Thriller writer J.C. Hutchins has compiled a sampler PDF of gift ideas: That’s the idea behind this In the Nick of Time! holiday sampler PDF. Inside are excerpts from a dozen new novels and nonfiction books by these New York Times bestselling authors, successful entrepreneurs, and wickedly talented storytellers. Cool Read more…
More inappropriate author behavior from Candice Sams from the ever-growing comment thread on Amazon. Here an enterprising commenter found an interesting plea on her Facebook page. (And here’s an LJ post with the full text in case Amazon deep-sixes the original comment.) So here we have someone pulling a reverse Deborah MacGillivray, piling on a reviewer and then calling out the internet stormtroopers to game Amazon. What follows is her Facebook plea, with my commentary in red.
Hi all,
If you have the time or the inclination…might I prevail upon you for a small favor?
Would you please click on the link that I’ve inserted…go over to Amazon.com and just click YES under… the helpful reviews left by amazon reviewers, Harriet Klausner, C. Roberts and Tammie King (these are wonderful ladies who first gave me a chance when I started writing about thirteen years ago and I cannot thank them enough). [What is with this woman and ellipses? I thought I had an ellipsis problem, but three random ellipses in the same paragraph? And since when do reviewers “give you a chance?” That’s the sort of acknowledgment one usually gives the people who buy your book.]These lovely reviewers left very kind remarks but were undercut by two individuals who are known as hit-and-run reviewers (reviewers calling themselves BBB and LB Taylor). [So not only do negative reviews reflect badly on the book, they are undercutting poor Harriet Klausner. Coming soon, Amazon reviewer cage matches.] These two people repeatedly give very poor rankings on books; they’ve done this many, many times. [A guy in the comment thread actually did an analysis of LB Taylor and the rankings of those reviews fall on a pretty nice (and flat) bell curve.] (more…)
I’m late to this party, but when I found it via Making Light I couldn’t resist blogging about it:
Candace Sams, author of Electra Galaxy’s Mr. Interstellar Feller (mass-market paperback, Dorchester/Love Spell), has exploded all over a comment thread on Amazon. She’s posting as Niteflyr One, but the comment thread has her ID’d as the author as of comment #8.
Head’s up, newbie writers, it is a bad idea to comment on reviews of your work. It’s a really bad idea to start a flame war over your work. The following is on page #2 of 26(!) pages of comments:
NOTE TO READERS: authors leave themselves open for attack by having their work posted for sale…they hope that if there’s anything engaging about the books, someone might say so. They hope that if others don’t like the books, they will find a more tactful, professional and mature way to express themselves. They (the authors) hope that so-called reviewers (often shameful people who abuse the power Amazon provides) will not directly try to keep the author from making a living.
That is only a short little segment of a tirade where our author decides to rant and insult her audience. Always a smooth move. You know, if you are this insecure and thin skinned, maybe you should find another line of work. But, as I said, page #2. Hasn’t slowed down a bit by #4:
Because, that’s the way the business works in some New York venues. Only the highest paid authors won’t have their manuscripts ripped apart by some editors. As to my bad author behavior…I’m getting a lot of email telling me to stand my ground…from people who ARE buying my books.
Lady, an editor “ripping apart” your manuscript is a sign you have a sucktastic editor. And, if your fans told you to jump off a bridge. . . (more…)
I just recently finished the last rewrites on Wolf’s Cross, and it got me to thinking about Character in fiction. This is mostly because what my editor wanted, for the most part, happened to be character-related. Seems I understood everyone, and why they were doing things, but a few places Read more…
Michael Wolf decided to make a complete asshat of himself. I’ll let you ponder the following thesis: HarperCollins does not really believe Sarah Palin has written a valuable book—or even that it is really a book, not in the way that HarperCollins has historically understood books, or in the way Read more…
Of course the big news is I finished the editorial rewrite of Wolf’s Cross which means that it is officially finished. (Except for reviewing the copy-edits, any last-minute editorial decisions, and going over the page proofs. . . other than that, it’s done, really.) But, in addition to that, look Read more…
I was at the Buckeye Book Fair: Here I am signing books: Here’s fellow Ohio SF author Paul Melko: Here’s paranormal mystery author Casey Daniels: Here’s a sense of how busy the whole thing was:
I’ll be doing a signing on Saturday, November 14th, at 7pm at Mac’s Backs in Cleveland Hts. This will be a joint signing along with fellow author Casey Daniels. Here’s a link with more details. Stop out and say “hi”!
First off, got a brand new Wolfbreed review on sffworld.com. Second off, speaking of Wolfbreed, I’ve put up a sample chapter for your perusal. Third off, speaking of sample chapters, I’ve done likewise for Prophets. Fourth off, I’ve added pages for upcoming 2010 titles, Wolf’s Cross and Heretics.
I think the general audience for fiction, judging by current pop culture, is developing a more resilient suspension of disbelief. This occurred to me as I watched the last episode of Flashforward. Now several years ago, a series like that would place the universe changing event at some (probably indeterminate) Read more…