Jim wrote:
"Charles didn't bring it up. Once it came up, he had a right
to defend his editorial choice."
But Charles did not defend his EDITORIAL decision; he
defended his BUSINESS decision, as you note beginning with
your very next sentence:
"And the popularity of the TWO FOR THE MONEY ominibus makes
it clear that it was a good business decision. . . . But when
a business decision, a successful business decision, of
Charles is questioned, he has a right to defend his decision,
and he did so with class and courtesy."
Jeff, who started the thread, did not question Charles's
business decision. He simply noted he did not like this one
book, while saying he had liked every other book he had read
in the line and intends to read more in the future. So
clearly Jeff appreciates Charles's overall business model,
but questioned why this one book was included.
"To defend the quality would be to sound like he's doing
precisely what you rail against, shilling for his own work,
so he defended his decision in a neutral way, by pointing to
the book's popularity, which proved the soundness of the
business decision without necessarily questioning Jeff's
opinions about the quality."
What's wrong with engaging Jeff's opinion about the quality?
We disagree with each other all the time on this list about
the quality of particular books. Why shouldn't Charles offer
his opinion on this book, even if he pubished it? He must
like it if he published it. So what'd he like about it? Or
was it just to offer Collins's fans a chance to read a couple
of his early, long out of print books? Was it because they
were the only Collins books that were available for
reprinting? It would be very interesting to know how Hard
Case Crime books are chosen. How much of it is editorial, how
much is business?
I've been very curious about how Charles (and Max) decides
what books to publish. I've followed Hard Case's progress
with interest ever since Charles first asked the list for
recommendations on books worthy of republishing. So how are
they chosen? I'm not faulting the choices, I'd just like to
know how they're made. For instance, the cover of Branded
Woman (which I am currently enjoying) notes that it's by the
same author as Touch of Evil and Plunder of the Sun (which I
also enjoyed immensely) is blurbed as from the author of To
Catch a Thief. So why those two books and not the ones the
movies were based on? Or why that Al Colby book by David
Dodge and not the first in the series?
For the record, when I read them long ago, I enjoyed
Collins's Nolan
(and Quarry) books as kind of light comic book versions of
Parker. I liked them much less when I later reread one, found
the writing kind of wooden and the overall book too comic
booky.
Mark
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 24 Jul 2005 EDT