I am very sorry for your loss. I am glad you are reading a lot considering the sadness you must feel. Twentieth century reminds me of Lincoln at the Bardo and Julian Barnes.
I have missed your voice on book tube - your reading taste (so different from my own), commentary and point of view. I always looked forward to the challenge, so to speak. My heart dropped when you told us why you’ve been away. I’m so very sorry.
Thanks very much for this message. I'm planning to get back into the more detailed book reviews as well, though to start with I'll probably stick to shorter thoughts. Thank you as well for your kindness.
Oh I’m so sorry to hear of your husband’s passing 😔 It’s great to have you back on TH-cam tho, you were missed. I hope your life gets easily back on track 🤗
so lovely to see you and so sorry for your loss, Kate. I am glad you are both reading and writing again. I guess that is why I tend to avoid genre fiction because I am always looking for a surprising read. Look forward to hearing your recommends; your reading choices often challenge and always surprise me. Also can't wait for your memoir as I enjoyed 'The storyteller' so much.
It's wonderful to hear from you again. As someone who pitches American books to foreign publishers all day long, it's a constant struggle to convey what blurbs are trying to convey, but in a way that feels distinct and genuine. I think there's a strange "disembodied voice of god" element to book jacket copy - who exactly is saying that a certain story is "powerful" or "unforgettable?" Compared to what? From where does it derive this perspective or authority? Whereas when a reader says to me, "I haven't been able to stop thinking about x book, even though I read it a while ago," there's that sense of individual context and taste that makes the statement affecting
Hello - it's been great to hear what you're now up to as well. The 'disembodied voice of god' is interesting - I think partly because it involves an assumption being made during the publishing process (whether consciously or not) that *this* is what that god currently believes to be the things in a book worth highlighting. There can obviously be a whole range of issues related to that that go way beyond my rather superficial sense that 'lots of these words are overused in blurbs'. I guess the question for publishing is how/whether there is a better way of sourcing and filtering up individual readers' love of particular books. And after all a blurb is a sales instrument and some words self-evidently just do evoke emotions that are more likely to encourage a reader to buy a book, and that is different from their pleasure in then reading the book. (All of which is to say that your job sounds extremely challenging!)
what a lovely surprise to find you back kate and i'm so sorry for your loss. i do recall thinking recently that there seems to be a lot of memoirs by daughters who's mothers were murdered or in one case kidnapped and it seemed almost risible it should be such a frequent theme.
Yes! - that's another common one, isn't it. It's interesting, because I don't really believe that a topic like that is something that authors identify as 'interesting to the market' and then decide to write - and so I assume the glut of those titles must come from publishers' decisions that it's a topic that is selling and more of it would be even better.
So so glad you are thinking about starting making videos again. I have been following your touching posts over the past while and your thoughts have been in my mind a lot.
I'm glad people are finding the posts interesting/touching. It's a very strange and difficult experience to be going through, and writing about it seems to be helpful both for me and for other people.
So sorry to hear about your terrible loss. As a fellow author I think all blurbs sound trite. Why would we bother writing 80,000 words or whatever, if we could just sum it up in 80? Has this trend got worse? Possibly with the elbowing that goes on though search algorithms that demand key words, but I think it's more to do with the change in the publishing industry that sees commissioning editors with less & less influence within publishing houses and more given to head of sales and marketing teams.
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I am very sorry for your loss. I am glad you are reading a lot considering the sadness you must feel. Twentieth century reminds me of Lincoln at the Bardo and Julian Barnes.
I have missed your voice on book tube - your reading taste (so different from my own), commentary and point of view. I always looked forward to the challenge, so to speak. My heart dropped when you told us why you’ve been away. I’m so very sorry.
Thanks very much for this message. I'm planning to get back into the more detailed book reviews as well, though to start with I'll probably stick to shorter thoughts. Thank you as well for your kindness.
Oh I’m so sorry to hear of your husband’s passing 😔
It’s great to have you back on TH-cam tho, you were missed.
I hope your life gets easily back on track 🤗
It's good to be back :-)
It is good to have you back. I still remember your excellent review of "As a God Might Be".
Well, it is such an excellent book!
Welcome back! I am so sorry for your tragic year.
Goodness me, it’s so great to see you back! I’m sorry to hear what you have been through. I thought you’d gone for good! What a lovely surprise!
Thanks very much Ross. I'm going to try to keep turning up - let's see how that goes. It's good to be back
You have my deepest sympathy.
so lovely to see you and so sorry for your loss, Kate. I am glad you are both reading and writing again. I guess that is why I tend to avoid genre fiction because I am always looking for a surprising read. Look forward to hearing your recommends; your reading choices often challenge and always surprise me. Also can't wait for your memoir as I enjoyed 'The storyteller' so much.
Hi Juliet - lovely to see you. I remember your review of The Storyteller very fondly.
It's wonderful to hear from you again. As someone who pitches American books to foreign publishers all day long, it's a constant struggle to convey what blurbs are trying to convey, but in a way that feels distinct and genuine. I think there's a strange "disembodied voice of god" element to book jacket copy - who exactly is saying that a certain story is "powerful" or "unforgettable?" Compared to what? From where does it derive this perspective or authority? Whereas when a reader says to me, "I haven't been able to stop thinking about x book, even though I read it a while ago," there's that sense of individual context and taste that makes the statement affecting
Hello - it's been great to hear what you're now up to as well. The 'disembodied voice of god' is interesting - I think partly because it involves an assumption being made during the publishing process (whether consciously or not) that *this* is what that god currently believes to be the things in a book worth highlighting. There can obviously be a whole range of issues related to that that go way beyond my rather superficial sense that 'lots of these words are overused in blurbs'. I guess the question for publishing is how/whether there is a better way of sourcing and filtering up individual readers' love of particular books. And after all a blurb is a sales instrument and some words self-evidently just do evoke emotions that are more likely to encourage a reader to buy a book, and that is different from their pleasure in then reading the book. (All of which is to say that your job sounds extremely challenging!)
I am overjoyed to see you back on TH-cam, Kate! 😊
Lovely to see you as well. How’s tricks?
@@katejarmstrong Doing well. Just trying to deal with this COVID pandemic. How are you doing?
Very happy to have back! So, so sorry on your loss.
Thank you. I'm already glad I've come back. I'd forgotten what a warm and welcoming place booktube is.
what a lovely surprise to find you back kate and i'm so sorry for your loss. i do recall thinking recently that there seems to be a lot of memoirs by daughters who's mothers were murdered or in one case kidnapped and it seemed almost risible it should be such a frequent theme.
Yes! - that's another common one, isn't it. It's interesting, because I don't really believe that a topic like that is something that authors identify as 'interesting to the market' and then decide to write - and so I assume the glut of those titles must come from publishers' decisions that it's a topic that is selling and more of it would be even better.
So so glad you are thinking about starting making videos again. I have been following your touching posts over the past while and your thoughts have been in my mind a lot.
I'm glad people are finding the posts interesting/touching. It's a very strange and difficult experience to be going through, and writing about it seems to be helpful both for me and for other people.
Glad to see you back!
Lovely to be back as well
Great to have you back!
So sorry to hear about your terrible loss. As a fellow author I think all blurbs sound trite. Why would we bother writing 80,000 words or whatever, if we could just sum it up in 80? Has this trend got worse? Possibly with the elbowing that goes on though search algorithms that demand key words, but I think it's more to do with the change in the publishing industry that sees commissioning editors with less & less influence within publishing houses and more given to head of sales and marketing teams.
I also have that view while I’m writing; each one of the 80,000 words is essential. That said, I do understand why blurbs exist.