Agreed. She’s a decent writer and smart as a whip. She puts out 1 or 2 books a year, so hers is not a case of too little butter.
Best answer to the OP I can give is that there are lots of different publishers selling lots of different books. Nobody is going to like the majority of them.
Infovore brings up some good points about self- and indie-publishing. Traditional publishers have to compete with that industry now. I haven’t noticed that quality is slipping with regards to acquisitions or editing, but the needle is moving on the question of what sells.
Mmmmmmm… I’d waffle on that one. It’s possible to sell a mountain of crap if there are seams of gold running through it. A good developmental editor can turn it into a goldmine.
But the writer has to be engaged and compliant. One of those My words are my children. Would you mangle them? writers will find themself out on their ear.
Lisa Scottoline is mostly known for a series of novels (Rosatto and Co.) that follows the cases of a female-owned law firm and the adventures - personal and professional- of the lawyers in the firm. I read that series, I enjoy it. She’s not as good as Michael Connelly or Lee Child or Stephen King, but I read a lot of this type of fiction and the really good writers don’t produce enough material to satisfy my habit. I pick up a lot of stuff on Kindle Daily Deals.
When I follow a series I will sometimes pick up a stand-alone novel by the same author ( especially if it’s an Amazon Deal). Sometimes it’s disappointing. I can’t recall if I’ve read the book in question but Scottoline has written at least one other stand-alone, Dirty Blonde that sucked. I still read and enjoy the books in her series, though.
There is also a sub-genre of suspense novels that I think of as Women in Danger ……Mary Higgins Clark is perhaps the best known writer of this sub-genre. It’s has lots of fans, there are women that love and devour this type of book. Based on the description, the book that the OP is discussing falls solidly into this category.
I have a friend that is an NY Times bestselling author, she writes romances. Not just any romances….there are many niches in the romance novel genre, her specialty is small town Texas girls that fall for cowboys. It’s a tight niche, her readers know exactly what to expect from her books. She once tried to branch out into a series about small town Texas girls that fall for athletes. The first book tanked and she decided not to finish the the series.
I once tried to read one of her books, it bored me so much I couldn’t finish it. She knows this and understands why. She also prefers books with a little bit of suspense or action or something besides romance, but the readers in her genre don’t like any non-romance subplot creeping in. This has been a lucrative career for her, I didn’t realize that a successful genre writer who’s unheard of outside of her genre could make a high six figure annual income writing 3-4 books a year.
Just thought I’d add that the number of books produced by vanity presses and sold on Amazon is not insignificant. The books are crap, but the back-cover blurb sounds OK, and there are many five-star reviews (by the author’s obliging family and friends) claiming the book is engrossing, beautifully written, etc., etc.
That’s only if that mountain of crap makes it TO a developmental editor. As CalMeacham said, the odds of a manuscript making it that far are vanishingly small. I get irked when some pop star or actress “writes” a children’s book that gets published. What generally happens, AIUI, is that said star’s agent gets her idea (or possibly rough, crappy mss.) to a developmental editor, who gets the green light to turn it into actual kiddie lit because a book by Madonna (or whoever) means name recognition, which means sales.
Since practically all traditionally published novels first go through an agent (Baen and DAW are a couple of holdouts that still take unsolicited manuscripts), the mountain of crap has roughly the same odds of being seriously looked at as any other book.
But yeah, the writer has to have an agent, preferably a good agent with a good eye and the right contacts. How do you get one of those, especially if most of your writing sucks? Right place, right time, right agent. Which isn’t that different from how a generally good unknown writer gets an agent.
I think you have to look at Youtube to see how the writing market will evolve. Some central platform that almost everyone uses, with endless volumes of free content, lots of advertising-supported content, and some subscription content. We’re not there yet, but the pieces already exist scattered about.
Basically, the OP is asking, “Why do people like things I don’t.” The answer is because they do. We could just as easily ask why do you like things other people don’t. Tastes are different, thankfully. This happens with everything - music, movies, tv shows, comic books, food, clothing, architecture, art, sports teams, and anything else you can think of. The answers is always because they do.
Unlikely with our current technology and culture. That’s already more or less how the self-pubbing industry works, but that model doesn’t translate well to all the work that more traditional publishing entails.
I think there is a slightly (not-very) deeper context. Socially and culturally, we tend to assume book lovers are the smart (nerdy?), intellectual type. It’s trope-tastic. So when you see someone reading avidly, you have higher expectations of that person. And then you see them reading something junky, and you get the socially inducted cultural dissonance.
But that’s a small factor compared to the main point I think we all agree on - you like what you like, and you’ll read whatever gives you more of what you like, even if it’s objectively poorly written and proofread.
I’ve been away from serious reading for a while but there was a time that the more famous thriller/mystery writers where writing the darkest most depressing shit.
Deranged serial killer brutally murders 28 teenage prostitutes. Can the alcoholic detective who’s wife and kids were buried to death by a different serial killer just last year pull himself together with the help of a beautiful FBI agent who is just returning to work after a failed suicide attempt because her husband was skinned alive by a different serial killer as payback for stopping the 14th bombing of daycare facilities in Washington D.C…
At some point, stopping the bad guy doesn’t even feel “good”. I had to switch to lighter stuff. At least Robert Parker, Lee Child, Robert Crais would let you take a breath. When the good guy wins, you can actually feel good.
But this kind of discussion usually provides a good outlet for failed authors to rage against more successful authors they feel they are better than, as well as blaming the public for being too stupid to understand their “excellent” writing.
Sometimes non-readers don’t understand how readers think of books. I’ve often had a non-reader comment on my current book, saying something like “If you’re going to read, why would you pick that book? Why are you wasting your time on an unimportant book like that?”
A lot of it goes back to what @bump said about different types of readers. I’m like @bump, when I read fiction it’s like I’m watching a movie in my head* (the process is a different for non-fiction). I don’t need or want every novel I read to be significant or important or even “OMG, that’s the best book I read all year”, just like I don’t want every movie I watch to be a Oscar-worthy masterpiece. Sometimes I want to watch a stupid stoner comedy or a B grade car chase movie….and I enjoy the literary equivalent of these things, as well.
*Speaking of, I remember discussing a particular author with my SO once, and I was trying to explain that while I really liked the books, in certain scenes that involved a group of men conspiring I had trouble keeping track of where everyone was in the room.
He totally didn’t get it, and I had trouble explaining it further….but it goes back to the “movie in my head” thing and the fact that the movie broke down a bit during those scenes and I had trouble visualizing how the characters were placed in the room at any given moment. He thought it was a totally bizarre comment to make about a book.
Well, sorta. But instead, it is more like, “Why do people like mediocre things.” At least enough people like it enough to make it a bestseller.
Now I’ll accept what others say that this author might be at least competent, and this was a stinker. And I have no idea how well this volume sold.
Some people like circus peanuts instead of fine chocolates. Others hang black velvet Elvises - whether for humor or not. But if you are listening to music, wouldn’t you prefer that the singers/instruments be in tune and in time?
I’m not saying everyone should read only classics. I think Dan Brown and John Grisham are complete hacks. But in so many respects, their books are vastly better written than this piece of schlock.
Yeah - every once in a while I’ll find I mistakenly picked up one of those, and will generally put it down pretty quickly. I get a similar reaction on the infrequent occasion that I see an ad for Law and Order SVU - “There are some crimes that are SO depraved…” Not my idea of entertainment.
What about the “Fifty Shades” or “Twilight” series? Yeesht.
There are as many genres of romance as they are of books - historical, Christian, sci-fi, urban (a relatively new genre featuring books with all black characters), Western, etc. etc. etc.
I think it’s totally a question of what you like about some books. Take Bernard Cornwell for example. He’s a very prolific writer of historical fiction. He gets the job done… adequately in the actual “words on the pages” sense.
But he’s absolutely fantastic in terms of other aspects of writing- his characters are enjoyable, and they come across as real people. And his stories/plots are good, etc… A couple of his book series have been made into TV shows (the Sharpe series on PBS, and The Last Kingdom on BBC/Netflix). And there’s one trilogy that’s IMO better than either- his historical fiction treatment of the Arthurian legends is stellar, and really should be its own TV show or movies.
If you’re the “head movie” type, his books are amazing. If you’re a “words on the page” sort, he probably loses something relative to the “head movie” people.
So for a person of a more literary bent, he might seem a bit mass-market and mediocre, but for the “head movie” types, he’s great. And it’s entirely possible that he can be both at the same time.
Video and music markets are vastly different than they were twenty years ago. Most new video and music that’s produced these days completely circumvents traditional publishers. Writing markets can make the change as well. Paper-media writing printed by large publishers will become niche.
Most new novels do as well, if you’re counting self-publishing. But I don’t see traditional publishing for novels going away any more than I see summer blockbusters or music albums going away.
Traditional publishing gives you a lot that the typical writer just can’t do. Professional editing is a big one. The average writer simply cannot afford it. Add to that legal services, cover design, professional layout, copywriting (authors can do that–the blurbs and ad copy–but they typically hate to and aren’t necessarily any good at that type of writing), and placement it the most lucrative markets, and there is no central hub that can compete.