What is the weirdest way someone (possibly you) has recapped your book?
"It was the first sentence of my first-ever review of my first novel, Out of the Pocket, by Kirkus. 'In this unusual hybrid that juxtaposes hard-hitting, play-by-play football action with scenes of psychological soul-searching…' I remember reading it and thinking: Was that weird? Am I weird? It didn’t seem weird to me… Luckily, in four-plus years since then, not a single person or reviewer has said to me that they thought it was weird that a book about a football player being outed against his will would include both football and soul searching." - Bill Konigsberg, author of Openly Straight.
"Brandon Sanderson christened my faeries in Wings, 'Veggie-Faeries.'" - Aprilynne Pike, author of Life After Theft and Earthbound.
"I can’t think of any weird ones. We were lucky that we stumbled across an idea that was pretty easy to pitch: a high school gets quarantined, and after a year inside, the social cliques devolve into gangs that battle each other at bi- monthly military food drops. I’ve noticed that there’s always someone that gets distracted by the virus that prompted the quarantine. I understand why certain readers might place expectations on that, but for us, it was always just a starting point, a device to justify the world we wanted to create inside our high school." - Lex Hrabe , co-author of Quarantine: The Loners.
"Not sure I have an answer for that...hmm." - Nora Raleigh Baskin, author of Surfacing.
"Weirdest way Slated has been recapped? Can’t think of anything I’d classify as weird, exactly. I’ve had things that have surprised me, though. Like talking with a friend about the world in Slated and finding that we had very different ideas about aspects of it. At first I worried this meant I hadn’t described it enough, but after I thought about it, decided I was happy with this. I personally don’t like it when books don’t leave you any room to imagine. I love that gap, where readers have to make jumps of imagination." - Teri Terry, author of Slated.
"Someone once reviewed Vesper and claimed it was a clear Twilight rip-off and that I was trying to ride that wave. The plots are literally nothing alike—there isn’t even a romance, let alone a love triangle. So I found that kind of bizarre!" - Jeff Sampson, author of Ravage.
"The comment that most surprised me came from an editor who thought my book would be read as an apology or justification for the Ku Klux Klan. I had thought my book would make Klan members angry, and this person suggested the opposite." - A.B. Westrick, author of Brotherhood.
"'Hot guys. Drinking. Fighting. Lying…made me cry. Go read it.' (yeah...that one wasn't from me)" - Molly McAdams, author of Taking Chances.
"In describing The Ghost and the Goth, I usually tell people that I killed the Homecoming Queen. With a bus. It's not a spoiler or anything, as Alona is the ghost in the book, but it does seem to catch some attention!" - Stacey Kade, author of The Ghost & the Goth and The Rules.
"I suppose that having the book categorized by my publisher as a psychological mystery is a little weird, because I never intended to set it up as a mystery with subtle clues and a whodunnit kind of feeling. That’s led to some reviewers scoffing that they weren’t mystified, which speaks to the problem of buttonholing genres. By contrast, here’s a review characterization I cherish: “If this doesn't receive the rave reviews it deserves I'll eat my copy!”" - Liz Coley, author of Pretty Girl-13.
"I have yet to run into the weirdest way. There have been summaries that I don't necessarily agree with, but they aren't weird, and I reserve the right on behalf of readers to summarize how they see fit. But if anyone says it reminds them of the Muppets or something, well, that would be weird. And also awesome." - Kristin Halbrook, author of Nobody But Us.
"A sales rep told me that the marketing director at Harper has been referring to my book as “If JD Salinger and Candice Bushnell got together to rewrite Dead Poets Society,” which I think is pretty great." - Robyn Schneider, author of The Begining of Everything.
Come back Thursday to learn the weirdest way the rest of the
authors' books have been recapped.
authors' books have been recapped.
this made me laugh. Hi, by the way. I've been following you for a while. I review at The life and lies of an inanimate flying object. do check it out if you like :)
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