Back when I first started publishing in the last century, you didn't see a lot of lengthy acknowledgments at the back of books. It seems to me that it's something that's started turning up in the last decade. And I've often noticed that the length of the thank yous has a connection to the quality of the book--the longer they are, the worse the work.
I just finished a novel I'd looked forward to reading because I'd enjoyed an earlier book by the same author. I liked the historical setting, it was plenty moody, but the plot was seriously clunky with some events seeming very tacked on. The threads were not well integrated. We're not talking seamless here.
The acknowledgments went on for two and a half pages.
I was left feeling kind of glum because I don't have two and a half pages of people involved with my professional life to thank. I'm also wondering if there might be some kind of jinx at work here. If I did manage to scrape together a lengthy list of folks to thank, would that doom my book? Would they end up wishing they just hadn't been mentioned?
1 comment:
It's better to have them at the back. I feel I can ignore them. But a full page at the front? Sigh. Have to plow through that first. And there are still plenty of us who read your blog!
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