Manuscript available on E-bay

Have you seen this??

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI...56&rd=1%a0

Please tell me the author is not on this message board. The listing title alone has a few grammar errors in it.

What do you think? Who's going to put in that first bid?

The auction on that item aready ended, with no bids.

Big discussion of that item <a href="http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/005569.html#005569" target="_new">here</a>, including appearances by the author.

I didn't notice the dates on it. I do see that he relisted it in October for a little less. No takers on that one either.

I just love the title of the auction. "ATTENTION TO ALL YOU WELL KNOWN, AUTHORS!" [sic]

And the picture of it with a note that seems to suggest anyone buying it would be more interested in the quality of the paper it was printed on than its actual content.

(Oh, and 200 pages... a bit short isn't it? The manuscript I've just finished a draft of came to 455)

Holy Cow!!! If the manuscript is so wonderful...nevermind...I think everyone knows what I was going to say.

I really feel sorry for the poor guy. He sounds awfully desperate.

-Elyse

Surely this was a joke. It wouldn't be so sad if it wasn't so true (and a reminder of what lengths a desperate writer would go to).

This is not the first time someone has tried this--I remember something similar from a couple of years ago. There was also a guy who was trying to sell shares in his unwritten novel, on the theory that it was going to make so much money investors should jump at the chance...

- Victoria

<<The auction on that item aready ended, with no bids.

Big discussion of that item here, including appearances by the author>>

Umm okay. Why is he typing in shorthand? Is that normal for that board? Just curious.

Diana

Diana, he was very rude in that thread, and the blog owner disemvoweled him.

the blog owner disemvoweled him.

:ha

Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!

I told my husband about the disemvoweling. It struck me as so funny, I started tearing up. :ha My husband looked at me like this: :wha He thinks I'm such a word geek. Little does he know that most of you are much deeper into word geekdom than I am. I just love this writing community. (Hopefully the talent and not just the strangeness will rub off on me.)

Diana, he was very rude in that thread, and the blog owner disemvoweled him

Ahh I see. I took shorthand in college and that's what it reminded me of. :rofl That's funny. Some people can be morons. :smack Thanks for explaining!

I doubt he would have received a bid had he asked only fifteen dollars for an opener. It's sad, really.

It is sad, but it is funny too.

I once knew a man who took his manuscript to a lawyer and hired the lawyer to submit it to all the top publishers, simultaneously, with the notice at the bottom that any infringement of the enclosed material would bring forth an immediate legal suit.

The lawyer cost him a thousand dollars: And no, he never got a reply from anybody.

Hey! for 15 bucks, I'd have bought the manuscript just out of curiosity.

Anyway, the guy obviously did something right, because we're all out here talking about him. There's no such thing as bad publicity.

Anyway, the guy obviously did something right, because we're all out here talking about him. There's no such thing as bad publicity.

Are you saying being on America's Most Wanted program is a good thing?

Depends what you're wanted for.:grin

I know they say there's no such thing as bad publicity, but no agent or editor out there who knows about this stunt would touch this guy now. He's just made himself way too much work.

But the thing is, his attitude isn't all that different from what I've heard a hundred times from other new writers. Silly as his views are, they go right along with what a great many believe.

I do feel sorry for the buy, can't help it, but yes, there is a humorous element to it all.

I did too. Until he had his mistakes pointed out by people who knew better than him, who should have been easy for him to recognise as knowing better than him, and whom he just ignored. Or began personal attacks on (I saw some of those posts before he was disemvowelled). That's when I lost sympathy.

If the guy was smart enough to listen to the people on those threads, he would be smart enough never to have placed a manuscript on Ebay for 150K

He's obviously not the brightest star in the night sky. Even in the thread he came across as Forest Gump's dumber brother.

he has it listed again with a new "lower" bidding price and some corrections to his description.

Shawn

It's surprising -- or not? -- how much attention this is getting everywhere.

I found this link just a few minutes ago on another site. It seems, as they said, this "has attracted an editor's blog."

nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/005569.html#005569

~Jen