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Stupid Stuff I See On Facebook (Publishing Related)
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OK. Its been awhile since I did a “Writing Post”. Writing about writing, is actually totally blah and writing about the politics of writing and modern publishing ends up like smashing one’s head into an iron wall. The headache is just not worth it.
But I came across this link (shared by Goodereader) in my feed. It’s hard to tell if its supposed to be parody or not…
http://goodereader.com/blog/commentary/self-published-authors-are-destroying-literature/
WOW! The arrogance. I wonder if this person knows, they probably wouldn’t be writing for a website called Goodereader without self-published authors… Becuse the rise of Kindle (E.reading) went hand-in-hand with self-publishing.
It’s not the mainstream publishers who made the Kindle hot, it’s all those cheap reads put out by the illiterate rube authors this guy is bashing that lit the fuse. Had the mainline publishers got their way, they would have killed the Kindle. Ever look at the price difference between a NY published book and a ‘self-published’ book? The NY publishers want us addicted to paper. It’s why they jack up the price of an ebook compared to its hard copy… and mind you, the paper version is not cheap these days.
Look. I do this because I want to tell stories which mean something to ME. Sure I like selling books as well, but you might have noticed I really don’t go around shouting “buy my books”. I hardly, if ever go to writing groups/pages on Facebook though I’m part of many.
The only places I hawk myself are this blog, or Donna Yates Pinterest authors board. I also know some authors can be really gung-ho about pushing their wares – But that also applies to so-called “real” authors as well. I follow more than a few mainstream writers pages, they don’t mind plugging themselves.
I do wonder if this person who wrote this commentary for Goodereader has heard of Twilight, or its countless knockoffs? Junk like that fills bookstore shelves. I wouldn’t exactly call it ‘literature’ in the way this guy means the word. How is that not having an adverse effect on ‘literature’? If anything, mainstream junk like that does more to kill good writing than anything some mostly unknown writer publishing on Kindle or Smashwords does.
You know why? Recuse the publisher and agent handling the publishing of these many Twilight knockoffs are probably throwing some otherwise great books into the slush pile, for one reason only – The Twilight stuff is easier to sell. And the only people who can be blamed for that are those who consume it.
No one will ever turn back the clock – Mmm well maybe Iran, with an EMP blast. But short of that, places like Kindle and Smashwords are here to stay.
If you get annoyed at an author (and thats what they are) pushing themselves. Kindly ask them to maybe not be so aggressive. OR don’t follow them.
Related articles
- Too Famous to Write: Patti Davis on her Self-Publishing Journey (goodereader.com)
- A Limited Time FREE Download on Amazon Kindle Store (joylax.wordpress.com)
- The Loneliness of the Self-Published Author (davidbiddle.net)
- Before Fifty Shades of Grey Heats Up the Big Screen, Bard and Book Publishing Gives Readers a New Parody to Heat Up Summer Reading (prweb.com)
Lifeforce
When alien vampires terrorize London, it’s up to a determined police inspector and an astronaut to stop them. American and British space travelers discover humanoids while exploring near Halley’s Comet. The astronauts bring three of these aliens aboard their spaceship and head back to earth. However, their guests turn out to be evil vampires who kill all but one of the astronauts — Carlsen. After the ship arrives in London, the monsters — led by a beautiful female — escape and wreak havoc throughout the city, transforming humans into zombies. Meanwhile, the surviving astronaut and Caine, a determined police inspector, frantically try to track down the creatures, and destroy them. But the “Space Girl” has a strange hold over Carlsen, and he has trouble fighting the urge to join her.
This movie used to play on TV all the time and I’m pretty sure I rented it at last once on video tape (yes video tape). The things I recall most about the movie are Patrick Stewart as the scientist and the naked “space girl” vampire.
What I did not know until tonight, this B-movie is based on a book, called you guessed it: The Space Vampires by Colin Wilson.
LOL! I had a tone of trouble trying to find a picture for this post that didn’t show off Mathilda May‘s breasts, or other more revealing lady bits…
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FREE Poetry Book
Star-Fire Poetic Collection.
Dark fire cast,
Flame of burning blast-furnace of my hearts core.
Where there should be light shadows reign!
I feel rage, in that moment I am alive.
Flames fueled, not by hate – no love sets this pyre aflame.
What can I do to still it? Do I wish to extinguish this blaze?
No the conflagration drives me on!!!
Dark fire cast on my soul,
A shadow reigns over its light!
On Smashwords, download it here.
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- 2013 Read an Ebook Week! (sahmataineking.com)
- Smashwords Promotion (legendsofwindemere.com)
- The San Francisco Center for the Book Commemorates the Sixth Anniversary of the Bombing of Al-Mutanabbi Street with a Poetry Reading, Film Screening and Exhibition. (prweb.com)
- Bard and Book Author Anthony Horvath Releases “Mordecai’s Dilemma” (prweb.com)
- It’s Poetry Time! (awesomebooksforlife.wordpress.com)
- Retro Poetry (theflatgirl.wordpress.com)
I Breath Life Into Thinking-Machines…
My children are not gears and sprockets, though each is calibrated precisely. I build them in different shapes, and ethnic varieties – Not that they share these human tribes DNA. Morningstars as you know, are not human. Yes, every model has its own skill sets which favor the disposition of that model’s physical and intellectual matrix. Even among clusters, no three are alike. Individualism persists, particular strengths will be greater or lesser than within a cluster. I’ve been asked how I create such diversity in my children. Its easy when I have my wife to help. The committee wonders why I spend so much time constructing distinctions? I’ll tell you why. For me this is an artistic affirmation. I breath life into thinking-machines.
– Dr. Turhan Korelia, Addressing GenKon INC. Board Of Directors
Epigraph from my new writing project, a spotlight story which follows “Among Bright Stars…“. It takes place a few months after book 2 and is meant to be another soft entry point for readers who might not have read books one or two. That is, you won’t need to know anything about either book to enjoy “November and Zeus“.
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The Crisis of Empire Series – David Drake
The War Machine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Crisis of Empire Series:
David Drake‘s The Crisis of Empire Series is pretty awesome!
An Honorable Defense. With Thomas T. Thomas, 1988, Baen.
Cluster Command. With W. C. Dietz. 1989, Baen.
The War Machine. With Roger MacBride Allen. 1989, Baen.
Crown of Empire. With Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. 1994, Baen. 
These four books overlap and occur somewhat, but not totally concurrently. It actually wasn’t until the third book I realized they were concurrent with one another.
Now one of the things which might annoy people is that there is not one single hero to follow throughout the four books, rather each book has its own star.
Oh and they’re kind of formulaic, though that sort of is part of the charm.
The formula is that each novels hero is plucked out of his comfort zone, more often than not the would be hero is down on his luck or a virtual nobody the grander scheme of “The Pact” and its bureaucracy. In fact, the first book centers on a minor commutations bureaucrat, who sort of made me think of a young John Rhys-Davis…
Also part of the formula, the hero is hooked up with a woman, who he thinks he belongs with but along the way ends up finding the one true love his life.
These are good reads from a golden age of Sci-Fi, the 80s and 90s when the genre was in my opinion not so concerned with political correctness.
Don’t get me wrong, there is defiantly a theme of tolerance built into these books, but it’s not sickeningly preachy about it. The Pact is presented at teetering on the edge of its own implosion for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that aliens outnumber the human rulers of the Pact by a huge number, yet these aliens are considered second class citizens.
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Are Tolkien’s Fans As Crazed As Trekkies?
Tolkien’s monogram, and Tolkien Estate trademark (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I think they might be, and I think their chief is Christopher Tolkien himself…
My Father’s “Eviscerated” Work – Son Of Hobbit Scribe J.R.R. Tolkien Finally Speaks Out
That’s a really long article, yet its not so much Christopher Tolkien which interests me here, its more the comments that follow the Le Monde article, where, were you to go by just by them, you’d have to wonder how The Lord of The Rings movies ever made any money, given how many disgruntled JRR Tolkien fans there seem to be out there.
They do realize that no adaption would ever be perfect no matter who directed or wrote it. Right? That also goes for straight up screenplays, you never get on screen what was actually written down on paper. The screen and a book are two different mediums demanding different things when it comes to storytelling. And I have a hard time seeing Peter Jackson as a “hack” in this matter. Quite the contrary, its very clear when Peter Jackson speaks about JRR Tolkien, the Lord of The Rings, and The Hobbit that he holds them dear.
Are the movies perfect? No — But I have a blasphemous thing to say, the books, though beautifully written at times plod along and scatter without focus. The language is gorgeous, the plotting leaves something to be desired. The only one of the books I am able to reread is The Hobbit, though I’ve attempted to begin The Fellowship of The Ring again — Mind you, I can reread Frank Herbert’s DUNE at a pin drop and even James Clevell’s Shogun, and I know some people have trouble with those books as well.
Was there this sort of fury when the Rankin Bass and Saul Zaentz/Ralph Bakshi animated adaptions came out?
Now see, the crux here is, like every other reader of a book, just like all these Tokien-Ites (including JRR Tolkien‘s own son… ) Peter Jackson has his own internalized understanding of the material. To put it plainer — What he got out of the books is probably different from what you (the collective you) got out of them. That doesn’t make it wrong, it just means he sees the material in a different manner than y0u, yourself might understand it. Genre fans have a hard time understanding that idea.
Oddly when I watched the movies I felt many of the same things when I read the books. Jackson can’t be doing everything wrong…
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- “In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit…” (misternizz.wordpress.com)
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (reflectionandchoice.wordpress.com)
- The director and stars of “The Hobbit” share their thoughts on bravery, mercy, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Catholicism (patheos.com)
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