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A PS about covers...

 

The publishing trade uses covers to pigeonhole books so you know what you're getting, eg headless female in costume = historical fiction aimed at women.

 

What do you think about this? I find it incredibly boring. Even if the books aren't samey, they look it!

 

The thinking seems to be that readers are so busy (or stupid?) that they have to be told what genre the book is because presumably they can't work it out for themselves. There's now a move afoot to age-band children's books so the reader knows what they are buying. Authors, teachers and parents are signing petitions against this. They think it is anti-reading. So do I and I can't imagine what the thinking is behind it. But you can bet your boots, someone thinks it will lead to more sales.

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I'm surprised you haven't had answers to this one yet, there's some interesting points. :D Just to pick up on one point, I certainly don't want the authors I like to write a similar book each time - usually it's their style that I enjoy, rather then the actual storyline (there are exceptions, of course), and I like to see how they use that style with different stories, and even possibly different genres.

 

Maggie O'Farrell, for example.. in my opinion, she has written two books which were similar, one which used certain elements, but was a different type of story, plus one book which has a very different feel.. and I enjoyed everyone for it's own merits.

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I agree too - for example Jane Smiley has written a book in each of many genres (historical, romance, family saga, Shakespeare-update, campus novel....) and I always pick up the latest one, knowing that whatever genre she's in, it'll be well written and well plotted.

 

I do look out for reviews, eg in the Guardian at the w/e I found out about a book about Bloomsbury marriages that I'll want to get. Also word of mouth from friends and other BookCrossers, particularly. Or just wandering around in a bookshop - and I try to go beyond a cursory look at the covers, though I *will* avoid anything that looks chick-litty and have read some that I wouldn't have picked up in a shop because of that!

 

Liz

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Yes, you're all saying what I thought you'd say! (And very sensible too.)

 

So why do editors pressurise authors to write more-of-same?... Where are publishers getting their information from?

 

The 2nd hardest thing to do in publishing (the first being get a 1st novel published) is to change genres. As you know, authors are often expected to change their name if they change genres (eg Nora Roberts/J D Robb). I know authors who are desperate to change genres after years writing the same sort of book, but their publisher won't take the new manuscript.

 

I'm lucky in that I write genre-busting novels, so I haven't pigeon-holed myself yet. I asked the editor who dealt with STAR GAZING what genre she thought it was. She said "Linda-Gillard-genre". I think she meant it as a compliment, but publishing likes pigeonholes and so do booksellers. I have heard - and I do hope it's not true - that if booksellers don't know where to shelve a book it stays in the box, unpacked. I supose you've all heard the story about A SHORT HISTORY OF UKRAINIAN TRACTORS? It was shelved under agriculture until booksellers caught on.

Edited by Linda Gillard
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Jules, if you had trouble putting that one down, try A Lifetime Burning.. that one definitely keeps you turning the pages! :)

 

Just this minute reserved a copy from my local library, can't wait to read it :D

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Thanks Jules!

 

I love your Bette Midler quote in your sig. My favourite Midler quotes:

 

"I love Nature. Despite what it did to me."

 

And dealing with a heckler in the audience during a live show she yelled, "Shut your hole, honey. Mine's making money."

 

:D

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When you buy books, are you influenced by covers? Cover quotes from authors? Reviews?

 

This has all been discussed here at various times. Personally speaking, if I'm just browsing, covers can make a difference.. probably in the fact that they will attract me, and make me pick it up in the first place. Then, I will move on to the blurb on the back.

 

Saying that, if someone suggests a particular book or author (generally people on here), I wouldn't be put off by a cover or blurb that I don't like.

 

Reviews is something we're discussing right now.. I used to rely quite heavily on them, but I'm starting to realise that they're not always that reliable. Cover quotes from other authors, I take no notice of - I can never be sure if they know each other, or if it's a 'deal' between publishers.. etc.

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I tend to go for the blurb on the back if I'm buying or browsing, I don't really pay any attention to the covers. I currently own all of both Lesley Pearse's and Martina Cole's books as they are 2 authors I really enjoy. The reviews from members on here also influence both my reading and buying of books, I can honestly say that being here has broadened my horizons widely and some of the books which have been recommended I have gone on to buy to re-read in the future.

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Writing blurbs is incredibly hard! I think most authors have a hand in their cover blurbs and some actually write them. (I wrote all of mine.) Blurb-writing is a real art. You have to entice the reader and give a clear idea of what the book is about and what the book is like, but obviously you don't want to give the story away. When I lent Stephenie Meyer's TWILIGHT to my daughter I said, "Don't read the back cover!"

 

That book is a case where an author has gone to a lot of trouble to skilfully set up a big surprise that is blown by the blurb. True, the surprise comes not too far into the book, but if you read the book not having read the blurb, it's a different book to begin with. If you read the blurb you know straight away you are reading a book about

vampires

.

Edited by Linda Gillard
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None at all at Piatkus. (STAR GAZING.) We are shown them as a courtesy only, but that is normal in publishing.

 

Transita were much more open to the idea of author input, but they were untypical. I chose the photo that became the cover of EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY from a website Transita referred me to.

 

For A LIFETIME BURNING I was shown several covers which I rejected, then it was down to 2, both of which I liked, although they were very different. I expressed a preference and that was the cover I got, but I don't know if they would have gone with my choice if they'd preferred the other one. I doubt it. Covers are all about marketing and the author doesn't have any say, which is probably fair in as much as authors are writers not sales people.

 

But it is dispiriting to say the least to be landed with a cover you don't like, and many authors are. It's one of the things authors tend to moan about!

 

The German edition of STAR GAZING has the sort of cover I'd envisaged - a windswept seascape and a lonely-looking house... See http://tinyurl.com/58fgkk

 

But Piatkus saw the book as more of a love story so they went with this... See http://www.lindagillard.co.uk/star-gazing.php

Edited by Linda Gillard
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Have to say I prefer the German edition cover, but then I ask myself why!:roll: Maybe because I loved the cover on Emotional Geology and the link is there with the island or something.

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Is that meant to be Keir's house though, because that's what I'm picturing whilst reading. I do agree that a landscape one would suit better, but I guess the publishers do know more about marketing. I'd like to know how they make their decisions though.. do they go by what is already selling, or do they actually talk to readers?

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Sorry for the delay in replying to your Q, Michelle. I've been away in Aberdeenshire teaching a one-day workshop.

 

Yes, I think the German cover is meant to represent Keir's house by the sea on Skye and I do think that will be the predominant image of the book for a reader.

 

I've never heard of publishers consulting readers about anything! I think they just look at sales figures and assume if something sells, it's what people want. I read an article today in which a major publisher was claiming that what bookbuyers want is more celeb biogs and more cook books (and presumably more celeb cook books?) because these sell in very large numbers.

 

Hmmmm... I'm not quite sure of the logic of this... I remember when they used to justify rubbishy reality tv shows by claiming that viewing figures showed that this was what people wanted. Then they serialised BLEAK HOUSE in soap format and - surprise! - people watched in their millions.

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That was actually typed wrong, and I meant to say.. "Is that meant to be Keir's house though, because that's not what I'm picturing whilst reading." In other words, I meant that the cover was of a fairly modern house, and I don't picture Keir's house like that.

 

Anyway.. how did the workshop go? Did you enjoy teaching? :D

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No, you're right, the picture is architecturally wrong. That's not the vernacular architecture of Skye and Keir's house is very old. But the picture's also geographically wrong in that you don't have that sort of terrain on the Skye coast and Keir's house is actually facing a mountain range, but, hey, this is a book cover! Designers don't read the books they design, they are briefed by editors. (At least in the UK. I can't speak for Germany.)

 

My workshop went very well thanks. There were 16 students, all in the process of writing novels. The feedback was very positive. I didn't sell as many books as I'd hoped which meant I had to carry them all the way back to Skye, but apart from that I was very pleased with the day. One woman bought all 3 books for her reading group. I hope they'll decide to read one of them in the group. I emailed her the Reading Group guides I've written.

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I don't think I've ever based a character on anyone I know. I steal physical likenesses in so far as I usually have a visual idea of a character based on a photograph, or a composite of photographs, but I always make up their personality, although bits of my own might be incorporated. (There's a lot of me in Calum, the hero of EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY and there was something of the teenage me in Flora, the heroine of A LIFETIME BURNING. As a devout Anglican, I debated with myself whether my vocation was to be a nun or an actress - a dilemma that young Flora also has to resolve.)

 

But it's unusual for me to use anything about personality that's taken from real life. Occasionally some situations and events are sometimes taken from life.

Rory's accident in A LIFETIME BURNING was taken from life. Just such an accident happened to a pianist.

 

 

Generally speaking though, I make the whole thing up - the characters, the story, the setting. The trouble with using real life in novels is, it isn't very believable. You have to tone it down for fiction. :D

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I hope you enjoy it, Jules. Maybe "enjoy" isn't quite the word... I hope you are gripped! :)

 

Readers sometimes find the backwards- and forwards-in-time disconcerting to begin with, but you actually don't need to know where you are on a timeline. What I was playing around with was layers of memory. If you are 50 there's still a part of you that is 10 or 25 and you remember your young self in parallel with your older self. I think as memory is stimulated, we're conscious of many different times of our life, simultaneously. That's what I tried to capture in the book - a sort of kaleidoscope of time and memory.

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Linda, I'm almost at the end of Star Gazing, and I'm intrigued to see which direction you're going to take, and which ending you've settled on. I can see the 'happy ever after one', plus any number of other combinations.. So, I can't ask what I wanted to, which was "do you prefer writing 'happy ever after', or more realistic endings?" because it might just give the end away!

 

However, I will ask whether there is pressure from editors/publishers etc to go one way or the other? After reading another book this year, I was disappointed because the author suddenly seem to change to the 'happy ever after, romantic' ending, rather than the more realistic, satisfying (in my opinion) ending I thought she was heading for. When I asked her about it, she said she agreed with me, but her editor told her she had to change it, because readers want those happy, romantic endings.

 

So, Linda, have you noticed any pressure like that? And to the other readers here, what do you prefer?

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Yet again, another really interesting Q! And I think I can answer without giving too much away...

 

I definitely prefer to write (and find it easier to write) question mark endings, leaving things open so that a reader has to decide how they think things turn out. Even when I give a clear indication of how things stand at the end of a book, as I do in EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY, I'd like the reader to think "Well, OK, that's how things are now, but how will they be in a year's time? In 5 years?..." Those of an optimistic disposition can tell themeselves things will be hunky-dory. Those of a gloomier (more realistic?) persuasion can see a resolved ending as merely temporary and rather tentative.

 

With STAR GAZING I was asked for an epilogue which would clarify various issues. I declined. I said I didn't want everything resolved and although I was writing a commercial book, I hadn't wanted to write a cosy book.

 

Happy endings are much harder to write IMO because it's difficult to make them believable. You can make things tidy, but believable? And you want to avoid the yuck factor! A happy ending that's convincing, unsentimental, emotionally and intellectually satisfying - well, that's a challenge for a writer. Tragedy is much easier to write!

 

If you are writing popular fiction there is indeed a lot of pressure to write clear and happy endings. We are told that's what readers want (although as I've said before, I'm yet to come across any market research anyone has done to establish this.) The novel I've just finished writing could have been very open-ended, a mix of happy & sad, but partly because I anticipated my editor's request, I thought I'd try an epilogue in which I sorted out (almost) everybody's life and showed you how things were a couple of years on.

 

Rather to my surprise, I thought it worked, so I've left it in. But this epilogue is almost tongue-in-cheek. It's clearly a "tidying up loose ends" addition and self-consciously so. I hope readers (and my editor!) will be happy, but it's borderline "cosy". My justification for this is that the preceding 100 pages have been anything but cosy, so the contrast between the two actually provides a balance.

 

But who knows? As a writer you're always trying to second-guess readers, who vary enormously anyway. You have to just write for yourself in the end.

 

I shall be interested to hear what you think of STAR GAZING, Michelle. I can guess where you have got up to! :) My intention was that the reader would reach a certain point in the book where the massive "shock" occurs and they would experience a great screeching of genre-gears as they move from one kind of book into another. I never knew if readers would buy this. (Apparently some do.) The Q I would be asking if I were reading is, is this a complete change of direction or merely a temporary diversion?...

Edited by Linda Gillard
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