Oh, good lord.

[agilebrit]

When last we left the Planet of Unprofessional Authors, a writer compared himself to Poe.

Now we have one comparing himself to Van Gogh and Picasso. Yes, we're painting pictures with words, but less can be more, dude, and I think you're stretching the metaphor.

I do not understand writers that act like this. At least when I get a rejection from Clarkesworld, I know that the editor actually read the sub, and usually all the way through to the end. And how do I know this? Because Nick doesn't send cookie-cutter form rejections. He tells you why he rejected the piece. Don't authors know how rare and golden that is?

And if you disagree with the crit, shrug and move on. Especially if you've already sold the piece elsewhere, dumbass. Jeepers.

Comments

You might find this of interest

[neo-prodigy.livejournal.com]

http://lisamantchev.livejournal.com/220583.html

Re: You might find this of interest

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

Very interesting indeed. I went over and read the brouhaha on the Fantasy site. I think Lisa is mistaken that it was Nick that came into the thread with a sock account, though. Nick's never struck me as being the shy type, and I'd put the similarity between the "matzo balls" reference down to "hive mind" and "when we discuss these things, these other things invariably come up" more than Nick sockpuppeting. Especially as he came in later with his own name and the text of the actual rejection.

I don't see "blunt" as the same as "scathing." Nick is, yes, blunt. He called one of my fics a "shaggy alien story" with a lame punch line (paraphrased). The fact is that there's a whole lotta people out there who will take offense where absolutely none is intended, and Nick pointed out to her the major reason why he wouldn't buy it. Lisa reworked her story (on that basis, because she totally meant no offense and was horrified that her story might be seen as racist) so that there was no mention of gypsies anywhere in it, the family structure was completely different from the Rom, and the characters were portrayed positively...and she still got undeservedly slammed by people who were, IMO, hypersensitive.

Playing the race card on folks who go out of their way to not be offensive is counterproductive. You know, she could have just said "Screw it, the story is the story and I'm leaving it as it is." But she didn't; she fixed it. And still got jumped. And I think that's a shame.