Open letter to S&S [Simon & Schuster]

My philosophy about putting your angry rantings into writing is

a.) It's GOING to get you into trouble with someone.

b.) It MAY get you into a lot of trouble with someone.

c.) If you can write it all out once, erase it, wait a week (although allegedly this guy waited a year before he spewed), and then still want to write all the angry shit you wrote in the heat of anger, then maybe there's something to it.

Chances are, though, that your second draft will look drastically subdued and more well thought out than the original, if you even find it worth writing to begin with. From personally writing stuff like this author wrote and then regretting it, I see this as very possibly a major blunder.

Also, I stopped reading about here:

Your company is stuck in the year 1850 or whatever, when ships came from England with books to sell to the New World.

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Cool story, bro. Shouldn't it be "or whenever"? Not nitpicking an artist or anything, just saying.

Plus all the "fucks" and "bitches" etc. kind of keyed me in that this wasn't going to be a clear-minded essay on the plights of publishing...

Sigh. Yet another 'artist' whining about how other people should count themselves lucky to work with artists. Bloody hell, I've *never* been in his
happy financial situation, and I probably never will. If someone gave me a 65K advance, I wouldn't be pitching fits about it taking six weeks to be paid. I'd be writing the next damned book. Most advances are paid out as partials, anyway.

I'm an artist. I know the cold, hard, competitive world in which I exist. I'm happy waiting six weeks for a tiny little $350 check from a major university, because it's worth the kudos to say on my CV 'work collected by X University Special Collections Library.'

I wouldn't be surprised to find out this was a publicity stunt that went horribly awry.

ios said:

Would you--and other S&S authors--say that in general the deadlines and dates S&S sets are met from its side? If they are not, then I can understand SM's point, in which case better dates need to be set from the get-go.

Jodi

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Honestly, I can't tell you. I'm in a unique position because my editor gained her own imprint (Emily Bestler Books) just after she acquired my book. So it's been an interesting, busy, surprise-filled year for all of us. I have no complaints whatsoever, though. These are exciting times!

This I can tell you: S&S have paid me in a very timely fashion, and the contract didn't take long to organize, either. If I have questions, they never leave me hanging.

ios said:

Would you--and other S&S authors--say that in general the deadlines and dates S&S sets are met from its side? If they are not, then I can understand SM's point, in which case better dates need to be set from the get-go.

Jodi

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I'm an S&S author and they've met every single deadline on their side. They've also lived up to every marketing promise they made. My editors have been fantastic and let me know when they're going on holidays. haha

They've been nothing but professional to me.

IdiotsRUs said:

The 'oh dear' pat on the head for being ill kind of grates though.

I have my douchy moments, sure. I am human! But if anyone patted me on the head and said 'never mind, it's cos you're ill' I would probably bite their hand clean off.

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That's what's bothering me about the responses, too. Yes, he's ill. So what? So are lots of people. It's not carte blanche to be an asshole, and similarly, those of us who deal with this don't want special treatment.

It's not fair to forgive his rantings as mania any more than it is to marginalize his ideas as the products of a diseased brain. He's a person with a mood disorder, not someone suffering psychotic breaks.

I wish the bipolar issue was just left out of it.

leahzero said:

That's what's bothering me about the responses, too. Yes, he's ill. So what? So are lots of people. It's not carte blanche to be an asshole, and similarly, those of us who deal with this don't want special treatment.

It's not fair to forgive his rantings as mania any more than it is to marginalize his ideas as the products of a diseased brain. He's a person with a mood disorder, not someone suffering psychotic breaks.

I wish the bipolar issue was just left out of it.

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Nobody is "forgiving" his rantings.
What I'm saying is that it's pointless to argue about whether he "should" or "should not" have posted this if he is, indeed, having a manic episode.

I assume from your post that you are bipolar.
Have you ever tried to argue with yourself when you're bipolar? If you are in a manic state, is it even possible to believe for one moment that you might be wrong?

I have a couple of bipolar siblings.
They can be absolutely brilliant in their manic states, but I wouldn't waste my time discussing any of their ideas with them in that state.

I also don't hold anything they did or said against them. If I did that, we'd have no relation left. I do, however, get awfully mad if they don't take their meds. There is NO excuse for that.

So no it not "carte blanche to be an asshole."

But, again, what is the point in arguing over whether the guy should have written it at all?

yeah... manics... don't write blog posts when you're on an upswing.

I could almost feel the head patting, toe-tapping, teeth chattering energy of this dude humming off the page.

I can't believe he thought the publisher would be over the moon about giving away a book. That is some seriously skewed thinking. He's not the one printing, proofing, storing and shipping the thing.

oh, and if S&S wanted to give me $65k and treat me like a bitch, I'd bend over and wait, oh, I don't know... 8 WEEKS to get paid.

We're talkin' big house publishing here, hello! You're going to get your book in STORES and stuff.

One of the most amazing things about learning about the publishing biz was you might publish a book and never see it anywhere. If he got a 65K advance, clearly they planned on marketing that baby and getting their monies back.

Fool.

The more I think about it, the more I wanna stomp on this guy's toes.

There is therapy in writing a letter to the person (or organization) that you are angry with. The caveat is that you are not supposed to send it (or make it public), you're supposed to tear it up, or burn it, or otherwise dispose of it.

Too bad this fellow did not do that.

Sounds like this dude needs help.

Susan Littlefield said:

There is therapy in writing a letter to the person (or organization) that you are angry with. The caveat is that you are not supposed to send it (or make it public), you're supposed to tear it up, or burn it, or otherwise dispose of it.

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That was easier back in the olden days -- I remember a couple of occasions where I wrote a very angry letter, put it in an envelope with a stamp, set it out to mail the next day -- and by the next day thought better of it and tore it up.

The immediacy of the Internet prevents that enforced "lag time".

I thought it was Simon and Schuster, not Simon and Schuester. I didn't even bother reading after that.

LindaJeanne said:

The immediacy of the Internet prevents that enforced "lag time".

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I think this is one of the biggest problems. I'm discovering the more stories like this I hear, the more I hate the immediacy of the internet.

In any case, this was a really stupid thing to do, and it doesn't matter what his mental state. I've seen people without bipolar disorder make exactly the same sort of mistakes, and it comes from being emotional and impulsive.

Two things really bothered me. One, every person he mentions he worked with was great and awesome and not the problem. I'm sorry, but if everyone you worked with was great and wonderful, etc., then you really don't have much cause to bitch. Second, I couldn't help but cringe reading a lot of what he said and thinking you just don't understand how this works. I know a lot of authors get frustrated when their covers don't look the way they'd envisioned, but it's not that uncommon, either. Cover artists are much more informed than most artists, and while sometimes they might make mistakes, they're more likely to put together something useful than the writer is.

Similarly, he complains that marketing and editors should work together. Forgive me if I'm just completely naive here, but why? The editor's job is to edit and improve the quality of the book, right? How is that directly connected to marketing? Cover and marketing I could understand. Blurb, etc.? Yeah? But I just don't understand why it's so inefficient that the two aren't directly connected. Please feel free to let me know if I'm wrong here.

I feel like this is someone who, based on rather limited knowledge of a topic, has decided he has all the right answers and doesn't see why they don't just change things to his way and then gets pissed when the people who actually do get it fail to listen. I'm almost embarrassed for him, honestly. To make matters worse, his tone is so darn condescending that I can't take anything he says seriously, even if there are valid arguments in there.

I hope he takes this down and apologizes and the fallout isn't as bad as it could be. And that he learns something from all this.

Could it be (and I'm blue-skying here) that's he intentionally trying to get S&S to cut him loose, so he can then self-pub?

Some of the lines made me wonder the same thing, but I doubt it. I get the impression he really is pissed. I also don't think it's a publicity stunt.

Gravity said:

Could it be (and I'm blue-skying here) that's he intentionally trying to get S&S to cut him loose, so he can then self-pub?

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Hmmm seems like a rather large risk to his reputation, like he might be self-publishing for the rest of his career.

The Lonely One said:

Hmmm seems like a rather large risk to his reputation, like he might be self-publishing for the rest of his career.

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I don't understand. Why would someone want to be cute loose from a big publisher to self-publish? Often, there is no money in self publishing, unless you happen to get picked up by a big publisher.

Romantic Heretic said:

The man's bipolar and he's in a manic cycle. This does give him a gigantic amount of energy but his perception is screwed. The result of this isn't going to be pretty.

I just hope that no other people are damaged when he implodes.

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This exactly.

*starts reading, ends up skimming*

Respectfully Yours,
Sebastian Marshall

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respectfully....

Anyone have the twitter hashtag to follow?

Just wanted to echo what was above - I'm with S&S and my payments have always been prompt. Actually, I can pretty much time them from the day that I turn something in to the day when payment arrives.

Susan Littlefield said:

I don't understand. Why would someone want to be cute loose from a big publisher to self-publish? Often, there is no money in self publishing, unless you happen to get picked up by a big publisher.

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If you've built up a fan base at one of the Big Six, they might follow you anywhere.

Has anybody read Marshall's other posts? He has several stream-of-conciousness rants about business loaded with f-bombs, "dude", & general dude-speak. It appears he's peddling business motivational advice. "Strategy, philosophy, self-discipline, science. Victory."

I'm all for plain speaking, but why on your blog? It's a rather transparent come on. "Oh look at how successful I am because I lay it on the line." Really, I should have thought business success was measured in the money made on the project. Self-discipline is an odd bed-fellow with blistering rants in public.

One can do well in the self-help line I suppose. If he scored $65k from S&S, SM made out well. Personally, I'd be pretty wary of emulating any of the advice given by this guy. There's one born every minute I suppose.

Is it just me or are we seeing more and more author meltdowns lately? Well, I suppose it is a full moon.

In all seriousness though, from reading that dudes letter I realized several things:


1. He has no idea how publishing actually works, and should perhaps have done some research before he started bitching about it. There are a whole chain of people involved, which can cause problems. People get ill, people have problems, people get bogged down in other clients problems.

2. He thinks it's fine to gamble with other peoples money - see his idea for a 'money back' guarentee. That's cool in certain circumstances, but stands to loose a huge amount of money not just for him but also for the publisher. Gah!

3. He appears to lack the balls to actually discuss the issues with his publisher, instead he posts an 'open letter' which is really just a cry for free publicity. If he had wanted to then he would have dealt with these problems in a mature and professional way. Instead he freaks out in public. Not professional and also not showing me that he's anyone I want to listen to in terms of self-help business books. Just sayin' Seb.

4. He has no respect for anyone, including those people who pay him huge amounts of money, both in his day job and in his publishing career. He has no respect for himself and certainly no respect for all those people who have helped him get where he is. Look at the comments he made about his day job etc and how he treated people there. I suppose he thought that sounded impressive, personally I read it and made a mental not to never work with the guy, and anyone thinking of working with him will most certainly google him and this will come up. Clearly didn't think that through very well either. Not great marketing really, so not actually inspiring me to trust his marketing ability. Shot yourself in the foot there Seb.

Sydneyd said:

I think that is what a lot of people are saying. Buried in his rantings are real issues that (I am only guessing here since I have yet to get this far in my own career) authors and maybe even agents are thinking.

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There are a lot of reasons why publishing is the way it is. It's a slow beasty by nature and although things are changing it's going to take time.

Yes, it would be nice to get paid 'immediately' but I also am aware that I have to wait for bookstores to pay my publishers who THEN pay me. And sometimes people are late. My publishers can't pay me what they don't have. Delays happen and sometimes it's not the fault of the people you think it is.

Filigree said:

Sigh. Yet another 'artist' whining about how other people should count themselves lucky to work with artists.

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I don't work with anyone who calls themselves an 'artist' unless they are an actual paint and pencil artist. It's usually an alarm bell for occurences like these.

Most advances are paid out as partials, anyway.

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Any contract I have signed has said clearly that the payments were due 'within 30 days of signing /delivery'. I've never had a contract that said 'immediately' but I would be willing to bet that where one did say 'immediately' that term would be clarified in the notes.

leahzero said:

That's what's bothering me about the responses, too. Yes, he's ill. So what? So are lots of people. It's not carte blanche to be an asshole, and similarly, those of us who deal with this don't want special treatment.

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Agreed.

I just spotted the bit where SM says he's got cyclothemic mania & it's awesome. Is there much of a market for self-help advice from bi-polar people having an episode?

shaldna said:

I
3. He appears to lack the balls to actually discuss the issues with his publisher, instead he posts an 'open letter' which is really just a cry for free publicity. If he had wanted to then he would have dealt with these problems in a mature and professional way. Instead he freaks out in public. Not professional and also not showing me that he's anyone I want to listen to in terms of self-help business books. Just sayin' Seb.

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This is always a valid argument when it comes to these things. As it is a 'letter' to the publisher and doesn't address a public audience or attempt to inform, it has no business getting into our hands. I don't want to read it besides, so keep your letters to their respective inboxes and away from me.

Hmmmm, read that letter. I can't help wondering...

1. Why is it people are assuming he's bipolar? Is it because of the angry tone of the letter, and possibly figurative use of the term 'cychlothemic mania'?

2. Does being bipolar/having an angry tone = the points he raises are automatically of no value? I actually found some of what he said to be revealing of logistical aspects of the publishing business that could be frustrating to authors, though of course, perhaps impractical to improve any time soon as he seems to wish...

3. If he was having a manic episode (note, an actual manic episode) when writing the post, isn't it pointless to bash him for it? esp when (cychlothemic) mania can, I believe, manifest to different degrees in different people to begin with, though do correct me if I'm wrong there...

Just some thoughts...