I would almost always rather have a print book, but if I'm not sure about the author I might go for the e-book. Bad covers do put me off, but if it's a favorite author I'd still buy the book--and hope it came out with a better cover somewhere down the road.
The writer's gender doesn't matter, either, but if I read a book by a guy writing women and the women don't sound right, I'd probably never buy another of his books. There was an interesting anthology out some years back, Switch Hitters, with lesbians writing gay men and gay men writing lesbians. Most of the women wrote what I thought were convincing men. About half the men wrote convincing women--but a couple were in genres so alien to my experience (club punk lesbians having an anonymous shag--which in itself seemed more like a gay backroom scenario) that I really couldn't tell. I know I wouldn't have wanted either of 'em.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2008-08-26 11:49 pm (UTC)The writer's gender doesn't matter, either, but if I read a book by a guy writing women and the women don't sound right, I'd probably never buy another of his books. There was an interesting anthology out some years back, Switch Hitters, with lesbians writing gay men and gay men writing lesbians. Most of the women wrote what I thought were convincing men. About half the men wrote convincing women--but a couple were in genres so alien to my experience (club punk lesbians having an anonymous shag--which in itself seemed more like a gay backroom scenario) that I really couldn't tell. I know I wouldn't have wanted either of 'em.