Brian,
Re your message below:
> No offense, Charles, and if I'm out of line
here,
> feel free to disregard
> this missive, but I find this passage
somewhat
> troubling:
>
> "I can tell you, though, that many people
don't
> agree with you. Literally
> every week I get e- mail messages from
people
> complimenting TWO FOR THE
> MONEY and asking us to reprint more of the novels
in
> the Nolan series -- and
> we certainly don't get messages like that
in
> response to every title we
> publish."
>
> It just doesn't sound like a discussion we ought
to
> be having on RARA AVIS.
> I have two Hard Case Crime editions in my
massive
> TBR list, Al Guthrie's
> KISS HER GOODBYE and Stansberry's CONFESSION, and
I
> was considering
> commenting on one or both of them here once I
had
> finished them, since RARA
> AVIS is the place for discussing HB/Noir
fiction.
> Now I'm not so sure.
>
> After all, what if I don't like Stansberry's
book
> and say so here? Can we
> have a discussion of its merits (they do
sometimes
> get spirited around
> here), rather than having statements about how
I'm
> entitled to my tastes,
> but MANY people liked it (after all, it won him
an
> Edgar). If you take your
> statement above out to its natural conclusion,
we
> ought to all be reading
> (or re-reading) and discussing Harry Potter
books
> and Dan Brown's DaVinci
> Code. Do "popular" and "good" always go hand
in
> hand in the publishing
> business?
<snip>
> What happens if a bunch of us read Stephen
King's
> THE COLORADO KID when it
> comes out in HCC and write something critical of
it
> here at RARA AVIS?
I think you're overeacting a bit here. Charles was doing
nothing more than defending his editorial and business choice
in reprinting Collins's early work while allowing that
everyone is entitled to his or her opinion.
And yes, hard as it is to swallow, in the publishing
BUSINESS, "popular" and "good" are synonomous terms. That
which is popular sells, that which sells generates profit,
and, in business, profit is what distinguishes good from bad.
That's the reality Charles, and every other publisher and
editor in the book industry, has to deal with.
Charles is to be credited with trying to establish a business
model in which "good" doesn't just refer to popularity, but
to quality, and with defending his choices is a classy way
that allows for the validity of opinions that disagree with
his.
JIM DOHERTY
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