The thing is…

I’ve had, for the most part, a really great week.  All the reviews sites I queried about doing a review of my book asked for an ARC or PDF file and they’ve been sent–whew!–I’ve been working on the second book of my series–yay!–I’ve gotten most of my spring cleaning done–yuck!–I started a new short story, this one with a ghost as the main character–fun!–I finally went to the library and got a library card–’bout time!–and while I was there I talked to the head librarian about doing an “Afternoon with the Author” this fall after my book comes out–woo-hoo!

Like I said, a great week, except the Red Sox have been in a bit of a slump and they’ve slipped into second place behind Tampa Bay–yes, Tampa Bay!–in the AL East.  But the Yankees are tied for last place, which is never a bad thing.  But, my boys are back at home now, and they almost always play better at Fenway.

And Manny…ah, my man Manny seems to be having the time of his life.  In fact, as he puts it, “This is a game — you’ve got to go enjoy it and have fun.”

Truer words, and all that.

The thing is…if more people would live by those words, I think the world would be a better place for all of us.  Too many people spend their life filled with hate, bitter about the way the world is treating them and doing their best to cause other people pain.  I ran up against one of those people this week and I admit, I was really pissed at this person at first.  It took a full day of agony and frustration, not to mention a lot of house work, before I realized I needed to just forget about it and get on with my life.

Or as Manny says, enjoy it and have fun.  So, that’s what I’m going to do!

Thanks Manny!  

P.S.  Congrats on number 498!  And that double play last night–oh, baby, that was a thing of beauty!  I found myself wishing I was the fan in the stands you jumped up and high-fived.  Then again, it’s probably a good thing I wasn’t because I would’ve grabbed hold and never let go!  You know how it is with us rabid fangirls! 

Can someone please tell me what’s up with all these comments I get from auto/life insurance companies and gambling sites?  I mean, come on, what are these people thinking?  They don’t really think I’m going to click on their site and buy insurance from them, do they? 

And the gambling ones, do they think they’re going to suck me into playing a game of black jack or poker–and possibly losing a boatload of money in the process–to them?  Surely not.  Aside from the fact that I’ve only gambled one time in my life–and that at Foxwoods casino in Connecticut, where I spent most of my time slack-jawed in disbelief as I watched the people who seemed determined to risk their life-savings on one roll of the dice or turn of the wheel–I would never do that.  I don’t like games–other than baseball–and can think of far better ways to spend my money. 

As for insurance, I leave that to my husband since he’s much more savvy about things like that.  Besides, he’s also, as my niece puts it, Scrooge-alicious, and will spend days researching things like that, looking for the best price he can find.  And once he finds it, watch out.  Can we all say master-horse-trader?  Believe me, car dealers all over western North Carolina have a warning poster about him that they regularly circulate and/or post at their dealerships.  You do not want to go head-to-head with this man when it comes to buying something.  He doesn’t believe in paying full price for anything!  Seriously, back when we used to buy live Christmas trees, he even bargained with the people at the garden center on the price for the tree I picked out.  Talk about embarrassing!  That was the main reason I finally broke down and bought an artificial tree and a slew of pine-scented candles a few years ago.  The smell isn’t as wonderful as having a live Christmas tree in the house, but hey, it’s better than living with that yearly dose of Christmas humiliation! 

Anyway, a word of advice to all you spammers out there; WordPress isn’t the best place for you to be leaving your stupid messages.  Akismet always catches them and marks them as possible spam–thank goodness!–and when I see them I automatically click “delete all.”  So stop wasting your time and go away!

<sigh>  I guess everybody has their own way of amusing themselves, but jeez, I really wish they’d leave my blog out of it!  Surely, they can find some better–read, less annoying!–way to spend their time!

The ARC of my book will soon be in the hands of the reviewers and I’ve had what you might call an emotional week.  Beyond the initial manic laughter when I found out the ARC was ready, followed closely by a flood of happy tears when I saw the PDF file, I’ve cringed in self-doubt, cowered in fear, suffered more than one paralyzing panic attack, been overcome with hope that readers will like my book, and on the flip-side of that, dread that they’ll hate it.

As you can see, reviews have pretty much taken over my life at this point.  Added to that, I’m still following a couple of threads on Amazon about the DAM review debacle. and all this has me wondering how I’m going to handle it when I get that first negative review.  And believe me, I don’t kid myself that it won’t come, because I know it’s bound to…at some point. 

Heck, it even occurred to me that DAM and her vicious posse might come after me when my book is released and write scathing reviews wherever they find it.  Paranoid much?  Yep, I admit it, I told you it’s been an emotional week, and I willingly concede the fact that I am (a wee bit) paranoid when it comes to my writing.  I think it’s a direct result of being a baseball fan.  Paranoia and superstition are both delusions and walk hand-in-hand in my book.  At least, that’s what I’m telling myself!

Anyway, a couple of days ago, when my emotions were on the down-swing and I was immersed in feelings of self-doubt, DW posted the following on the ”Help!  My negative reviews are being deleted.” Amazon thread:

Authors really shouldn’t be afraid of the one-star ratings. Here is an excerpt from an Amazon review study:

Finally, the review is not for the author it is for the fellow reader! If an author deletes a review, no matter what the rating, they may have just lost a customer, because that review just may have been the one to convince someone else to give that book a try! — Tams

And everything finally clicked.  I’m telling you, it was one of those moments where I could almost see the light bulb hanging over my head, flickering weakly at first then exploding into brilliant, blinding light–or maybe that high fastball connected with my head this time, instead of passing harmlessly over it!

As a result, I realized bad reviews, no matter how much an author hates them, can be a good thing!  And maybe, just maybe, those are the ones an author should really listen to.  If someone doesn’t like your writing and offers a valid reason why they don’t, it’s just possible if you listen to them, you may learn something and become a better writer.  I’m pretty sure I’ll get bad reviews, but now, I think I’ll be able to deal with them in a rational, adult manner.  I will do my best to remember the words of wisdom from Tams and DW when that one-star review pops up on Amazon, and look at it in a positive light.  Most important, I’ll try to resist the lure of getting the review taken down, or if I learn how to do it, deleting it myself, because as Tams points out, that review could very well result in future sales.

And on Amazon, if I’m not mistaken, you have to purchase the book in order to review it.  So, bad review on Amazon means at least one sale…and the possibility of more in the future.  That equals hope to me!

Great game last night between the Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers.  Tim Wakefield pitched eight scoreless innings and the offense scored five runs for him.  I love to hear that.  Wish I could’ve seen it too, but you know how it is down here in North Carolina, about the only baseball you get to see on a regular basis is the Atlanta Braves’ games.  Although TBS and ESPN are doing a better job this year of broadcasting games from around the league, my husband isn’t a big fan of baseball and with my tendency to read instead of watch TV, it’s a rare thing these days for me to watch a baseball game.

But I wish I had seen the game last night because I always love to watch Wake pitch.  It amuses me to see him baffle the opposing team with a pitch that just floats over the plate at a slow speed.  For some reason they have a hard time figuring out how to hit it.  I haven’t hit a baseball in longer than I care to remember, but I watch Wake pitch and think, why can’t those guys hit that thing?  I guess it’s because the ball comes in at that diminished speed, they’re used to pitches that pass them by in the blink of an eye and the slowness of Wake’s knuckleball, coupled with the way they dance over the plate are just, IMO, beautiful.  Most of the time the batter’s stand there after Cash catches the ball and the look on their face says it all, like, “What the hell?”  I love that.

Something else happened in the game last night that I love, Ortiz and Manny hit back to back homeruns for the first time this season.  Big Papi’s was, as always, a thing of beauty, but Manny, well, Manny’s was priceless–at least for me, because well, you know how I feel about Manny.  Last night’s was number 497 and that swing of his looks so effortless and easy, like he’s doing what comes natural to him and loving every minute of it.  I keep hearing the ESPN announcers and reading articles written by other sports reporters on-line that say Manny has the sweetest right-hand swing in baseball.  Yep, they got that one right.  And I’m not just saying that because I’m a fangirl of his.  Really, watch it sometime and I think you’ll agree–smooth and easy, his bat just floats through the air, but it’s deadly…

Kind of like Wake’s pitching!

If you’d like to see the videos–I really hope I do this right!–click here and enjoy!  I sure did!

I’m having one of those MS days when my brain isn’t firing on all cylinders, so I apologize in advance if this entry doesn’t make any sense at all or if I go off on a totally non-related tangent or for any misspelled words, grammar errors, or typos.  Haven’t had one of these in a while, but they happen and I have to deal with it and by reading this, well, you get to deal with it too!  Aren’t you the lucky one?

Okay, let’s start with the public apology issued on Monday by Roger Clemens.  Really, Roger, you call that an apology?  Sorry, but I don’t.  In Roger’s egotistical mind, I suppose he thinks saying he’s made mistakes is an appropriate apology to his fans.  And he tells us he’s apologized to his family, but I have to wonder, did he own up to exactly what he did wrong when he apologized to them, or like the statement he issued to the press, did he avoid mentioning just what it was he was apologizing for?  Does that make sense?  Probably not–blame it on the MS–but I know he never specifically stated what mistakes he’d made and I have to say, if I were Debbie Clemens, I’d want it all out there on the table.  Come on, Roger, man up!  We all know you made mistakes.  And really, who hasn’t?  But you need to say what it is you’re aplogizing for, not just offer some generic apology for making mistakes.  I mean, who’s to say you’re not apologizing for cutting off that little old lady in traffic one August afternoon or losing your temper with a sales clerk who didn’t recognize you and refused to take your check without proper ID, or hell, I don’t know, yelling at Debbie for burning your dinner or your kids for leaving their roller skates toys on the stairs.  Own up to what you did and then, maybe I’ll listen.

Next, the Ocean’s–and no, that’s not a typo, I’m speaking of Ocean’s Mist, the e-publisher who has the amazing talent of becoming invisible when it comes to addressing problems and/or paying their authors.  It seems their site is back up after weeks of…here today, gone tomorrow.  They’re up now and they’re releasing a new book by Essence, who is rumored to be none other than their owner, Noemi, the person who stiffed her authors on their royalties.  It’s also being reported by the EREC blog and Karen Know’s Best, that Loose Id and Siren have signed this woman and are releasing books by her too.  I have to say, I’ve never heard of Siren, but Loose Id has a pretty good reputation as an e-publisher.  At least, they do right now, but I just don’t know what sort of impact this is going to have on that reputation.  Me, I find it despicable that a publisher would sign a contract with someone who failed so miserably in running her own business and went into hiding when the chips were down, refusing to address her problems and pay her authors.  That’s a cheat in my book you know how I feel about cheats.  Here’s hoping readers will show their dissapproval by not buying any books by Essence, writers will avoid Ocean’s Mist like the deadliest of plagues, and authors at Loose Id and Siren will protest loudly about having a cheat on their team.  

Okay, on to Amazon.  They’ve reinstated the discount on my sister’s book, but the discount isn’t as good as it was before and they, in true “Playground Bully” fashion, didn’t deign to tell her why they chose to reinstate it or why they lowered it in the first place.  Still, I guess you could say it’s a step in the right direction for Amazon, but…but!  They’ve also banned another reviewer from their site who, in their words, was “hectoring, harassing, abusive, and spiteful.”

And there you have my WTF? award for the week.  I’ve been following that thread on Amazon for over a while now and Steven Hedge, the banned reviewer–yes, that Steven Hedge, the one who graciously righted his mistake of using my pseudonym’s (misspelled!) name in one of his posts and apologized to me on several different fronts, thereby ensuring no one mistook me for the unscrupulous author he was referring to–never came anywhere close to being any of those things Amazon is accusing him of being.  I know from my experience with him and from reading his other posts on this thread, he is one of the nicest, most courteous and articulate people I’ve ever come across in cyber-space.  Amazon needs to quit relying on their automatons to address this whole DAM (DeborahAnne MacGillivray) mess and actually take the time to read what their customers are saying.  I have a feeling if they ever do, they’re going to be wiping the egg off their face for a long time to come! 

So, we have Clemens issuing meaningless apologies and Ocean’s Mist slinking out of hiding to dupe more readers, Siren and Loose Id publishing an author who’s proven she cares nothing for other authors, and Amazon, well, taking one step forward, only to take two back.

All behaving badly and all deserving big fat OH NOES!   

I’ve had an up and down sort of week, filled with highs, lows, and a few moments which felt like I’d somehow gotten lost in an episode of The Twilight Zone.

The highs: hearing from my publisher that she had the ARC of my book and was ready to send it out for reviews, finishing the second chapter of the book my sister and I are writing based on our great aunt’s life, the Red Sox breaking out of their five-game losing streak and getting two walk-off wins against Toronto, and spending the day yesterday with my sister and mom on a pre-Mother’s Day visit to Biltmore.

The lows: the MS medicine–’nuff said on that!–the Red Sox getting swept by Tampa Bay, and my personal brush with the DAM debacle–see my blog entry Will the Real Caitlyn Hunter Please Stand Up? from earlier this week.

As for the Twilight Zone moments, they all stem from that blog post.  After I got home from Biltmore yesterday, I found a comment to the post from Peter Durward Harris, who is one of the key players in the fight against Amazon, DAM, and her unethical behavior regarding reviews.  Here’s what Mr. Harris had to say:

Most people believe that “Caitrina Hunter” is a fake name and very likely a pseudonym for Deborah MacGiillivray. The fact that her blog page is titled “Caitrinia conversations” with an extra “i” near the end of the name reinforces the belief that the name is a fake as most people, however bad their spelling, always get their own name right. Let’s face it, Deborah MacGiillivray is a tricky name for most people to spell correctly, but the woman herself never gets it wrong although the rest of her spelling is generally poor when she doesn’t use a spell-checker.

Given all that, and given that you posted your first blog entry on the Highland Press issue before “Caitrina Hunter” ever appeared on the scene, it is possible that the name was chosen as a deliberate attempt to hijack your identity. If so, it’s backfired so far due to the extra publicity you’ve got, but of course that’s not really the point. Amazon regard impersonation as a serious matter. If you protest to them about “Caitrina Hunter” and they accept your protest, her profile page and reviews will be removed (apparently her offensive comments have already suffered that fate). But that’s up to you. And the wierd blog page (from which I got plenty of laughs - nobody’s ever called me a pimp before) might be harder to get rid of.

Meanwhile, thanks for your kind words on the Amazon romance books forum. After reading that, I found this extra blog entry and I’ve added it to my own blog page.

Along with Steve and the others, I won’t rest until Amazon take appropriate action. If you’re working through the Dear Author stuff on the case, you’ll eventually come to my explanation of my own history with Deborah MacGiillivray and (in a different thread) my reference to her “kitty goes zoom” review. Once I found that this same woman was the cause of all the trouble at Highland Press and the threats to Reba Belle, these things help explain why I am particularly motivated to sort this issue out. As the “Caitrina Hunter” blog shows, we are dealing with a potentially very dangerous woman. She must be stopped.

First, let me state that I stand firmly with the people on the Amazon romance forum who are calling for Amazon to stand up and deal with this whole wretched situation.  Mr. Harris is right when he says DAM must be stopped, and given everything I’ve read about her, not to mention the emails and messages written by her, she is a “potentially very dangerous woman.”  In my opinion, Amazon should never have let this thing continue, they should’ve stepped in when it was first reported and at least said they were going to look into the deleted reviews and the threats which were being issued by an author to reviewers.

Second, if it is true that Caitrina Hunter is actually DAM and the choosing of the name “Caitlin Hunter” was intentional and meant to hijack my identity and possibly smear my reputation, well, then the gauntlet’s been thrown and I intend to accept it.  I will report this to Amazon–although I really don’t have any hopes of them even responding to my protest–and I will not back down to DAM and her horrific behavior.

To be fair, Caitrina Hunter recently changed her profile and it now says she isn’t DeborahAnne MacGillivray and her real name is Kicki Hunter.  Quite a change from what it was before.  My first thought on reading it was Roger Clemens would have a better chance of convincing me he’s actually a good guy and never once took HGH.  Those of you who’ve read any of my posts about Mr. Clemens can probably guess that I’m not buying Ms. Hunter’s new profile.  FTR, I freely admit that my reaction may have been colored by her pulling the “feel sorry for me because I’m in ill health” card–I really hate that!

Beyond that Ms. Hunter, the name ”Kicki”.  Somebody’s been doing their research, huh?  Kudos to whoever it is for reading my sister’s latest book and noticing on the acknowledgement page that the character of “Giki” was taken from the name my family calls me; Giki–pronounced with a hard “g” and rhyming with “icky”–or for that matter “Kicki.”  Hmmm…you’re either batshit crazy like I said, or you’re like a little child acting out to try to get attention.  Kicki, indeed.

Anyway, third, Amazon seems to be targeting my sister’s latest book by removing the discount on sales.  They pretty much ignored her protests and when they finally did respond to her numerous emails would only tell her that it’s their choice which authors are given a discount on books and not to email them about it any more.  Her sales have fallen drastically since they did this and all they’ll tell her is, essentially, “shut up and go away.”  Pardon me, but WTF?

After reading Mr. Harris’ comment, I have to wonder if she’s being targeted because of her connection to me.  If DAM has decided to make me pay for my comments about her unethical behavior here on my blog, isn’t it conceivable that she found my sister’s connection to me and decided to strike out at her because of me?  We all know DAM has some mysterious hold over Amazon, though we don’t know what it is.  Maybe she knows something about them that they don’t want to get out, or hell…who knows?  I don’t, but given the fact that I’ve mentioned my sister a couple of times on my blog, her name is featured on my web site and on my blogroll here, and the only reviews I’ve ever done at Amazon were on her books…well, it doesn’t take a genius to come to the conclusion that someone, somewhere made the connection and so, she’s being punished because of me.

And that thoroughly pisses me off.  Enough that I will not give up on this fight.  So, listen up, DAM, Caitrina or Kicki–or whoever the hell you are–and Amazon, I refuse to buckle under to your bullying tactics, even if it does mean committing career suicide before my career even gets off the ground.

And, BTW, DAM, if you really are Caitrina Kicki Hunter, I owe you a sincere and heartfelt thank you.  Your attempt to drag my pseudonym through the mud and smear my reputation backfired.  You’ve done me a huge favor by getting my name out there and we all know how important name recognition is in this game.

I’ve picked up your gauntlet and am tossing it back in your face so…what’s it going to be?

Pistols at dawn?

Your call.

Oh, come on, you didn’t think I’d let this one pass, did you?  Knowing how I feel about the egotistical Roger Clemens?  Nope, not gonna happen.  I have to say something–even if it’s just…gag!  But of course, I have much more to say than that.

Roger, what the hell were you thinking?  A fifteen-year-old child, for crying out loud!  Are you that…icky?  That…scuzzy?  That…blech?  I mean really, were you so incredibly lost in your amazing self-love that you figured anyone was fair game–even a little girl?  I can’t even think of a name low enough to call you, but I know what my grandmother would say about someone like you–lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut.  You can’t get much lower than that.

I’m not into country music so I don’t have a clue who this Mindy whats-her-name is, but you better hope she’s not from the south.  If you’re lucky, she’s one of those faux southerners who came to Nashville to make her fortune spouting country songs in a fake southern twang.  ‘Cause I have to tell you, if she is from the south and she has brothers, your life’s not worth a plug nickel right about now.  Not that it was before this, but boy howdy, I’m telling you, fooling around with a young southern girl is not a bright idea.

Yeah, I know, I know, you were just good friends.  Uh-huh, sure.  Not likely, not with someone who thinks he’s God’s gift to the world and all the rest of us are just here to bow down to his greatness.  And please, don’t give me that BS about ”innocent until proven guilty.”  I’m not buying that either.  

Oh well, at least you have no one to blame but yourself because I doubt any of this would’ve come out if you hadn’t been so convinced of your superiority to all us lesser humans.  I mean, how stupid was it that you filed that defamation suit knowing that you had this in your past?   Surely you didn’t think people wouldn’t find out and if you did, well, you’re even dumber than I thought.

The thing is…I worry about your wife.  You remember her, right?  Debbie, the woman you’ve been married to for years, the woman you had children with, the woman who stood behind you when your name surfaced in the Mitchell Report and when you testified in front of Congress, the woman who offered herself up to ridicule and shame just to save your sorry butt?  Yeah, her, Debbie, the woman who has stayed by your side–so far.

Listen up, Debbie, I know I’ve said in the past that you’re TSTL, but please, I’m begging you, grab some dignity, boot his sorry ass out the door, hire a shark of a lawyer, and take this moron for every penny you can get.  It’s the only way you’ll ever be able to hold your head up again. 

Haven’t been moved to post anything here for a week or so, though I have been writing…er, researching life in North Carolina in the early 20th century.  Ugh!  I now know why writing a historical romance never had any appeal for me–way too much research!  I have a love/hate relationship with research–sometimes I find it fascinating and others it bores me to tears.  But, if you’re going to write about another time you’d better do your research.  Because I guarantee if you don’t, you’re going to make a mistake and sooner or later someone’s going to catch it.  If you’re lucky, it’ll be one of your critique partners or maybe even your editor, but if it slips by those eagle eyes and gets out to the reading public, well, then, all I can say is you get what you deserve.

Anyway, that’s not what this post is about…well, actually, now that I think of it, that is what this post is about–an author making a serious mistake and getting caught.

Okay, so a little backstory here.  A couple of days ago, my sister emailed me and called my attention to a thread at the Amazon romance forum: “Help!  My negative reviews are being deleted!”  Which, as I’m sure you guessed, has to do with DeborahAnne MacGillivray and her nefarious practice of getting what she considers negative reviews of her books deleted from Amazon.  I read the comment my sister highlghted and, well, let’s just say I panicked a little bit.

Why?  Because the commenter, Steven Hedge, wasn’t too happy with an author named–drumroll, please–”Caitlin Hunter.”  I picked up on the different spelling immediately of course, but still I had one of those OMGWTF! moments, thinking he was talking about me and wondering what I’d done to upset him so much.  So, after a full five minutes of staring at that name, I came to my senses enough to comprehend what I was reading and realized he wasn’t talking about me at all, but about another author.  The next comment–thank goodness!–had a link to the alleged Caitlin Hunter’s Amazon page which I immediately clicked on…

only to see the author’s name was “Caitrina Hunter.”  Whew!  Close, but no bananas.  Still, I posted to the thread and identified myself and my pseudonym, saying I hoped when my book comes out in August and is available on Amazon, the readers involved in this thread wouldn’t mistake me for her.  Mr. Hedge was kind enough to understand where I was coming from and responded with an apology then went back and corrected his mistake.  I wrote him back to thank him and then didn’t think much more about it.

But I did subscribe to the email feed on the thread and a few minutes ago a post came through saying Caitrina Hunter had posted something on a blog which everyone there needed to see to believe.

Well, that was an understatement.  I’ve now read her post three times and I still can’t believe the vitriol spilling out of this woman’s keyboard.  Seriously, this is much more than an author behaving badly, this is an author who appears to be teetering on the edge of insanity.

Here’s the link, if you’d like to read it for yourself.  Fair warning, it’s not very pretty and I sincerely hope Ms. Hunter comes to her senses and takes it down–soon!  We’ve all seen authors behaving badly before and I guess nothing should surprise us these days after all the stuff that’s come to light in the past few weeks about Ms. MacGillivray, but this one, well, I’m…speechless.  Beyond the petty viciousness of the entire thing, I can’t imagine any romance author having the nerve to call out Nora Roberts, much less the Ja(y)nes at Dear Author.

<sigh>  I guess this is what they mean when they say someone is TSTL (too stupid to live).  Although, I’m thinking maybe we need an entirely new acronym for this one: TITIWOH (too insane to interact with other humans).

The thing is…I keep hearing how important name recogition is to an author and how I need to get my name out there and get it noticed, but damn!  I hope and pray by the time August rolls around and my book is released, all this will have blown over and no one will remember her name.  I’d really hate to have to come up with a new pseudonym, but if people see my name and connect me with her, I might have no other choice.  Because well, batshit crazy is not what I want people thinking when they see the name Caitlyn Hunter!

On the other hand, they say even bad publicity is good publicity, so…

Edited to add:  Mr. Hedge has gone above and beyond the call, apologizing to me not only on Amazon, but also on Dear Author and I’d like to offer a special thank you to him for his graciousness.  And really, what author wouldn’t want a someone like him in her corner?  It makes me question Caitrina Hunter’s sanity even more.  So, Mr. Hedge, my heartfelt thanks and I really hope Amazon has the good sense to listen to you, Reba and the others and do the right thing regarding this situation.

Got a few emails this past week about a new e-publisher, Shadowfire Press, opening its doors on August 1, 2008.  Don’t know anything about it, except to say that judging from what I’ve heard and three “personal squicks” I got from looking at their site, I’d stay away from this one until and unless they can prove they know what they’re doing.

What are the “personal squicks”, you ask?  Well, let’s start with the fact that the owners are both authors and as we’ve seen in the past with author-owned e-publishers, they aren’t the best bet for a new writer–or an established one, for that matter.  They seem to have a tendency to neglect the books by authors who are just “plain authors”, while concentrating on heavily promoting the books of the author/owners.  Not saying Shadowfire will be the same way, but if you have a book you want to submit to an e-publisher, you might want to look elsewhere.

Second squick, their covers.  Now this might just be me, but I was not in the least impressed with their covers.  Too…I don’t know, amateurish.  The same goes for the masthead on their web site, which they seem to be really proud of in their introductory letter, saying it’s a “done deal.”  Umm…you might want to re-think that one, but that’s just my opinion.

Third, this little snippet on their contest page:

The only way to become a Shadowfire Press author is to win a publishing contract through one of our contests. Please do not send any stories that do not fit our current contest guidelines as we will not be accepting anything that is not suited for the contest.

The thing is…I’ve noticed quite a few e-publishers engaging in this “enter our contest and win a publishing contract” crap.  I say crap, because if they’re holding a contest, there should be the possibility of winning…something.  Else, why call it a contest?  Granted, this e-publisher isn’t open to submissions and that may up the ante a bit, but for me it wouldn’t be enough.  Why would I want to write for someone who has, IMO, such an elitist attitude.  I mean, come on, you’re a new business, an open call for submissions would only benefit you.  There are untold numbers of authors out there who would probably love to submit something to you–but they have to enter a contest to do it?  And if they do enter the contest, they get nothing for winning besides what they would get from submitting to any other publisher?

Makes me think of dangling a carrot in front of a mule.  Hey mule author, look at this, here’s a bright orange carrot contract!  Looks yummy, huh?  Come on, you want it.  You know you want it.  All you have to do to get it is work your butt off writing a book for us and be sure to follow all our rules and guidelines while you’re at it.  If you do that, we might, just might let you have the carrot contract!  Then again, we might not, but well, you gotta try, don’t you?  Sure you do!

It should come with a warning label attached, doubly so when it comes from an author-owned publisher and especially one that’s just starting out:

Author beware, winning the contest isn’t enough.  Sure, it’ll get you a contract–which you could get elsewhere, but now you get to put all your blood, sweat and tears into promoting your work.  And please, don’t expect us to help, because hey, we don’t do that for anybody but ourselves.  So…enter at your own risk!

Sad to say, I used to be okay with this kind of thing, even defended the idea of publishers running a contest with the prize of a publishing contract, because if you win, it’s a publishing credit, something you can include in your query letters to other publishers.  But I’ve seen way too many new authors get burned this way.  Sure, they got a contract, but more often than not, that’s about all they got.  So, if you have a book you want to see published, my advice is don’t sell yourself short, do your research and try for one of the established e-houses. 

I realize this may not be fair to Shadowfire and I’m not saying they’re doomed to go down before they even start, or that they won’t actively promote their authors who are not also owners, but I am saying I see a few warning signs flying already.  Consider carefully before you send anything to them.  If Shadowfire does become one of the top-selling e-pubs at some point in time, I’ll be more than happy to offer my apologies and eat my words with a smile on my face.  I wish them all the best and believe me, I’d love to see them prove me wrong!

I got up this morning feeling like someone had slammed my head into the Green Monster at Fenway–repeatedly.  Damned MS medicine affected me that way the last time I took it, and it looks like a case of “second verse, same as the first.”  I hate headaches and usually don’t suffer from them but this stuff is kicking my ass–or should I say head?–every time I take it.  Bah!  To say I feel like shit, would be putting it mildly.  I really needed a pick-me-up, and thanks to baseball and surprising news on the Cassie Edwards thing, I got it.

Okay, like every morning, the first thing I did was turn on my computer and while I waited for AOL to sluggishly come up–and what’s up with that anyway, AOL?–I watched the highlights of my favorite Boys of Summer, the Red Sox, winning.  Immediately after that, Sports Center had the highlights from my least favorite BoS. the Yankees, losing to my second favorite BoS, the Orioles.  It doesn’t get much better than that in my little baseball world.  Congrats to Big Papi for throwing off the slump he’d been in since the beginning of the season by hitting a grand slam–woo-hoo!  Almost, but not quite as good as Manny hitting two homeruns against the Yankees the other night.  495, Manny, only 5 more to go!

So, things were definitely looking brighter and when AOL finally came up, one of the first things I saw was the news that Signet and Cassie Edwards had parted ways.

Double woo-hoo!  Not only is that good news for writers and readers of all things romantic–unless you’re a Cassie Edwards fan, of course–it’s good news for the publishing world as a whole.  To have a major publisher step up to the plate, swing for the fences, and smash a homerun is…well, like watching Manny hit a moonshot!  Sorry, it’s that time of year for me, everything revolves around baseball!  Anyway, Signet, and its parent company, Penguin, after a long and tiring at-bat, finally hit it out of the park yesterday, breaking all ties with Ms. Edwards and her plagiaristic ways.

From the AP article, written by Hillel Italie:

“Signet has conducted an extensive review of all its Cassie Edwards novels and due to irreconcilable editorial differences, Ms. Edwards and Signet have mutually agreed to part ways,” the publisher said in a statement Friday.

“Cassie Edwards novels will no longer be published with Signet Books. All rights to Ms. Edwards’ previously published Signet books have reverted to the author.”

My first thought?  Will Dorchester and Kensington do the same?  We can only hope.  Maybe then I can stop haunting bookstores and the book aisles in grocery and department stores, looking for Cassie Edwards books and hiding any that I find.

The Smart Bitches, who uncovered this whole sordid mess, have reported on this, as has Dear Author, and I imagine many other romance and reader blogs out there in cyber-space.  Here’s the link to the AP article if you’d like to read the whole thing, and the link for SB/TB and DA.  Interesting and satisfying reading!

The thing is…as usual, some jerk’s already posted a couple of comments on the SB post, standing up for Ms. Edwards, telling us we don’t know the whole story and calling us “asses” for celebrating this.  The commenter, “SAM”, also informed us that we should keep our mouths shut and be careful what we post, because “you could be opening yourself up to one heck of a slander lawsuit.

<sigh>  Where do these people come from?  It galls me that there are still readers out there who believe Ms. Edwards did nothing wrong and we should all just shut up about the whole thing.

WTF?  In the first place, SAM, it’s as clear as crystal Ms. Edwards plagiarized and SB/TB did the right thing in bringing her plagiarism to light.  Read the PDF file on the SB site, if you don’t believe me.  Second, if you’re going to toss around the old ”law suit” threat, I suggest you talk to a credible lawyer about just what constitutes “slander.”  And third, what gives you the right to tell us to quit gloating and call us ”asses” for celebrating what we consider a win for our side?  That’s sort of like saying to Red Sox Nation, the team can celebrate winning the World Series, but you can’t.

Good thing you included not one, but two, “LMAO” in your last post, because, I gotta tell ya’, it’s going to take some serious laughter to get rid of that “ass” you’re making of yourself.

Three strikes, you idiot…in my world, that means you’re out. 

Edited to add:  On the Dear Author site, Nora Roberts was kind enough to post an address for the publisher if you’d like to write and express your admiration, approval, and/or thanks for doing the right thing.  Here it is:

Penguin/Signet
375 Hudson
New York, NY 10014

Drop ‘em a line.  I imagine they’ve gotten their share of negative letters from readers and authors while this whole thing has been going on.  I’m betting they’d love to hear from us again–on a more positive note, of course! 

*****

Thanks to Anon76 for letting me know another reader at DA put up some email addresses to go with the snail mail address supplied by Ms. Roberts.  Here they are:

David Shanks, CEO, Penguin-Putnam, Inc.
david.shanks@us.penguingroup.com

Susan Peterson Kennedy, President, Penguin-Putnam, Inc.
susan.kennedy@us.penguingroup.com

Also Jane at DA put up another post this morning which encapsulates all that’s happened with the Cassie Edwards thing to this point.  It includes a copy of her letter to Signet and a contest she’s running in honor of Signet’s standing up and doing the right thing.  The prizes are five Fictionwise gift certificates for recent NAL/Signet releases to be given away to readers–check it out!  All you have to do is leave a comment and tell her your favorite NAL/Signet author.  Easy enough, right?  And who knows, you may be one of the winners!