posted by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jemck at 08:31am on 18/06/2008
jemck at 08:31am on 18/06/2008I've been contacted a second time by a seventeen year old whose first book is being published! Or rather, I've been spammed again. The circulation list for this email runs into probably hundreds of names. I'm not going to waste time counting. So I'm presumably dealing with someone who doesn't even know basic web etiquette/has never heard of 'undisclosed recipients'.
Well, actually, I'm not dealing with him. No, I'm not dismissing him because of his age. There are some very good/popular teenage writers. But I simply do not have the time to attempt to explain all the problems inherent in his approach. Or why anyone in the book trade will look as his 'press release' and bin it immediately. The breathless, repetitive and jammed-with-adjectives prose style aside, it's misspelled and poorly punctuated. Assuming this is a reflection of the book, it's a positive disincentive. As is the fact the one-word title includes two umlauts and a diphthong - but I concede that may just be me.
There's a shot of the artwork included. Amateurish is the kindest thing one can say about that. To be more specific, it doesn't stand any comparison with the A Level Art piece of my sister's that I have framed and hanging on the wall here.
Who's publishing this? Yes, it's one of those outfits that offer "authors' services" in a handy range of packages to suit all pockets, handily priced in all anglophone currencies - though you have to dig fairly deep to find out that you have to pay, after you've read all the fantastic blurb about how much money you can make as an independent author in the brave new world of internet publicity and print-on-demand.
Which this kid has presumably swallowed, hook, line and sinker. So me trying to tell him otherwise would presumably just be me being mean and spiteful, what with me being one of those authors who's weaseled a way into conventional publishing through contacts or whatever and pulled up the ladder behind her. Sorry, it may be cowardly of me but I don't feel inclined to get that kind of abuse - and more - again.
I've done a quick google on the so-called publisher and checked the usual sites for warnings about them and can't find any evidence they're actively scamming people. If I had, I would drop the lad a line.
So his email will go in the bin and over the next however-long, he will presumably learn the same painful and expensive lessons as 99.9% of all self-published writers.
SIGH
Well, actually, I'm not dealing with him. No, I'm not dismissing him because of his age. There are some very good/popular teenage writers. But I simply do not have the time to attempt to explain all the problems inherent in his approach. Or why anyone in the book trade will look as his 'press release' and bin it immediately. The breathless, repetitive and jammed-with-adjectives prose style aside, it's misspelled and poorly punctuated. Assuming this is a reflection of the book, it's a positive disincentive. As is the fact the one-word title includes two umlauts and a diphthong - but I concede that may just be me.
There's a shot of the artwork included. Amateurish is the kindest thing one can say about that. To be more specific, it doesn't stand any comparison with the A Level Art piece of my sister's that I have framed and hanging on the wall here.
Who's publishing this? Yes, it's one of those outfits that offer "authors' services" in a handy range of packages to suit all pockets, handily priced in all anglophone currencies - though you have to dig fairly deep to find out that you have to pay, after you've read all the fantastic blurb about how much money you can make as an independent author in the brave new world of internet publicity and print-on-demand.
Which this kid has presumably swallowed, hook, line and sinker. So me trying to tell him otherwise would presumably just be me being mean and spiteful, what with me being one of those authors who's weaseled a way into conventional publishing through contacts or whatever and pulled up the ladder behind her. Sorry, it may be cowardly of me but I don't feel inclined to get that kind of abuse - and more - again.
I've done a quick google on the so-called publisher and checked the usual sites for warnings about them and can't find any evidence they're actively scamming people. If I had, I would drop the lad a line.
So his email will go in the bin and over the next however-long, he will presumably learn the same painful and expensive lessons as 99.9% of all self-published writers.
SIGH
There are no comments on this entry. (Reply.)