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solelyfictional ([info]solelyfictional) wrote in [info]otf_wank,
@ 2011-01-17 15:41:00


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Who gets the Final Word? Wankers do.
I actually wrote this up for my writing blog, but there's too much wank here not to share it further. I've expanded it a bit, especially this there's already new info from when I posted it there this morning.

Publishing is outdoing itself this year. First One was just a warm up. Enjoy!

So, on new year's day, a company called Decadent Publishing release a book by debut author Graylin Fox. Later that day, Graylin receives an email to her private account alerting her to a negative review on blog The End is Not the Final Word. She tweets about it.

Graylin claims she was then contacted privately on twitter by someone who seemed very interested in the review, to get her opinion of it. Decadent also see the review. They're confused, because this isn't a site they sent a review copy too, and they're a little suspicious. They describe it as 'not a legitimate review site'.

(at this point, I suggest you go take a look at The End is Not the Final Word. It set off some red flags for me, after so many years watching fandom_wank, but not enough to say anything.)

Shortly afterwards, this post appears on the review blog, accusing Decadent of going through their purchase records to provide the author with private information about the review blog owners, and of accusing them of piracy. Decadent reply to this post offering to let one of the reviewers out of his/her contract with Decadent, if s/he thinks so poorly of the company.

At this point the rest of the web gets hold of the story and start sharing their opinions. Decadent look pretty bad. It doesn't help their case that as word spreads they start posting passive aggressive music videos on their twitter and facebook. They do respond to some of the accusation over at Dear Author (contacting Jane directly) but don't answer all of the questions. They give us their word they never shared purchase information with anyone, nor were any real names swapped. The Enders don't reply to DA's request for their side of the story.

Graylin, however, decides it's about time to give her side of the story, supporting Decadent's claims, but very vague about how she knew who the anonymous Enders were. People are already wondering about an older post on the Enders blog, namechecking Graylin for 'Worst Author Behaving badly moment". Do I smell grudgewank? Oh yes, I do.

Back over at Dear Author, someone else decides to name names, and outs two of the Enders as Belladonna Bordeaux/TJ Killian/Lee Morris and Sandra Sookoo, a claim which is backed up by Graylin. Belladonna, at least, is/was an author with Decadent. Under the name Lee Moriss she used to own Eirelander publishing. Someone else over at DA points out Graylin isn't the only author previously associated with Eirelander who's received a negative review from them: Aasiyah Qamar/Zaynah Mondee was one of Eirelander's editors, but had to quite for personal reasons. It's nothing like as vitriolic as Graylin's but it is a little odd consdering one of the reviewers actually worked on preparing the book for publication.

Oh, and icing on the cake? If you glance back at the Best and Worst of 2010 post on the Enders blog, you'll notice the Best books of 2010 go to Belladonna Bordeaux, Sandra Sookoo, and TJ Killian.

As yet, the Enders haven't commented on the new revelations. Decadent seem to be sitting on their hands now (too little too late, IMO, but I suppose it's an improvement on linking videos), and Graylin seems to be trying to keen to put it behind her, but other authors and interested parties are invested in keeping the wank alive. And, well. It's better than working myself into a tiz about my upcoming holiday, so I've brought popcorn to share.

ETA: The Enders forward Decadent's emails to Dear Author though the Ender's side of the conversation hasn't been made public yet (there's also still debate about whether Decadent shared purchase information or not and whether they accused the Ender's of piracy). Sandra Sookoo is denying any involvement with the Enders.

Also, AbsoluteWrite's thread, which is desperately trying to stay on topic.


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[info]feenix
2011-01-17 06:17 pm UTC (link)
...You know, I've read all the links and I still don't get what happened.

And all I see is spooge EVERYWHERE.

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]cmdr_zoom
2011-01-17 08:01 pm UTC (link)
Same here.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]solelyfictional
2011-01-17 11:20 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, it's epic spooge on all sides. The Enders are grudgy, the author was potentially diviash, the publisher was unprofessional...

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]cleolinda
2011-01-17 08:04 pm UTC (link)
Okay, I was wondering if I had just gone stupid or my blood sugar was low or something. Like, I dimly grasp what's going on, but... what?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]feenix
2011-01-17 10:30 pm UTC (link)
After careful inspection, I think I've got it.

I THINK what happened was:

The Ender blog (because hell if I'm typing all of that out) reviewed "Coming Home." Scathingly. (The audience may or may not have been bitchy, though - I'll leave that for you to judge.)

The author wanks a bit, the publisher wanks a bit more, and normally we'd be done. However, in this case, it turned out that the reviewers themselves had a conflict of interest - they'd had a bad business relationship with the author, and one of the reviewers was signed WITH the publisher, and thus there's reason to believe that - in the common parlance of this area - the review was a grudgewank.

And no one came out looking good in all of this.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]caffeine_fairy
2011-01-17 11:13 pm UTC (link)
I _think_ there was bonus "But I never said you could review me" in there, but I might be misreading...

Also, your icon continues to terrify.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]cleolinda
2011-01-17 11:21 pm UTC (link)
Oh! Yes! That is exactly what the writeup says, but somehow I didn't quite grok it until now. I think I got lost somewhere around Albuquerque all the conflicts of interest.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]solelyfictional
2011-01-17 11:32 pm UTC (link)
There is also - though without names named it's hard to tell - that one of the reviewers is an editor with the publisher. Which boosts her from c'contracted freelancer' to 'employee'. There are positively epic amounts of conflicts-of-interest here, and I'm not sure if anyone involved knows how deep the rabbit hole grudge goes.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]cleolinda
2011-01-17 11:48 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, the writeup is not the problem, believe m--wait, she's an editor there? She's talking shit about her own employer? To... bag on competing authors? And they give awards to themselves? Okay, actually, their motivation is starting to make sense now.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]solelyfictional
2011-01-17 11:57 pm UTC (link)
Someone might be an editor? Someone else has claimed lack of involvement? The problem is people are throwing names around without tying them to anything. Plus, romancelandia pseudonyms. Everyone has three or four names.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]breecita
2011-01-19 03:45 am UTC (link)
I've been watching this from the start and I'm STILL not on top, but I believe Reviewer A edited Author at Publisher A (which ended bitterly & badly) and then reviewed Author's book from Publisher B, where Reviewer A is also an author. Reviewer B, Reviewer A's partner-in-crime on the blog, is an editor at Publisher B.

Maybe.

I dunno, I'd need a diagram at this point. Or a vodka. I think it can be summed up with: everyone looks baaaaaaad.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]sisterelwood
2011-01-20 06:44 am UTC (link)
Oh good - I was hoping someone would sum this up. The report is fine but there is just so much wank everywhere I look that I kept losing track of who was wanking when.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]ghostmaster
2011-01-17 08:43 pm UTC (link)
Oh, thank heavens it's not just me.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]solelyfictional
2011-01-17 11:22 pm UTC (link)
Chronological may not have been my best bet in attempting to outline what happened. But, well... There is blatantly so much more going on than anyone's revealed so far. I suspect the grudge goes deep.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]feenix
2011-01-18 12:37 am UTC (link)
Just to be clear, I'm NOT blaming you for not being clear - I think your write up was as good as you could explain the situation!

The problem is, it's just a bunch of people screaming at each other for reasons only they understand and everyone on the sidelines is like, "What are these idiots going on about?"

(Reply to this)(Parent)


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