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Major Publisher Does Something Shocking

Macmillan (the British one I guess) has a program for new writers where writers receive no advance (although they do get higher royalties) and might even have to pay for editing costs. Oh, and Macmillan gets all rights and can publish the next book under the same "deal." Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1473588,00.html

Yikes! When a POD publisher makes an offer like that, everybody tells the writer to run away and find a real publisher!

What's really pathetic is that one Macmillan's executive director responded to the criticism by saying "I find it strange that established authors don't want new books to be published I find that position very hard to defend."

Noooo! That's not what they're saying at al! They're trying to protect authors from this horrid horrid contract. His language was so close to the garbage put out by some of the vanity and POD presses that it is scary.

I hope they get excoriated for this and that no other publisher thinks this is a good idea. This sucks completely and utterly. It totally sucks for authors.

This is so bad for authors that I might start calling Macmillan MacPAmillan or PAmillan or something. Heck, this is so bad the record company executives are looking at it and saying "Wow, I can't believe they have the gall to do that!" ;-)

 
Big Burrito Leads to School Lockdown
It's not what it sounds like! ;-) In fact, it's sillier.

A concerned citizen spotted a boy walking into school carrying a large object wrapped in tinfoil, covered by a T-shirt. The school went into lockdown for four hours. Concerned parents flocked to the school. And... the object turned out to be a 30-inch burrito, which he had made to get extra credit. They only found out what the object was when they gathered students in the auditorium and told them what all the fuss was about. After the meeting, the kid went up to the principal (probably thinking "Oh, no, am I going to get in trouble for this?") and told her about the burrito.

I'm glad the adult was observant, but surely there is a better way to handle this sort of thing... You know, like asking, "Hey, kid! What IS that?!" Or getting an authority figure to ask him.

You can read more here.

 
Finished My Latest Writing-World Column!

Last night, I finished my latest segment for Writing-World and sent it off. This one is called What's My Line? -- Character Professions in the Romance. It should be up on the site soon. (Moira Allen is quick!)

 
Upsetting to Sensitive Children?

On a thread a post in her newsgroup on sff.net, SF/fantasy author Jennifer Busick discussed finding a troubling excerpt in a book called "Modern Montessori at Home," in a part about introducing kids to the classics. The book mentioned books such as Heidi and Kidnapped and Sherlock Holmes, as well as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in Eighty Days. But then, the book said, "Some of these titles may not appeal to your child." And then, stranger yet, she added, "Moreover, some children are very sensitive and science fiction stories are upsetting to them. I am somewhat hesitant to let my third or fourth grade students read science fiction material; however, I realize that some may not share my views."

Now is that weird or what? I could understand an educator warning that violence was upsetting to sensitive children, or that children might be upset by reading, let's say, yet another book where the hero's dog dies at the end. Or for that matter, stories with weird creatures might be upsetting to children. But science fiction? There is nothing inherently "upsetting" about science fiction -- except maybe to sensitive educators. ;-)

There's a lot of SF out there that doesn't have violence, doesn't have weird creatures, and doesn't kill off the little boy's dog at the end. Would she still think that was upsetting to sensitive children? Probably. Because I'll bet this isn't about sensitive children, this is about either literary snobbery or about the fact that science fiction freaks her out.

I'd rather have sensitive children reading age-appropriate SF novels than having them read something like Ouida's "The Dog of Flanders," where SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER both the dog and the boy die at the end after enduring horrendous poverty and rejection and never learning that the artist thought the boy was a great painter. :-( Don't get me wrong, I loved "The Dog of Flanders," but I really thought the ending sucked eggs. Couldn't she have at least let the poor boy live after all he went through? There's a reason most of the movie versions let him live. They don't want to get all those angry letters. (Ouida's been dead for a long time, so she doesn't have to worry about it.)

Note: The newsgroup thread linked above might not work over time as URLs change quickly on Webnews. Look for the "Upsetting Things" thread. Some of the posts may have disappeared from the server already.

 
More Fun with Moonstone

Finally, I finished the chapter where Moonstone and company are on the barge, and they find themselves under attack by a yacht that sidled (do yachts sidle?) near enough for a mage to attack them. I might have to change the word "yacht." The word is older than you might think, but people will read the book and write me angry letters about how dare I allow a modern term into this story. ;-) I ended the chapter with Moonstone seeing the sole survivor of the yacht and realizing it was his brother. Of course, now I'm afraid that having his obnoxious brother turn out to be the traitor will not be subtle enough. Also, I end the chapter with Moonstone wondering what he will do about his brother. I might have him take care of him, however he does so.

The next chapter will be from Brodin's POV. I might use some king of transition -- or even a narrative summary -- to get through the part where he is waiting at Bendpoint Pier. Otherwise, I'll have to write about how they wait for Moonstone for days, and then I'll have to go to the next chapter and write about Moonstone's journey of several days to Bendpoint Pier. Sure, I can make it interesting, but does it help the story? Not necesarily. This might be one of those times where "Show, Don't Tell" isn't really the best rule to follow.

A New (Used) Palm

Because my Palm was giving me trouble, I took the plunge and bought another one on eBay. This time, I bought an M515 as it can use some of the same doohickeys as the M125. It's also old enough so that even Overstock.com no longer carries it. It's nice to have a color Palm, and the backlight is really quite bright. However, I have to sacrifice battery life for all that. I'm not sure how well it works with the keyboard yet. However, I noticed that its Graffiti area worked much better than that on the M125. At times, I had wondered if it was just me (bad handwriting) or if there was really something a little "off" with the M125's digitizer.

 
Ack! Amazon Has Changed Its Layout!

I looked up a couple of books, and the display was changed from the usual. The cover was on the right, and the "Add to Cart" stuff and related items were on the left. Other things probably moved around as well.

Ewwww. I'm so used to having it the other way. At first I was hoping it's just a glitch, but I learned other people were seeing it, too. So it looks as if it's here to stay. Ewww.

I did send a feedback comment from the form at the bottom of their page. Maybe if enough people complain... Otherwise, ewww..

"Danuta Kean on the real, shameful reasons we're so snooty about romantic fiction"

Here's another Guardian article, again discovered because of Book Trade News Digest.

I love this opening:
"When I announce the Romantic Novel of the Year today, bets will be on to see how long it takes for the winner to declare, "I am not a romantic novelist", while keeping a tight hold on the £10,000 cheque."

Also, one of the authors points out a theory many readers and writers (including some associated with All About Romance) have brought up before: that romantic fiction often comes under fire because of sexism. The fact that it's popular also riles some people up.

I don't know about blaming Barbara Cartland for the way people think about romantic fiction. People would still be prejudiced about it anyway. And of course, the article gets its digs into Mills and Boons with "Crime writing is judged by the best of the lot, romantic novelists smeared with the same cheap rouge as Mills & Boon." Hah, let's see one of these know-it-alls write one. Or for that matter, actually read one. ;-)

They do manage to mention Nora Roberts in a good way, though!

 
Cookie Monster to Learn about Healthier Eating Habits

Now the Health Police have truly gone too far!

http://tinyurl.com/67kak

or

http://www.thewbalchannel.com/irresistible/4359482/detail.html

The Cookie Monster is going to learn about healthy eating habits. Isn't the point about the character that he doesn't have healthy eating habits? Kids know that, and that's what makes him so endearing to them.

Next thing you know, the Count is going to be diagnosed as being obsessive-compulsive, and Oscar the Grouch is going to move out of his trashcan and into low-cost housing. :-\

 
A Bad Response to a Bad Review

James D. Macdonald says that one of an author's big mistakes is responding to a bad review. My guess is that this applies to others associated with the publisher as well.

If you read Neil Gaiman's blog, you've probably already seen this link. Oh, well. You can go make a sandwich instead of reading this post. ;-)

Here is a negative review plus responses to the review from a representative of the publisher. You'll have to scroll down past the review to read her reactions.

At one point, she tries to demand that the reviewer (Steph) take down the review because it is negative. All I can say is... Oh. My. God. Hasn't she ever read a magazine or newspaper with a book review/movie review/restaurant review section? Can you even imagine a major publisher reacting this way to a negative review? They know better. They know all that would do is put them in a truly bad light.

On top of that, she praises Harriet Klausner's reviews and calls the reviewer an anti-Christian liberal because she hates the book. And that's just at the beginning! She also calls into question her professionalism, makes assumptions her her age, and all in all, acts as if Steph has no right to an opinion. Later, after going on and on and on, she has the gall to gall Steph a "whiner." Helloooo? Oh, and it should be no surprise that she also brought up comparisons to Goebbels and Hitler. I evoke Godwin's Law! As far as all the rest goes, that's all simply nutz. Why assume someone is a liberal (or for that matter a conservative) when they dislike a book? I know plenty of Christians who have hated certain much vaunted inspirational books, and for that matter, I know atheists who love the "Left Behind" series and read it as an adventure.

Then again, Windstream Publishing Company is a very small publisher. That explains a lot of what they did, though it certainly doesn't excuse it. I only saw two of their books listed on Amazon. I guess they still have to "grow into" learning how things are done. But I must say that I wouldn't submit my book to a publisher who responded to negative reviews this way. I would suspect that they ... uhm... weren't entirely professional. Sure, they might learn better over time, but they are starting off on a bad foot. Heck, they may be starting off on a gangrened leg.

I like the reviewer's response at one point, where she comments, "I think you’ll find that, as an expression of Christian values of tolerance, peace, and forgiveness, Jesus really couldn’t have said it better himself."

 
Guiness Book of Records Legal Dispute

Here is another one from the Book Trade News digest. You can read the full story here.

She wrote a proposal for a "romantic novel" (hmm, I wonder if it was chick lit?) about a young woman working in the Guiness Book of Records officce (verifying claims). She had legal clearance to work on outside writing projects. However, they were upset at the way she portrayed them. They thought she was "belittling" what they did. Also, they were upset about her account of verifying the longest penis extension on record and said she should have picked something "more wholesome, like the 100 metre dash." If they want to look wholesome, why are they asking their employees to verify the longest penis extension?!

They also threatened to sue her literary agent! Now whatever you think of her legal case, that makes no sense. Anyway, now the publisher is no longer interested because of the litigation.