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Wednesday, 18 November 2009

I came second for bold embroidery….


…at the Avenell Show…'can’t remember the year. So yep, I was on a list once. It was all to do with cotton and thread and lots of wild colour. Actually I wasn’t even aware I had been entered in the show until I got the certificate. I think I was 13. Ah, those were the heady days…

What am I crapping on about? Several days ago I wrote a short, simple blog for Whiskey Creek Torrid and I asked a question along the lines of how important was it to readers whether a book was on a best seller list. It was to do with some heated emails I read from a group of authors who were upset that a bestseller list had gone to god.

Anyway I got quite a lot of emails back on the subject - some from authors but most from readers. Authors think it is vitally important to be on a bestseller list as readers pick from the list and it provides publicity. I don’t necessarily agree with that but I respect those opinions.

Readers didn’t see the list as being important and that they liked to make their mind up by reading blubs, excerpts, looking at covers, blogs and recommendations from friends. It appears that a bestseller list is not deemed as important. They also liked to pick lesser know authors to expand horizons – free reads being a good way to do it. A couple of readers brought up something that never occurred to me and that was - how do we know the bestseller list is right? Is number one really number one? Hmmm… stuffed if I know and an interesting point. I believe reputable publishers would have no fear in running a true and accurate top ten list without fear or favour…dodgy pubs may re-jig a list to make some authors happy...who knows? It’s the answer-is-blowing-in-the-wind kind of deal.

To me, 2nd best champion embroiderer at the Avenell show, the bottom line is readers read books and influence the market according to their needs and beliefs. Pretty damn simple huh?

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1 comments:

Sandra Cox said...

I learned something new about you. Didn't know you knew how to embroider.