Stroppy authors...urgh...

[Luna]

Argh! We'd get local authors come into B&N and special order their books in quanity. They'd never pick them up? Why? B/c their books are NON-returnable to the publisher so the store would be stuck with them forever and have to display them to try to sell them.

Most of the books were self-published with the help of a B&N subsidiary website. Can't remember the name. But it got to be so bad that we had to post notes on all the computers and break room telling staff to NOT order any books published by this publisher without payment in full first.

Then the authors would call to ask how the sales on their books were going. I remember telling one very rude man that although I can't return the books he scammed us into ordering, I have them nicely boxed up under a pile junk in the backroom until I find a way I can.

Now they can go through nice channels to sell their books. They could have scheduled an author signing and a book discussion at the store for free. We would have done the advertising for it. So why be mean and lower what was my responsibility of the bottom line by deceit. People are mean.

[Witch of Endor]

I do see the value of 'vanity' publishers, to an extent. I've heard people in the business say that the big publishers are getting very cautious, only publishing things that they think are sure to be a hit -- which means that anything outside tried-and-true formula is unlikely to get a chance.

I think of vanity presses in the same way I think of publishing on the internet. Since there are few restrictions on what gets published, the entire slush pile is visible, and it outweighs the good stuff. But the good stuff is there too. 'Nobody else will publish it' isn't the only reason for using a vanity press, and perhaps 'nobody else will publish it' doesn't even always mean the book is bad.

[Mighty Girl]

I'm sorry, but I about laughed my ass off when I read this. I am acquainted with (not friends with) a guy who published his own book, and he said "Oh yeah, you don't need to get a publisher anymore, I just did it myself" and I was thinking at the time that his "book" was a sorry waste of dead trees, but not knowing anything about the publishing field, I wasn't sure. I looked up his literary masterpiece and his face is slapped right on the cover with this shit eating grin on it. I don't know of any local bookstores that buy those kind of books, but I know it's for sale online, and I think he may have even added some good reviews himself under different aliases.

[Gurndigarn]

I think of vanity presses in the same way I think of publishing on the internet. Since there are few restrictions on what gets published, the entire slush pile is visible, and it outweighs the good stuff. But the good stuff is there too. 'Nobody else will publish it' isn't the only reason for using a vanity press, and perhaps 'nobody else will publish it' doesn't even always mean the book is bad.

Yeah, but paying money to read vanity press? I mean, it's hard enough to find books I like as it is... there's little reason I would even try to sort through a slush pile unless I was paid for it.

Unless it's for the fun of making fun of the "Eye of Argon" quality manuscripts.

[Lulu]

It's not the act of self publishing that irritates us booksellers, I've no objection to the world and his wife publishing whatever they like, it's the fact that they ALWAYS cause us as booksellers, VAST quantities of hassle! You only have to look at Luna's story to see that, never mind the daily rubbish they throw at indys like me. It's just the inherent suckiness that the ones that sell to shops seem to take on I can't stand!

[Witch of Endor]

Gurndigarn: eh, I guess I just don't go buying random books off the shelf even in the absence of vanity published works. It makes no difference to me because there's already a lot of stuff out there that won't catch my interest if I just choose it without recommendation or review.

[LewisLegion]

I have to put in my two cents:

I'm a writer, and I'm yes...self-published. I must say, I would never ever treat any facility or employee thereof actually SELLING my book in such an atrocious fashion.

The reason I'm self-published is many: Firstly, some publishing houses don't even read some manuscripts sent in. I knew a fellow who worked at a publishing house that would randomly pick three or four manuscripts that landed on his desk in a day, and toss the rest. Automatically.

Secondly, some publishing houses like to gouge authors, not to mention sell copyrights right out from under the authors who produced the work. Did you know there are movies made from Stephen King's books that he didn't even know existed until he ran across them in a video store? And before you doubt that as hearsay, this was directly from Stephen King's mouth at a lecture I attended in September.

Thirdly, I'm not in it for the money. I'm not seeking to be rich and famous. I'm in it because I love to write and I want people to enjoy my stories. But I also want them to remain MY stories.

BTW, have you READ some of the crap that is published by regular publishing houses? Some of it is so pedantic and eye-wrenchingly bad I have to resist the urge to beat my head on the wall.

At any rate, to say that all self-published writers must be putting out crap because otherwise a 'real' publishing house would have snapped them up is a crock. Did you know that John Grisham was originally self-published? How about Beatrix Potter, Ernest Hemingway, and L. Ron Hubbard? All self-published. And did you know that JK Rowling was rejected by at least FOUR publishing houses before one picked up Harry Potter?

Self-published does not equate crap.
Firm published does not equate quality.

[bendertiger]

Reminds me of some famous rappers/musicians, no one would publish so they 'started' their own 'label/house'. All the more power to them, but as long as they don't actually have misnomers about their own talent it's always good. Like myself, I've written a few parodies and people actually LIKE them, so I know I can write, just don't have a chance in hell of them ever getting published, oh well.

[CrazedClerk]

I'm a writer as well and although I'm not published yet I certainly wouldn't be an ass to booksellers about my work.

[Witch of Endor]

Bendertiger: ha, yes. People have so much respect for 'indie' musicians, but if a writer tries the same thing, he's called a hack who can't get anyone else to read his drivel.

[Barefootgirl]

Here's one randomly chosen paragraph:

"This part of the book, whole chapter, is shown to me and happening near August 4, 2000. The next episode is someone to see a book, want to, and can't steal, the screen has a doctor's sound, This person must go out of Here, and a lot of violence."

Sounds like James Joyce to me. If it was touted to publishers as the lost sequel to Finnegan's Wake, it would be on the NY Times Best Seller List in three minutes flat.

The story about Watership Down being rejected 27 times by publishers is the thing that keeps so many of these wackos going, I swear it.

[Argabarga]

I refuse to self-publish. So arrogant and up themselves if they do. I know when I'm writing crap (mostly the stuff I was writing three years ago - such an ellipsis-whore!!) so that's why I'm entering the competition...

I self-publish all the time, I call it, posting to the internet I figure it can't be arrogant if you don't charge anyone to read it.

[SongsOfDragons]

I self-publish all the time, I call it, posting to the internet I figure it can't be arrogant if you don't charge anyone to read it.

That's true.

In fact, LewisLegion's post has me scared somewhat... I don't want that to happen to me!! I'm just hoping the house running the competition I entered (MAIA Press, if anyone wants to look it up on the sneakiness scale...) if a bit better than that!!

[Gurndigarn]

Sounds like James Joyce to me.

Ah. You've finally given me a way to explain my intense dislike of Joyce. Or, come to think of it, nearly every US author or artist between 1900 and 1950.

The story about Watership Down being rejected 27 times by publishers is the thing that keeps so many of these wackos going, I swear it.

Dr. Seuss had a similar rejection count, IIRC.

[Imogene]

(mostly the stuff I was writing three years ago - such an ellipsis-whore!!)

Hey! Ellipsis was NOT a whore! He was... he was... Alright, he hit on everything that moved... and some things that didn't... mostly as a jest, a lark, a way of tweaking his 'friends' off...

My letter was given the title Ellipsis Knight, defender of the parenthetical one time way back when I wrote in to RPGamer.com's QA column. I took the name Ellipsis for a character in RhyDin, the chat room world of AOL. And he was, in short, a way for me to blow off steam in ways I didn't, or wouldn't, in my everyday life. And then, I got bored of him...