Sue Knott's Blog: Knott The Screaming Type - Posts Tagged "diplomats"
Ulterior motives, tips of icebergs and more.
Am I the only person who is always thinking there’s a bigger story behind every story or some bizarre motive behind the simplest thing?
I can’t even read the newspaper without getting frustrated that the better story is so NOT THERE. Some silly little for instances: a man confronts someone robbing his home and shoots the intruder in the butt. Why isn’t anyone telling us exactly how the shot managed to be in the guy’s butt? Sounds like he must have been running away to me.
Or, my favorite: a delegation of (I believe Russian, but it could be some other Communist block country ‘cuz it has been awhile and my memory ain’t what I’d like) diplomats arrives in some European country (I think it was France) and is met by the local diplomat who calmly converses with the new guys, then walks over to the edge of the parking ramp and unexpectedly jumps to his death (5th floor). Really?! You can put that in the newspaper with a straight face and leave it at that?
To bring this back around to publishing, I finally looked at the profile of “xyz” who gave my novel, “Catching On Fire” a single star rating. I think it’s important to know why people don’t like your book. For the most part, the few low ratings come from readers who adore literary fiction. All is well and good with that. My novel is popular fiction. It is designed to entertain and enlighten the masses, not the elite.
Sooo, I look at this xyz from Karachi, Pakistan, and he/she has rated 15 books and given them all one star. And it appears that some of those books are part of the same series. Why would anyone read another book in a series when they rated the first book with one star? Is this person really from Pakistan? Are they trying to make a comment on American popular fiction? Do they not understand the star rating system? It just seems like there must be a story there and I would love to know it. (Not as much as I’d like to know what was going on with that diplomat who “jumped,” but I’d still like to know.)
And why do so many Goodreads members have “xyz” as their screen name? I feel like there’s a private joke or insider club that I am hopelessly clueless about.
That is all for tonight.
I can’t even read the newspaper without getting frustrated that the better story is so NOT THERE. Some silly little for instances: a man confronts someone robbing his home and shoots the intruder in the butt. Why isn’t anyone telling us exactly how the shot managed to be in the guy’s butt? Sounds like he must have been running away to me.
Or, my favorite: a delegation of (I believe Russian, but it could be some other Communist block country ‘cuz it has been awhile and my memory ain’t what I’d like) diplomats arrives in some European country (I think it was France) and is met by the local diplomat who calmly converses with the new guys, then walks over to the edge of the parking ramp and unexpectedly jumps to his death (5th floor). Really?! You can put that in the newspaper with a straight face and leave it at that?
To bring this back around to publishing, I finally looked at the profile of “xyz” who gave my novel, “Catching On Fire” a single star rating. I think it’s important to know why people don’t like your book. For the most part, the few low ratings come from readers who adore literary fiction. All is well and good with that. My novel is popular fiction. It is designed to entertain and enlighten the masses, not the elite.
Sooo, I look at this xyz from Karachi, Pakistan, and he/she has rated 15 books and given them all one star. And it appears that some of those books are part of the same series. Why would anyone read another book in a series when they rated the first book with one star? Is this person really from Pakistan? Are they trying to make a comment on American popular fiction? Do they not understand the star rating system? It just seems like there must be a story there and I would love to know it. (Not as much as I’d like to know what was going on with that diplomat who “jumped,” but I’d still like to know.)
And why do so many Goodreads members have “xyz” as their screen name? I feel like there’s a private joke or insider club that I am hopelessly clueless about.
That is all for tonight.
Knott The Screaming Type
I suppose this will be musings about writing, books and writing books...maybe even about booking writers. I suppose, since it is my blog, I'll also throw in whatever else I think you, dear reader, mig
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