The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Having to scroll past 50 lines of awards and quotations. Just tell me what the book is about.

Even worse is when there is so many quote and other junk that by the time you get to the actual description, there's not enough room for it to tell you want the book is about.

[Quoth]

Or putting Author X boldly endorsing it on cover and at start of blurb and today it's revealed Author X is Fascist / Serial Killer / Paedophile / Rapist / Domestic Abuser / crypto scammer / warlord.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Or putting Author X boldly endorsing it on cover and at start of blurb and today it's revealed Author X is Fascist / Serial Killer / Paedophile / Rapist / Domestic Abuser / crypto scammer / warlord.

Interesting I just find this:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...s-blurbs-books

When you buy a new book, you can usually expect to see praise from other authors emblazoned on its cover. A writer slightly more famous than the author of the book you’re buying might have called it “whip-smart”, “illuminating” or “a tour de force”, for example – presumably so that fans of the more famous writer will take a punt on the less famous one.

But soon we may not see so many of these author blurbs – Sean Manning, publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship imprint in the US, has written an essay for Publishers Weekly explaining that as of this year he will “no longer require authors to obtain blurbs for their books”.

Also, does New York Times bestselling mean anything anymore? I see it on every book.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Also, does New York Times bestselling mean anything anymore? I see it on every book.

It only means something (IMHO) if it's for that book. I don't care if the author has had a NYT bestselling book. Awards are meaningless unless it's for that book.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It only means something (IMHO) if it's for that book. I don't care if the author has had a NYT bestselling book. Awards are meaningless unless it's for that book.

For me awards are completely meaningless in any case. The same goes for bestseller lists et al.

[John F]

. A writer slightly more famous than the author of the book you’re buying might have called it “whip-smart”, “illuminating” or “a tour de force”, for example – presumably so that fans of the more famous writer will take a punt on the less famous one.

What is the logic behind this?

[JSWolf]

When the CSS has text-transform: uppercase; when in the HTML, the text could have been made uppercase.

I don't see the need for this in the CSS and really it's just lazy on the part of the author and/or designer.

[ownedbycats]

Does it behave different with screenreaders?

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Even worse is when there is so many quote and other junk that by the time you get to the actual description, there's not enough room for it to tell you want the book is about.

I have a book that just straight up uses quotes for the prequel. It was a very good prequel I will admit! But it's not current book and they are very very different books. Just totally misleading.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Does it behave different with screenreaders?

Yes: https://www.timdunklee.com/notes/use...-letters-a11y/

During one of our remediation sessions, I noticed an interesting thing that happened. Our accessibility expert was navigating through items on the page, when he landed on a heading that was typed manually in all capital letters. The heading read “SEE HOW IT WORKS.” When he focused on this heading it read out the word “IT” as “I.T.” because it thought it was an acronym. As a test, we quickly updated the heading to be title cased and used CSS text transform to make the text simply be styled as all uppercase. The result was that the heading was properly read out. I’ve always felt odd about data being in all uppercase letters, but now I have a very good reason for it.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

For me awards are completely meaningless in any case. The same goes for bestseller lists et al.

Often luck, or even bribes.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Or putting Author X boldly endorsing it on cover and at start of blurb and today it's revealed Author X is Fascist / Serial Killer / Paedophile / Rapist / Domestic Abuser / crypto scammer / warlord.

or dead for over a year before pub date

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by theducks

or dead for over a year before pub date

V. C. Andrews is the most prolific dead author ever.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

V. C. Andrews is the most prolific dead author ever.

Ghost writers in the sky…

[DrNefario]

I don't really see why people are so exercised about the idea of trying to sell a book, when that is pretty much what a publisher is for.

Bestseller - a lot of other people liked it
Award - either a lot of other people liked it or a jury who ought to know what they're talking about liked it
Review quotes - these people who ought to know what they're talking about liked it
Blurbs - these people who ought to know what they're talking about liked it
Now a major motion picture - someone thought it was worth making into a film

That's all, ultimately, factual information that might make me believe the book is worth my time. Anyone can say "my book is great", and I'm not going to put much weight on that, but if you have someone else saying "your book is great" I might start to listen. I'm not blindly trusting, but it's a bit more weight on the scales.

I do agree with the original comment about the actual book description being crowded out by the promotional material, with special bonus marks when the review quotes aren't even for this book, but I generally think it's a plus to have that information.

The interesting thing about the article referenced above is that it was apparently on the authors to gather the blurbs at Simon & Schuster.