Contractually, the publisher usually has the hammer on a book
like this although I don't know who precisely came up with
this particular title.
One would think that "specialists in the field" are actually
who they say and think they are. This anointment should
include not being easily misled.
Exhaustiveness aside, what's important about a non-fiction
book is the quality of the content, not the title.
Alan
Alan K. Rode
www.alanrode.com
_____
From:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com [mailto:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Jess Nevins
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 7:15 AM To:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com Subject: RE: RARA-AVIS:
Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers
-----Original Message-----
>From: "Alan K. Rode" <arode@socal.
<mailto:arode%40socal.rr.com> rr.com>
>
>I think Lee's introduction speaks for itself. Also: a
book title, more
often
>than not, is what a publisher believes what will
allow the house to sell
>books rather than a precise content identifier. This
practice tends to be
>extremely noticeable with non-fiction.
True, but both writer and publisher need to be careful when
they phrase their title, so as to not mislead both the
general public and the specialists in the field. When you use
the word "encyclopedia" you implicitly lay claim to
exhaustiveness, and when you use the phrase "pulp fiction
writers" you implicitly claim you are going to be covering
writers of pulp fiction. If you aren't exhaustive and end up
covering many writers whose work didn't appear in the pulps,
while neglecting prominent writers whose work did appear in
the pulps, you'd better have a very good explanation and put
it at the beginning of your introduction, not tucked away in
one sentence at the end of a long history of pulps and
pulpish fiction.
Jess Nevins, author of the Encyclopedia of Fantastic
Victoriana
(in the introduction to which I addressed the exhaustiveness
issue) and the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Pulp Heroes (in
the introduction to which I address both the exhaustiveness
issue and the "pulp heroes" issue).
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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