You should see the long looooooooong protracted debate on Rob Sawyer's Face Book page about why it is better to get publishing companies to print your book than to self-publish. There are people out there who really believe that going through the "filtering process" of acceptance and validation by any press guarantees quality over those who are more "impatient." To be sure, Rob's first remark was to vilify those who suggested to any author that they self-publish when the enterprise could come to naught (especially economically).
I think the worst novel I read, next to _Woman Between the Worlds_, was Jonathan Carroll's _Sleeping in Flame_. Touted all over as the next best thing to sliced bread in the realm of intellectual fantasy. On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 6:42 PM, Dana Paxson <[email protected]> wrote: > 35 years or so ago I was driving my family through the Adirondacks, and to > keep the kids entertained, started making up a song about the Adirondack > Shark. I guess I was just participating in some silly cosmic freshwater > resonance. > > > Eric Scoles wrote: > > Are you sure he was serious? (Then again, if I have to ask...) > > When I was younger I thought it would be fun to write a novel about a giant > muskelunge eating swimmers in Lake Michigan. Thought it would be fun to see > if people took it seriously. Somebody else suggested, 'why not just make it > a gigantic bass and set it in Long Lake?'* Then someone went and made > _Champlain_, which I'm told was about a gigantic alligator terrorizing > swimmers in Lake Champlain, and I realized that the world had moved on > without me. > > > -- > *My brothers & I spent hours one weekend catching and re-catching (and > re-re-catching) undersized smallmouth bass on Long Lake. One of our running > jokes had to do with crossing them with piranha. So, there's another idea. > > > On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 4:15 PM, Jonathan Sherwood < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Sorry to digress slightly, but the absolute worst case of collaboration >> was a book my dear wife bought me for a beach read. It was by Piers Anthony >> and some other guy. It's called "Spider Legs," and holds my personal record >> for worst book ever read. It was so bad I had to finish it just because it >> was hard to believe it was ever put into print instead of sent back to the >> depths of Hell by the publisher. >> >> It's basically "Jaws" but with a giant spider crab. Why do good authors do >> that? >> >> http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Legs-Fantasy-Piers-Anthony/dp/0812564898 >> >> >> On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 4:07 PM, Sal Armoniac <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Asimov also declined. I can't stand his later novels. Clarke's quality >>> dropped because he started collaborating with less skillful writers. It >>> bothers me, even, that he wrote his two novels 2001 and 2010 in >>> collaboration with filmmakers. Kubrick's film is far better, and has reached >>> more people than Clarke's novel, which is a let down after seeing the >>> film. I'm having a hard time teaching him. >>> Sally >>> On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 1:48 PM, SteveC <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> Blather. Most of the writers at the high age range of that chart >>>> started publishing many years before such a thing as a Hugo Award for >>>> novels existed. Make 1955 your base line (when the Hugos started being >>>> awarded annually) instead of first published work and the whole chart >>>> shifts downward. >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>> Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. >>>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>>> [email protected]<r-spec%[email protected]> >>>> . >>>> For more options, visit this group at >>>> http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en. >>>> >>>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> [email protected]<r-spec%[email protected]> >>> . >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en. >>> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]<r-spec%[email protected]> >> . >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en. >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<r-spec%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. 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