She Treads Softly: Publisherspeak

Monday, September 21, 2009

Publisherspeak

Book Examiner Michelle Kerns has another fun article:

Reviewerspeak & the top 20 most annoying book reviewer cliches get a twin: publisherspeak

You'll recall her previous list of the top 20 most annoying book reviewer clichés?

This new list is from Mr. Robert McCrum in an article for the Guardian. It is "his list of the most egregious clichés publishers inflict upon book flaps, book jackets, and those press release thingys handed out like candy canes to impressionable young book reviewers."

Cult novel: no publicity to speak of but it got a review in Time Out.

Word-of-mouth sensation: thank God for Amazon.

Multicultural phenomenon: no one can pronounce the author's name.

American bestseller: someone had a long lunch in New York.

Manga novel: a comic book.

Cult manga sensation: a comic book that's won a prize.

Bestselling manga sensation: DreamWorks has bought the film rights.

European sensation: we got drunk at Frankfurt.

Lacerating: excruciating.

Warts and all: a few dirty bits.

Authorised: deadly.

Writing at the peak of his/her powers: basically past it, but who knows?

Long-awaited: we sacked two editors and it's still overdue.

Her masterpiece: she's been around for years and with a bit of luck this one will click.

His masterpiece: we have reached the end of the line with this one, but fingers crossed.

Witty and profound: three jokes and an inexplicable reference to Wittgenstein.

Now, follow Michelle's example and start looking for examples of publisherspeak on all your book jackets today!

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.