Anyone else catch it? It's on 4OD (which presumably isn't accessible outside the UK, but who knows?) if you didn't.
Mark gets snared by a vanity publisher, and it so perfectly highlights the way vanity pubs prey on authors that I'd swear one of the writers has been through it his/herself. You know, "everyone pays to be published now", "it's the recession", "no one gets a tour unless they're already famous", "you get higher royalties when you sell over a certain number of books which I just know you will" etc. It made for interesting watching for me because I've known several people who, despite warnings, have fallen for the exact same patter. I'm kinda hoping if they see it they'll recognise their publishers for what they really are, and realise that it's not an insult to their intelligence to fall for it, either.
(if you haven't seen Peep Show before, it's entirely shot in PoV with a lot of internal dialogue. Mark, neurotic history buff, used to work in insurance, but got made redundant and has had a string of high street jobs since. Jez thinks of himself as a musician, though he's mainly supported by his parents and Mark. It's been running for 8 years and is one of the UK's most successful sitcoms.)
Mark gets snared by a vanity publisher, and it so perfectly highlights the way vanity pubs prey on authors that I'd swear one of the writers has been through it his/herself. You know, "everyone pays to be published now", "it's the recession", "no one gets a tour unless they're already famous", "you get higher royalties when you sell over a certain number of books which I just know you will" etc. It made for interesting watching for me because I've known several people who, despite warnings, have fallen for the exact same patter. I'm kinda hoping if they see it they'll recognise their publishers for what they really are, and realise that it's not an insult to their intelligence to fall for it, either.
(if you haven't seen Peep Show before, it's entirely shot in PoV with a lot of internal dialogue. Mark, neurotic history buff, used to work in insurance, but got made redundant and has had a string of high street jobs since. Jez thinks of himself as a musician, though he's mainly supported by his parents and Mark. It's been running for 8 years and is one of the UK's most successful sitcoms.)