Thursday, July 1, 2010

On Violence and Branding

Back a few posts ago, I ranted on about people complaining about violence against animals in fiction, so when I stumbled across this essay by Chaz Brenchley over at the Book View Cafe I decided to post a link. http://blog.bookviewcafe.com/2010/06/30/violence-in-fantasy/ While the essay deals with violence in fantasy, the discussion in the comments that follow can just as easily be applied to any genre that you write in. And no, there's no violence against animals discussed, at least not the last time I read the post.

Deborah Elliott-Upton has an interesting post over at Criminal Brief this morning that deals with authors and their web sites. http://criminalbrief.com/?p=12941 The essay is entitled "It's Not All About Me?" and takes a look at why your site, or your blog, shouldn't be all about the me-me-me of being a writer. I know that when I drift around the blog world, I look for blogs that have interesting topics. The ones that are only about the author, their Amazon ranking, and their reviews are a pass for me. Besides, I'm more apt to purchase a book recommended to me by a reader than by the author, because every one knows that a writer believes everything they write is great. ;-)

4 comments:

Ron Scheer said...

Thanks for the link to Book View Cafe. The discussion on violence and torture in fiction is a good one.

On the subject of branding, it's interesting that 50 years ago, authors were typically self-effacing. You'd see the same old pic of them on the end flap of every new novel and a short bio that revealed little.

sandra seamans said...

I thought so also, Ron, they made some very good points. And yes, outside of the rare few like Hemmingway or Mark Twain, authors stayed in the background letting the publishers sell the books that they purchased.

Deborah Elliott-Upton said...

Thabks for linking my blog to yours! That's a win/win for all of us. :-)

sandra seamans said...

You're most welcome, Deborah, and welcome to the Corner!