bookpublishing

I’m really interested in the way book publishing is discussed on Fox’s hit show “Bones”, in which the main character, Temperance Brennan, is a forensic anthropologist and bestselling author. In last night’s episode, the murder victim was also a bestselling author, but the publisher decided to replace the author’s photo and bio with a more attractive stand-in. The “imposter” turned out to be not a bad writer either and ended up replacing the original author while maintaining the pseudonym (also the real name of the original author). It made me curious about how often this is really done in publishing–to the best of my knowledge, my company has never done something like that and it seems fairly ludicrous to think it would. But obviously some publishers do. How much do you think the author’s attractiveness actually affects the reader? Typically I don’t even know what an author looks like until I finish the book and catch a glimpse of their photo and bio on the last page. In my opinion, that’s pretty much ideal.

What was also interesting on Bones was their interview with the character who played the murder victim’s book publisher. He was a total jerk! And totally not what I expected as a character to fill that role. It bothered me a bit because he came off as a self-important, profit-seeking loser who didn’t care at all about his authors. But Booth later insulted him and made it clear to Brennan that this guy wasn’t a good example of the publishing industry and that it shouldn’t have an effect on how she felt about her own writing. The show has had other characters to play publishing professionals who I’ve enjoyed… this one, not so much. But at least they acknowledged that he stood out in the industry… as a dirtbag.

Just gotta keep reminding myself the show is fictional. Right.

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