07-06-2013, 01:43 AM | #31 | |
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"Greek Tycoon", "Millionaire" "Billionaire", "Virgin Mistress", "Harlequin Presents." (I actually like other HQN lines but not the rich guy's pregnant virgin mistress kind). Also, no pirates for me unless the pirate is the heroine. |
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07-06-2013, 01:55 AM | #32 |
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I also tend to steer clear of anything where the very first sentence in the blurb is to announce that the work has had a major revision due to reader feedback.
I'm just not sure I want to give the author a second chance when he/she has already, by admission, inflicted a big pile of poo onto readers. It's less likely to bother me if it's a footnote - but the very first sentence - in bold? "Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!" |
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07-06-2013, 02:01 AM | #33 | |
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I normally pass over any poor person tied up on the cover. I still have 50 Shades flashbacks! Pirates are my favorite historical romance hero! I buy all I can find. |
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07-06-2013, 04:41 AM | #34 |
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So do I Now I have to skip any sex scenes in books otherwise I start to feel nauseous.
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07-06-2013, 05:28 AM | #35 | |
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Then again, some books, A Reliable Wife comes to mind, have blurbs from seemingly every media outlet in the English speaking world describing it in seductively positive terms - I bought it thinking I had a sure thing - that was one bad book, a pretentious, implausible bodice ripper rather than the promised Gothic literary thriller. You make a decision with the info you've got and hope for the best. Last edited by usuallee; 07-06-2013 at 05:39 AM. |
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07-06-2013, 05:50 AM | #36 | |
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07-06-2013, 06:21 AM | #37 | |
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07-06-2013, 08:38 AM | #38 |
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In mysteries/thrillers, if the blurb indicates that a serial killer has a particularly gruesome and/or oddball signature, I pass it by.
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07-06-2013, 09:53 AM | #39 |
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1. Spelling and grammatical errors.
2. A blurb that begins with news of a price break. 3. The words "fae" or "paranormal romance." |
07-06-2013, 10:22 AM | #40 |
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I don't want to read about lawyers. I had to work with them. I don't want to read about government conspiracies. If the words paranormal, psychic, romance, or love interest I'll probably pass. If the blurb gives the impression it's a written visit from Jehovah's Witnesses knocking on my door I'll pass.
But, it gets worse. I worked with a man named Bruns who was horrible. Funny, but horrible. Today I saw a new book by a man named Bruns. What if he's related? Unlike some, I don't have a totally negative opinion of self-published books. Pat Conroy started that way and at least if you're self-published you don't have a publisher requiring a "love angle" so they can attract female readers. |
07-06-2013, 11:05 AM | #41 | |
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Oh yeah! There's the one that kills me:
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07-06-2013, 11:13 AM | #42 |
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Yes. I love the Free ParTay and the deals they provide, but I REALLY wish they'd not use the blurbs for cross-promoting the books involved. It's REALLY annoying. I have to tag them in calibre and then download the normal blurb after it's over and the blurbs are restored.
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07-06-2013, 11:18 AM | #43 |
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Self published. See comments by others above. I have a very, very low tolerance for proofing errors and zero tolerance for misused words.
Genre. Maybe this is just me, but I'm happy to read a book with romance, sci-fi, mystery, fantasy, western, horror, supernatural, <insert anything here>...but if you're writing according to expectations/cliches of a given genre, and/or writing solely to make money (believe me, it shows), I want absolutely nothing to do with you. Fortunately, genre series crap, is (for the most part) easy to detect and avoid. My judgement when reading fiction is based on (1) writing ability, (2) characters, and (3) plot. If (1) is missing, I'm generally gone by page 5. If a book doesn't have two out of three, I'm probably gone by page 50...though if (1) is really strong, I *may* continue on, though it'll probably wind up with a 2-3 star review. Yeah, I'm probably a bit of a snob. But life is too short to waste time on bad books. Sturgeon's Law says that 90% of everything is crap. The corollary is that the 90% is different for everyone (which allows me to sleep at night when reality TV is still on the air, and people continue to buy books from the James Patterson ghost writing factory). YMMV. |
07-06-2013, 11:49 AM | #44 | |
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07-06-2013, 11:55 AM | #45 | |
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Carol Edited to add: After reading some of the posts, I see I'm not alone in this. ;-) Last edited by sadievan; 07-06-2013 at 12:08 PM. |
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