Publishing Scandals

ActonBell wrote:I can see how having a negative experience with an author can color your perception of a book, so I don't even have a problem with her changing her review. Emily Giffin is acting like a 12 year old mean girl.

Yeah, I don't have a problem with her changing her review of the book. Part of the purpose of reviews is that other people can see them and will be swayed to buy the book for themselves or not. After such bad behavior, I could see how someone would be concerned that a review she wrote might convince someone else to support someone who behaves like that. And like you said, things the author does can greatly influence your experience with the book. Ender's Game is a fantastic story, but I'll never be able to read it again knowing what I know about Orson Scott Card.


This whole incident is horrible. I rather think Emily Griffin is the one who enjoys the drama! Just one more example that goes to show authors need to adopt "Do not engage" as their Prime Directive when dealing with negative reviews!

big chicken wrote:The initial review which set off everything was pretty mild. She was disappointed with the book and all her comments were about the book. I have no idea how Giffin's husband saw a personal attack on Giffin herself in that review.

Her husband said that he initially thought the AvidReader person was a DIFFERENT person who had been after Giffin for some time. He jumped to that conclusion because AvidReader only had the one post to her name. He later apologizes for the wrong assumption, but that was what triggered it all — he was reading waaay more into that review than was actually there because of the misunderstanding.

particle_person wrote:

big chicken wrote:The initial review which set off everything was pretty mild. She was disappointed with the book and all her comments were about the book. I have no idea how Giffin's husband saw a personal attack on Giffin herself in that review.

Her husband said that he initially thought the AvidReader person was a DIFFERENT person who had been after Giffin for some time. He jumped to that conclusion because AvidReader only had the one post to her name. He later apologizes for the wrong assumption, but that was what triggered it all — he was reading waaay more into that review than was actually there because of the misunderstanding.

But even if that's true "after her" means...writing bad reviews of her books on Amazon? So the fuck what?

Also, if someone is after your wife - in a way that is actually threatening - and then decides to leave a bad review of her new book, when is the appropriate response ever to engage that person? Wouldn't that response just give the person what they want?

I'd have to go back and double-check, but I didn't think the person after Giffin was threatening. Only the person who called up the bad-reviewer and made death threats.

I have no doubt that if I was a published writer, I'd be tormented by negative reviews and desperately want to respond. But wow, does it really, really not look good. Agents need to hold a "how not to look crazy on-line" class for their authors.

Also, I'm always surprised by how poorly written these on-line retorts from authors usually are.

Gilraen wrote:Also, I'm always surprised by how poorly written these on-line retorts from authors usually are.

Every time I see one of those crappy whinefests I think their editors should get a huge raise. And the fans who defend them! Doesn't seeing how semi-literate the author is deter them at all?

big chicken wrote: I also like how Giffin pointedly says she's not reading the reviews on Amazon yet keeps bringing up those very reviews--seems disingenous to me in a "I'm not one to gossip BUT" sort of way.

This is the thing irritated me the most. That and reposting the assistant's call to arms. You don't get to say your hands are clean because you don't read reviews and the repost your assitant asking for help fighting the haters or go on your facebook all, "My husband's fighting with negative reviewers tee hee hee." She should have told her husband and her employee to knock it off.

Museum of Sex is accusing Cosmo magazine of plagiarizing one of their articles.

Why do people still think they can get away with that crap in this day and age?

Damn, authors! Just stay away from Amazon. It's not that hard.

Whenever I read about an author doing dumb things on Amazon, I imagine them as they sit there typing saying "Oh the cleverness of me!" a la Peter Pan.

Laura Lippman weighs in.

(Full disclosure: I know Laura and she's good friends with my dad.)

I had a weird experience today that made me think of this thread. I was at oral arguments for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York today, for reasons related to a case entirely unrelated to publishing. But when the lawyers got up for the first argument, it turned out it was a copyright suit involving the Percy Jackson books. Apparently someone who wrote some prior book about a teenager who turned out to be descended from a Greek God sued Riordan for plagiarism (except, as Riordan's lawyer explained, instead of Percy Jackson, a 12-year-old misfit with ADHD, an abusive stepdad, and special powers, the other book featured PJ, a 16-year-old football player who worshiped his recently deceased father who maybe turned out to be Zeus? But both of them centered around Zeus's lightening bolt.)

It was fascinating. The judges didn't really seem impressed by the plaintiff's case, and I got the sense that they wouldn't find it to be plagiarism.

Wow, that must have been fascinating to listen to!

I don't know if this counts as a scandal, per se, but more of a weird, futile feud? Anyway, the other day Bret Easton Ellis totally lost his mind in a twitter rant about how much he despises David Foster Wallace. Tweet after tweet after tweet.

The man who edited both of their first books says Ellis is jus jellus:

Both went on to publish culture-shaking novels. “American Psycho,” a macabre put-on that amplified every cliché about yuppie scum to Grand Guignol volume, created a firestorm when the literal minded (of whom there are so many) failed to get the joke. “Infinite Jest” transformed private torment into a vast metafictional diagnosis of our entertainment-bedizened cultural condition, and, weirdly, sounded the first notes of a quest for an irony-free sincerity that has become a ruling style of David’s generation and the ones that followed.

At the moment, the Wallace style is dominant and that is what drives Bret Ellis nuts.

Well, Wallace is also DEAD, so trying to feud with him seems pointless at best and bugfuck crazy at worst.

Ellis does not seem to be a happy person, and he's never been able to match the critical or commericial success of American Psycho. If he can get ultra pressed over silly issues like Glee or 50 Shades of Grey, of course he's going to have a major ax to grind over a writer who's had far more acclaim than he ever has.

Not really a scandal, but I don't know where else to put this.

Scott Lynch dissects a letter.

"Real sea pirates could not be controlled by women, they were vicous rapits..."

I must, immediately, get my hands on those books.

Nice rebuttal there! And timely because the other day I read about Ching Shih, the female pirate who ended up with a fleet of ships and used to cut the head of anybody who didn't follow her rules. So that's at least one woman who managed to control real sea pirates, despite their rapits nature.

I have to look for Scott Lynch's books now.

That rebuttal is actually five or six years old, but awesome all the same. And yes, everyone should read Scott Lynch's books.

I wholeheartedly agree that the letter is an epic takedown and everyone should go and buy Scott Lynch's books, but interestingly, the first time I read The Lies of Locke Lamora I was actually really struck by how few significant female characters there actually were. It was almost more jarring given how well the women in smaller roles were written, and that the gender relations in his worldbuilding had clearly been given some serious thought. Things do significantly improve in Red Seas Under Red Skies (pirates ahoy!) and I have high hopes for Republic of Thieves. If it ever comes out.

One aspect of TLoLL that really stood out when I first read it is how often Lynch writes "men and women" where other authors would probably use "people" or similar. I appreciated his attempt to make sure the reader knows that, yes, there are women in the crowds of nameless NPCs.

In other news, newbie RPG author courts legal troubles for plagiarising White Wolf, but actually has managed to get something published. However, the fun doesn't stop there. Two people read and review the game, deconstructing it and mocking it as they go. Great read. Especially for vampires.