that book meme #16

[orangerful]

16: Rant about anything book related



Two trends that I cannot stand right now in publishing:
1. Making books into comic books. Just to cash in. GUESS WHAT - Percy Jackson sold FINE in book form! They made a movie out of it! We don't need THE EXACT SAME STORY told in comic book form. I mean, if it was like the WARRIORS series where the comics were separate stories, I could deal with it, but just taking books and making them comics, with no real style, just an obvious cash-in, blah.

2. "Young Reader Editions" that are the same damn size as the adult book. Look, if you're in middle/high school and want to read 'Unbroken', just read 'Unbroken'. If you're interested in Malala, read her autobiography, not the "sanitized" version that is the "young reader's edition". Either your kid is ready for this, interested in this, or they are not.

The ABSOLUTE WORST is when they make a young reader's edition, a picture book edition and then a comic book. (okay that last one hasn't happened yet, but give it time!)

Anyone else have any book/publishing trends that are pet peeves at the moment?

Comments

[rhoda-rants.livejournal.com]

Though, as a kid, I already browsed the SF/F section, so they could just put all editions of GoT there and I'm sure the interested teens would find them.
And then there's that, yeah. Teens can totally go find the adult books if they want to; and adults can totally read the teen books if they want to; so the category distinction seems kind of arbitrary anyway. I guess that's where we put "coming of age stories" now? Except when they're not coming of age stories? It's weird. I'm a library assistant, and even I don't understand it.

Those books are over 1000 pages each, so I can see splitting them in half. They did that on the show, at least for the last couple of seasons. And now I'm wondering if they're titled differently. Is it "A Clash of Kings, Pt. 1, Pt. 2, etc.," or does each individual volume have it's own title, or is it something else altogether?

I'm actually working on a review of "Political Animals" right now! I decided to look at several LGBT characters in various types of media, so that, "Kings," and a number of other books, shows, and movies are on my list.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

I guess it can be a decision of the author/their agent/their publisher, mixed with those factors you listed in your post. It doesn't answer to a scientific description, but intuitively, you usually have a good idea whether something is YA or not.

They're titled "Le Trône de Fer #1-15 - Subtitle". More details here if you're curious.

That sounds interesting. Adding you. :-)

[rhoda-rants.livejournal.com]

Yay--adding you back!

The YA books do have a different feel, for the most part. I guess one of the weirder aspects of it is that category, at least the way it is now, didn't exist when I was growing up. You went pretty much from Juvenile to Adult fiction, with very little in between. I mean, there were the Fear Street and Sweet Valley High books that were geared towards older kids, sure, but the massive section we have now? Definitely not the same as it was.

Which is a good thing! I love YA books. But some of them, I do wonder how they got there.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

It's true they didn't exist when I was a kid, and yet, they've existed long enough that I feel like they've always existed. Does that make sense? XD

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I just want to say I love this ^^^^^ There is no other social media platform I am on right now where this conversation could have happened. ***HUGS YOU GUYS***

I wonder if the split has anything to do with translating...besides the length, would it be tricky to translate a fantasy series in a timely manner? And I assume that France is getting the TV show the same time as the US? It's not something to just tie in a release with the show?

The publishing industry be CRAZY!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

Yeah, it's great. It's just weird to me when I see people on other platforms mention that LJ is dead. Well, sure, if they left for several years and tried to come back, their flist had probably seriously decreased in size, but if you're on it regularly, you keep meeting people and there's still a lot of activity (except in the comms).

They did it like that from the start, so I don't think it can be related to the TV show. I think maybe they're afraid that thick books wouldn't sell and it's got to be a way to make more money (maybe partly to make up for the translation costs, which are proportional to the length of the books, while the prices can be a bit higher, but most likely not in a proportional way).

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I'm sure all of their marketing people have done research that shows what sized fantasy novel sells best in France. It's so crazy why they know about our brains and how we shop. Is France more cool with fantasy books like that? I feel like in the U.S., genre titles like 'Game of Thrones' are very much "for the nerds" and therefore hidden away and not marketed in, say, a grocery store, the way the realistic fiction is.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

Yes, I had a conversation recently about the fact that we had Captive Prince at the supermarket, but it's not highly different from having Game of Thrones and 50 Shades there, and I was told that none of these are widely available in the US. There was already a lot of SF/F there when I was a kid (and a lot of romance too), so I don't know why it's different in the US.