Thursday 10 January 2008

OMIGAAAD!!! JANE AUSTEN ‘TOO UGLY’

I and others have blathered on for ages about how ridiculous this obsession with image is in publishing today.

Now, it seems, they are even giving the greats make-overs!

Jane Austen has a book coming out… well a previously unpublished memoir, (not my cuppa) edited by a relative.

But the publishers deemed Austen’s traditional portrait painted by her sister, ‘too ugly’ for the cover, so they have given her a complete make-over, including… wait for it… make-up and hair extensions.

BEFORE:


and AFTER:



Full story HERE courtesy of the BBC


Question: If you are still alive, will a make-over make you a better writer?

6 comments:

Nik Perring said...

Goodness me. Almost lost for words.

And wouldn't the majority of people buying this be doing so because they're fans of her work?

Don't jusge a book by its cover but by how good the author's made to look. I fear I may have to give up now!

Vanessa Gebbie said...

Nik...

just remember the rouge goes a little higher, and you'll be fine...

Vx

Jen HE said...

I can't quite believe I read that - surely, please tell me, this is a wind-up?!

Vanessa Gebbie said...

Hello Jen!

Nope. Follow the link to the BBC news article,

I have booked in for radical surgery, firstly leg extensions.

Then a boob job (actually I'm selling half of mine to Jane Austen, she looks a little flat chested to me...)

All good fun... and of course, my writing will improve no end.

Vx

Elizabeth Baines said...

I think they missed a trick: they could have given her a lower neckline!

Vanessa Gebbie said...

Is it just me or does she look a bit like Kate Winslett?