I flipped through the HarperCollins Spring catalogs today to see what was coming. As the backlist buyer, I don’t get to meet with the sales reps, so its the catalogs that tell me what to expect each season. I know I have said it before, but I am completely biased against chicklit. Its gross, silly, and underestimates women’s intelligence. Sure, its easy to read and might even provide interesting if not trashy stories, but come on. Try to read something else. I am a snob. Anyway, I came across a book by Mark Kay Andrews in the paperback catalog. She is a chicklit writer and I could tell without even reading the description. The cover itself tells you everything—a woman with a figure that cannot exist in real life, seen from the back dropping something in the trash. It has this amost 50’s look to it and of course the colors are pastel green and magenta. Check it out here. And then the blurbs. Even if I wanted to read this book, the blurbs would make me throw it back on the table, maybe even on the floor if no one were looking. Here are two examples:
‘You’ll want to bitch, bond and run through the backyard sprinklers in your underwear with them [the characters].’—Washington Post.

“Witty and sharp…light and frothy as a strawberry daiquiri.”—Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
Gross. I know there is a market for this stuff. I know women want to read about other women’s lives. But do they have to be so fluffy and light? We need to come up with a way to get the industry to change.