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?

Insecure Writer's Support Group...

Hi there, I'm an insecure writer and my name is Mel.

I know, I've already done a similar post like this, with that beginning.

So what am I insecure about in my writing? The better question would be what am I NOT insecure about in my writing. I worry and stress over the smallest things. I worry about how I am ending my sentences. Am I using a preposition? Am I changing tense again in the middle of a sentence? Because I am prone to do that very thing.

Most of all, I worry that my plot is too weak, that people will just look at it and say, "Oh for the love of God how did this manage to get published???" and throw it away.

I worry about even getting published. I'm constantly worrying and changing things to make the story stronger. I have about a half dozen or so characters I have to juggle and discovered my focus is on two of them more than the others in the first book.

So how do I fix all of this? I revise and rework those sentence structures I am so worried about. My plot may seem weak, but in all actuality, it is the basest of urges. War has been started for lesser reasons.

I know I will eventually be published. I just have to work at it and listen to the suggestions (if I get any) when rejected.

As for my characters, this first part of the story is supposed to focus on the two right now. The focus shifts later on and everyone gets their chance in the spotlight. So it works out.

The thing is, the more I worry and stress, the more I push myself to write better, cleaner stories. I have a tendency to change POV right in the middle of something and have now cleared up that little habit by sticking to the POV I am in.

Write your story, get it all out before you go back to polish it up. If you don't get it all out, sometimes you won't know where it is going to lead. Don't be afraid to make a mistake.

I've made one of the biggest mistakes I could have ever made in my writing career. Early on I didn't do my research on the publisher and I got scammed. But it has made me a better writer. I have done everything in my power to fix that mistake. I've changed the whole story, which I would never have done had I kept going the way I was going. Talk about major plot holes.... But because I changed the story, I have an even stronger one. One that I find more captivating and hope others feel the same.

The thing that making that mistake has helped me with the most? My confidence. I never would have thought I could be a blogger, get on Twitter or FaceBook and do what I do. I would never have created a website. And I certainly never thought I would have the amount of followers I have. I am so very grateful for each and every one of you, even if you don't always read my posts or leave a comment. I try very hard to read all of your posts and comment, but there are only so many hours in a day.

Be sure to check back next week. I have lots of insecurities. :D