But there are others out there that are publishing books with, apparently, the sole reason being to give me a good, hard laugh.
Anyone want to read this 96-page picture book?
I want to be nice. I am sure that if I met Aunt Grace in person, I would find her lovely. And I would certainly read the book if she handed it to me. But I must say that I cannot spend $30 on a picture book about a groundhog searching for enlightenment. Even if Aunt Grace has the best author description EVER. Um, not in this economy, at any rate.
What are your thoughts? Am I being mean? Snarky? I mean, heck, a published book is a published book, right? At least Aunt Grace is published. I, on the other hand, am not. (Yet.) So which of us is the greater fool?
4 comments:
If Aunt Grace were to spend just a smidgen of time researching children's books, if she were serious about building a career, then she would not have self-published this book. One visit to a critique group, an SCBWI first page session, or even a simple online search regarding picture book word count would yield information telling her this story would not sell.
Some people don't want to do the hard work. They want the fun work of writing and creating. The hard work is getting published. And we all know it's NOT fun. It takes a thick skin to handle rejections. It takes a lot of thought, trial and error and time to revise. But that's what makes the process rewarding. It makes the process a business and not hobby or a whim. It makes you an aspiring author and not just a writer.
Aunt Grace wanted a published book. She got one. If she wanted more than that, she would have done more.
Nope, I feel the same way. Have horrific flashbacks to a self-published 'author' who used to haunt me when I worked in a bookstore ... the owner had been foolish enough to stock some of her dreadful, self-illustrated books (called Poppet and the Milliflibbets of Doom or something equally awful), and the author came in almost every day to ask us how they were doing, badger us for reviews and move her books to the front of the shelf. AND THEN SHE WROTE A SEQUEL!! AAAH!
Thank you, ladies, for making me feel less mean. :-) You're both right.
Andrea---she wrote a SEQUEL? How does one afford to self-pub a second time????
Aunt Grace sounds like someone who'd be fun to kick. Maybe she could tell me about the distinct personality of my size 12.
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