Sex, Personality and Book Sales

As with most things, it’s all Kevin Wignall’s fault. Or perhaps I should call him Kuddly Kev, as he’s been labeled elsewhere… (Not by me! And not by Alex Barclay either, from what I hear.)

I may live to regret this, because anyone astute, with too much time on their hands and a pressing desire to find my assessments of some male crime fiction writers could eventually find a bit of running commentary from me on the subject of World’s Sexiest Writer 2007. (No, not on that thread.) But since I can’t talk about the only other thing on my mind this morning, sexy writers it is.

Vincent has not only started the topic of World’s Sexiest Writer over on Crimespace, where Daniel will be setting up a poll soon, Vincent is also assessing the merits of his photos on a dating site.

And proving that I occasionally not only have tact but employ it, I’m saying nothing on that one.

I’m proving myself a Gemini on this one, because I am completely of two minds when it comes to discussing sexy writers. I think Vincent’s post is hilarious and can’t wait to see how the poll shapes up. But I think it’s terribly shallow that people would be influenced to by a book based on what an author looks like, unless they’re selling a book on beauty tips or bodybuilding.

I think one of the very best lines at Bouchercon last year was when Oline Cogdil said she’d praised raging assholes and panned very nice people. And such is your lot when you’re a reviewer. As an individual, I’m far more swayed by personality. That will entice me to try a book. If I think a person is an idiot I’m not likely to want to read what they write, because I expect the writing to reflect that. And if I think a person is sharp, intelligent, witty, then I want to check out their work. That connection makes sense to me.

But even authors who are jerks can write great books. And yes, authors who are very nice people sometimes write stinkers.

Why is it I feel like I’m digging myself into a hole here? And now, everyone will wonder who I think is an idiot, or a jerk….

Truth is, it doesn’t matter. There are exceptionally few authors I have issues with on any level, in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes, it seems like a lot when I’m sorting spam for Spinetingler, or dealing with what happened over our last issue that prompted us to remove a story after the author started swearing at me in emails. We paid him and took the story down. At the time I was extremely pissed off, but the percentage of problem people is pretty low, though, all things considered.

While it’s definitely true that if someone is rude to my face they will not entice me to pick up their book at that moment (and in some cases when people have been ignorant I’ve moved their review copies to the bottom of the pile so that I can get the bad taste out of my mouth and be objective when I do get there) whether or not I like someone or agree with them has precious little to do with my endorsements either. Of course, I always like it when I discover an author I admire is a really good person – bonus. And I’m one of those people who doesn’t need to agree with someone about everything to like them.

But that’s me. I realize it isn’t the same for everyone else. I once had this naïve notion, that you’d just write stories and work from home and be an author and not have to worry about your appearance and all of that stuff. Of course, things have changed since I first thought about being an author when I was a kid.

So, part of me hates the idea of ranking authors based on their appearance. But the other side of me is curious to see who’ll make the list… and whether or not it will generate any interest in their books.

And I’ll confess this much. Brown eyes. My favourite feature on a person. Evil Kev and I both have hazel eyes – mine of the blue/green variety, his of the brown/green variety.

Anyone else going to confess who they’ll put on the sexiest writer list, or why? (You know, this is a stellar topic today. I won’t get any comments at all.)