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Originally Posted by Worldwalker
The rules that apply to Harlan Ellison do not apply to normal mortals.
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Of course not. Which is why my benchmark for author shenanigans I'm willing to put up with is measured at "You must be
thi-i-i-s talented (holds hand up Ellison-high) before I'd still read/maybe buy your books".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Worldwalker
They'll buy what he sells without sampling the text because they're not just buying words; they're buying Harlan Ellison, and they already know what that is (it's hard not to).
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Um, actually I bought because of the reputation of the quality of the particular stories collected, not that of the overall talent of the man himself, although I concede that's a factor in getting me to consider his lesser-known-to-me works.
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Originally Posted by Worldwalker
Buying a story from an unfamiliar author without a preview is like walking into a bookstore and buying a random book with your eyes closed.
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Exactly, which is why only very well known authors were cited for the examples above. Regardless of actually quality, people know what they're getting into when they buy, based on reputation. They know what a Clancy or Cussler book will be like, and know what to expect from the story.
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Originally Posted by Worldwalker
But I wouldn't have done that if I hadn't already read so many of her dead tree books; that was a sale to an existing fan, not breaking any new ground.
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Hambly is one of my favourite authors and I own practically all her books that I've been able to track down in paper in 2+ languages, plus a slowly growing set of e-editions re-buys when I can get them cheap with discount coupon. It's precisely because I've read and liked her so much that I'm willing to take a chance on even her unseen work and pre-order basically everything*.
I would never do that with an unknown author, even if they had a very good reputation. Even for modern semi-classics in a genre, like R.A. MacAvoy whose books I recently bought the lot of from Fictionwise, I insist on sampling and preferably reading a full work from the library/promo freebie/deep discount before I commit to actually buying more than one book.
Authors really do have to earn the sight-unseen no-sample auto-buy privilege.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Worldwalker
Something to ponder: Harlan Ellison worked (for one day) for Disney. I wonder where that might have gone, collaboratively-speaking?
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Fandom Wank?
* Though I wish she'd bundle up her online shorts as MultiFormat, instead of insisting on selling the PDF/ePub/Mobi files individually. Aargh. It's not a paperback/hardcover difference anymore! Shift, paradigm, shift!