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3 Obras 19 Miembros 2 Reseñas

Obras de Steve Rappaport

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(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

I have a special sympathetic place in my heart for amateur writers who publish through glorified quasi-vanity places like Eraserhead, iAuthor and Black Rose, otherwise normal people out in the private sector who had exactly one story in them that they felt particularly compelled to write down; for while all these presses mentioned are legitimate ones that don't charge authors money to publish with them (the usual definition of a "vanity" press), they nonetheless make their money off the "long tail" theory of content economics, under the assumption that if they can release a million print-on-demand books that each sell one copy apiece, that still makes them millionaires, turning their business model into the same traditional one of actual vanity presses, to publish every single manuscript they can possibly get their hands on and then rely on a well-oiled publicity staff to squeeze out as many Amazon reviews as they can before moving on to book #1,463.

That's how I ended up with a copy of Steven Rappaport's If Jack Had, which serves as a great example of what I'm talking about; the first and only novel from a self-described "former stock trader, former pot dealer, and current real estate salesperson," it's clearly not up to even the minimum standards of literary quality that most professional review organizations would require for a book to even be considered, the kind of cheapie POD paperback with a cheesy Photoshopped cover that your middle-aged "artsy" uncle might give you a copy of over Thanksgiving, just to find yourself praying on Christmas on the car ride over, "Oh God I hope Uncle Steve doesn't ask me what I thought of his book." There's a legitimate place in our society for books like these, and I love that we exist in an age where non-professionals can so easily put out these kinds of titles to sell to their twenty friends and relatives who might actually care; but it's clearly the kind of book that should've never been sent to an industry-focused publication like ours in the first place, and that only was because up to recently we've had an open promise to review each and every book that ever gets sent to us, a policy we're changing this year precisely because of titles like If Jack Had. (Change #1 -- we're no longer accepting books directly from publicists, where 95 percent of these unreviewable titles come from.) Although I'm glad to see Rappaport go to the trouble of writing a book like this, and would give him the same feedback as any well-meaning nephew if I saw him over Christmas ("Great job, Uncle Steve! I can't believe you actually published a book!"), I can't in good conscience say that this novel is worth anyone besides those nephews and office co-workers of his checking it out.

Out of 10: 2.0
… (más)
 
Denunciada
jasonpettus | otra reseña | Apr 1, 2016 |
This seemed to be an odd story. I had trouble at times keeping up with the back and forth between past and present. I wasn't sure if I would like it but I had a hard time putting the book down once I got in to it. Jack is a reporter who has a second job as an assassin. The book goes through a few of his extra jobs and what he wants to do now that he is very old and his wife is dead. Many types of people will love this story. I received an advance copy of the book from Black Rose Writing for a fair and honest opinion.… (más)
 
Denunciada
Virginia51 | otra reseña | Jun 28, 2015 |

Estadísticas

Obras
3
Miembros
19
Popularidad
#609,294
Valoración
½ 3.6
Reseñas
2
ISBNs
4