Writers, Another Thing To Skip
Jan. 28th, 2011 07:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deirdreIf you are a writer I don't know, and you ask to be on programming, I will use the power of Google.
1) If you say your book is award-winning from an award I haven't heard of, I will assume it's self published. I do follow most of the major awards in the field. If you say your book was a winner from an award factory that has an entry fee, I will take my eyes out, give them a good roll, then pop them back in. Especially, as in this case, if you claim to be a winner but were only a finalist. That means that out of N suckers who paid in that category, you weren't the best sucker.
2) I will look your book up on Amazon. If there's a circle jerk of good reviews and the one two-star review has zero of N people who find it helpful, I'm going to assume you lobbied some of your friends. I have seen people I know do this and it's always painful to watch.
3) I will look your publisher up on Google. How many other authors do they publish? What are their submission policies? If there is no contact information for submissions and there's only one author, I'm going to come to the obvious conclusion: you're being coy about being self-published.
4) At this point, it's probably moot, but I will ask you point blank: "This appears to be a self-published book. Is it?" Then wait to see what happens.
This year, I'll let you know what the count is. So far, it stands at one.
Sleazing legitimacy doesn't impress me, though.
1) If you say your book is award-winning from an award I haven't heard of, I will assume it's self published. I do follow most of the major awards in the field. If you say your book was a winner from an award factory that has an entry fee, I will take my eyes out, give them a good roll, then pop them back in. Especially, as in this case, if you claim to be a winner but were only a finalist. That means that out of N suckers who paid in that category, you weren't the best sucker.
2) I will look your book up on Amazon. If there's a circle jerk of good reviews and the one two-star review has zero of N people who find it helpful, I'm going to assume you lobbied some of your friends. I have seen people I know do this and it's always painful to watch.
3) I will look your publisher up on Google. How many other authors do they publish? What are their submission policies? If there is no contact information for submissions and there's only one author, I'm going to come to the obvious conclusion: you're being coy about being self-published.
4) At this point, it's probably moot, but I will ask you point blank: "This appears to be a self-published book. Is it?" Then wait to see what happens.
This year, I'll let you know what the count is. So far, it stands at one.
Sleazing legitimacy doesn't impress me, though.