I read a lot. A lot. When I’m not writing, that is. I spend a lot of money on books, and a lot of money on paper and ink, printing out free books.
But, in all honesty, I don’t have a lot of money, so I prefer not to waste any of my book budget on books that sounded good when I ordered them, and then turned out to be a horrible disappointment when I actually started reading them. I have learned not to put too much stock in the reviews on book sites like Amazon or B&N, especially when I’m in the mood for a m/m book with characters who make me give a crap and a nice, chewy plot.
Some of the authors that come highly recommended in the m/m genre on those sites are, quite frankly, really bad writers who happen to have come up with a good idea and aren’t afraid to throw sex around in the text, but are decidedly lacking in the execution of both. Which is fine, if all you’re looking for is badly-written porn with a light layer of plot and a heavy dollop of purple romance.
Me, I need good characters and good writing. That’s it. I do prefer a good plot, but in truth, if the characters are interesting enough and developed enough, I’ll watch them buy groceries and chat about the weather, and still not toss the book aside in disgust.
The thing is: bad writers can come up with amazing characters and blow-me-away plots, and I might still finish the book, despite the writing, because I want to know what happens to the people they’ve created (though I’ll probably be editing in my head the whole time); good writers can plod along with ho-hum characters and zero plot, and though the prose makes me want to cry for its beauty, I still can’t keep myself focused, because there’s nothing that interests me besides the way the words are put together.
So, I’ve learned to be careful about choosing the books on which I’m willing to spend money. Which isn’t really hard, when you’re talking conventional genres. There are national reviews and plenty of buzz amongst the general public for those. (Seriously—how else can you explain some of the drivel that's out there?) Plus, they’re just sitting there in the bookstores, waiting for you to flip through them and figure out if you want to part with your money for them.
But when you’re talking the m/m genre? *sigh* Most of the books in that genre are sold through small presses, so you don’t even get the benefit of reading the first few pages on Amazon to see if the author can spell right before you buy. If bookstores carry them at all, they certainly don’t advertise the fact that they contain OMG GAY!, so you sort of have to know what titles or authors you’re looking for, which isn’t helpful if you’re trying to browse for something that’ll jump out at you. Sure, you could use the old, If you like ________, you’ll like ________’, but I usually really don’t like ________(or ________), so that’s not helpful, either. And I’ve been burned oh, so many times. So, I’m going to be pretentious enough to offer some advice on how to (and how not to) buy m/m books before I go on to review one in the next post.
1. Review sites. There are lots of them, if you look. The thing is: you have to look. And you have to take a chance on the opinions of strangers until you familiarize yourself with the reviewers and decide if they think enough like you do that you can trust a rec from them. These are just two I’ve used enough to feel comfortable pointing out to people:
Fallen Angels Reviews has a consistent staff, and their reviews are clear. They not only tell you what they thought, they tell you what made them think it. They review just about any kind of romance and erotica (not just m/m), and their opinions seem reasonable and trustworthy. And if you just want someone to tell you what to buy already, they have a Recommended Reads page which is very different from the regular reviews, since not all books reviewed are actually recommended.
Reviews by Jesse Wave reviews m/m books exclusively. There are guest reviews sometimes, but most of them are by the same person, and I’ve found them pretty reliable. An easy to use ‘__ stars out of 5’ system makes it easy to narrow down the recommendations, and each review specifies the length of the book and a link to the publisher. (Just watch who might be looking over your shoulder when you check out the site—they’re not shy with the, um… eye candy.)
2. Recommendations from friends. I know I don’t have to explain this one, but for me, it’s hugely important. And I can’t take recommendations from all of my friends for all genres—some people I love dearly like a lot of what I consider crap, and I know they roll their eyes at some of the stuff I read. So, when you get a rec from a friend, you need to ask them why they’re reccing a particular book to you. I mean, if someone tells me, You’ll like this one, because there’s really hot sex in it, I have to take into account that no one who actually knows me and what I prefer to read would recommend a book to me based on that, so I take the rec with a big, giant mountain of salt. Seriously—does anyone like to read ‘really hot sex’ between two people who otherwise make you want to smack them?
3. Find the author. If you’ve been recced a specific author, find them on the internet. And I mean, before you actually invest in the first book by that author. Google them and find their website. Most of them will have either excerpts or free short stories on their site, so you can get an idea of whether or not their style is one you’ll enjoy reading. If an author can make me care about strangers in 5,000 words or less, I’ll almost certainly take a chance on a novel written by him or her. And after you’ve found an author you want to try…
4. Write to him or her. Ask them for a recommendation. Tell them what you look for in a novel, and ask them which on their backlist they think you would like. I’ve done this at least a dozen times, and each time, the author was glad to hear from me, was very gracious, and gave me a recommendation for one of their works that I subsequently bought and enjoyed. I have yet to go wrong with this one, and I’ve made some very pleasant acquaintances in the process.
5. Friend them. A lot of these authors have ljs, and most of them will friend you back. Admittedly, I haven’t really done this one myself except for with a small handful of authors of whom I’ve actually become a fan, and whose new releases I want to know about. And if they don’t friend me back in about a week or so, I drop off their list. But it’s definitely a good way to keep track of what a particular author is currently up to, and get a feel for them in general.
On the downside, getting even a small ‘personal’ glimpse of an author can sometimes turn a reader off to the author in general, if that author happens to say the wrong thing on the wrong day when the reader hasn’t yet had her sixth cup of coffee and has been stuck babysitting toddlers when she’s deep in the throes of Chapter Fifty-six, and someone spilled apple juice all over the keyboard of the laptop, and she hadn’t saved the draft first, and she’s already late with her edits, but Jesus Christ, someone has to cook supper and dig the matchboxes out of the toilet, and why are kids always so much cuter when their parents are around, and why is it that when you’re writing, people somehow assume you’re not actually doing anything, and the husband who usually runs interference (bless him) is hiding downstairs because the screeching is sounding more and more like dolphins mating, and oh wait, that’s not the kids, that’s you—
*cough*
Sorry. Anyway, right or wrong, I have been turned off of an author by the ‘face’ he or she presents to the public before, so if you find an author you do enjoy, sometimes ‘getting to know them’ isn’t always the best thing.
Moving along…
6. Join comms. Okay, join a comm. I only actually know of one m/m publisher that has a presence on lj. Torquere Social is hosted by Torquere authors who will take a day to introduce themselves, talk about their coming releases, and post excerpts, sometimes have drawings for free ebooks or gift certificates, and sometimes even whip out some prompt fics. It’s a good way to ‘meet’ an author and sample his or her work before abusing your credit card.
I’m very new to publishing in general, so I haven’t really found any other m/m publisher’s comms, but I know that Samhain Publishing runs an author blog, as do Dreamspinner Press and MLR Press. If I come across actual comms, I’ll update. (And if anyone knows of any, please let me know.)
And last, but not least:
7. Try an ebook first. Now, understand, this is coming from someone who has never bought an ebook, and never intends to. Like I said, I like the book in my hands. I like the smell of a book, I like the feel of the paper between my fingers, I like curling up on my giant chaise and getting lost between the pages. You just can’t cuddle with an ebook.
However, there have been lots of times when I have finished a book and wished I’d spent $2.99 on it, instead of $15.79. Lots of ebooks are available in .pdf format, so you can read them in Adobe, and Amazon is right now giving away free Kindle applications, which will make it possible to read any Kindle book on your own particular system (laptop, PC, etc.), even without having to buy the Kindle Reader.
So, once you find an author you want to try, go for the ebook first, and if you’re happy with it, maybe you won’t feel so bad about parting with more for the rest of their backlist.
All of that said, I will be posting reviews for books I’ve read in the m/m genre—hopefully weekly, but I have a hard enough time remembering to eat lunch, so no promises—which I’m hoping will be helpful to any of you who are interested. Stay tuned. :)
Cross-posted to Livejournal
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