Friday 29 October 2010

Conned!

Quite often when I wander into my local bookstore there will be a writer sitting signing books on a Saturday morning.

One time there was a man with a pile of thrillers and since I like thrillers I picked one up to take a look. Soon we were chatting.

“This novel, my first one,” he said, “Has just gone out in its fourth edition and I now earn my living entirely from my writing.”

I was impressed. It must be selling well. So I asked him about his route to publication. He didn’t have an Agent but said that he’d submitted directly to publishers and had two offers which he’d had to chose between.

I glanced at the publisher. I'd never heard of them, but from what he was saying I assumed they were one of the respectable indies.

He started talking about book deals, and how his publisher wanted to see how well his first book sold before offering him his second book deal. He also told me about how he went to major literary festivals such as Hay on Wye with his writing. He was very convincing.

He then asked me if I was a writer too.

“Yes, I said. I’m writing children’s books.”

“Oh. It’s virtually impossible to get published in the children’s book market,” he told me. “Most of them are ghost written or written to order. You’ll never break into it.”

I was a bit taken aback. It seemed an awfully negative thing to say to a fellow writer.

Maybe I should have put his book back down at this point. But it was a thriller. So I bought it.

When I got home I started to read it. It was awful - about six typos or grammatical errors in the first pages, the writing was laboured and packed with clichés, the dialogue clunky.

Disappointed I googled the publisher – it’s a vanity outfit.

I feel cheated!

18 comments:

  1. Too bad you couldn't Google it before you walked out of the store.

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  2. Oh dear, the poor man's living in cloud cuckoo land. How can he say he's making a living from his writing? He must be paying out more than he earns.

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  3. Indeed Sue, you have to feel sorry for the poor deluded man.

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  4. I agree with Alex! I wonder what he meant by making his living fully from his writing?

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  5. Hi Belle, I think perhaps he was feeding me a line :-(

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  6. Hello, I found you in the comments on Theresa's Happy Haunting post. That's too bad about the book/poor man. How embarrassing for him, especially if he doesn't see the embarrassment of it all. I suppose you could find the good in such a situation and strive to not cheat your readers in your own writing.

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  7. Oh my, no wonder you felt cheated! I'd have been mad too. Funny, usually meeting other authors is such a positive experience; it's a shame he was such a rude guy.
    And he doesn't even know what he's talking about! [g]

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  8. That's grim. I suppose, if it's any consolation, he's cheating himself more than he cheated you ...

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  9. Makes me wonder why the bookstore even let him have a signing? Didn't they bother to read it first? Shame them. Waste of their time and yours.

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  10. I had no idea that self-published egomaniacs were allowed to have their own book signings at bookstores. Yikes.

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  11. You should feel cheated. I wonder why the bookstore hosted him. Maybe they didn't read the book either.

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  12. Was it Publish America? They always seem to get the writers to believe they are real.

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  13. Aw!! I so feel for you! It's horrible when that happens.

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  14. There was another one in there this week - she might have been legit but I'm afraid I gave her a very wide berth. I wonder how many other sales she lost as a result of that man :-(

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  15. I can't believe he got a foot in the bookstore. Poor deluded soul.

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  16. Ugh- no wonder he was so negative! The guy obviously didn't have the gumption to break through the normal way and was just feeding you bull. I'd feel cheated too!

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  17. OH! That is quite a disturbing story! So sad.

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