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Specious Missive from the Blogbag
Here's a small but tasty writers' wank that has nothing to do with NaNoWriMo!

Editorial Anonymous is a blog written by an anonymous editor at a mystery publisher, who answers questions about published, how to query, etc. All in all, it's generally a good source for aspiring authors.

Of course, every now and then, the blogger receives something completely out of left field. Like this, an email from someone seeking a publicist. The blogger removes the sender's name before posting the email, but leaves the long list of self-published works untouched. Naturally, it's Google fodder, and the sender's identity is easily discovered.

Is it hilarious? Or is it unkind? Depends which commenter you ask, and they're all more than willing to share their thoughts on ~~yaoi~~ the email. Most especially one Will Entrekin, himself a writer published via Lulu, who seems to think he's kind of a big deal. His collection was the very first e-book on Apple's iPhone, you guys, he said so himself!

All in all, this wank report is a quick, fun read. I give myself a five star review! All I need now is a publicist. Know any random bloggers I could email about that?

ETA: The anonymous blogger states that she decided to post the Googleable list of works "not because it was funny but because coming at the end of a letter complaining about her lack of success, titles like "How to Be Wealthy Selling Informational Products on the Internet"; "How to Become Wealthy Selling Ebooks"; and "How To Become Wealthy Selling Products on The Internet" smack strongly of fraud."

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	caito 2008-11-13 03:28 am UTC (link)
	He was the most lolsome part, for me. "I studied fiction with Janet Fitch..." Who the hell is Janet Fitch? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	caito 2008-11-13 07:37 am UTC (link)
	Someone told me to Wiki her in a comment (that's now deleted?) but that's kind of my point. She's not exactly a household name; it would probably sound more impressive to say, "I studied with the author of White Oleander." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	dhole 2008-11-13 06:30 pm UTC (link)
	From my point of view, it doesn't really matter who he studied with, even if she was somebody. He could have had private lessons from Jack Vance, C.J. Cherryh, and Roger Zelazny. "I studied with the author of Lord of Light" is approximately eight million times less impressive than "I wrote Lord of Light. Hell, it's less impressive than "I wrote Twilight". (Reply to this)(Parent)

julian_black
2008-11-13 07:37 am UTC (link)

But hey, I studied fiction with Janet Fitch and made my collection the very first e-book on Apple's iPhone.

I just want to pat him on his swollen little head and tell him what a good boy he is. And then tell him to go play with his toys because the grownups are trying to carry on a conversation.

As for the whole brick-and-mortar question: you still go to those? That's so cute. I'm telling you, it's so neat to see people going all, like, old school and such.

The success of online booksellers and the expansion of e-book sales aside, the vast majority of books (especially fiction and mainstream nonfiction) are still sold in brick-and-mortar bookstores or other physical locations--because most readers prefer browsing for books with the actual books in-hand.

So what's really cute here is Will Entrekin's total ignorance of how books actually get sold. That, and the fact that he's the kind of tool who has to brag about who his teacher was because he's not known for anything else.

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