db@cstvax.UUCP (Dave Berry) (01/06/86)
In article <1656@bbncca.ARPA> rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo) writes: >Disclosing sexual bias in a book? Advertising its sexuality? Hey, what >is this? [...] Apply any of these recommendations to books >"slanted" to heterosexuality (god forbid!); the result would be clearly >perceived as off the wall, AND obnoxious by more than a few readers. Too right. >Why do publishers have any economic interest in "advertising" the book's >sexuality? They'd probably lose money if they adopted such a policy. >Finally, it betrays a lack of knowledge of publishing: publishers are >legally free to put anything they like on book covers; not even the >author has ANY control over what goes on them. The disclaimers being >suggested are not only utterly irrelevant to publishing practices, they >imply a warped kind of public service at odds with what publishing houses >see as effective and appropriate cover advertising. What the fuck has the current legal position in the USA got to do with what *should* be the case? The guy doesn't have a lack of knowledge about publishing, he obviously knows people CAN do this. He's asking if a) he was deceived (I don't think so) b) publishers *should* be allowed to deceive (I don't think this, either) >Given the superficiality of many readers' aims, positive deception is >valuable in LURING readers into buying and reading books. Think of >how many of the classics of world literature have to be "marketed" >to get people to consider looking at them at all. Marketing is one thing, deception is another. I don't think the case under discussion involves deception, but I'd be really pissed off if I spent money on something that promised to be one thing and didn't deliver. >Nowadays, the way >to do it is to turn the book into a teleplay for Masterpiece Theater >with lots of production value and famous actors. If they can get it past the censors. Very few gay plays make it onto British television. Even Channel 4 only gets as far as showing some existing gay films. >So, since when has honesty been a policy in publishing? Why should >it be? Who wants it to be (certainly not prospective readers!)? The original poster, and I (both prospective readers). -- Dave Berry. CS postgrad, Univ. of Edinburgh ...mcvax!ukc!cstvax!db