Open Letter from Author to Simon-Schuster

[cHex]

Yeah, $65K would help quell a lot of potential irritation on my part.

[afa]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I[*]S&S didn't agree to his idea of a money-back guarantee.

This is the point where I started wondering if this guy is a hack. The vast majority of "money-back guarantees" are a scam.

And a guarantee for a book? How the hell is that even supposed to work? What a dumb idea. Will the publishers just return money to any and all customers who claim the book didn't help them? That would ruin their business. Or will they require some sort of 'evidence' from the customer that the book truly did not help them? Because how is anyone supposed to accomplish that?

This guy sounds like one of those typical 'marketing consultants' who love to talk big and talk a mile a minute (as his letter demonstrates) but when you really dig down to the core, you realize they aren't really saying anything at all. It's all just a string of words stuck together.

[Scott Nicholson]

While he makes a few valid points, those are pretty much common knowledge in the industry and among writers. We all know "that's how things are done," even if they don't get done very well.

But this guy? I wouldn't spend three minutes in his company, much less have a partnership. And I wouldn't assume he is successful just because he rants about his own brilliance or how much money he makes. If that is his writing ability, he'll need at least $65,000 in overhead just to edit his book.

[cHex]

Originally Posted by afa

And a guarantee for a book? How the hell is that even supposed to work? What a dumb idea.

As I was read it, he would have preferred a "That's a dumb idea and we're not even going to discuss it" when he first broached the idea, rather than spending several hours in discussion first, as though merely humoring him.

If "everyone knows this is how publishers work," then there's no need for them to pretend to be interested in suggestions for cover design, money-back guarantees, contractual schedules, firm deadlines, etc.

I think many of us can relate to feeling duped when we actually took a contract, employee manual, bylaws, code of conduct, etc. seriously, only to find it made people laugh at us behind our backs. So, we abandon the original Serious Business attitude and play loosey-goosey, only to find sometimes people DO get sued, fired, whatever for not playing by the rules.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by cHex

They signed a contract (3 months after it was agreed to in principle) that laid out a specific timetable for paying portions of the advance, then paid the "immediately on signing of this contract" portion six weeks later.

Six weeks later, in my book, is darn well close to immediately. Did he think he'd get his money the second he signed the deal? Six months, that would be an issue; six weeks, not so much.

It's not just that they didn't use his ideas, but that they entertained them in the first place (taking hours of his time and implying some level of openness), then it turns out the cover designer never even knew he had any ideas and just designed something completely unrelated.

And if S&S had dismissed his ideas out of hand, he'd be complaining that they didn't even consider them, that they were closed-minded. But they paid him the courtesy of listening to his ideas, considering them, and then rejecting them. That sounds perfectly reasonable and tactful to me. That the ideas were not passed along to the actual cover designer shows only that the publisher didn't like the ideas and asked for something else. So what?

You miss the entire point here. If those people were not going to be immediately available, the author just wanted not to be required to submit something to them until they were available to receive what he was being required to submit. I know I feel disrespected when I am given a deadline, and meet that deadline, only to discover that the next step in the process has to wait while the people who set the deadline finish their vacation.

Stuff happens. Again, he's not the only author they're dealing with. Another
author misses a deadline or otherwise screws up, and everyone scrambles to put out the fire. Or something happens in house, the computers go down or somebody has a personal crisis to deal with, or whatever. I have deadlines when I work, and, yes, sometimes I knock myself out to meet one, and find out that the next person isn't available, and I could've had an extra few days. So what? I did my part, on time.

The author's point is well made; that the publishing industry has its head buried in the sand and that's going to come up and bite them if they don't shape up: "I think you really ought to speed up. It’s not so hard. Modern businesses run fast, there’s people who know how to make that happen. Three months from agreement in principle to contract, followed by a six week breaching-of-contract delay? Not okay. Amazon’s publishing wing doesn’t make mistakes like that."

Amazon's publishing wing? Just when did Amazon become a major publisher, from acquisitions to editorial oversight to production?

I'm not saying that publishers don't need to change. But this guy's specific complaints are all about how S&S didn't treat him as the center of the universe.

[speakingtohe]

I think it is more a forum for bragging on and on about his accomplishments. Always the sign of an insecure person.

I need to feed the mania to keep it going. If I can chain manic successes together, it grows and I can go through multiple year-long mania runs where I travel through 60+ countries, explore the world, do massive deals, get invited to stay in mansions and villas and go to top nightclubs and parties and whatever.

And a probable manic depressive who figures the world owes it to him to keep him stable.

Not necessarily his fault for that, but ratting on/complaining about people (agent,editor)while maintaining that you have the highest respect for them is pretty disgusting behavior even for the clinically disturbed.

Helen

[TGS]

Frankly, if I was hiring people to do almost anything - including writing - I would rather hire the writer of the piece than anyone else who has so whingingly contributed to this thread.

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by TGS

Frankly, if I was hiring people to do almost anything - including writing - I would rather hire the writer of the piece than anyone else who has so whingingly contributed to this thread.

Only if he took his meds...

[Skip_intro]

The same as some others, I couldn't get past this:

On 23rd December 2010, your publishing house agreed to sign me with a $65,000 advance.

Perhaps I need to package some rants up and see if I can get a similar deal!

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by TGS

Frankly, if I was hiring people to do almost anything - including writing - I would rather hire the writer of the piece than anyone else who has so whingingly contributed to this thread.

Have you read what he wrote?

I called out one guy who has always been difficult that I worked for. Whenever I had a great idea for him that would make his business run better, he’d drag ass on implementing it, make me explain myself 10,000 times, I’d have to press him and he’d complain about the littlest expense or commitment.

And this, despite the fact that I’ve made him tens of thousands of dollars!

So I told yesterday, “Hey! You don’t appreciate me enough! Every time I have a good idea for you, you get pessimistic and stupid and whine. STOP IT AND BE MORE GRATEFUL THAT I’M MAKING YOU MONEY.”

He starts to say, “Well, I’ve got to be carefu–”

And I say, “No you don’t! How much money have I made you?”

And he says, “A lot.”

I say, “Yeah. At least 20 grand you wouldn’t have. So STOP BEING A BITCH WHEN I WANT TO MAKE YOU MONEY. AND BE MORE GRATEFUL.”

I wouldn't want to be his boss when whatever medication he's on runs out and he turns from verbally abusive to physically abusive.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

Have you read what he wrote?

I wouldn't want to be his boss when whatever medication he's on runs out and he turns from verbally abusive to physically abusive.

You know, I never looked at that as what he said to the person verbatim. I took that as a combination of what he said and what he wanted to say.

[J. Strnad]

This article was like being trapped in an elevator with a TV pitchman. He mentions his mental problems that allow him, during manic episodes, to get an enormous amount done, but barely touches on the downside, the crashing.

Anyway, print publishers are slow, the contracts are one-sided, and they do indeed need to modernize or fail. So, at its heart, his letter is accurate.

But jeez...he is probably the last person I'd hire for anything or enter into a business deal with.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

You know, I never looked at that as what he said to the person verbatim. I took that as a combination of what he said and what he wanted to say.

It matches the tone of the letter. Why would you assume that this is the first time that he talked to an employer this way?

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

It matches the tone of the letter. Why would you assume that this is the first time that he talked to an employer this way?

Because I work in an industry where I deal with difficult clients all day long. One of our clients goes as far as to call people at home during dinner. And even with all that we would never speak to him in that manner. Even when disagreeing or speaking to someone in a short or aggressive manner the cursing and disrespect is unthinkable. It's just not done or you find yourself short one client. That doesn't mean we don't talk among ourselves about what we would like to say.

We make our clients quite large sums of money - larger amounts than the author was posting about and on a very regular basis. Even with that, we could not disrespect our clients. They can always take their money elsewhere.

I highly doubt that he was actually speaking to a client that way - and if he did the part of the story he left out was the part where he lost that person as a client.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

Because I work in an industry where I deal with difficult clients all day long. One of our clients goes as far as to call people at home during dinner. And even with all that we would never speak to him in that manner. Even when disagreeing or speaking to someone in a short or aggressive manner the cursing and disrespect is unthinkable. It's just not done or you find yourself short one client. That doesn't mean we don't talk among ourselves about what we would like to say.

We make our clients quite large sums of money - larger amounts than the author was posting about and on a very regular basis. Even with that, we could not disrespect our clients. They can always take their money elsewhere.

I highly doubt that he was actually speaking to a client that way - and if he did the part of the story he left out was the part where he lost that person as a client.

But would you or your colleagues post a very public rant the way he did? The fact that he published that diatribe online suggests that he lacks a filter in face-to-face business dealings as well.

His letter read like the sort of thing you're supposed to write to get rid of anger, and then tear up. But instead he put it on view for the whole world. This is not a rational person.