- Joined
- Jul 18, 2006
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- 8,745
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- Toronto, Canada
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- www.adriennekress.com
Still really not getting this. Sitting here literally scratching my head. How did she manipulate fellow writers? By chatting to them on a forum or something, or by writing books they might enjoy...? Do you feel that being part of a writing community that you're not deeply, selflessly in love with is somehow dishonest? And I still don't see why there's anything wrong with 'not putting much effort in' to her craft and yet getting a book deal. You don't get book deals on the basis of effort, you get them on the basis of the product of that effort. Lots of people clearly like what she's written.
All the facts I'm going off of are from that blog post Stacia linked to, so obviously I don't necessarily know all the facts. Still.
This is how I feel she manipulated the situation (possibly I misspoke in saying "readers"): the only reason (according to the blog) that she got as many initial reads of her work was because of the TWILIGHT association. People are rabid for more TWILIGHT stuff. So the main reason they read this story was because it was more Bella/Edward stuff. Not because she'd written an original work. She wrote something about Bella and Edward, used those exact names, and posted it on a site devoted to people devoted to TWILIGHT. Would she have gotten the same kind of popularity had she posted the piece without that connection? Without using those names? I have no idea. But I have a funny feeling she wouldn't have had this instant built in audience.
Then once it was really popular, she changed nothing but the names and charged people for the pleasure of reading the book. The SAME people who already associated the book with TWILIGHT and were fans. Did she get more fans? Of course, those people told other people who told other people. But would any of this have happened had she not used the TWILIGHT fan base? Unlikely.
Is this illegal? No. Is it annoying. Yes. For me. Maybe not for you.
And why do I see it as unfair that she's not a great writer but still landed a huge deal, is becoming famous and rich off her writing?
The same way I see that it's unfair about any other published author who does the same.
I want people who work hard at their craft, who struggle and improve, who are passionate about what they are doing, and just, you know, good, to succeed. I want the good guys to win. Once in a while they do. But often they don't. And that's just life. But it isn't fair. Again, at least not to me.
This doesn't mean I think any of these people don't deserve to be published. That they are doing something wrong and should have their contracts revoked. I just think it's life. I know far too many brilliant writers (and storytellers - because people always accuse not famous writers of clearly not writing compelling enough stories when maybe sometimes it's just bad luck) who go ignored, and the opposite become famous. The most recent example is Caitlin Sweet who's THE PATTERN SCARS is one of the best fantasy novels I've read in a long long time. But she was published with a small Canadian house, and she simply doesn't get the accolades she deserves.
So yeah, to me it's not fair. Because to me I like to see quality prevail. And yes, I guess we could argue subjectivity, what is good writing really and all that jazz, but that's not my point in posting in this thread.
My point is simple: life's not fair.
And it's not, even if you think this particular situation is.
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