Wednesday

angels & demons

Last week, Absent sent me this joyous gem:

According to Stephen [King], "Both Rowling and Meyer, they're speaking directly to young people... The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn. She's not very good."
Oh! how it warmed my little heart.

On the other hand, apparently Meyer's also been channeling Oprah:
Call it the Meyer Effect. Last week, Stephenie Meyer recommended a first novel, The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester (Feiwel and Friends, 2008) on her Web site, and the book has since shot up the sales rankings on Amazon and B&N.com. So what did Meyer say about the book? “It’s the oddest/sweetest mix of Little House on the Prairie and X-Men. I was smiling the whole time (except for the part where I cried).... Prepare to have your heart warmed.” F&F publisher Jean Feiwel called the plug “a stroke of luck,” saying, “You hope something will happen for that debut author you really believe in. But it’s hard these days to make that book stand out in all the noise.” The company went back to press immediately for 10,000 copies. (via PW Children's Bookshelf, 2/5/09)
I guess it is theoretically possible for bad writers to do good things.

4 comments:

Th. said...

.

Assuming it's a good book. Is it?

mommymuse said...

My favorite thing about your blog is that whenever I go to it, and see the title, and have that half-asleep, not-paying-full-attention kind of moment, I always read it as "books a-reeking." And then I grin. Little, weird things make me happy. Like the fact that my word verification right now is "malness," which is doing all sorts of crazy things in my head.

Christian said...

That is the 10,000 print run question, isn't it? Unfortunately, I will likely not find out because I don't see myself ever trusting Meyers' recommendation.

"Books-a-reeking" and "malness" . . . I'm not sure I like this. ;)

Ali said...

A mix of Little House on the Prairie and the X-Men? I'm not seeing it.

Love the Stephen King quote. I sure wish he and I had the same taste in books.