Once upon a time, a would-be author would have been at the mercy of the established publishing houses if he wanted to get his work out there for the world to see. It wasn't fair, really; very few previously unpublished authors were accepted, and producing your own work was cost prohibitive. A lot of talented writers, (and film makers, and musicians), remained unread and undiscovered. The personal computer has changed all that. Today, an investment of a couple of hundred bucks
provides the wherewithal to produce and distribute your own book, movie, or record. With a little savvy or luck, anyone can become an overnight success.
Or not.
The spectrum of available media, good and bad, is overwhelming. If you are a devotee of the web, and bored with YouTube, or tired of inevitably drifting into the weird videos, Amazon Books can provide a startling and unexpected alternative. I had no conception of the full range of material available for the non-discriminating reader's pleasure. And it's all for sale over the Internet.
I've had one memorable run-in with the world of the vanity press. (I recently found myself extensively critiqued in the memoirs of a self-published acquaintance. That book, which will remain unnamed, is for sale on Amazon.)
There are some really, really, really badly written books available on Amazon. Some of them are so awful that they're giving them away for free. A few are so appallingly terrible that they have gained notoriety and sell out as soon as they're made available.
I was surfing the web last night and discovered an article, devoted to The Best in self-published tripe, which directed me to one success story that never would have been possible without widespread Internet access, a spectacularly amateurish coloring book for children, Latawnya, the Naughty Horse, Learns to Say "No" to Drugs. The title says it all. Just check it out. Check out the prices, too.
A dramatic reading is available on (you guessed it!) YouTube. If you google "naughty horse" you can find and read a complete version in scanned jpg form (on flicker). Reams of hilarious satirical commentary has been inspired by the book. A Wikipedia entry has links to a copy of a lawsuit the author filed against Amazon; who knows what else is out there?
I found myself in the weird-self-published-book section of Amazon. Adult favorites among the offerings I discovered are The Big Coloring Book of Vaginas and How to Live with a Huge Penis , but there is plenty of g-rated material available for the younger or less world. None of these fascinating finds would have been possible before the advent of the relatively inexpensive vanity press.
Showing posts with label vanity press. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vanity press. Show all posts
Friday, January 20, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
My name in print!
Christmas, 2011, Good Will Towards Men!
An old aquantainance just self published the story of his life. To my surprise, quite a bit of it is devoted to me. More specifically, to telling the world about how crazy and dangerous I am, how much worse I am than he is, and how much he suffered from our aquaintance. Under the guise of "telling the truth" and being fair, he did give me credit for certain talents, and wrote about at least one action I took to save him in a crisis.
I found most of what he had to say about me slanderous and unfair. I was his friend for about a year or so when he was at the height of his alcoholism. I had been his sober friend, and as such I often paid a heavy emotional price for his drinking. He was physically and emotionally abusive, as well as becoming quite insane when he drank. Anytime we left his house I would literally wind up carrying him home. I was the one he called to rescue him when he shattered his leg.
What really amazes me is that, although we spent so little time together, (he was in his 50s when I knew him), so much of the truly vitriolic in his autobiography was devoted to me. Page after page of gossipy libel. I obviously made a greater impression on him than his ex-wife and blood relatives, not to mention the myriad girlfriends who were hardly mentioned. Of course he failed to mention as well most of the truly idiotic things he did while drunk, those involving public nudity, inappropriate sexual behavior, really really bad lapses of judgement; all the alcoholic behaviors he has chosen to forget.
Thee book itself is terrible, a really narcissistic first try by someone who has no experience as a writer.
He paid to have it published by one of the vanity presses and has it posted all over the internet. I don't have to worry about anyone reading the slanderous things he had to say about me; it's extremely unlikely-to-impossible that his writing will ever become mainstream.
Still, it stings.
He cheerfully encouraged me to read his book, then actually had the gall to say he expected forgiveness and peace to come from my reading what he wrote about me,
He denied having any anger or ill feelings towards me.
A very good example of the type of dishonesty I wrote about in my first blog post.
An old aquantainance just self published the story of his life. To my surprise, quite a bit of it is devoted to me. More specifically, to telling the world about how crazy and dangerous I am, how much worse I am than he is, and how much he suffered from our aquaintance. Under the guise of "telling the truth" and being fair, he did give me credit for certain talents, and wrote about at least one action I took to save him in a crisis.
I found most of what he had to say about me slanderous and unfair. I was his friend for about a year or so when he was at the height of his alcoholism. I had been his sober friend, and as such I often paid a heavy emotional price for his drinking. He was physically and emotionally abusive, as well as becoming quite insane when he drank. Anytime we left his house I would literally wind up carrying him home. I was the one he called to rescue him when he shattered his leg.
What really amazes me is that, although we spent so little time together, (he was in his 50s when I knew him), so much of the truly vitriolic in his autobiography was devoted to me. Page after page of gossipy libel. I obviously made a greater impression on him than his ex-wife and blood relatives, not to mention the myriad girlfriends who were hardly mentioned. Of course he failed to mention as well most of the truly idiotic things he did while drunk, those involving public nudity, inappropriate sexual behavior, really really bad lapses of judgement; all the alcoholic behaviors he has chosen to forget.
Thee book itself is terrible, a really narcissistic first try by someone who has no experience as a writer.
He paid to have it published by one of the vanity presses and has it posted all over the internet. I don't have to worry about anyone reading the slanderous things he had to say about me; it's extremely unlikely-to-impossible that his writing will ever become mainstream.
Still, it stings.
He cheerfully encouraged me to read his book, then actually had the gall to say he expected forgiveness and peace to come from my reading what he wrote about me,
He denied having any anger or ill feelings towards me.
A very good example of the type of dishonesty I wrote about in my first blog post.
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