Log In

Home
    - Create Journal
    - Update
    - Download

LiveJournal
    - News
    - Paid Accounts
    - Contributors

Customize
    - Customize Journal
    - Create Style
    - Edit Style

Find Users
    - Random!
    - By Region
    - By Interest
    - Search

Edit ...
    - Personal Info &
      Settings
    - Your Friends
    - Old Entries
    - Your Pictures
    - Your Password

Developer Area

Need Help?
    - Lost Password?
    - Freq. Asked
      Questions
    - Support Area



Pyrate Jenni ([info]pyratejenni) wrote in [info]fandom_wank,
@ 2010-03-03 13:32:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:author entitlement, authors, writers are often pompous douches

Why fan -- er, pro authors can't have nice things.
Rob Thurman is an urban fantasy author who desperately wants to get the 6th book in her series on the NY Times bestseller list. According to a wee mousie, the way bestsellers are calculated is by applying a complex and seekrit algorithm to the first week's sales, from Tuesday (when new books, like albums and babies, "drop") to Saturday. So it's very important to rack up sales during that time period if you want to list.

Also according to the mousie, Thurman's been going nuts for the past month, posting in all caps, and topping things off with this post. Thurman berates a reader for buying the book on Monday because said reader is having surgery on Tuesday. The reader apologizes, Thurman says she'll need pictures of the surgery.

Thurman's specialness doesn't end there. Non-USA readers have to buy two copies of the book to get their reward (sneak peek at the 7th books), people who buy online are Ebil! and more CAPSlock.

Her tweets are also... yeah.

Hat tip to the mouse, for stealing borrowing chunks of her post.


(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]kuromitsu
2010-03-03 10:14 pm UTC (link)
This one also seems to be an answer to Rob Thurman's posts&tweets.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]ryuutchi
2010-03-04 06:58 am UTC (link)
Okay, that's kind of hilarious butthurt. The author was rude to her fans, but "up all night upset"? Seriously?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]kuromitsu
2010-03-04 09:52 am UTC (link)
Yeah, as sorry I am for her to be told off so rudely by an author she likes, I think she's being the most wanky so far... (aside of the author herself, that is.)

(Reply to this)(Parent)

Thoughts on Yaoi, Cool Story Bro, Tell us what you REALLY think, etc.
[info]syncopation
2010-03-04 09:48 am UTC (link)
I had to go check out ASAP the other links Moire K. shared in her post, so WLP's was definitely one of them. I thought at first that perhaps WLP was being a bit melodramatic (the loss of sleep that [info]ryuutchi referred to), but the central message was still there: she's upset about this. She doesn't have to spend the $$ on them but she does, author gets cranky about placement in the NYT bestseller list and we get the wank. I empathized.

I thought about Thurman's disclaimer (Idk if that's the right term to use for it) for her international fans when I read that post:
International readers: You don't count on the NYT. So there is no way you can help me there, but buy *two* Roadkills, send receipt for proof, and you, too, can see chapter one of Cal 6. Don't want to discriminate against my overseas fans.
Idk much about NYT bestsellers (I go look at the banned books list for reading recs anyway) or the genre her books belong to, but as a reader, that would bother me. So if I, a hypothetical devoted non-U.S.-based fan, were to buy 2 books like she said just to ensure she can pump out the rest of the novels, I randomly check her LJ profile because god she's so awesome:
Please buy, do not borrow. I make less money than the drive thru person at McDonald's. Hell, I'd marry the drive thru person for their health insurance.
Oh, hell. This lady... some of her readers are already in that situation and they still buy her works w/ what money they have. US$7.99/paperback, no tax included? That's like, fucking 2 gallons of gas right there in my area. Readers buy her books anyway, that's cool...but they do so on a Monday & somehow, that's a really bad thing. Gotta lay it straight for her: how is that worse than losing purchasing readers and having those readers turn to scouring for scanned copies on the net? Just wondering.

I just learned about this genre today & if I'm intrigued enough, she just lost one potential reader. It's alright, though: I'm an Amazon shopper, I borrow books from the library & swap with (or borrow from) friends and I can buy books from Chapters when I'm in Vancouver if I wanted. I made barely a dent in her readership. She wouldn't want this audience anyway was what I gathered from her attitude.

Sorry bb, I made your thread a soapbox. I'm ready to take my hits now from fellow wankas for this essay of a comment.

/teal deer

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]ryuutchi
2010-03-04 10:03 am UTC (link)
Melodrama, wut.

We get that the author's being wanky, entitled, and idiotic. That's the point of the post.

Doesn't absolve her fans of the duty to not get "woe is me" overdramatic when they learn their favorite author is a ridiculous drama queen. And doesn't mean they're not painting targets on their back if they do start woeing all over the place.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]syncopation
2010-03-04 10:14 am UTC (link)
Point taken.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

Re: Thoughts on Yaoi, Cool Story Bro, Tell us what you REALLY think, etc.
[info]kuromitsu
2010-03-04 10:03 am UTC (link)
I thought WLP was melodramatic enough to be wanky (losing sleep, the "I spend ALL MY MONEY on books! finance this blog out of MY OWN pocket! work on the blog FOR FREE!!" thing, etc), but I do feel sorry for her because god, does it ever suck having someone you like and respect treating you like that.

But yeah, the author herself is being an asshole, no question about it. I don't know why she's so bent on getting on that list, but her entitlement is just irritating and I don't know how her fans can put up with it. If I'd ever been her fan that sentence about her being poor would've turned me off of her instantly. Wtf, really. There's only so much a reader can do, I don't want her to dictate my buying habits. If she's so poor she should be doing something about it herself. I know authors who took up office/etc. jobs for some fix income, and write in their free time, how about trying that?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]ryuutchi
2010-03-04 10:06 am UTC (link)
If there is one thing I have learned, it's that fans can divorce themselves from most of their favorite author's foibles. Also most fans aren't really that invested in their author's online life.

Which is probably all for the best, really.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]kuromitsu
2010-03-04 11:36 pm UTC (link)
I mean the fans who read her LJ/twitter. (Should've been clear on that.) They're like, "oh, wonderful! I'm buying two! three, even!"

(Reply to this)(Parent)

Re: Thoughts on Yaoi, Cool Story Bro, Tell us what you REALLY think, etc.
[info]syncopation
2010-03-04 10:15 am UTC (link)
This is true.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

Re: Thoughts on Yaoi, Cool Story Bro, Tell us what you REALLY think, etc.
[info]puipui
2010-03-04 11:08 am UTC (link)
Hell, I'd marry the drive thru person for their health insurance.

THE DRIVE-THRU PERSON DOESN'T HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE YOU SELF-IMPORTANT OUT-OF-TOUCH FAKE-POOR ENTITLED oh fuck it. I will never give this woman any of my money ever. If I ever find myself with a need to read any of her books (which seems extremely unlikely at this point) then I will hunt down a reliable online used bookseller from Canada, or perhaps find a copy at the bookstore and then read it at the store without buying it. And then I will open a Twitter account just so I can Tweet at her about the experience. Because she just annoys me that much.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: Thoughts on Yaoi, Cool Story Bro, Tell us what you REALLY think, etc.
[info]syncopation
2010-03-04 11:28 pm UTC (link)
You can also convince a friend who reads her stuff to buy her latest novel and all her future novels on Mondays only.

She won't appreciate our monies anyways!!


*that NYT Bestseller equation also doesn't count Sunday purchases, right?

(Reply to this)(Parent)

Re: Thoughts on Yaoi, Cool Story Bro, Tell us what you REALLY think, etc.
[info]ruffwriter
2010-03-04 09:32 pm UTC (link)
Please buy, do not borrow. I make less money than the drive thru person at McDonald's. Hell, I'd marry the drive thru person for their health insurance.

... I take it her only income is her books, then? Admittedly I don't know much about it, but I thought that unless you're super-successful, supporting yourself with writing alone is a bad call. (But I could be wrong.)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: Thoughts on Yaoi, Cool Story Bro, Tell us what you REALLY think, etc.
[info]syncopation
2010-03-04 11:22 pm UTC (link)
Dunno either. But she says in her profile that "Despite the ten books in all that will eventually make their way to the shelves, I'm still starving. Please buy, do not borrow." I take note of the exaggerated tone here, but since she says it like that, then it's possible.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: Thoughts on Yaoi, Cool Story Bro, Tell us what you REALLY think, etc.
[info]nightwalker
2010-03-06 10:25 am UTC (link)
If I recall correctly, she was able to quit her day job and write full time when she sold the first Trickster book.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: Thoughts on Yaoi, Cool Story Bro, Tell us what you REALLY think, etc.
[info]kyuuketsukirui
2010-03-08 01:34 am UTC (link)
If she quit her job to write and it "still starving", it's no one's fault but her own. :p

(Reply to this)(Parent)

Re: Thoughts on Yaoi, Cool Story Bro, Tell us what you REALLY think, etc.
[info]tachikoma01
2010-03-04 10:13 pm UTC (link)
... So I guess she doesn't like libraries all that much?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: Thoughts on Yaoi, Cool Story Bro, Tell us what you REALLY think, etc.
[info]syncopation
2010-03-04 11:29 pm UTC (link)
It's cuz we can only borrow from them. Meh.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

(Read comments) -

 
   
Privacy Policy - COPPA
Legal Disclaimer - Site Map