Recap & Clarification On Mr. Bryant...

If the name Carroll Bryant is not familiar, it soon will be. And not in a flattering way at all. This man seems to have single-handedly made indie publishing that much harder for indie authors with his lack of ethics and professional protocol.

Now mind you, I'm going by other blog posts, some details I found through other blog posts and have yet to go look around on AbsoluteWrite.com and check out the forums. But, bloggers tend to be pretty good in gathering their facts, so I will leave you with two more blog links to see more of what has come to light in this whole situation.

This one.

And this one. This one, is the most important.

Okay, and I did just go through some of the forum stuff on AbsoluteWrite.com here.

Once you are a little more informed, like me, you'll still see this as a bad thing. This guy did not act in a professional manner at all.

Indie authors already have a bad rap! This is not going to help. Reviewers are throwing down the gauntlet and quite a few are not going to review indie authors ever again. Unless of course, they have built a rapport with them and like them.

So like one person said on the AW Water Cooler, Authors Behaving Badly is becoming a trend. Their numbers rise while those of us with professionalism and integrity struggle. (Okay, I didn't quote them verbatim, you get the idea.)

There are going to be some severe consequences to all of this, guys.

1) IF people continue to buy Mr. Bryant's books and his numbers continue to grow rapidly due to his now A.B.B. image, more authors are going to follow suit.

2) Reviewers will stop reviewing.

What does this mean for writers? Readers?

If Bryant's perverse way of gaining readers works and others follow suit, we're in for a world of hurt. People hide behind the computer every day spouting off things they would never say to someone face to face. Seriously, I would like to meet with people face to face who bad mouth me. In my experience, most of those people back down and try to explain away their actions to smooth things over so I don't end up using their head for a doorstop.

Not really.

Maybe.

Point is, he needs to be the one taught a lesson in all of this, not the reviewers who really had every right to do what they did. Again, a commenter on AW Water Cooler said he's the adult here, shouldn't he be acting his age?

Reviewers are vital to the publishing industry. Why? Because they tell people whether or not a book is worth it. Will one reviewer make or break you?

NO.

Because everyone's tastes in books varies. I can tell you what I like to read. It doesn't mean that you won't like it. If I love it, you may hate it. If I hate it, you'll adore it. Possibilities are endless here. The reviewers are just trying to help filter through the crap. Sorry, but there is lots of it out there, self published AND traditional published.

Pointing the finger at self pubbed authors is not going to help. Some review blogs I have read did state that most indie authors are more pushy. Maybe they are, but you can't tell me a traditionally published author can't be just as pushy. Or creepy. Or dysfunctional.

This is not something that is going to go away overnight. People love the drama. MY concern is this, however: If something isn't done about this as a writing community whether you are self published, traditional published, a reader, a reviewer or even a blogger - it is only going to get worse.

That is my opinion, take it or leave it, as always.

What do you think?

A Couple Of New Outlets...

I belong to lots of different places other than FaceBook and Twitter where I can actively post and stuff.

Stuff. Lots of stuff.

One of the places I found a very long time ago is AbsoluteWrite.com. I found it through a friend of mine who I had met when I first "published". Absolute Write had a HUGE long post about Publish America.

At first, the posts made me feel like I wanted to throw up. I couldn't believe I had not followed one of THE first rules of publishing: RESEARCH!!!! But the more I posted, the more I became a part of the community. This was the first site of mine to fall to the wayside when things got hectic for me. Because even though I was welcomed there, I still felt embarrassed for being a fool.

The other site I joined right away during my PA fiasco was WritersCafe. They're an awesome little community as well. I feel like I want to prove that I have taken advice and have become a better writer and know to do my research these days.

Not sure how many of you utilize these two sites. But if you don't, I would recommend it. There's lots of useful information, places to market, things like that. You can find me in either places listed under Caledonia Lass. That's my user name and I'm sticking to it. ;) I shared my two short stories from Writing.com's writing prompt contest. I don't know what else I will share, but we'll see.

Have a great rest of the weekend.