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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]ardath_rekha
2011-01-18 06:21 am UTC (link)
True, but there's probably something of a balancing game going on there... you've written good reviews, too, and probably have a good enough balance in there that the houses are willing to risk bad ones from you on occasion. Plus you're more of a legitimate gatekeeper between the publishers and the reading public than some random people who "gather at a local library to discuss and debate what we love about some books and what we hate about others" twice a month (and that claim makes me kinda wonder how it is that they were so quick to jump all over the short story in question and get a review up on their site ahead of whatever else had come out since their last kaffeeklatsch). Not that local book clubs don't play their role, but most of them don't score advance copies, either.

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