But the parallel relationship I'm thinking of is not focused on the author and reader -- it's author/reader and cover artist to author and reader.
In other words, covers are snarked on the SBs without any regard to the cover artist and whatever amount of work, talent, and artistic effort went into designing those covers. And no one complains. Yet I'm relatively sure that cover artists have feelings, too, and that some, if not all, of that snarking might hurt those feelings.
So authors may cringe at what they believe to be bad covers, but readers cringe at what we believe to be bad books. But if we cringe in a way that hurts author feelings, we're mean, we're insensitive, we're not respecting the many hours of artistic labor, etc. that went into the book.
So, yeah, it seems a bit ironic to me that authors can freely snark covers and then wonder why readers think it's okay to snark books. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but I think there's a bit of a double standard at work here in terms of how readers are *supposed* to treat books (always remember that someone worked hard to write them) that doesn't apply to how authors and readers are supposed to view covers (as if they simply emerge and we can judge them without considering the feelings of the cover artist).
I don't care whether DA is to anyone's particular taste (although I had a momentary crack up at the idea that Karen Knows Best is considered a less biased alternative -- and I don't mean that as an insult to KKB at all, since she's very up front about her approach and takes responsibility for her presentation) -- that's for each person to decide. I'm not particularly swayed by arguments that it's okay to cruelly deride authors on a locked LJ that is merely semi-private, while it's not okay to say certain things on a public blog where at least they're not being said *behind someone's back*, but okay. What bothers me is the idea that I sometimes get that authors are the only ones who have feelings that should be respected. That bloggers and readers and cover artists and editors and anyone else is fair game but authors aren't.
And FWIW, I met Janssen at RWA and she seemed like a very nice person. I wish I had liked her book more. Although the cover was stunning and at least 50% responsible for me buying the book (I liked the clever riff of the title, too).
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Date: 2008-12-08 06:38 pm (UTC)But the parallel relationship I'm thinking of is not focused on the author and reader -- it's author/reader and cover artist to author and reader.
In other words, covers are snarked on the SBs without any regard to the cover artist and whatever amount of work, talent, and artistic effort went into designing those covers. And no one complains. Yet I'm relatively sure that cover artists have feelings, too, and that some, if not all, of that snarking might hurt those feelings.
So authors may cringe at what they believe to be bad covers, but readers cringe at what we believe to be bad books. But if we cringe in a way that hurts author feelings, we're mean, we're insensitive, we're not respecting the many hours of artistic labor, etc. that went into the book.
So, yeah, it seems a bit ironic to me that authors can freely snark covers and then wonder why readers think it's okay to snark books. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but I think there's a bit of a double standard at work here in terms of how readers are *supposed* to treat books (always remember that someone worked hard to write them) that doesn't apply to how authors and readers are supposed to view covers (as if they simply emerge and we can judge them without considering the feelings of the cover artist).
I don't care whether DA is to anyone's particular taste (although I had a momentary crack up at the idea that Karen Knows Best is considered a less biased alternative -- and I don't mean that as an insult to KKB at all, since she's very up front about her approach and takes responsibility for her presentation) -- that's for each person to decide. I'm not particularly swayed by arguments that it's okay to cruelly deride authors on a locked LJ that is merely semi-private, while it's not okay to say certain things on a public blog where at least they're not being said *behind someone's back*, but okay. What bothers me is the idea that I sometimes get that authors are the only ones who have feelings that should be respected. That bloggers and readers and cover artists and editors and anyone else is fair game but authors aren't.
And FWIW, I met Janssen at RWA and she seemed like a very nice person. I wish I had liked her book more. Although the cover was stunning and at least 50% responsible for me buying the book (I liked the clever riff of the title, too).