Right. If you can't even remember to include a token women on the cover? Then you've managed to piss me off before I've even taken the book off the shelf to look at the back cover.
First, I didn't "forget" to put a woman on the cover. I didn't think about it one way or the other. I looked at the list of names, and decided which five would most likely aid in getting people to pick up the book and look at it. In this particular lineup, it worked out how it worked out. Had the lineup been different, it probably would have worked out differently. Are there women who I would put on the cover? In a second. Would some of the women from this book made the cover, if the TOC had worked out a little differently? Sure. But it didn't.
As for pissing you off... well, you can't please all the people all the time.
It's up to you to decide if there are enough of me out there that humoring me instead actively angering me will offset the loss of all those [insert name of male author] fans, of course.
I believe I've already made that decision, haven't I?
ps. saying "whoops, we screwed up"? Would go over a lot better than angry defensiveness.
If I thought I'd screwed up, you'd know, because I would have said so and fixed it.
What I've seen here is a handful of angry voices screaming over injustices of the world. Ok, fine. However, I have a business to run. It's not my job to change the marketplace. I've thrown away more money than I can count by ignoring the marketplace, and it doesn't pay off. And a handful of people on a website or an LJ does not constitute a good reason to ignore solid and proven business practices. If you don't like the fact that anthologies sell best when they have big names in them, and they sell better when the big names are on the front, then do something about it. But those fingers need to be pointed at the members of the marketplace, not at me.
Well, you managed to avoid the words "shrill" and "hysterical" in your last paragraph, but I'd suggest avoiding the dismissiveness next time, as well. Then I might be more convinced of your sincerity.
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coalescent) wrote2007-08-29 10:18 am
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Re: The real answer
First, I didn't "forget" to put a woman on the cover. I didn't think about it one way or the other. I looked at the list of names, and decided which five would most likely aid in getting people to pick up the book and look at it. In this particular lineup, it worked out how it worked out. Had the lineup been different, it probably would have worked out differently. Are there women who I would put on the cover? In a second. Would some of the women from this book made the cover, if the TOC had worked out a little differently? Sure. But it didn't.
As for pissing you off... well, you can't please all the people all the time.
It's up to you to decide if there are enough of me out there that humoring me instead actively angering me will offset the loss of all those [insert name of male author] fans, of course.
I believe I've already made that decision, haven't I?
ps. saying "whoops, we screwed up"? Would go over a lot better than angry defensiveness.
If I thought I'd screwed up, you'd know, because I would have said so and fixed it.
What I've seen here is a handful of angry voices screaming over injustices of the world. Ok, fine. However, I have a business to run. It's not my job to change the marketplace. I've thrown away more money than I can count by ignoring the marketplace, and it doesn't pay off. And a handful of people on a website or an LJ does not constitute a good reason to ignore solid and proven business practices. If you don't like the fact that anthologies sell best when they have big names in them, and they sell better when the big names are on the front, then do something about it. But those fingers need to be pointed at the members of the marketplace, not at me.
Re: The real answer