Wow, you really hated this one. Am I allowed to laugh at the hate?
Seriously, though, I think a lot of things get popular more because people like the *idea* of the content rather than the content itself. This probably got sold based on an exciting query letter--London! Bombs! Intrigue!--rather than the full manuscript. That's my guess, anyway. The folks nominating it for this or that may very well not have actually read/finished it, and even if they did, they may not have picked up on the problems (some people, frankly, have no judgment.) (I run across this in children's books all the time--people will buy absolute dreck if it has pretty pictures.)
It seems to me that folks in what I might call the community of aspiring writers have developed certain norms and values of what they consider good writing, and I often wonder how much relation it bears to what's actually being published. (EG, how many people in critique would rip Twilight or 50 Shades to pieces? But if these authors had listened to such critiques, would their 'better' books have become international best-sellers?) Sometimes the 'rules' seem so arbitrary--no adverbs! Lately I've even seen people claiming you should avoid adjectives. WTF. Seriously, WTF.
Anyway. You know what they say. Just write the best book you can. Then if editors/agents aren't into it, but you still think it's a good book, I'd just self-publish it on Amazon or wherever and see if folks enjoy it, anyway.
If you ever want someone to take a look at it, I'd be willing--though I think we've already established that we prefer different genres :) (Hell, I think I write YA PNR. Yeah...)
Anyway, I'm little_e over on the writers' forums, if you care.
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Date: 2013-02-06 08:09 pm (UTC)Seriously, though, I think a lot of things get popular more because people like the *idea* of the content rather than the content itself. This probably got sold based on an exciting query letter--London! Bombs! Intrigue!--rather than the full manuscript. That's my guess, anyway. The folks nominating it for this or that may very well not have actually read/finished it, and even if they did, they may not have picked up on the problems (some people, frankly, have no judgment.) (I run across this in children's books all the time--people will buy absolute dreck if it has pretty pictures.)
It seems to me that folks in what I might call the community of aspiring writers have developed certain norms and values of what they consider good writing, and I often wonder how much relation it bears to what's actually being published. (EG, how many people in critique would rip Twilight or 50 Shades to pieces? But if these authors had listened to such critiques, would their 'better' books have become international best-sellers?) Sometimes the 'rules' seem so arbitrary--no adverbs! Lately I've even seen people claiming you should avoid adjectives. WTF. Seriously, WTF.
Anyway. You know what they say. Just write the best book you can. Then if editors/agents aren't into it, but you still think it's a good book, I'd just self-publish it on Amazon or wherever and see if folks enjoy it, anyway.
If you ever want someone to take a look at it, I'd be willing--though I think we've already established that we prefer different genres :) (Hell, I think I write YA PNR. Yeah...)
Anyway, I'm little_e over on the writers' forums, if you care.