The Letter, by Kathryn Hughes | Pre-Review

#1 eBook Bestseller!

Gah! I'm such a sucker for a good cover. I fall into them like Alice down the rabbit hole and sometimes I forget to take a better look at my surroundings. In THIS case, I forgot to read the sample.

Before I get too deep into this pre-review (which is something I plan to begin doing more often because I think it has merit), I need to establish one important factor: LOTS of books have one-star reviews which state the book is poorly written, slow-moving, predictable, and/or repetitive (in the sense there are other books with the same story line as this book).

The literary world is CHOCK-FULL of garbage one-star reviews which are in no way helpful to the potential reader. In fact, many of the negative reviews of this book reflect the buyer/seller experience rather than the content of the book. 

Based on the reviews alone, it is NO WONDER this book slipped through my normal filters.

(I'll admit, however, to my shame at noting the sub-title of the book was "No. 1 eBook Bestseller!" That one should NOT have slipped through my normal filters.)

This book arrived in the mail two days ago and I have spent those two days deciding whether or not it is worth the energy to send it back to Amazon. (To be fair, I'm not sure they will TAKE it back, since it is a book, even though I haven't read it.) 

Spoiler Alert: I decided it wasn't worth the energy to send it back. Now we have to find out if it's worth the energy to READ.

I'm going to spend a piece of time here talking about what stood out to me about this book, and why THIS is the first book I've EVER felt the urge to PRE-review. (Seriously, this has never happened before, but now it sounds like a great idea I think I'll continue.)

These are my initial observations of the book, ALL of which put me off of it.

The lovely cover is ruined by the presence of large subtitle print declaring it the No. 1 eBook Bestseller! Ugh. Where do I START?

First of all, I stopped reading eBooks a while ago, after my Kindle Paperwhite got scratched. It's difficult for me to read on the Fire, and I don't want to pay to have the Paperwhite replaced because I FAR prefer to have a book in my hands than a device. I guess I'm getting to be a fogey. 

What I mean to say is I'm not impressed by an eBook bestseller, especially when I ordered the paperback version of the book. 

Second of all, all "bestseller" means is that a lot of people have downloaded the book. In the case of ebooks, it doesn't even necessarily indicate how many people paid full price for the book, just that a particular threshold of people DOWNLOADED the book. It could have been at a promotional price. It could have been FREE. What matters is the downloads. So no. I'm not impressed.

(I'll be writing a separate post on this topic upcoming, and will link to it here.)

That was the first thing I noticed about the book, and it bothered me. Alone, it would have irritated me, but it wouldn't have put me off the book entirely.

Then I opened it.

The font is enormous. This applies, of course, only to the print (paperback) copy of the book. I have no idea what the eBook looks like other than in the sample I glanced at only after the fact (to check for the font size).

It's not SO LARGE that it's "large print" but it is excessive, as though the large font would mean more pages in the book, and more pages was somehow more impressive. (Yes, this is actually how the maturity level of this author strikes me.)

Suffice it to say I find the font off-putting.

The paper quality is thick and rough. I don't want to begrudge recycled paper (which this appears to be), but it's uncomfortable on my fingers when reading a paperback novel. It's the sort of cheap paper used in days gone by for dime-store paperbacks costing a good deal less than the $10.39 this book set me back. 

Basically for the price I'd have expected a better quality of paper. Not only does it feel thick and rough on my hands, it smells unpleasant. Again, more like a book I might have purchased in the '80s. I don't expect the paper, with this quality, to have the longevity I expect from the books I purchase in paper (or hard) back.

The quality is simply lacking.

These factors cannot compensate for the content of a poorly written book; Let me make that clear. However, the COMBINATION of these factors has made me feel ripped off by the author and the publisher who picked this novel up for publication. The price point is simply too high given these elements of paperback quality.

Oh wait! But there's more!

The first several physical pages of this book (which I would have noted had I read the sample -- lesson learned!) contain reviews.

Alright. If this seems pretty typical, I feel you. The book I'm currently reading (Defending Jacob by William Landay) is preceded by reviews from popular publications and well-known authors. In fact, I'm sure I could pull virtually any book off my shelf, and unless it was independently published, it will contain some similar reviews.

This is normal, and that's fine.

(You can, in fact, see these by viewing the sample on Amazon, as this is essentially a printed copy of the eBook.)

My issue is with the source of the reviews. As a reader, I don't particularly care what "Pamela, Amazon" thinks of the book, or what "Stacey, Goodreads" thought. In fact, since I purchased this book online I had access to this information directly through the site where I purchased the book (Amazon) or by checking in on Goodreads.

These have a gaudy appearance (especially on the cheap paper) and strike me as SILLY, an effort by the author to bloat her own work and her own ego. 

If you're an indie author reading this, please, PLEASE consider leaving these OUT of the hard copy (printed copy) of your book. Not only do they not add value for readers like me, but they literally detract value from the book.

I plan to read this book, and I MAY pre-review it AGAIN before I read it.

I intend to enjoy it. The positive reviews far outweigh the negative reviews on the book as of right now and I hope the content of this novel can make up for the poor quality of its binding. 

What are your thoughts? Have you read this book? Enjoyed it? What did you think of the quality of the printed copy?

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