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chrystallineYou may or may not have noticed my penchant for writing and writing-related sites, but if you take the time to look at my userinfo, you'll see several RSS feeds relating to writing and publishing, in its various forms. What is noteworthy today is the string of events stemming from my interaction, however slight, at FantasyPOD.
Now, I commented there because I thought I might be able to help a little. In my haste, I failed to check the blogger's profile page, but I figured there would be no harm in leaving my comment posted. Perhaps that was a faulty assumption.
On February 2, I received an email out of the blue. I almost bounced it back, since the subject line looked like spam, but the first line after the greeting told me he'd gotten my email from FantasyPOD, so I decided to read the body of the message. It wasn't the best email I'd ever read, but it got the point across: he wanted me to see his self-published POD book.
I was torn. I thought perhaps he had mistaken me for the FantasyPOD blogger, and I wasn't sure anymore whether I really wanted to try to become another POD blogger. I considered ignoring it altogether, but I am by nature curious, and it was only one book.
Because I jumped right to the bottom of the message after getting the gist of what he wanted, I only saw the Lulu, Amazon, and B&N links, completely missing the link to the entire PDF and the should-have-been-a-red-flag complaint that others had dubbed it eye-bleedingly bad. As I was composing my reply, I found the PDF and struggled through a bit more of it. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I concluded that English must not be his native tongue and gently recommended a proofreader/editor:
The response was not at all what I expected. He wrote back to tell me that he knew I wasn't the FantasyPOD blogger, didn't know I had a blog, and that English is not his second language. He rambled a bit in defense of his text, linked his FAQ, and suggested that I blog about it all. I did notice that his email was as strangely worded as his PDF, but I was too incredulous at the idea that he wanted me to publicize my opinion of his writing:
I provided links to F_W,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
stop_the_badfic, and the Wikipedia definition of MSTing so that he could get an idea of the kind of people who are on my friendslist and the kind of reactions he could expect from this.
He ignored all of that. His reply simply thanked me for my "time and energy," said that publicity wasn't his main goal, claimed the scattered punctuation in the "code poem" was there to prevent skimming, and told me about another blogger who loved his book. He pasted the glowing review into the email, and asked permission to exchange email addresses between this other blogger and me so that we could "sort it out."
I was a bit irritated:
He sent a link to the other blog, indicated that the failure of communication with regard to reading his book was mine, and asked me not to "get shirty with [him] if [he] point[ed] these oversights out." He went on to create a strawman, as if the opposite of 'you need a good editor or co-author' is 'this is my new sacred text,' declared his love for what he called "dense, multiversed threads which can carry a number of threads at the same time," and ranted about how the current standards for good writing are too spare and rigid and artless, turning the world of writing into a desolate wasteland, void of creativity.
Sound familiar, ye who dare tread the boards of FFN?
He also said "I think it'll be okay," but as the sentence stood alone without context, I had no idea whether he meant that he was permitting me to use his emails or whether he meant this whole conversation was being dropped. Personally, I felt the latter was just as well, so after checking the other blog to be sure my words weren't being used without my permission, I decided to drop it. I didn't respond, and I didn't blog about it.
Guess what I found in my inbox when I came home from work tonight? (last night, technically, as it's past midnight;)
It was his latest press release, sent to everyone on his "friends email list," announcing today as the release date for his book and recommending that everyone forward the message to any friends or family who have any interest in science fiction. Out of morbid curiosity, I scrolled down:
Headline; released today. Press release summary; title, format, pagecount, price, ISBN, author quote. Media & files; links to PDF, FAQ, Bio. Availability; Amazon, B&N, Powells, Lulu. Body; rant in favor of POD publishing and against traditional publishers, rant against ISBNs, recommendation of PDF as it "has less errors than the hardcopy" and a few paragraphs about the book's contents.
Oh, look! There's a header labeled Reactions. Look what's under that:
He goes on to quote the glowing review he cited in his exchanges with me. Now, I hadn't explicitly forbidden him to use my quote in email - just on the other blog - but I suppose I had thought he would understand the general intent.
I'm not interested in a blow-by-blow of everything that's wrong with his book, because there's just too much. Words have meaning for a reason; otherwise you're just spouting gibberish. Want words that have the right cadence and feel? Expand your vocabulary, or learn to invent fabulous new words that still convey meaning like Lewis Carroll and Dr. Seuss did. There's no sense in using words that already exist in a way that clashes with their actual meaning; it just makes you look uneducated. Random violations of grammatical standards look like mistakes, not art. If you do something on purpose, make it consistent, like E. E. Cummings. Scattering periods and poundsigns in the middle of your text is like putting stop signs and parking curbs in the middle of a road and expecting people to enjoy the drive. Following standards of spelling and grammar helps facilitate communication, not kill the art of it.
Above all, if you get enough comments on an issue that you have to create an FAQ to deal with it, perhaps you should consider that maybe it's not the reader - maybe it's you. (PDF Version)
There's no telling how many of his fans will show up here, now, so I decided to post ALL of my side. Bear in mind, though, that I do log IPs and I will take action against trolling.
Now, I commented there because I thought I might be able to help a little. In my haste, I failed to check the blogger's profile page, but I figured there would be no harm in leaving my comment posted. Perhaps that was a faulty assumption.
On February 2, I received an email out of the blue. I almost bounced it back, since the subject line looked like spam, but the first line after the greeting told me he'd gotten my email from FantasyPOD, so I decided to read the body of the message. It wasn't the best email I'd ever read, but it got the point across: he wanted me to see his self-published POD book.
I was torn. I thought perhaps he had mistaken me for the FantasyPOD blogger, and I wasn't sure anymore whether I really wanted to try to become another POD blogger. I considered ignoring it altogether, but I am by nature curious, and it was only one book.
Because I jumped right to the bottom of the message after getting the gist of what he wanted, I only saw the Lulu, Amazon, and B&N links, completely missing the link to the entire PDF and the should-have-been-a-red-flag complaint that others had dubbed it eye-bleedingly bad. As I was composing my reply, I found the PDF and struggled through a bit more of it. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I concluded that English must not be his native tongue and gently recommended a proofreader/editor:
Hi. I admit I was surprised to get your email, as I'm not the FantasyPOD blogger, but I took a look anyway. Judging from the sample pages on Lulu.com, I'd say that English is not your first language. The PDF review copy looks like some passages were simply run through a translator program, which has varying results. If you want a good laugh, have a computer translate any block of text from one language to another and then back again. I promise, what you get back will be a collection of strange phrases that almost make sense.
Are you publishing in English to reach a larger market, or is there some other reason you're not writing in your mother-tongue?
I'm not saying this to be cruel, but if you want to sell your stories, you would be better to hire a native English speaker (preferably one with good editing skills) to edit your stories for clarity and correct grammar. Alternately, you might consider a native English speaker as a co-author, to help clarify and polish your stories. I do not know if this will force a change in ISBN (I know those are not cheap) but it would be much better in the long run. As it stands, I can't tell what you were trying to say in these stories, which defeats the purpose of publishing them.
I do have a blog of my own, but I won't post any of this because I don't want to embarrass you.
The response was not at all what I expected. He wrote back to tell me that he knew I wasn't the FantasyPOD blogger, didn't know I had a blog, and that English is not his second language. He rambled a bit in defense of his text, linked his FAQ, and suggested that I blog about it all. I did notice that his email was as strangely worded as his PDF, but I was too incredulous at the idea that he wanted me to publicize my opinion of his writing:
You want me to blog about how your story construction led me to think English wasn't your first language and that you're aware of this problem and think it's just fine because it's "art"?
Is this a "there's no such thing as bad publicity" thing?
I was being nice and giving you the benefit of the doubt, because there are a lot of people posting on the web who didn't grow up with English. I'd hate to hurt their feelings by holding them to an unfair standard; thus, the gentle advice to get help. If English is your primary language, though, and you refuse to get editorial help, there is no excuse.
You have to understand the rules before you can break them intelligently. What I saw in your work was random uncapitalization, numerous sentence fragments, and an assortment of odd word choices that made your meaning extremely difficult to understand. The "code poem" with all the periods and other symbols sprinkled in the text was flatly unreadable. The story with Star had the most promise, but the repeated use of the word "snot" clashed with the more sophisticated terms, and it ultimately went nowhere. The purpose of writing - especially fiction - is communication. If the majority of people encountering your work cannot understand your point, you are failing to communicate. See more here: http://chrystalline.livejournal.com/45557.html
If you still want me to blog about it, sure. I will. Keep in mind, though, that my blog readers tend to agree with me on the subject of readability, and some of them hang out in places that specialize in pointing and laughing at people who think their work is somehow above standards and rules.
I provided links to F_W,
stop_the_badfic, and the Wikipedia definition of MSTing so that he could get an idea of the kind of people who are on my friendslist and the kind of reactions he could expect from this.He ignored all of that. His reply simply thanked me for my "time and energy," said that publicity wasn't his main goal, claimed the scattered punctuation in the "code poem" was there to prevent skimming, and told me about another blogger who loved his book. He pasted the glowing review into the email, and asked permission to exchange email addresses between this other blogger and me so that we could "sort it out."
I was a bit irritated:
I decided to sleep on this before answering, because I wasn't quite sure where I wanted to start.
This email address is public, so that's not really an issue. What I don't understand is what you expect when you say you want this other blogger and me to "sort it out." If you're hoping s/he will convince me that your work is perfect as it is, you are going to be disappointed. If you're looking for a public blog fight, I don't think that's a good idea, but I will stand up for myself, especially on my own blog. I don't do trolling, and I won't allow it in my blog. While I'm not ashamed of what I wrote, I don't want it showing up on some blog I've never seen and can't find, either.
I also don't want to edit your book for you for free, as the cynical part of my mind insists must be the goal behind your stubborn defense of your current version. If I'd done as FantasyPOD has, and requested manuscripts to review, I probably never would have responded. Perhaps that's the tack I should take in the future, if other writers contact me like this. I don't really appreciate being told my suggestions are invalid, because other people told you that your work was wonderful. Perhaps you've heard of an old story called The Emperor's New Clothes.
I have been going easy on you, because people generally respond better to kind suggestions than harsh criticism. You don't seem to be listening, and my patience is not unlimited. If you take this to the blogosphere, I will take the gloves off. It's up to you. If you want me to discuss this further, you'll give me permission to use the entire email conversation on my blog, with the exception of the other blogger's review, which I won't use without his/her permission. Be aware, though, that I will most likely go into more detail about the things I dislike about your book, and I won't be as gentle as I've been thus far.
He sent a link to the other blog, indicated that the failure of communication with regard to reading his book was mine, and asked me not to "get shirty with [him] if [he] point[ed] these oversights out." He went on to create a strawman, as if the opposite of 'you need a good editor or co-author' is 'this is my new sacred text,' declared his love for what he called "dense, multiversed threads which can carry a number of threads at the same time," and ranted about how the current standards for good writing are too spare and rigid and artless, turning the world of writing into a desolate wasteland, void of creativity.
Sound familiar, ye who dare tread the boards of FFN?
He also said "I think it'll be okay," but as the sentence stood alone without context, I had no idea whether he meant that he was permitting me to use his emails or whether he meant this whole conversation was being dropped. Personally, I felt the latter was just as well, so after checking the other blog to be sure my words weren't being used without my permission, I decided to drop it. I didn't respond, and I didn't blog about it.
Guess what I found in my inbox when I came home from work tonight? (last night, technically, as it's past midnight;)
It was his latest press release, sent to everyone on his "friends email list," announcing today as the release date for his book and recommending that everyone forward the message to any friends or family who have any interest in science fiction. Out of morbid curiosity, I scrolled down:
Headline; released today. Press release summary; title, format, pagecount, price, ISBN, author quote. Media & files; links to PDF, FAQ, Bio. Availability; Amazon, B&N, Powells, Lulu. Body; rant in favor of POD publishing and against traditional publishers, rant against ISBNs, recommendation of PDF as it "has less errors than the hardcopy" and a few paragraphs about the book's contents.
Oh, look! There's a header labeled Reactions. Look what's under that:
from emails from readers of the PDF:-
"You have to understand the rules before you can break them
intelligently. What I saw in your work was random uncapitalization,
numerous sentence fragments, and an assortment of odd word choices
that made your meaning extremely difficult to understand. The "code
poem" with all the periods and other symbols sprinkled in the text
was flatly unreadable. The story with Star had the most promise, but
the repeated use of the word "snot" clashed with the more
sophisticated terms, and it ultimately went nowhere. The purpose of
writing - especially fiction - is communication."
Chrystalline Lauryl
www.Chrystalline.com
www.CDLauryl.com
but minutes late I read from another email ...
He goes on to quote the glowing review he cited in his exchanges with me. Now, I hadn't explicitly forbidden him to use my quote in email - just on the other blog - but I suppose I had thought he would understand the general intent.
I'm not interested in a blow-by-blow of everything that's wrong with his book, because there's just too much. Words have meaning for a reason; otherwise you're just spouting gibberish. Want words that have the right cadence and feel? Expand your vocabulary, or learn to invent fabulous new words that still convey meaning like Lewis Carroll and Dr. Seuss did. There's no sense in using words that already exist in a way that clashes with their actual meaning; it just makes you look uneducated. Random violations of grammatical standards look like mistakes, not art. If you do something on purpose, make it consistent, like E. E. Cummings. Scattering periods and poundsigns in the middle of your text is like putting stop signs and parking curbs in the middle of a road and expecting people to enjoy the drive. Following standards of spelling and grammar helps facilitate communication, not kill the art of it.
Above all, if you get enough comments on an issue that you have to create an FAQ to deal with it, perhaps you should consider that maybe it's not the reader - maybe it's you. (PDF Version)
There's no telling how many of his fans will show up here, now, so I decided to post ALL of my side. Bear in mind, though, that I do log IPs and I will take action against trolling.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-10 08:00 pm (UTC)Sorry you had to go through with all that. On the up side, he does go away once you make it clear that you won't help him.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-10 11:08 pm (UTC)I think there is an important distinction between a self-publisher that provides printing services and a self-publisher that promises the world if you send them $2000 to print your first short run. The first is providing a service, and the second is preying on the vanity of would-be authors.
Re: Poor you!
Date: 2007-03-10 11:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-10 11:10 pm (UTC)Maybe it really *is* the way to get buzz - for the reviewers;)