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The literary fandomwank?
Sep. 8th, 2012 01:57 pmIn this month's Writer's News in my Writing Magazine, I spotted a small article about the thriller author Stephen Leather. As I can't find an online copy of the article I will have to summarise it here. Basically the author was part of a panel at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival In Harrogate.
When he dicussed his self-publishing ebooks, producing very low cost ebooks on amazon and passing round a handful of free pdfs first to get a feel for his audience he found the audience did not receive this well. A big part of this maybe down to the fact that unlike others he had already made most of his money using traditionally publishing methods, and probably quipping that [giving out 100 free pdfs] was more constructuve than his editor at Hodder was unlikely to endear him to a crowd many of whom have concerns about the impact of ebook self-publishing on their livelihood.
And okay, that's...conflicting. I haven't really made my mind up about the whole arena of ebook self-publishing yet on the one hand it can be a breakthrough for brilliant authors who can't get publishers to take them seriously- particularly I think those who write in literary-ish genres which, co-incidentally, are the types of books I like to read! On the other hand, as with fanfiction online, for the good allowed to swim through the dross also follow.
The other big thing that really kicked everyone off though is the one that will be stirring up whatever the book world's equivalent of Fandom Wank for some time:
Another of Stephen's controversial methods made more impact after the event, particularly online. He spoke about creating fake Amazon accounts to manufacture discussions about his own books in order to give the impression of a buzz around them. Steve Mosby attempted to nail it down,'You mean "sock puppets"'?
OH YES HE DID.
Now whilst I may not be the type to have booed and hissed over the use of self-publishing in ebooks or cheap ebooks (because hey, with paper books I spent most of my life buying them from charity shops because the originals were too expensive, so totally have no leg to stand on) I am somewhat revolted but completely unsuprised that Mr Leather is the type to use sockpuppets to up his sales. I have had one experience already with his online presence, and found that quite disturbing enough.
I bought one of his ebooks The Bestseller read it, and reviewed it on goodreads. I gave it 1 star. The general idea was okay but on the whole I didn't enjoy reading it. I found many of the characters flimsy, was uninvested, found some of the discussions about other books self-absorbed, and generally not that fun to read. Now to me, reviewing on a site like good reads, or here, I am reviewing to share my opinion to other readers. I am not adressing the author, I am not saying that no one will like their work, I am simply saying if I did or did not so that others might know my opinion of it.
And Stephen Leather replied. Now, his comment to me was perfectly courteous:
Stephen Leather: Funnily enough I actually agree with you in that it is uncomfortable reading because as you point out no one has any redeeming features. That was actually what I set out to do, to write a book where there was no real 'hero' and to see if it would work. I think it does but at the end of the day there is no one to root for! The woman in the basement is just a victim because we only ever see her through the killer's eyes therefore we don't get the chance to relate to her..... But I'm glad it made your head spin because that was the main intention when I set out to write it!
Which is fair enough. But I was disturbed. And I think that replying like this could be intimidating to anyone- I did consider removing my review purely out of a knee jerk 'I don't want to hurt the author's feelings...' but then, as I said. I don't review to speak to an author- if I'd wanted that I would have written a letter to the author directly, and there was nothing in my review that I don't stand by.
To someone else however, who rated 1 star and didn't review he did reply. I wanted to show you guys this but his actual comment has been deleted- the person he commented on however included some of his comment when they responded:
Waylander Stephen wrote: "That's so funny, you took the time to give every single one of my books a one-star review! And under an alias. At least I have the balls to put my name to my reviews. You are a sad, sad little m..."
Now obviously some feud was going on here but still, it's not professional behaviour from an author to go around commenting when people give them bad marks of comments. It either makes the author a bit too posessive of their 'babies' (they're miiine and you're being mean to them) which is concerning but happens to many or just generally a bit of a knob-head ( I'm right! Everyone has to like my stuff BECAUSE I AM ALWAYS RIGHT and if you don't like it it is because you are TOO STUPID TO UNDERSTAND)
There's more wank, including people tracing the sock puppets to find Daily Mail worthy racism etc here or pretty much anywhere online if you type 'Stephen Leather sock puppets' into google. I am just intrigued because it is someone I have come across and, to be honest, that one small exchange made me feel something was a bitt iffy. Will have to see whether anything unfolds further!
When he dicussed his self-publishing ebooks, producing very low cost ebooks on amazon and passing round a handful of free pdfs first to get a feel for his audience he found the audience did not receive this well. A big part of this maybe down to the fact that unlike others he had already made most of his money using traditionally publishing methods, and probably quipping that [giving out 100 free pdfs] was more constructuve than his editor at Hodder was unlikely to endear him to a crowd many of whom have concerns about the impact of ebook self-publishing on their livelihood.
And okay, that's...conflicting. I haven't really made my mind up about the whole arena of ebook self-publishing yet on the one hand it can be a breakthrough for brilliant authors who can't get publishers to take them seriously- particularly I think those who write in literary-ish genres which, co-incidentally, are the types of books I like to read! On the other hand, as with fanfiction online, for the good allowed to swim through the dross also follow.
The other big thing that really kicked everyone off though is the one that will be stirring up whatever the book world's equivalent of Fandom Wank for some time:
Another of Stephen's controversial methods made more impact after the event, particularly online. He spoke about creating fake Amazon accounts to manufacture discussions about his own books in order to give the impression of a buzz around them. Steve Mosby attempted to nail it down,'You mean "sock puppets"'?
OH YES HE DID.
Now whilst I may not be the type to have booed and hissed over the use of self-publishing in ebooks or cheap ebooks (because hey, with paper books I spent most of my life buying them from charity shops because the originals were too expensive, so totally have no leg to stand on) I am somewhat revolted but completely unsuprised that Mr Leather is the type to use sockpuppets to up his sales. I have had one experience already with his online presence, and found that quite disturbing enough.
I bought one of his ebooks The Bestseller read it, and reviewed it on goodreads. I gave it 1 star. The general idea was okay but on the whole I didn't enjoy reading it. I found many of the characters flimsy, was uninvested, found some of the discussions about other books self-absorbed, and generally not that fun to read. Now to me, reviewing on a site like good reads, or here, I am reviewing to share my opinion to other readers. I am not adressing the author, I am not saying that no one will like their work, I am simply saying if I did or did not so that others might know my opinion of it.
And Stephen Leather replied. Now, his comment to me was perfectly courteous:
Stephen Leather: Funnily enough I actually agree with you in that it is uncomfortable reading because as you point out no one has any redeeming features. That was actually what I set out to do, to write a book where there was no real 'hero' and to see if it would work. I think it does but at the end of the day there is no one to root for! The woman in the basement is just a victim because we only ever see her through the killer's eyes therefore we don't get the chance to relate to her..... But I'm glad it made your head spin because that was the main intention when I set out to write it!
Which is fair enough. But I was disturbed. And I think that replying like this could be intimidating to anyone- I did consider removing my review purely out of a knee jerk 'I don't want to hurt the author's feelings...' but then, as I said. I don't review to speak to an author- if I'd wanted that I would have written a letter to the author directly, and there was nothing in my review that I don't stand by.
To someone else however, who rated 1 star and didn't review he did reply. I wanted to show you guys this but his actual comment has been deleted- the person he commented on however included some of his comment when they responded:
Waylander Stephen wrote: "That's so funny, you took the time to give every single one of my books a one-star review! And under an alias. At least I have the balls to put my name to my reviews. You are a sad, sad little m..."
Now obviously some feud was going on here but still, it's not professional behaviour from an author to go around commenting when people give them bad marks of comments. It either makes the author a bit too posessive of their 'babies' (they're miiine and you're being mean to them) which is concerning but happens to many or just generally a bit of a knob-head ( I'm right! Everyone has to like my stuff BECAUSE I AM ALWAYS RIGHT and if you don't like it it is because you are TOO STUPID TO UNDERSTAND)
There's more wank, including people tracing the sock puppets to find Daily Mail worthy racism etc here or pretty much anywhere online if you type 'Stephen Leather sock puppets' into google. I am just intrigued because it is someone I have come across and, to be honest, that one small exchange made me feel something was a bitt iffy. Will have to see whether anything unfolds further!
