posted
As far as I'm aware if an ordinary member of the public posts a review on Amazon.com it is neither copyrighted by Amazon itself or the reviewer. Our ever vigilant moderator will, I'm sure, keep me right. In the event that it is okay I thought I'd share these thoughts with you. All these reviews are by the same person, posted over the past 14 months or so. There is some repetition (okay, there's a lot). Now, it may just very well be that this guy has issues - he certainly has a bee in his bonnet! - but perhaps you agree with his observations.
Below is a list of the titles he reviews. Here is the link:
2004 Writer's Market by Kathryn S. Brogan June 29, 2004
2005 Writer's Market by Kathryn S. Brogan October 2, 2004
Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishers, Editors and Literary Agents 2004: Who They Are! What They Want! and How to Win Them Over! by Jeff Herman November 21, 2004
2005 Guide to Literary Agents by Kathryn S. Brogan February 8, 2005
Literary Agents: What They Do, How They Do It, and How to Find and Work with the Right One for You by Michael Larsen February 17, 2005
Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing: A Novelist Looks at His Craft by David Morrell August 12, 2005
[This message has been edited by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (edited October 09, 2005).]
[This message has been edited by Paul-girtbooks (edited October 10, 2005).]
posted
Thanks, Paul. Sobering, indeed. Daunting, certainly. Discouraging, no doubt. But interesting reading regardless.
I have no misconceptions about my skills as a writer: I suck. I work hard to improve, but I may never get anything published. And even if my work has little chance of selling, I will still stick to the rules because there is always Hope -- plus I've always been a little bit anal about rules.
But I will write. Even if it's just for me.
[This message has been edited by Warbric (edited October 09, 2005).]
- what I found most sobering is that, even if you are good, the chances of actually catching an agent's interest are infintesimal!
At the back of these 'Guide to Literary Agents' books they list the agents in terms of which ones are or are not open to new clients. And yet, even when you look up said agents entry in the guide they tell you that they mostly take on new clients through referral.
Tell me, how many of you guys out there are actually buddies with a regular book-publishing author? A Few? None, I bet. So it beggars the question how on earth are you suppose to get an 'in' with these agents?!
It's the old Catch-22: can't get a publisher because you haven't got an agent, and can't get an agent because you've never had a book published.
A lot of writers at conventions will jokingly tell you that it takes luck. They ain't joking. "Watership Down" was rejected over and over and over again before finally getting published. In the 30 years since it's been published it's never been out of print. Ditto Stephen Donaldson and J.K. Rowling. Why did all the other agents/publishers knock them back? Because they probably never bothered to read the manuscript/sample/query in the first place, for no other reason than that they didn't have the time.
Perseverance. It takes a lot of perseverance. Just don't give up your day jobs, guys.
PS thanks for the link Buffy!
[This message has been edited by Paul-girtbooks (edited October 09, 2005).]
posted
Hey, Buffy, thanks for the hedsup on another great blog.
I think this reviewer has probably been rejected a number of times---possibly for not sending queries and adhering to the submission guidelines---and is trying to burn bridges as best as he can. Obviously agents do read submissions they feel are good. There are so many new books out every year; not all of those authors are personally 'connected'.
posted
It does, and I'd discount it for that reason alone, but . . . when I was looking for agents in Writers' Market, I found that the indexing scheme wasn't the best (I wanted to just find the ones for my type of book -- hard to do in a physical book), and I am very very convinced that most agents in the USA are not in that list! There have GOT to be more. I only found some 10 that looked like they were interested in my type of book.
If I want to find an agent, I think I'll look on a web site.
[q] The question that puzzles us the most is, "What are the odds of getting published by Tor?" That is, what is our ratio of acceptance to rejection for manuscripts in our slush pile?
Answer: for very good books, the odds are excellent. For books we don't like, the odds are abysmal. No other measurement is meaningful. [/q]
posted
The copyright on a review on Amazon.com is owned by the reviewer. By posting the review on Amazon.com, the reviewer grants Amazon.com a license to reproduce the review. Posting such reviews here in their entirety may be copyright infringement.
Posts: 1517 | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I agree. I'm going to have to delete the actual reviews.
Paul, can you please edit the post to provide links to the reviews, so people who want to read what is being discussed here can go to the Amazon site and read the reviews there?
quote:As far as I'm aware if an ordinary member of the public posts a review on Amazon.com it is neither copyrighted by Amazon itself or the reviewer.
Then you may not be aware that any original creative work is automatically copyrighted as soon as it's written down. People have a false notion that you have to "do" something more in order to obtain copyright.
It is perfectly legal, however, to quote someone's writing for purposes of review as long as you do not copy it in its entirety, and as long as you cite the source.
posted
The bitterness that spills over in his reviews is hilarious. I particularly liked "Sometimes you have to succomb to extream measures".
It's hard to believe he's had his manuscripts rejected, isn't it?
I also liked the way he tore apart the back cover copy of Jonathan Carroll's "Outside The Dog Museum" (not Carroll's best work, but still worth reading; but "Land Of Laughs" and "Bones Of The Moon" are utterly brilliant, while "Child Across The Sky" is deeply scary, if marginally incomprehensible...). if the back cover copy was so appalling... why did he read the book?
posted
As a sidenote, if you are an Amazon affiliate, your agreement gives you the rights to reproduce reviews in their entirety. That's one reason we see so many sites with Amazon reviews on them. They are using SOAP and/or XML to create the sites.
Posts: 179 | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I always knew it would be difficult to get my stuff published. What that reviewer said was really nothing new to me. He did seem to be bitter, though. I did notice that. Oh well, just have to keep trying, I guess. What else can you do? Some of the most popular books out there were rejected countless times before they got published. That's just the way things go.
Posts: 202 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
What we're witnessing there, is the death of a dream. Whether it was a credible dream, one can only wonder.
Posts: 1810 | Registered: Jun 2002
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