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2007-10-15
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kateelliot has been posting advice for first time novelists on her journal. Now she has collected the whole thing into one long post at DeepGenre. It says sff novelists but I didn't see anything specific to the field mentioned.
or
So that's who I was
So that's who I was
Last night I heard Simon and Garfunkel's version of 'Scarborough Fair' thanks to Last.fm's recommended tunes. They do a superior job of interweaving voices compared to the Masters of Chant version so I like it better.
Also have decided I like 'The Special Two' by Missy Higgins because the song is at heart a lie. As soon as I heard the line "When you're young you have this image of your life" in that sad voice I just knew nothing she sang was going to come true, but for hope it needs to be believed anyway.
The things people do
2007-10-15 17:35I believe the word sordid applies.
The story, near as I can make it out: Woman writes novel, attempts to get it published and along the way picks up notorious scam agent Christopher Hill. He does his thing, stringing her along with lies promising contracts. Meanwhile she is warned by a person who used to deal with him that he is no good. Hill persuades her otherwise, eventually tells her that her book has been rejected.
New deal: Hill will ghost-write for her a new novel to sell. In return she pays him $400 a month. This continues for two years until he claims to grow sick of her whining and gives her what he has produced, telling her she has all rights to it.
Woman picks up new agent, who she pays to find a publisher for this new book (agents pay writers, minus their cut, NOT the other way round). New agent secures her a deal with a vanity publisher - they will publish anyone who pays them to do so, so she pays again.
Finally, promotion. In the course of securing interviews to talk up this book it is discovered that, apart from the bits Hill wrote being reportedly atrocious, the first chapter is plagiarised from David Gemmell's novel Dark Prince.
More: Person who has paid someone to write a novel for her, then paid twice over to have it published claims on her website "I write because I feel each person has something unique to share with the world and writing is my gift to share".
Writer and agent, or people claiming to be same, then show up on the thread linked above to make legal threats and threats of magical retribution in retaliation for what they claim to be defamation. Christopher Hill is nowhere to be found and may be a nefarious figure in all this or may be a convenient scapegoat.
Edit: It gets worse. Seems the vanity publisher in question has only published one book and used lulu.com to do it. May as well go direct to lulu and cut out the agents and overcharging (if they want to make a profit) vanity publishers. Oh, and write your own novel.
The story, near as I can make it out: Woman writes novel, attempts to get it published and along the way picks up notorious scam agent Christopher Hill. He does his thing, stringing her along with lies promising contracts. Meanwhile she is warned by a person who used to deal with him that he is no good. Hill persuades her otherwise, eventually tells her that her book has been rejected.
New deal: Hill will ghost-write for her a new novel to sell. In return she pays him $400 a month. This continues for two years until he claims to grow sick of her whining and gives her what he has produced, telling her she has all rights to it.
Woman picks up new agent, who she pays to find a publisher for this new book (agents pay writers, minus their cut, NOT the other way round). New agent secures her a deal with a vanity publisher - they will publish anyone who pays them to do so, so she pays again.
Finally, promotion. In the course of securing interviews to talk up this book it is discovered that, apart from the bits Hill wrote being reportedly atrocious, the first chapter is plagiarised from David Gemmell's novel Dark Prince.
More: Person who has paid someone to write a novel for her, then paid twice over to have it published claims on her website "I write because I feel each person has something unique to share with the world and writing is my gift to share".
Writer and agent, or people claiming to be same, then show up on the thread linked above to make legal threats and threats of magical retribution in retaliation for what they claim to be defamation. Christopher Hill is nowhere to be found and may be a nefarious figure in all this or may be a convenient scapegoat.
Edit: It gets worse. Seems the vanity publisher in question has only published one book and used lulu.com to do it. May as well go direct to lulu and cut out the agents and overcharging (if they want to make a profit) vanity publishers. Oh, and write your own novel.
Mike Brotherton|Science Fiction & Fantasy Novelists makes his complaint about the lack of scientific literacy that allows people to ignore errors with the refrain 'only a movie'. I happen to agree, except that I do not think high culture gets off much better. I think people are more likely to profess admiration for less scientific parts of our culture because they think it is easier, all opinion and you 'can't be wrong'. I know that is how we often joked about English class in high school.
But as I said, apart from the nitpick that high culture does not get significantly higher respect, but only lip service, I agree completely.
Oh, I keep thinking I should put the phrase high culture in scare quotes but I am not up to tackling that tonight.
But as I said, apart from the nitpick that high culture does not get significantly higher respect, but only lip service, I agree completely.
Oh, I keep thinking I should put the phrase high culture in scare quotes but I am not up to tackling that tonight.
