MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Author Throws Tantrum, Curses out Reviewer

Worldwalker · 03-30-2011, 03:53 PM

From the excerpts I've seen, not a lot of people are going to finish the book, even if they buy it to see what all the fuss is about. Very few authors get by on the sales of just one book. That's why series are so popular: a built-in audience for the next book. While some might start the book out of morbid curiosity, finishing the book is a prerequisite for wanting the next book from the same author, and wanting another book is necessary for further sales. People are going to remember her name, certainly, but not in the way she wants them to.

Also, if she ever wanted to leave self-publishing, she's shot her chance. Imagine you're an agent. There are more people hammering on your door (or your email) for you to represent them than you have time for. All other things (and manuscripts) being equal, do you pick the nice, polite, friendly person? Or do you pick the one who's already proven that she goes ballistic at bad reviews, can't recognize her own mistakes, and swears at random blog posters? Why risk an ulcer when there's someone hawking a manuscript that's just as good who has no track record of misbehavior? Agents remember these things. Agents talk to each other. So do publishers. There are good, recognized, profitable authors who struggle with publication because they've poisoned their own well in one way or another -- and she's not even that good.

The first step to getting better than you are at anything, not just writing, is to recognize that you're not already the best. You can't do anything without recognizing that you need to do it. But "...what I read above has no flaws" and "My writing is fine" (especially when referring to examples that would draw scoffs, or maybe baffled looks, in MobileRead posts) amounts to failing before you begin. And it's going to be that, not her fifteen minutes of Internet fame, that people remember.

For those who haven't read anything she's written, I refer you to her self-written Amazon blurb. No matter how one might argue about whether "your visit the ports" is correct English or not, the aquatic mammals are not dolpins, and any spelling checker would have pointed that out to her. But even in the writing that will provide her first impression on people who don't know here, she's too arrogant and sure of herself to even use a spelling checker, let alone a proofreader.

It is, I suppose, Art. But there's a reason there's a Museum of Bad Art, and why we think the Mona Lisa is a work for the ages and Thomas Kincade collector's plates are a work for the Franklin Mint.

03-30-2011, 03:53 PM	#53
Worldwalker Curmudgeon Posts: 3,085 Karma: 722357 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: PRS-505	From the excerpts I've seen, not a lot of people are going to finish the book, even if they buy it to see what all the fuss is about. Very few authors get by on the sales of just one book. That's why series are so popular: a built-in audience for the next book. While some might start the book out of morbid curiosity, finishing the book is a prerequisite for wanting the next book from the same author, and wanting another book is necessary for further sales. People are going to remember her name, certainly, but not in the way she wants them to. Also, if she ever wanted to leave self-publishing, she's shot her chance. Imagine you're an agent. There are more people hammering on your door (or your email) for you to represent them than you have time for. All other things (and manuscripts) being equal, do you pick the nice, polite, friendly person? Or do you pick the one who's already proven that she goes ballistic at bad reviews, can't recognize her own mistakes, and swears at random blog posters? Why risk an ulcer when there's someone hawking a manuscript that's just as good who has no track record of misbehavior? Agents remember these things. Agents talk to each other. So do publishers. There are good, recognized, profitable authors who struggle with publication because they've poisoned their own well in one way or another -- and she's not even that good. The first step to getting better than you are at anything, not just writing, is to recognize that you're not already the best. You can't do anything without recognizing that you need to do it. But "...what I read above has no flaws" and "My writing is fine" (especially when referring to examples that would draw scoffs, or maybe baffled looks, in MobileRead posts) amounts to failing before you begin. And it's going to be that, not her fifteen minutes of Internet fame, that people remember. For those who haven't read anything she's written, I refer you to her self-written Amazon blurb. No matter how one might argue about whether "your visit the ports" is correct English or not, the aquatic mammals are not dolpins, and any spelling checker would have pointed that out to her. But even in the writing that will provide her first impression on people who don't know here, she's too arrogant and sure of herself to even use a spelling checker, let alone a proofreader. It is, I suppose, Art. But there's a reason there's a Museum of Bad Art, and why we think the Mona Lisa is a work for the ages and Thomas Kincade collector's plates are a work for the Franklin Mint.