Skeletal Writings

Well, after a long absence of posting, something I read online made me want to come out of hiding.

Long story short, on my Twitter feed there was a link to a person's review of a book, where she talked about all the things that were wrong with it, and the discussion turned to how the author looked, as well as an image of her.  A lot of people said "Oh my god, if we knew what she looked like, we wouldn't have read her book!"  One person (a book reviewer that I follow on Twitter/her blog) essentially said "Everyone's being mean and needs to grow up!"  The reviewer wrote a general response post to everyone, which explained why she thought the author's appearance mattered.

I am split on this. 

First of all, I thought the initial reviewer was quite rude in her explanation of why authors need to be attractive.  You know what, let's be honest.  I wanted to reach through the computer and punch her repeatedly.  Here's why.  She kept bringing up the term professional, but she really meant attractive, and attractive by her standards.  If you judged writers strictly on their appearance, let's just say you'd miss out on a lot of fantabulous writing.

Second of all, I hated the comment from the book reviewer saying "Grow up!"  First, on a purely terminological level, you'd think with her experience in internet dealings (read: drama) as well as blogging she'd come up with something more hard-hitting than that.  At least, I thought so.  Second,  much as I wanted to punch her through the screem, I thought the initial reviewer was more than entitled to her opinion.  Especially because she was writing a review on a website that anyone can write a review on (so we're not talking a paid professional reviewer here). Before the conversation went into "Ewwwww, the author is ugly!  If we knew what she looked like we wouldn't have bought her books!" the initial reviewer gave a decently subtantial review of the book.  On a personal level, I thought initial reviewer's grammar was horrible and she didn't go into enough detail, but her saving grace was this: She thought the book was absolutely a waste of money, but she didn't just write "It sucked."

Third of all, if author appearance is so important, I am terrified to go into the business.  I am not attractive at all (messed-up teeth, out-of-control frizzy hair, blotchy skin) if we are going by what's normally considered attractive.  I'll just leave this here for future reference in case anyone feels the same as the initial reviwer.

Fourth of all, while we're talking about author appearance, here's a few somethings I noted about a particular sub-genre of book and the way the authors looked.  So let's talk paranormal romance.  First, author age.  In the paranormal romance genre, it seems as though you have the most young authors.  Then you get a few that are older and it's not the usual.  Never mind that the only paranormal romance I've genuinely enjoyed has been written by women in their forties and above...Something about they can tell a good story instead of relying on hot, snarky leads.  And now because it's right on topic, author appearance.  Because in the paranormal romance genre, I think author appearance can play a role on how you see the book.  It does for me, anyway.  If a more attractive than average author writes about two+ hot characters, I think "On with the story."  If an author that looks not much better than me (see above paragraph for that description) writes about two+ hot characters, I think "Wish fulfillment?"  And then I can't shake the thought that she's living through her characters and it pulls me from what might just be a good read.

Fifth of all, in regards to this book reviewer who called the initial reviewer out, I swear some people read provoking things intentionally.  I read the initial reviwer's post because I was curious to see what she had to say (and also, I'm not a big fan of the author and wanted to know why I should avoid this particular book), not because I wanted something to rage about.  And you know what?  If the initial reviewer had just written with slightly better grammar and could back up her "I hate ugly authors" spiel, I wouldn't feel so conflicted about it myself.

Sixth of all, in reference to the picture that was posted, there are just some clothes that do not look good on certain people.  And because I do have a slightly superficial side myself, I'll come out and say the author made an unfortunate decision with her outfit.  I'm just wondering why it was such a big issue when it seemed as though there was a lot more problems with the book than with the clothes, but that happened and...whatever.

Seventh of all, this isn't really my fight, so now that I've said my pieces I'll call it a day.