Glitter Baby is one of the few Susan Elizabeth Phillips books I haven’t read. For years I searched for a copy (that didn’t cost an arm and a leg) but didn’t find one. Now it’s being re-released. The thing is, she re-wrote it. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I’m sure the novel was dated not as well done as many of her later works, but..well, it seems misleading. And it’s kind of a slap in the face to long-time fans, no?
What do you think? How do you feel about SEP rewriting this novel? What about when other authors do it? Does it bother you or is it not a big deal?
Welcome to the world of the Glitter Baby
Fleur Savagar is the most beautiful woman in the world…to everyone but herself. With her oversized hands and paddle-boat feet, her streaky blond hair and funny green eyes, she lives a life filled with secrets that began before she was born. That was when her bewitching mother left home to find James Dean and met Errol Flynn instead. Now Fleur has to grow up quickly, and life won’t make that easy.
Jake Koranda is both New York’s most brilliant playwright and Hollywood’s hottest actor. Difficult, talented, and tormented, he has no patience for international glamour girls, not even ones with beautiful bodies and smart-aleck mouths. But there’s more to the Glitter Baby than shine, and Fleur’s tougher than Jake expects. Even with the odds stacked against her, she’s fiercely determined to discover the woman she’s destined to be.
An ugly duckling who can’t believe she’s turned into a swan…A tough-guy movie star with a haunted past…In a land of broken dreams, can two unlikely lovers trust their hearts?
This book is available from Avon, December 30, 2008. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
As long as the author is honest about what she is doing (and doesn’t change the name of the book and pretend it’s new) I love rereleases. Most of the time an author’s writing vastly improves from the first book to the later book and I’ve wanted to read Glitter Baby for a long time, so I’ve been on the lookout for this one. I’m not a fan of SEP’s really early books, but I did enjoy Just Imagine (one she rewrote) so I’m hoping I like this one just as much. And the cover is so pretty :-).
Do you know how much was re-written? Did she just clean up the writing/editing, or did she change the storyline? When Judith McNaught rewrote “Whitney, My Love” after readers become highly vocal over a rape scene, it was well accepted. But she rewrote only those sections pertaining to the hated scene to show the hero less agressive and the heroine more receptive, but the core story remained the same. In that situation I am OK, and it was publically announced by the author. However, Cheyenne MaCray’s newest book Zach turned out to be a rewritten book previously published under a different name and different publisher. I’ve read that some fans were quite upset as they unknowingly bought a book they already read! SEP at least keeps the same title name, and hopefully the only editing she did was to do some ‘dusting and cleaning’ but not change the core story. This is the only book by SEP that I have not read, and I look forward to reading it.
Why not just write a new book? Otherwise it’s just selling the same product twice.
I think it depends. Sometimes authors get the rights back to a book not very many people got to see (from a very small press for instance) and in order to sell it to a bigger publisher they’ll need more wordcount – and also it enables an author to smooth out things she might have wanted to address for a while.
As long as the book says it’s revised and expanded I’m totally fine with it as a reader and as an author.
As for different titles, that’s not always an author’s choice either. I often sell books with one title and have to change it for a whole host of reasons.
I haven’t read Glitter Baby – I only discovered SEP last year when I read Natural Born Charmer and I’ve been glooming with intent ever since 🙂
I think as long as the author is open and honest about the re-write, I’m fine with it. There is nothing worse that thinking you’ve found a new book by an author you love only to realise it’s been re-named! And perhaps the author has more leeway with a re-write than with a original. In other words, SEP probably has a lot more control over the plot and various details now than she did.. Sorry, not quite sure if I’m explaining this very well 🙂
I’m not sure… I think it’s something to be judged on a case by case basis.
As KarLyn said, the rewrite for Whitney, my Love was very good, IMO. But Elizabeth Lowell’s rewrites for several of her early categories have a lot of padding without improvement on either writing or plotting. In fact, it made almost painful to read the rewritten versions after having read the originals.
I have mixed feelings about this because I can understand why an author would want to polish a previous release, maybe update it a little, but at the same time, it is a book that a lot of readers have wanted to read and it’s been difficult to find, and the idea of it being re-written seems kind of like cheating. The fact that the publisher and author have been upfront about it makes me feel better about that, but I’d be curious to hear the thoughts of those who’ve already read it, and then read the updated version.
KarLyn mentioned W,ML, and I read both versions and didn’t mind the section re-written.
You know, I was thinking I was fine with it until Whitney, My Love was mentioned. I read that book so many years ago that I don’t remember anything about the book. I do remember people saying there was a rape (I’m sure when I read the book I was screaming at the heroine to fight or some such thing) and that it was re-written to make it less so.
Now, for me, I want to re-read the original. I like darker books. What if I liked the book the way it was?
But then I’m all for it if the author makes something hotter or sexier or darker.
So can I be undecided? I’m not a SEP lover anyways so it won’t matter to me. If Anne Stuart wanted to re-write something from her past I wonder how I would respond? I think I would be saying ‘write a new book!!! I want a new book!!!’
CindyS from the peanut gallery
I am in the mixed feelings camp too – not that I have read any of the above mentioned books (Will I be stoned? Lol!) but I was thinking if Linda Howard wanted to rewrite some of her earliest works – An Independant Wife & All That Glitters spring to mind – it could only get better! But later works . . . I guess I wouldn’t want those tinkered with.
I don’t mind as long as it’s made clear it’s a rewrite of a previous book. It can be interesting reading them back to back. I did this with one book of Lisa Kleypas, When Strangers Marry is a rewrite of one of her first books, Only In Your Arms. I read OIYA when it first came out (yep – I’ve been reading her that long *g*) and then read the rerelease.
It’s an old school romance with the much older hero and younger, almost out of the classroom heroine. I enjoyed both although I think in trying to make it a bit more PC, she took some of the teeth out of Maximilien Vallerand.
But romance has undergone quite a transition since the first version and I can understand authors wanting to make their books more current.
Personally, I don’t think I mind if it’s an old release that’s out of print. If I haven’t read the first version… also, if it’s just updating things, like VHS to DVD… then I don’t mind.
I’m with Ash. As long as it’s presented as a re-write/re-release and not completely new material, I’m all for it. I wish more authors would do it.
If I haven’t read it, well, it’s new to me so it doesn’t really bug me.
But if I’ve read it, my feeling is, “Why bother? Just write a new book.” Sometimes the “flaws” of a book is what makes it unique. What some call “dated”, I see as character and history. If I wanted only the point of view from our “modern” time, I’d only read up-and-coming new authors.
In the case of W,ML, I’ved read both versions and truth be told, was annoyed by the NEED for the rewriting. I feel the rewriting was due to political correctness and was unnecessary. I reread both version to see what the humdrum was about and yesssh, if people didn’t like seeing some bigger issues (besides the, “do I love you or I love you not”) in their romance, they should just read JM’s EBYT. That’s standard JM storyline and it wouldn’t hurt anyone’s tender sensibilities.
MPH
If I have not been tricked into buying the same book twice (like with a Hannah Howell book I am reading) then I don’t care.
I looked at Glitter Baby when I placed my last order at Chapters, but it didn’t sound very good so I passed on it.
Janet Evanovich did a re write/re release of Naughty Neighbor. She wrote a note at the start of the book that she changed some of it to keep up with the times, because it was first released in 1992. Some of the changes she made were; changing VHS to DVD, roller skates to roller blades, etc.
BTW, the HH book I am re reading is good, but about 10 pages into it I released that I had already read it. After scanning the cover I discovered the tiny writing saying that it was already published under a different name. that first book is sitting on my book shelf. Hmph.
It was my own fault for not scanning the fine print on the cover a bit better, I guess.
I’m just mad that I paid for a book twice, whether it be a good read or not.
I read Whitney, my Love, and I liked it a lot. I read the updated version, though.