Did you hear about the guy who went looking for the 13th floor in a hotel and fell into an open elevator shaft, all on Friday the 13th?  There: who said I can’t write a horror story!]

Item. Celebrity books.  Or, should I say, public confessions of the rich and (in)famous?  Do you read them?  The bookstores are full of them, if that’s any gauge of popularity.  There’s Trump’s new propaganda piece containing no more meat than his campaign speeches, just another spiel saying, “I’m great, I’m handsome, I’m rich, I’m smart, and I can save America!”  Some are informative: George H. W. Bush’s (the father of Dubya and Jeb), says a few things about Trump, but mostly looks back, verifying what I always knew: Cheney and Rumsfeld had their own hawkish and nefarious agendas and tried to impose their will and further their on agenda in Dubya’s administration.  And others are just ploys to make some money: Leah Remini’s exposé of Scientological shenanigans has become a book tour through talk shows—she needs the money, I guess, but I wonder why people care about her making more money.  Or, worry about a cult.

When people ask me if I’ve read celebrity so-and-so’s book, I usually look at them like they were idiots.  I’m very selective in my reading, and I generally find the practice of a celebrity cashing in on their ready-made brand name a despicable practice.  One of Obama’s books was the last celebrity book I finished (one written even before he became president).  I started one of O’Reilly’s Killing X books (I guess he’s not very inventive about titles), didn’t like it, and stopped (I guess that’s a mini-mini-review—I started because I read some history now and then).  But O’Reilly is just another celebrity author cashing in on his brand name.

Most of these books have some poor ghostwriter in the background putting the celebrity’s jumbled doggerel into something readable.  Once and awhile, the celebrity gives the real writer credit, but it doesn’t happen often.  It’s a bit like Patterson throwing out a couple of story ideas and allowing the poor schmuck who actually writes the story to appear as a co-author.  All these books prove that publishing ethics is often an oxymoron, at least among the rich and famous.

Item. Reviews and interviews.  I hope readers of this blog liked the combo I did with thriller writer Alexander McNabb.  (His book, A Decent Bomber, should be available by now.)  This is easier to juggle when I’m reposting a review from Bookpleasures, where I do my official reviewing.  It’s almost impossible for the reviews I do of books I casually read for R&R, ones appearing in the Mini-Reviews periodic feature in this blog (see last Friday, for example).  Maybe that’s an encouragement for authors to scope out Bookpleasures first?  That’s the only way I respond to queries, and that’s indirect—I select books there to review only if they look interesting to begin with.

Going the other way, if anyone wants to review one of my ebooks (you can have a free copy in exchange for an honest review) and wants to coordinate the posting of the review with an interview, let me know.  I prefer the combo to either one separately.  I’ve found that readers like to learn more about authors.  A written interview is about as far as I’ll go—TV, radio, and blog radio are out, because I sound as nerdy as my personality.  They say modern authors have to come out of their shell and be in the public spotlight.  That just doesn’t work for me.

Item. Book clubs.  Do you belong to one?  McNabb mentioned them, and I love the idea, much more than book fairs or book signings.  The stats say that women dominate them.  The ones around me seem to confirm those stats.  In any case, the demographics tend toward older generations.  Just my perception, but I think Harry Potter was an outlier, a fad—kids just don’t read that many books anymore, unless they’re forced to do so (course reqs, for example).  How could they, glued to their gizmos and addicted to social media?

The older generations found in book clubs—mostly Gen Xers and older—usually prefer pbooks (hardbounds and trade paperbacks).  But if your club can get beyond that hang-up to do ebooks, I’m willing to provide every member of your club with a copy of my ebook you want to read (I’m assuming your group isn’t a cast of thousands).  I’m also willing to discuss the book, even via a personal appearance if local (that’s less daunting than TV or radio).  (Our definitions of “local” might be different.)  In any case, drop me a line if any of this interests your club.

Item. Genre stats wanted.  What are you reading?  Even though Amazon holds all stats close to their vests, I know how to get at some of them.  Traditional publishers are loathe to publish stats too.  Does anyone know how to get stats across the whole industry?  I’m curious; here’s why: BookBub charges according to genre.  They sock it to mysteries and thrillers, for example ($400+ to list a book in those genres last time I looked).  That seems illogical.  For one thing, consider cozy mysteries.  These short pieces of fluff are widely popular, but should they be paying the same as a Ludlum-like thriller?

I suspect that BookBub is really charging according to popularity which correlates with the number of potential readers who are reachable.  The correlation with genre has to be much weaker because there are so many cross-genre books nowadays.  In other words, not only is their business model greedy, it’s defective.  Weigh in if your opinion differs.

In elibris libertas….

This entry was posted on Friday, November 13th, 2015 at 4:00 am and is filed under Bad Books, Book Reviews, Interviews, Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.