Bad Book Club

[Zuul]

We've all read bad books. In fact, I'm reading one right now. One of my biggest frustrations is looking at an awful book and wondering, "HOW was this published?" Another one is wanting to discuss the badness of the book with someone else, but inevitably the people around me who've read the book thought it was brilliant.

And this is where the bad book club comes in.

We nominate books that we've read or just heard about that sound atrocious. We read one. We discuss. We eviscerate it. We are purged of our bad book rage.

Anybody interested?

[pepperlandgirl]

I'd be interested.

[binks]

Would we be reading this? Mildly NSFW http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2009...jamaica-layne/

[Zuul]

Sweet Jesus. If we think we can survive it, I'd be all for something that hideously awful.

[pepperlandgirl]

Sweet Jesus. If we think we can survive it, I'd be all for something that hideously awful.

I was at an ebook Writer's Conference the weekend that review was published. It was interesting timing, to say the least. But we don't need to read and discuss why that got published. I could tell you exactly why.

[Zuul]

Why's that?

[Inner Stickler]

Don't leave us hanging!

[vison]

Best laff I've had in months.

Jeez.

[Hatshepsut]

That link was hilarious.

I'd be interested in participating in a bad book club any time you read something I can acquire for the Kindle. (Most likely I won't have a hard copy source here in Jakarta.)

And I'm going to be hearing "queeb" sounds in the back of my mind all day.

[Zuul]

That link was hilarious.

I'd be interested in participating in a bad book club any time you read something I can acquire for the Kindle. (Most likely I won't have a hard copy source here in Jakarta.)

And I'm going to be hearing "queeb" sounds in the back of my mind all day.

I think finding bad books in ebook format should be easy enough.

Since a book is a bit more time intensive than movies and we all, presumably, have lives, I figured we'd pick a bad book every month. How does that sound to everyone?

[pepperlandgirl]

Why's that?

Ravenous Romance is the publisher. They're fairly new to the ebook market. Prior to that, the parent company sold high-end erotic coffee table books. Apparently, that made them believe they knew exactly what the erotic romance market was like. It's pretty clear to me that none of those people actually read books in the market or had a very good idea about what the audience was like.

They did have the money necessary to open this sort of publisher, they did have the connections (including a relationship with a very prominent romance agent), and they also had a business plan. But the business plan was...well, questionable at best.

One of the major elements of this plan was to release their books quickly. As in, a book a day. While they were making this plan, they were also posting all over Romanceland about how they were going to change the face of Romance Publishing, take the world by storm, and make the rest of us looks like chumps. Romanceland was not impressed. This may or may not have affected the number and the quality of submissions they were receiving, but one thing is for sure--they couldn't afford to change their business plan after they publicly, vocally, voraciously announced it.

Zuul has experience in the publishing field, so I'm sure she can see where this is going. If you are publishing 365 books (which includes anthos that are comprised of shorter stories) then you're going to have to accept a huge number of manuscripts. The books you do accept will not receive the proper amount of editing or proofreading. This wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that the people in charge have absolutely no concept of their market.

The author of that book also works as an editor at the publisher--she has a pretty extensive relationship with them. She's also one of their most passionate defenders, even going so far as to post half-truths (and untruths) in public forums. Things I know to be not true because I have experience with this publisher as well. Not with a full length novel, but I do have a story in an anthology. The anthology received no editing, no proofreading, no contact all with the accepting editor beyond the initial acceptance, I was not at all notified of its release (I found out the day it was released) and though I'm entitled to a copy of the anthology, I've never received it.

So, basically, it's a poorly run publisher with a poor business plan. That's why the book was published.

[Zuul]

Oh criminy. That is an awful, awful recipe for disaster. No wonder they published such dreck.

[vison]

I don't remember the title of the book, but one line from another "romance" has stuck in my head and provided me with hours of entertainment. The heroine is getting it on with the hero, and she reaches into his trousers to stroke Mr. Peen, and "her thrilled fingers find a granite monument".

[Julie]

I... I don't think I could read more of The Codpiece and the Queeb.

[vison]

Yeah, I gotta say the codpiece did me in, too. Not in a good way.

[binks]

I knew there had to be a story behind that book getting published! Never thought I'd actually get to hear it though. Thanks, Pep! That sounds like the worst business plan ever put into action.


Dear Jamaica Layne: "Codpiece" - you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

I've had that link in my favorites for the longest time. It never fails to crack me up. Here is the one other trashy book review I saved for its hilarity (also mildly NSFW) http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.c..._shayla_black/

As if you can't tell, I'm all in for a bad book club.

[Zuul]

“This summer… A girl becomes a woman… and learns she can preserve her virginity… by having anal sex with two men.”

[Zuul]

Oh, and [NSFW]:

“Fuck!” he snarled. He tilted her up again, her legs now resting on his shoulders, and positioned himself and began to push. Into her back entrance. Kimber drew in a great, shocked gasp, her hazel eyes wide. “Deke?” “What the hell are you doing?” Luc barked. Tensing a little more with every inch he pushed inside Kimber’s tight passage, the tendons on his neck standing out, the muscles in his arms shaking, assailed by the amazing sensations of being slowly enveloped by her tight, ready flesh, Deke could barely form a word. “Fucking her ass. Saving her life.”

[binks]

If he puts his codpiece in her ladysoftness she'll DIE!

[Zuul]

I hereby nominate that book for our first bad book of the month!

[Julie]

Okay, guys, you're going to cause horrible repercussions for me.

I was in a meeting. Someone asked what someone else was doing. I immediately thought:

“Fucking her ass. Saving her life.”

My coworkers thought they may have to perform CPR on me after that.

[binks]

http://www.bookstrand.com/product-st...15601-192.html

Ok, I'm not sure, but think this book is about a horse from space. He comes to Earth and turns into a dude whos mission is to fight aliens and forest fires. But mostly he has alien-horse-disguised-as-dude sex with some lady.

[vison]

Drojovv Zyan? The name alone is worth 50 giggles.

[Zuul]

Drojovv Zyan is a man-stallion of ash and flame. He's on a mission to save his world's crucial Earth portal from the fires ravaging the National Forest surrounding it. Pretending to be a tracker named Trail, he settles in a small Southeastern Arizona town. When he gets an eyeful of the beautiful ranch owner, Seneca, he stud-lusts after the Earth human, a woman he's not supposed to take as his Mate.

Oh good lord.

Okay, I'm going to try to get a list of potential Bad Books set up this coming week, so we can start our first one in October. Keep the suggestions coming!

[D. Fenestrator]

These are all scary. I thought I had read some stinkers in my time, but these make The Da Vinci Code look like The Name of the Rose...

[Myrnalene]

Um, this came out of a chat discussion of Stallion of Ash and Flame.

[D. Fenestrator]

Oh, that is too perfect!