Really Bad Signs…

That You Are Lost in Publishing…

These are so bad that I didn’t even bother to mention them in the Good and Bad Indie Publishing Practices Seminar that just finished. No one who would sign up for that four week class would be in this group of humans.

But sadly, I recently had communication with three writers who were lost in these problems, and why I say sadly is there is no recovery from any of these.

Writer one… Had been working for almost six years on the world building of his big science fiction world. No writing, just critical voice world building and damn was this writer proud of that. I didn’t know the person and he asked me what he should do next? I told him to start writing something, he came back that he didn’t feel he was ready yet, the world wasn’t developed enough. He wanted to know what he should do next to make the world better. I wished him luck.

The actual solution is of course is to box it all up, put it in storage or in deep back-ups and then spend five years writing stories that have nothing to do with the world he had worked on. Then after five years throw it all away. Yeah, he wasn’t going to listen to that so I didn’t suggest it.

Writer two… Sent me a first Kickstarter to look at. It was mostly AI and very clear, so I asked him if he had used AI and he proudly said yes. I told him that I thought AI is going to be great as a tool, but at the moment in publishing and art, all AI is built on stolen copyright. He got really mad at me, said it was his work, not stolen, and that I should never contact him again. (He contacted me…) I checked, he had no books out under his name or the name on the Kickstarter and got a hunch Kickstarter will bounce it like a kid’s ball.

Writer three… Clearly had never read this blog or even bothered to look me up in any fashion at all. This writer had written an entire Star Trek novel. And they were writing me because they saw one of my Star Trek books in hopes I could recommend how to get their book published. (Their terms exactly.)

I wrote back and said they should treat the book as practice and write something of their own next. They did not own the trademarks, so they could not publish it. Got an angry letter back saying they did too own the book, they had written it and they were going to publish it or find an agent to help them publish it. (I bet Dayton or Keith or a number of the current Trek writers get this all the time.)

Now most writers just never get around to learning copyright and trademark in any fashion that will help them make money, but almost all writers I know understand copyright and trademark enough that they would never do what this person did.

I really do get strange mail.