29 March 2011

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors That Deserve More Recognition

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. For people who love making lists as much as myself, it’s a great weekly meme!
This week’s theme is: Top Ten Authors That Deserve More Recognition
This question was quite a difficult one for me. I can pick out lots of authors who aren’t well recognised, but ones that should* be? I had a long and hard think about it, and came up with this short list:

1. Maria V. Snyder. I know she’s a fairly popular author already, but I recently Maria posted on her blog that the sales for Inside Out – her dystopian series – had been extremely low. I honestly don’t know why this is, because the series is fantastic, and Maria is an excellent author! Maybe it’s to do with publicity? Hmm.

2. Mara Purnhagen. Mara wrote the Past Midnight series, which is currently a three book trilogy about ghosts. Ghosts, I say! I, for one, have not read many YA books on this subject, and I find Mara’s books fascinating. And very creepy!

3. Darren Shan. I know, I know. Darren is already a very popular author, but I have made a pact with myself. I shall not rest until every single one of you has read at least The Saga of Darren Shan. If you read the Demonata series, then that’s a bonus.

4. Elizabeth Woods. Elizabeth Woods wrote ‘Choker’, a 2011 YA debut. When I read the synopsis for this book, I immediately had the book shipped over from the US. I fell in love. And yet, I don’t see many bloggers reading this book. Why, may I ask? Perhaps it’s because nowadays we’re a bunch of paranormal obsessed crazies. Yup, that’s my theory. ;)

5. Every other YA author out there who isn’t Stephenie Meyer, J.K Rowling or Suzanne Collins. Before you all go crazy at me, I have absolutely nothing against these authors! I love them. Mostly. But what I mean is that here in the UK, you hardly ever hear about anyone else unless you’re a blogger, friends with a blogger, or like to search Amazon manically. I want YA authors to be more well-known in the UK, please!  

15 comments:

  1. Ohh I like this list!
    I'm going to have to check out Maria V. Snyder and Mara Purnhagen.
    I have read the entire Saga of Darren Shan series, but I want to read his other books too. And I can't wait to see what else Elizabeth Woods comes out with after reading Choker. I loved that book!

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  2. Yay! I love Darren Shan. It's bordering on obsession. I've read nearly every one of his books! The Saga is one of my favourite series :D

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  3. Firstly, I have to agree with what you said on my own post, YA books do have better characters and plots ;)

    I love your number 5. When I posted that all writers deserved more recognition I contemplated them myself, however, I came to the conclusion that if I were them I would want more recognition for my writing and not the mindless marketing that resulted from it and corrupted the writing itself. I loved the Twilight books, but the movies and the overwhelming industry behind them sickens me.

    As for Darren Shan, my 17 year old ex-sis-in-law has been trying to get me to read each series. However, I watched the movie and wasn't impressed so I never picked up the book. I know! How sinful of me to judge a book by it's ....movie haha. Maybe I will pick up the series after all, just as soon as I make a stab at the stacks I already have :)

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  4. Wow I am really failing at this weeks top ten. I've read a few posts now and I haven't heard of any of these authors. I have a lot of research to do this week!

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  5. I love your list! Especially number 5 - I couldn't agree more! There should be more YA authors spotlighted, not only those super popular ones, that somehow managed to break through. there are still many great authors that deserve more recognition!

    I will check out everyone on you list, thanks for stopping by my blog, it's always great to see you :)

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  6. Elizabeth - Thank you for following! I agree, again. Many of the more popular franchises are overwhelming, and most don't deserve any more recognition than the lesser known authors. I think I feel a discussion post coming on!

    Ah! You ex-sister-in-law has excellent taste. Do let me know when (if) you get around to reading either series. The Saga is my favourite, but the Demonata is still great! And yes, it's very sinful to judge a book by its movie, I'm shocked ;) Haha!

    Ariel - Thanks for stopping by! I haven't heard of many of the authors listed this week either. I'm going to be spending a lot of time on Goodreads later!

    Evie - Thanks! Like I said to Elizabeth, many of the lesser known authors deserve recognition and popularity (and stardom!) just as much as the more well known ones.

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  7. I love dystopian too. Definitely check out Harkaway.

    I read Snyder's Study trilogy. I loved the first book. The last book though, I was disappointed with. Put me off reading the Opal trilogy. Didn't realise she now had a dystopian series. Will have to look into that.

    I've only read the first book in Darren Shan's vampire series. I did like it but haven't gotten round to reading the others.

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  8. Great list! I am especially interested in Elizabeth Woods as I really want to read Chocker. I love your number five too! Thanks for checking out my list.

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  9. Your the second UK blogger I've read today that says YA doesn't get enough recognition. I think it does in Canada, that's why I've heard of authors like P.C. Cast and L.J. Smith. There are always tables of YA books at Chapters and Indigo stores. Sorry the UK isn't promoting more YA.

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  10. I so agree with you about YA fiction not being appreciated/promoted in the UK- my blogging bff (who is American) keeps talking about all these YA books and authors, and I'm just like 'wha..?!' So I'm completely with you on this one!

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  11. Wow, I've heard of very few of these. Good job!

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  12. I'm reading Inside Out atm and quite liking it. Hadn't heard of Maria Snyder until I saw a friend of mine on Goodreads was reading Outside In. Going through a bit of a dystopian obsession atm so I immediately had to check them out.

    Have seen the comment about YA authors on a couple of blogs now and wholeheartedly agree. I am Australian and I don't think YA is as popular, or as promoted here as it could be. I find all the YA I like to read mostly through US bloggers and goodreads recommendations.

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  13. I've heard of Choker, but don't remember if I've added it to the list yet. I must go check it out!

    I've got Inside Out on my shelf, but haven't read that either. I really, really want to, but so many books. All my ARCs and book club books have gotten in the way, but I'm reading that one as soon as possible. I've heard really great things about it so I'm surprised that the sales have been low for it. Sometimes you just can't pick what will do well hey?

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  14. Good list. I will also repent of not reading Darren Shan. I love Maria Synder, especially Poison Study. I'm still trying to figure out if I like dystopian books though, so I hadn't tried Inside Out. I'll also have to try Choker now, it was on my to-read list.

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