I have also read numerous authors, especially in SF, discuss how they have
little or not input regarding cover art or blurbs (some of which are
horribly written, or give away important information, etc.), but that many
of the readers who write them assume the writer makes all those choices.
Possibly the same situation exists regarding titles. I know one of the
'worst' covers out there is on a paperback edition of Octavia Butler's novel
_Dawn_. The novel has an African American protagonist, Lilith, but the
cover art depicts a completely fair-skinned/anglo looking woman. Donna
Harraway has written about this cover and SF's "presumption of whiteness"
--I cannot imagine Butler would have made the choice, but I doubt she had
any! Joanna Russ has an essay out about the assumptions people make about
famous feminists, especially writers. She lists examples of people who
write her: they blame her for covers, whether or not the book is available
in their town, ask her to send them multiple copies, and, finally, in one
amazing story tells how a student wrote asking for copies of all her books,
and answers to a whole list of question. When Russ refused and wrote back
politely saying that she should ask her teacher how to do basic research,
the girl's older sister wrote her to say how horrible she (Russ) was and how
the girl was completely devastated and had given up her life's ambition to
be a writer.
Robin
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:06:58 PDT