It was back in May of last year that John Grisham was interviewed and he was asked about his thoughts on indie authors. His response was that indie writers and their books is the worse scourge to ever sweep the planet and they will probably destroy the book business.
In the past, I’ve read several books by indie authors and thought they were well written. The plots and prose were great and I enjoyed each one of them.
Unfortunately, that won’t be the case all the time. Recently, I read an indie author and about 1/3 through the book, I stopped reading it. I felt it wasn’t for me. My mistake was not reading the preview. If I did, then I would have never purchased the book although I did get a refund.
The beginning of the story had a graphic rape scene. The choice of words regarding the woman were so poor that I can’t even mention it here. In the book, the predator had already kidnapped the daughter and then went into rape the mother and kill her.
I stopped reading the book after one more scene. It must have been at least 70 pages into the book and what happened was that the predator took a baseball bat to his mother and hit her over the head. She went into the ocean and both parents were killed by the sharks in the ocean.
The author had said in the beginning of the book that there was graphic violence but remember, this is fiction. Of course, I would have added that it was poorly written especially when he described a woman being beautiful, looking like a model, and she was a brunette.
Now maybe in the back of my mind, I could hear John Grisham say see, I told you so. To be quite frank, I stopped reading books by John Grisham after The Firm but I don't agree with him in any case. I did not read A Time To Kill, which as everyone will say was Grisham’s first book. Of course, it also represented him as an indie author, considering the hypocrisy of his statement.
People would say to me well, didn’t you read the Dragon Tattoo. There was a graphic rape scene in there. Look at all the people who bought the book. Sure, and if you go on Goodreads, you’ll see that there were a lot of people who hated the book as well.
I’m sure an argument can be made that you have horror writers like Stephen King who made money for years writing stories with scenes more horrible that what I described. That was the reason I stopped reading his books after Misery.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to be like Brent Bozell and be against violence and say that we should go back to the days of Leave It To Beaver. In the end, this is entertainment and if we’re not happy with a book or a TV show, we have the option of moving on and doing something else if we don’t like it as well. That’s why we have over 10 million people watching The Following. Nothing wrong with that.
Going back to Grisham’s remarks, my answer to him is this. Indie Authors like the one I described have to face thousands of people with computers ready to review these books. Yes, there will be people that liked this book and others who will rake it through the coals. Even Gillian Flynn had over 714 1 star reviews for Gone Girl.
In addition, I would there are quite a few authors who do not have the sales that Grisham has even though they are represented by agents and have written books that have been published by companies such as Random House or Simon and Schuster. They can lose their jobs and be cancelled just like a TV series. It is great to say that those authors still have an option of writing books as indie authors and build their fan base.
Rick Holman
http://bertcarsonauthor.com/what-john-grisham-forgot/
In the past, I’ve read several books by indie authors and thought they were well written. The plots and prose were great and I enjoyed each one of them.
Unfortunately, that won’t be the case all the time. Recently, I read an indie author and about 1/3 through the book, I stopped reading it. I felt it wasn’t for me. My mistake was not reading the preview. If I did, then I would have never purchased the book although I did get a refund.
The beginning of the story had a graphic rape scene. The choice of words regarding the woman were so poor that I can’t even mention it here. In the book, the predator had already kidnapped the daughter and then went into rape the mother and kill her.
I stopped reading the book after one more scene. It must have been at least 70 pages into the book and what happened was that the predator took a baseball bat to his mother and hit her over the head. She went into the ocean and both parents were killed by the sharks in the ocean.
The author had said in the beginning of the book that there was graphic violence but remember, this is fiction. Of course, I would have added that it was poorly written especially when he described a woman being beautiful, looking like a model, and she was a brunette.
Now maybe in the back of my mind, I could hear John Grisham say see, I told you so. To be quite frank, I stopped reading books by John Grisham after The Firm but I don't agree with him in any case. I did not read A Time To Kill, which as everyone will say was Grisham’s first book. Of course, it also represented him as an indie author, considering the hypocrisy of his statement.
People would say to me well, didn’t you read the Dragon Tattoo. There was a graphic rape scene in there. Look at all the people who bought the book. Sure, and if you go on Goodreads, you’ll see that there were a lot of people who hated the book as well.
I’m sure an argument can be made that you have horror writers like Stephen King who made money for years writing stories with scenes more horrible that what I described. That was the reason I stopped reading his books after Misery.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to be like Brent Bozell and be against violence and say that we should go back to the days of Leave It To Beaver. In the end, this is entertainment and if we’re not happy with a book or a TV show, we have the option of moving on and doing something else if we don’t like it as well. That’s why we have over 10 million people watching The Following. Nothing wrong with that.
Going back to Grisham’s remarks, my answer to him is this. Indie Authors like the one I described have to face thousands of people with computers ready to review these books. Yes, there will be people that liked this book and others who will rake it through the coals. Even Gillian Flynn had over 714 1 star reviews for Gone Girl.
In addition, I would there are quite a few authors who do not have the sales that Grisham has even though they are represented by agents and have written books that have been published by companies such as Random House or Simon and Schuster. They can lose their jobs and be cancelled just like a TV series. It is great to say that those authors still have an option of writing books as indie authors and build their fan base.
Rick Holman
http://bertcarsonauthor.com/what-john-grisham-forgot/