by Susan/Miranda
Do you believe endorsements? When someone fabulously famous or celebrated or educated, or even Just Like You tells you to buy something, do you listen? Are you willing to take the advice of a complete stranger, and plunk down your MasterCard when it counts?
Publishers believe you will. That’s why almost every book on the market today carries some sort of recommendation on the cover or front pages. For fiction, these come mostly in the form of praise from other writers, usually other writers successful in the same genre. This makes sense: if you like A’s books, and A says B’s book is a rip-snortin’ read, then it (should) follow that you’ll like B’s books, too. A’s quote gives B instant credibility. It’s as much a gift of generosity as one of admiration, its kind praise shared through bookmarks and websites. (At least that's how I've always thought of it, and a hearty thanks to all the authors who have done this considerable favor for me over the years.)
But before I was published, I had only the vaguest fairy-tale notions of how this came into being. I thought that A just happened to pick up B’s book, and wrote to her, and said swell things, that B in turn passed along to her publisher. Somewhere I guess that must happen, just like some fairy-tales do come true.
But for the most part, review quotes (that’s their formal title, just as “to quote” really means “to give a review quote”) come about in three different ways. The first, and most agreeable, is between author-friends and acquaintances. B meets A at a conference/booksigning/class reunion/airport lounge/orthodontist’s waiting room. They email, they chat, they cross paths again. B finally screws up her courage, and asks A if she’d be willing to read her next book in manuscript form, and IF she likes it, give her a quote. In almost all cases, A will happily oblige. That’s what friends and colleagues are for, and a tidy deposit in the karma bank it is. There’s precious little that one writer can really do to help another professionally, but this is one of the best.
However, it can get messy if A is a New York Times bestselling author and in great demand. A is flattered to be asked by B, but as her star rises, A discovers that right after B are C,D,E,F,G and the whole rest of the alphabet, eager for quotes of their own. A can be a real princess, read and quote for everyone who asks so long as they say please, and risk being late turning in her own next book. Or she can ask B to write her own quote, and A will endorse it as her own. Or A develops a generic quote that she gives to every writer who asks: “No one slices bread like B!” Or, in time, A may just throw up her hands in overworked dismay, put out the word she’s given up giving quotes, and change her email server and phone number.
But what happens if B doesn’t ever meet A? Then B must rely upon that professional matchmaker, otherwise known as her agent. Agents will cheerfully act as go-betweens, hunting down other authors for quotes, whether blindly or from their own lists of authors. They’ll make polite inquires for B, praise her work to A (agent-praise is always more agreeable than self-praise, anyway), send along B’s manuscript if A agrees, and shield B from the ugly truth if A says she wouldn’t quote for B if B were the last book on earth, the no-good, plagerizing slut.
The other go-between can be B’s editor. Most writers pay attention when an editor asks a favor, because in this business, You Just Never Know when it could be very useful to be in another editor’s address book. A really pays attention when her editor is also B’s editor, and the interest rate at the karma bank goes through the roof.
But the very best part for A is that, if she’s lucky, B’s book will make her forget that she and A are writing pals, or publishing stable-mates. Instead A will get to be a reader first and forget about quoting, and lose herself in a wonderful book. She’ll have the rare privilege of being among the first to discover a
new author, or read a book that might someday become a bestseller in its own right.
In this spirit, I’d like to recommend two new historical novels that I recently quoted. Both were by authors new to me, and reading their books was like finding unexpected treasure. Check ‘em out:
The Winter Prince by Cheryl Sawyer
http://www.Cherylsawyer.com
Too Great A Lady: The Notorious, Glorious Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton by Amanda Elyot
http://www.tlt.com/authors/lcarroll/amanda_elyot.htm
But what about you? Do you pay attention to cover quotes? Or have you recently “discovered” a book or author you’d like to recommend yourself?