Julie Wallace

[louisa]

Hi Tom

You sound almost as cynical as I am!


"I paid well over 100 bucks for mine, and it was (at the time) one of only two copies available anywhere on the internet."

Could you photocopy it for me please? (just kidding)

[Stewart P Evans]

Do you know...?

...
As for this Gannon book, I would hope it's a fictionalization of the crime. Richard Whittington-Egan is fully willing to write forewords for crappy books. I think he wrote the foreword for Tom Slemen's Ripper book. It pays cash, don't ya know.
...
Tom Wescott

Do you know Richard Whittington-Egan? Do you know why he writes the forewords for various books? If not I suggest that you do not suggest why he is willing to write certain forewords, nor make (incorrect) suggestions as to why he does.

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Stewart. As you've seen from the young lady's post, when an author of repute writes a foreword for a book, his credibility is transferred to that book, so it's unfortunate when this results in many people purchasing a book on a subject that's poorly researched or offers a 'conclusion' or premise not based on solid research. Perhaps money is not a motive, so I'll strike that statement from the record, nevertheless my point still stands, which is that because Whittington-Egan (or any author of repute) writes a foreword for a book, it is not always indicative of their belief in the premise put foreword, or an endorsement of the author's veracity.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Stewart P Evans]

Point

Hi Stewart. As you've seen from the young lady's post, when an author of repute writes a foreword for a book, his credibility is transferred to that book, so it's unfortunate when this results in many people purchasing a book on a subject that's poorly researched or offers a 'conclusion' or premise not based on solid research. Perhaps money is not a motive, so I'll strike that statement from the record, nevertheless my point still stands, which is that because Whittington-Egan (or any author of repute) writes a foreword for a book, it is not always indicative of their belief in the premise put foreword, or an endorsement of the author's veracity.
...
Tom Wescott

Yes, thank you for that, the remark 'pays cash' was ill-advised, ill-considered, unfounded and totally unnecessary.

It's a pretty all-encompassing statement to say that an author's 'credibility' is transferred to a book when he writes a foreword for that book. I'm not quite sure that I understand the above part of the sentence commencing 'nevertheless...'. What exactly is your point?

[mariab]

I can see the point when an established personality produces a foreword for a weak book. It's ethically misleading.

It's a pretty all-encompassing statement to say that an author's 'credibility' is transferred to a book when he writes a foreword for that book.

In the academic environment it can even end up having negative connotations. Currently I'm sitting on the dilemma of if I should ask my German boss (who's an authority on a certain field) to write a foreword for my upcoming book, and I'm hesitating. I'm sure he'll write something beautiful, but do I need to advertize the fact that we're close, and get his numerous enemies on my back? Already due to him (due to a legal dispute he won) I had to change my publisher (which went bankrupt after the legal dispute). And already there's a certain (illustrous in the past, sh*tty today) German University and a certain (very rich and powerful) German organisation with whom I can't do business cuz of him! (For the latter, I have it in mind to attach myself to an additional boss in the future.)
What's hilarious is that if the author happens to be a young woman, there's also the voices “He wrote a brilliant review for her, ergo he's doing her“. But noone really pays attention to such, and at any rate a book will speak for itself.

[Tom_Wescott]

It's a pretty all-encompassing statement to say that an author's 'credibility' is transferred to a book when he writes a foreword for that book. I'm not quite sure that I understand the above part of the sentence commencing 'nevertheless...'. What exactly is your point?

It might be all-encompassing, but it's also totally accurate. That's why you and RW-E are asked to do forewords all the time, and not Dr. John Pope de Locksley. Your reputations reflect on the book and increase it's credibility, and therefore sales. The author and the publishers like that. My point with the last statement is that someone might write a foreword for someone else's book, but not necessarily agree with its conclusions, so readers should be aware of that and not expect the book their purchasing to live up to the work put out by the guy writing the foreword. It very well may, but not necessarily.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Stewart P Evans]

Aware

It might be all-encompassing, but it's also totally accurate. That's why you and RW-E are asked to do forewords all the time, and not Dr. John Pope de Locksley. Your reputations reflect on the book and increase it's credibility, and therefore sales. The author and the publishers like that. My point with the last statement is that someone might write a foreword for someone else's book, but not necessarily agree with its conclusions, so readers should be aware of that and not expect the book their purchasing to live up to the work put out by the guy writing the foreword. It very well may, but not necessarily.
...
Tom Wescott

I am, obviously, aware of the reasons that an author or publisher might want a particular noted author to write a foreword to their book. It also gives the opportunity for that authority's name to be used on the cover of a book.

However, the person writing the foreword obviously has the option of declining to write it and the decision is his/hers. There may be any number of reasons why the author/authority would wish to write the foreword and that, I would suggest, rarely includes the fact that they agree with all that is written in the book. That is often clear from the content of the foreword. This is particularly true in the field of Ripper studies. It is very unfair to suggest that the writer of a foreword is doing it for 'cash'. I have never been paid for writing a foreword and have only received a gratis copy of the book (which I would have received anyway for the help I had given).

I would suggest that it is naive to believe that the writer of a foreword automatically agrees with, or endorses, the content of that book. In the case of my own first book book I had offers from a couple of high profile names in Ripperworld happy to write my foreword and they certainly didn't agree with the whole content of the book. In the event I asked Nick Warren to write it and he was relatively little known in Ripper studies in 1994 but I respected his work and opinion.

So, I don't agree that that an author's credibility transfers to the book he writes a foreword for, even if that is what you believe. But I think that most readers are intelligent and discerning enough to know all this anyway and that there is more in their decision to buy a book than the name of the writer of the foreword.

[Stewart P Evans]

Publishing

...
In the academic environment it can even end up having negative connotations. Currently I'm sitting on the dilemma of if I should ask my German boss (who's an authority on a certain field) to write a foreword for my upcoming book, and I'm hesitating. I'm sure he'll write something beautiful, but do I need to advertize the fact that we're close, and get his numerous enemies on my back? Already due to him (due to a legal dispute he won) I had to change my publisher (which went bankrupt after the legal dispute). And already there's a certain (illustrous in the past, sh*tty today) German University and a certain (very rich and powerful) German organisation with whom I can't do business cuz of him! (For the latter, I have it in mind to attach myself to an additional boss in the future.)
What's hilarious is that if the author happens to be a young woman, there's also the voices “He wrote a brilliant review for her, ergo he's doing her“. But noone really pays attention to such, and at any rate a book will speak for itself.

We have to recognise the difference between publishing in 'an academic environment' and publishing a popular work in the commercial field. Commercial publishing is very different from academic publishing although, today there may be a degree of overlap which, incidentally, in the crime field has certainly seen academic presses publishing some works that lack academic qualities.

Much depends, of course, on the content of a book, the way it is written, and what the writer of the foreword has to say about the book and the subject matter. Many forewords, and introductions, contain very relevant and sometimes new information on the subject. Or they may give a unique insight on an authoritative writer's own views of, or opinions on, a subject or, in the case of the Ripper, a new suspect.

As you say, a book should speak for itself, and I am sure that most readers realise that.

[Stewart P Evans]

book book

...
I would suggest that it is naive to believe that the writer of a foreword automatically agrees with, or endorses, the content of that book. In the case of my own first book book I had offers from a couple of high profile names in Ripperworld happy to write my foreword and they certainly didn't agree with the whole content of the book.
...

'book book' - so good I wrote it twice (sung to the tune of 'New York, New York').

[Stewart P Evans]

Off Topic

I think we have strayed off topic here, on a thread about the Wallace case in which Wallace was so obviously guilty.

[louisa]

I'm 50/50 as to whether Wallace was guilty or not. I think Parry could have committed the murder.

People are usually exactly what they seem. We like to believe that Wallace was calm and collected on the outside but a maniac lurked within. In my experience if somebody looks and behaves like a cool customer, then they usually are exactly that, even when riled.

[Stewart P Evans]

No need...

...
People are usually exactly what they seem. We like to believe that Wallace was calm and collected on the outside but a maniac lurked within. In my experience if somebody looks and behaves like a cool customer, then they usually are exactly that, even when riled.

There's no need for a 'maniac' to be lurking within. As witness the many, many, horrendous domestic murders that the annals of crime present us with.

[sdreid]

I believe that Mark Russell is working on a book as well.

[apricot]

Evenin' again All,


I've been away for a few days and I see there has been much activity on the thread in my absence!!

I'm really not naive enough to think that a foreword by a distinguised author adds more credence to the theory claimed therein, I just like to have books that cover all angles as it were, I've got some books in which the findings are, frankly ludricrous, the Ruth Ellis one, the Croydon Arsenic Mystery spring to mind, not to mention more than a few JTR!!

Anyway, nothing like a good book to wile away cold, dark winter nights and it probably won't be!!

[louisa]

Apricot - you've obviously read the Diane Janes book about the Croydon Poisonings.

Please, please try and get hold of a copy of The Riddle Of Birdhurst Rise by Richard Whittington-Egan. It's the definitive and best researched book about the murders.


As for forewards in books. I think that if I was an author I wouldn't want to write a foreward for a book I didn't like or agree with. My reputation would be on the line.