You call that a rant?
Debbi wrote:
> Okay, if you're going to diss Quiet Storm (rightly), its authors
> (aka, innocent victims) and self-publishing in general, you should
> check your facts and understand that not all self-published authors
> think the way you say they do.
I never said they do. In fact, I intentionally made sure I left wiggle
room in all my statements, noting that there were of course exceptions.
Just in case you missed it, both Richard Helms and Dave Zeltserman
are notable exceptions; self-published writers who went in with their
eyes wide-open, and saw it as a part of a journey, not the destination.
Unfortunately, most self-published writers don't see it that way. And
it's made the POD vanity presses rich. And broken the hearts of a lot
of would-be writers along the way.
> Kevin Burton Smith wrote:
>
> > Quiet Storm Press was basically a short-lived, inadvertent POD
> > pyramid scheme that crashed and burned years ago and left a small
> > circle of would-be writers pissed off.
>
> Pyramid scheme? QSP was not Amway, okay? Just a badly run business.
Which is what I said. I called it an "inadvertent" pyramid scheme, and
made a point of saying I didn't think they were corrupt. But they were
evidently using profits from new authors to pay overdue royalties to
their older authors (and asking for loans from some of their authors
anxious for their books to be published, citing "cash flow problems"),
and then, finally, not paying anyone, or releasing their books. Call
that what you want.
> And "would-be" writers? All I can say is, thanks for those few kind
> words, Kevin. Now I have two strikes against me. Not only the stigma
> attached to being self-published, but the one that came with the
> terrible choice of submitting my work to QSP and the bad fortune of
> having it accepted.
Get over it. It isn't me that gave self-published authors a bad rep.
They've done that themselves.
But relax. Nobody gives a damn about Quiet Storm anymore. Hell, hardly
anybody cared much about them when they existed. And their book sales
proved that.
But there were people who were skeptical about them almost from the
beginning.
> No, (Quiet Storm) didn't pay advances, but you're wrong about the
> royalties. I had my contract reviewed by a lawyer who specializes in
> publishing (and who's also an agent, as it happens), who told me
> QSP's royalties were particularly good compared to other publishers.
Too bad they didn't pay them, from what I hear.
In fact, for someone who seems to be getting her undergarments so
misaligned about my post, you seem to agree with most of what I said
about the pitfalls of self-publishing and self-published authors. For
all the blather, mostly you seem worried you'll be associated with
them, and who could blame you?
So no hard feelings, and congratulations on your five star-Amazon
reviews. We all know how almost impossible those are to get. And
congratulations on selling "well over 50 copies, if you count in e-
book sales," of your book.
Now let's get back to all those "beautiful things" that the newly
sensitive Mario wants us to talk about...
Like, um, the Dexter books by Jeff Lindsay. I've read he first two
recently for our local mystery reading group's meeting later this
month, and I was wondering what folks here think of them. Are they
hard-boiled? Noir?
I dunno -- under all the trapping of blood and gore, they seem more
like cozies in wolf's clothing.
Kevin Burton Smith
Editor/Founder
The Thrilling Detective Web Site
"Wasting your time on the web since 1998."
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 10 Nov 2009 EST