![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Why do novelizations universally suck?
Jan. 31st, 2013 09:51 amNo, really. Why?
Quick backstory: I recently got an eReader as a gift to myself! (Kobo Touch, am in love with it thus far, though I had to sell a couple of souls just to get my hands on the damned thing.) Change jars build up over time, yo! So I was looking for books to add to it and thought, "Hey, the Teen Wolf novelization is out there! Maybe I should take a peek at that."
And then I hesitated and had to ask, Do I really want to spend money on a book I won't finish? Because, mark my words, I won't finish it. I already know this without even having looked at the previews or any reviews. I am not one of those people who will trudge through a book solely for completion's sake. If it sucks, I will throw it against a wall and then pawn it off on a relative or, in extreme cases, Goodwill. (I may eventually find and designate an "instead of eBook" throwing object for these occasions.)
I've read novelizations before. I've read the Sailor Moon novels (rehashes of the US episodes, poorly written, unimaginative), started the Iron Man II novelization (absolutely unreadable, dull, full of both plot holes and SPaG errors) and backed slowly away from many others after just glancing through them. Why is this a thing?
Ideally, novelizations should be another way to lure people into the franchise. "Oh, I liked that book, I'll give the movie a try!" Alternately, they're a way to get current fans to give you money. "OMG THEY MADE A BOOK!" There should be no How Desperate Am I? question. No wrangling with yourself over purchasing sub-quality material, no rolling your eyes because "they made a book out of that?", secure in the knowledge that it will suck, and you will be glad to have saved yourself a couple of bucks. Setting aside for a moment the "I can get better shit for free on the internet" issue, it's just a matter of common sense. You wouldn't go to a T-shirt company, have your logo printed on a t-shirt and just sort of shrug when the shirts show up holey with the logo smudged, then expect people to pay $20 for it!
I'm not expecting Terry Pratchett or Stephen King, here. Just something entertaining, readable and tied into an existing franchise. I don't get why this is so hard! Fans do it all the time. Track down a popular author in your franchise with work you like and say, "Write me a story with these specs and I'll give you Real People Money, with bonus bragging rights and maybe some merch." Hell, hold a fanfic contest and say that the top however-many will get published in a short story anthology. (Trickier, but not unfeasible, I think.)
Or at fucking least make sure your questionably chosen author has a fucking editor.
Note: Copypasta'd to Tumblr, since that's where Teen Wolf hangs, and I feel this is Relevant.
Quick backstory: I recently got an eReader as a gift to myself! (Kobo Touch, am in love with it thus far, though I had to sell a couple of souls just to get my hands on the damned thing.) Change jars build up over time, yo! So I was looking for books to add to it and thought, "Hey, the Teen Wolf novelization is out there! Maybe I should take a peek at that."
And then I hesitated and had to ask, Do I really want to spend money on a book I won't finish? Because, mark my words, I won't finish it. I already know this without even having looked at the previews or any reviews. I am not one of those people who will trudge through a book solely for completion's sake. If it sucks, I will throw it against a wall and then pawn it off on a relative or, in extreme cases, Goodwill. (I may eventually find and designate an "instead of eBook" throwing object for these occasions.)
I've read novelizations before. I've read the Sailor Moon novels (rehashes of the US episodes, poorly written, unimaginative), started the Iron Man II novelization (absolutely unreadable, dull, full of both plot holes and SPaG errors) and backed slowly away from many others after just glancing through them. Why is this a thing?
Ideally, novelizations should be another way to lure people into the franchise. "Oh, I liked that book, I'll give the movie a try!" Alternately, they're a way to get current fans to give you money. "OMG THEY MADE A BOOK!" There should be no How Desperate Am I? question. No wrangling with yourself over purchasing sub-quality material, no rolling your eyes because "they made a book out of that?", secure in the knowledge that it will suck, and you will be glad to have saved yourself a couple of bucks. Setting aside for a moment the "I can get better shit for free on the internet" issue, it's just a matter of common sense. You wouldn't go to a T-shirt company, have your logo printed on a t-shirt and just sort of shrug when the shirts show up holey with the logo smudged, then expect people to pay $20 for it!
I'm not expecting Terry Pratchett or Stephen King, here. Just something entertaining, readable and tied into an existing franchise. I don't get why this is so hard! Fans do it all the time. Track down a popular author in your franchise with work you like and say, "Write me a story with these specs and I'll give you Real People Money, with bonus bragging rights and maybe some merch." Hell, hold a fanfic contest and say that the top however-many will get published in a short story anthology. (Trickier, but not unfeasible, I think.)
Or at fucking least make sure your questionably chosen author has a fucking editor.
Note: Copypasta'd to Tumblr, since that's where Teen Wolf hangs, and I feel this is Relevant.
