The Fangster Summer of Doom--now with more pancake! (Volume II)

How is it that authors who are able to SELF PUBLISH their books expect me to believe that they can't (a) use track changes; (b) sign up for Skype; (c) work our database; (d) figure out Yahoo groups; (e) or complete any task that requires a working knowledge of computers and the internet. By God they can show up HERE and dogpile on me, but they sure as hell can't figure out how to WORK online.

Damn frustrating.

I thought self publishing was still frowned upon by the publishing houses? Is that still an option these days? (Never self published, so not sure)

Just ignore them. They'll figure it out eventually.

Self-publishing, unfortunately, has created thousands of books that no one ever reads. Hundreds of thousands of them. Tens of thousands of self-pubbed authors of books that no one ever reads come to the conclusion that maybe self-publishing wasn't the right route for them. So, they query on those self-published books, and at Musa I'll occasionally take a chance on a few of them. Unfortunately, some of those self-published authors then take exception to an integral part of the publishing process--namely EDITING--and act like imbeciles because they think that the editor will eventually give up and just publish the book the way it was self-published. They think that the editorial staff is stupid enough to believe that despite the fact that they created, formatted, and uploaded a book through the self-publishing process (not easy), I'm going to believe that they are computer illiterate enough to not be able to 'understand' or 'work' the few little things they have to do at Musa.

Unfortunately for them, that's not the case. And when a writer tries that with one of my editors while I'm off work, I pull the editor from the book and inform the author that I will now take over the editing of their book--after I get back to work and whenever I can fit it into my schedule, which necessitates, naturally, the pulling of said book from the release schedule until all these matters can be addressed.

*shrug* Passive-aggressive assholishness with a member of my staff has very definite repercussions.

I guess I'd be curious to know what percentage of them are worth the hassle. It also makes me realize how much work I still have to do before approaching any publishing company.

I was checking out the Musa site again. I really like the cover art for the latest issue of Penumbra.

Of course, they can just point at this and complain about how mean teh editurzez really are and how much they hateses Preshus.

I wonder how people like that function in life.

Bubastes said:

I wonder how people like that function in life.

Click to expand...

We generally do okay until we come up against people who don't appreciate our genius.

And thanks for asking.

I'm currently working on the Great Promo Experiment that's either going to succeed brilliantly or fail just as brilliantly. I'm using a business card template in Apple's iWork Pages to put together a sample booklet of the first chapter of BINSIDLY and it's going well so far. Peter thinks I can reformat the text blocks to include a page number but I just tried that and moved the last page off the file.

Next comes printing, trimming, and stapling them. All. 150. of them.

Version 2.0 of the prototype and the scale I'm working with:



I got folding business cards of the front cover, listing my site and Musa's on the back, then formatted 16 pages of part of the first chapter and the bio from my website.

10 down...140 to go...

Go!! :Shakes pom poms:

http://pics.livejournal.com/benpanced/pic/000k507p

Hopefully it'll work.

Dangit, I can't view it at work. Grrr. Stupid online work restrictions!

I will take a look at it when I get home. (sowy)

Got back home today from operation #2 of 2012 and what was the first thing I did?

Finished up Penumbra and sent it to design.

And the second thing?

Sent off the What A Pretty Necklace revision with the new opening--an opening that literally came to me in pre-op--to my agent.

And the third thing?

Went to bed. Duh. Had to rest up for the Project Runway finale tonight. At any rate, I literally would have been happy regardless of who won. This is the only finale of PR where I loved all three designers.

So now, I'm just futzing around with some world building. With the latest surgery and this purgatorial brace thing I now have to wear, I'm supposed to lay down and stay down so I have to write longhand. Since that won't keep me on my 2k an hour pace, I think I'm going to play around with a Tudor-inspired world that's been niggling in my head.

*kicks empty likker bottles under couch*

*hollow sound of empty likker bottles ricocheting off dead DJ*

Celina. You're back. So soon.

**hic**

oh, hai!

Just promise us you won't try to start dusting again.

*gives you a stern look*

Yeah. I missed you guys too.

I think I need to try on some more Doom Bunny avatars. This one doesn't quite fit my mood.

We cleaned up! Mostly! If you count bricking up the bathroom and starting over again.

Brick? For a bathroom? Good grief, Benny, what kind of queer guy are you anyway? Everyone knows that travertine marble is the ONLY acceptable option for a bathroom.

Brick, indeed!

And they better not have been glass bricks or I shall be forced to taunt you a second time.

You haven't seen the new bathroom, then. It's where the kitchen used to be. Of course, we then had to move the kitchen to where the sewing room was. And the sewing room is now in the laundry room. But the old bathroom is behind that wall now.

Celina: Welcome back!

Benny: All that redecorating means I need a new map to find my way around here.

We want pics Ben. We need proof of this "sewing room" you speak of. I didn't know those even existed anymore.

So, I'm stuck on Chapter Nine of my WIP. Sigh.

I just mentioned to somebody I thought I'd try tinkling on the piano again and they spread newspaper underneath it. That's not what I meant, you horrible person.

And on the promo booklet project, 120 down, 30 to go.