Formulas

Ben Winters' piece in Slate about the process he went through to write Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is fairly entertaining (although his idea of serious research appears to be somewhat different than mine). But the thing that stands out for me most about it is how obvious the commercial formula is. Focus groups liked Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but wanted more of the reanimated dead and less of the manners, so the publishers upped the percentage of Austen's text that would be replaced with new writing from 15 percent to 40 percent. It's not that this is uncommon; the Kaavya Viswanathan affair made public the extent to which packagers like Alloy Entertainment pull together novels based on certain tested tropes which are published under author names as their own work. I don't know if I think there should be disclaimers or clearer explanations of authorship on books like these. But Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is proof that it isn't just teenaged girls and desparate housewives who like their books engineered to perfection.