You Can’t Judge a Book By Its Cover, nor should you.
I’m one of those freaks who learned to read when I was eighteen months old and I’ve kept my nose buried in a book since. Although I’m a relative newcomer to the romance genre, my tastes vary wildly - I can flip from nonfiction to religious treatise to fantasy to works of academia to medical journals to literary fiction to poetry without a thought - you name the genre and at the very least I’ve probably dabbled in it.
Over the years, I’ve read some stinkers put out by major publishing houses, written by authors with enormous PR pushes behind them, toting big-time reviewers on their shoulders - and they’ve been wrapped in some of the most eye-catching, exquisite covers around. On the other hand, I’ve read works of elegant, beautiful prose that slipped through the backdoor of the literary scene with barely a whimper, wearing a plain brown wrapper and without any fanfare whatsoever.
What am I trying to say? It ain’t the meat it’s the motion. Does the story have substance? Does it touch my heart, wrench my gut? Does it fire up the old neurons? Do I mull the story over long after I’ve finished reading it? Is it worth a re-read and maybe a recommendation?
Reviewers have a perfect right to dislike/hate/detest any book they read, post negative reviews, take a blow torch to a book, burn it to ashes and bury it in a pile of horse manure. They can even pose the very legitimate question - is this work indicative of the books a particular pub puts out. But to trash a specific publishing house because you picked up one or two books you didn’t like? That’s ridiculous, and I make that claim as a reader, not a writer. If you want a meaningful sample, read twenty, thirty books of various sub-genres, and then, if you still think the publisher is ‘crap‘ - you can express a legitimate, informed opinion based upon a reasonable sample of the thousands of books that publisher has to offer. Hey, there are a few publishing houses I don’t respect, but that doesn’t mean I think everything they put out is crap. I’ve found damn good writers within those pubs and pointed readers in their direction without hesitation.
On a more positive note - speaking of books, check out Eliza Gayle’s blog and her 30 days of naughty excerpts. She has books from multiple pubs…we are all equal in Eliza’s eyes: http://elizagayle.net/blog/
