Why am I doing this again?

[mrissa]

[Poll #1757672]

Comments

[seabream.livejournal.com]

On the professional axis, their mere presence or absence makes little to no difference to me. If accompanied by the almost complete absence of any other verbiage external to the stories, that would tend to give the impression of a cursory job akin to just printing out the manuscripts, which would seem unprofessional. At minimum, if there are no story notes or story introductions, I would expect at least one of any of jacket copy, about the author, collection introduction (none of which necessarily need be seen to be by the author), but their necessity goes down if story notes and/or introductions are present, if that makes some sense. I think that it has to do with my perception of intent to draw attention and intent to sell commercially by having the presence of things that people can read without looking at the stories themselves to get an idea of whether the stories would be to their taste. Places where I've seen the total absence thing not imply being unprofessional are usually in other arts like songbooks or stage play scripts with established interested parties in said publications, where the people buying them are less interested in the creator or the process of creation of the words, so much as putting on the play, or studying stagecraft, or they've already seen the play. Cases where the other stuff isn't needed so isn't there.

In reference to other attributes, you will be unsurprised to read that I like detail and contextualization, so whether dry, entertaining, or charming, story notes/introductions are usually interesting to me, and thus appreciated. I like knowing things that colour my understanding of a story. It's all food for analysis. And wherever they appear in the physical book, I can choose to read or not read them in any order in relation to the story(s) they pertain to. Admittedly, it's easier if they are right next to the story in question. I have no problem with authorial statements of intent, or self analysis, in notes. Connecting the 'what were they thinking' with the story is one of the useful ways to look at how people understand how storytelling works. Notes about why the stories are in this particular collection, or in this order are also interesting in similar ways, just at a different level.

Re: sartorias' comment above, I can't recall having read story notes in collections laden with superlatives, but perhaps I've just been reading different collections. That or I've blocked them from memory. Usually if I see them, they're in blurbs, jacket copy, or occasionally in third party introductions, where one might expect to see them.

Re: presentation and professionalism. There are a great many areas of matter of taste that I don't have much to add to beyond that many of them don't seem to apply in my case beyond minimum construction and production standards, which are not so much to do with content. But on that note, I recall a pair of posts by Michelle, their comments and references that may or may not be of use to you: An open letter to Trade Publishers (http://msagara.livejournal.com/52146.html) More on covers (http://msagara.livejournal.com/52298.html)

Speaking of on a different level, I find the choice of buttons for these polls interesting. 'Very important', 'Moderately important', and 'Meh', can all be on a scale, which makes sense for a question asking for degree. 'Some other response…' makes sense as an option for those who aren't going to characterize their response in that fashion, so it can go as a button too. The remaining two do not answer the question as asked (i.e: in the 'how important' sense), especially 'I find them annoying and generally a distraction from the stories' in the question of professionalism. They may bear on the perception, but can be separated from degree in a way that I would have expected them to be ticky-boxes. 'Oh Brian you are such a Brian', yes?

On again a different level, I'm pleased about the prospect of a collection from you. While I've bought several magazines/e-zines in order to read stories of yours, it's nice to have them all in one place.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Not just "oh Brian you are such a Brian," but indeed such a self-aware Brian about being a Brian. Which is dear of you.

[seabream.livejournal.com]

Sometimes self-aware anyway. People keep encouraging me to think less about what I say. Hence incidents like the one that prompted the comment in person. Balance-finding. It is a thing.