The HEA Cafe

Author Archive

I generally avoid Amazon. It’s infested with trolls and has brought new lows to the meaning of “customer service.” For starters. Be that as it may, though, when a fan points me to a thread in the romance community there, I feel obliged to at least look so I can comment on it.

What I found more interesting than the positive comment on my books was the trend taken by posters to that community that authors need to have thick skins. Now, two days ago I could have navigated you to the exact comment/thread. But two days ago my Dell desktop imploded, and two-hundred dollars and two days later, it’s in recovery mode via the Carbonite online backup service, with 38,128 files yet to go. So you’ll have to trust me that there is a thread that states that. It was in response, if memory serves me, to Amazon’s removal of certain negative reviews.

The consensus seemed to be that negative reviews are part and parcel of an author’s lot and authors needed to grow thicker skins.

I’m going to disagree and I’ll tell you why.

1 - A percentage of what’s posted on Amazon as “reviews” aren’t. They’re at best comments and at worst, the useless spewings by people with far too much time on their hands. I am not talking about those comments that are obviously reviews, posted by people associated with review sites. I’m not talking about customer comments that are mature and well thought out, even if they dislike a book. I’m talking about senseless emotional spewings and some very nonsensical postings.

2 – The fact that Amazon is infested by trolls–people whose sole interest is stirring up controversy–has been documented by bloggers and in the media. Like the “Yale-ees” who used to concoct crazy letters to try to stump Ann Landers, there are internet users out there who want to see how far they can push the envelope, and how big a brouhaha they can spawn. Amazon is only one of many places they surface.

3 – Why does being an author make you fodder for personal attack? I know books have long been reviewed publically. Again, I’m not talking about reviews. I’m talking about spewings. So why does being an author mean it’s okay for someone to spew on you? Because your work is visible?

A lot of people’s works are visible.

Let’s try this scenario. You’re a sales clerk in the jewelry department in Macy’s. You’re certainly visible to anyone who walks through the store. What if people in the store followed you around with signs that read: “This clerk is slow and stupid”? Or “This clerk doesn’t smile enough” or “This clerk smiles too much”? 

Hey, you’re in public. I’m a customer (maybe or maybe not–Amazon doesn’t require that you’ve bought the book you’re “reviewing”). I have a right to tell people what I think of your service.

Oh, let’s add another sign: “This clerk smiles too much and the jewelry she sells is ugly.”

By the end of the day, just how would you, the sales clerk, feel? Frustrated, annoyed, confused? Let’s say you ask the sign-carrier to leave. You get the store security to tell the person to leave. Next thing you know, the sign-carrier is back with ten cohorts. I’ll bet you dollars to donuts eight of the ten never bought a piece of jewelry in their lives, let alone from you, the Macy’s clerk. But now you have eleven sign-carriers: This clerk is stupid! If you buy something from this clerk you’re an idiot! Whoever taught this clerk to sell should be shot!

And so on and so forth.

Are you beginning to get my point?

Please note, I’m not saying books shouldn’t be reviewed. I’m saying authors shouldn’t be expected to like being spewed on. There is a huge difference.

A series of one-star ratings on Amazon–and gee, isn’t it something that they all show up within a day or so of each other–saying little more than “this book sucks” are yes, spewing and yes, useless. I’m also very suspicious of “reviews” where the plot is misrepresented, characters’ names are wrong and the “reviewer” can neither spell nor form a coherent sentence. I don red this book last nite and it sux is not a review.

Vendettas are also not reviews. People who think books with vampire protagonists are the work of the devil. People who think a romance plot line is disgusting. People who think author X is better than author Y, and so go to author Y’s page and load on the one-star reviews. People who dislike a reviewer and so go to every book page where that reviewer posts and start a flame war.

So how thick is your skin? Mine’s sufficiently thick but I’m not going to tolerate being a doormat for rude behavior, and I don’t think my being an author means I have to. I have no problem with constructive criticism. I do have a serious problem with people who equate internet access with the right to spew.

~Linnea
www.linneasinclair.com

It’s the silly season again, which means conventions and conferences are in full bloom. But there is none more silly, nor more worthwhile, than the Romantic Times BOOKlover’s Convention. And no, it’s not the cover models. It’s the readers. The booksellers. The chance to connect in person with authors you’ve only emailed over the years. It’s the readers.

Okay, the cover models help.

I directly credit RT for my career. I directly credit them with putting this then-small/e-press author in touch with NY authors, who in their delightful generosity, inquired as to my career and how they could help.

Okay, it was Robin Owens. Mega-smoochies to an author who is not only a superb storyteller but one class act. Without Robin’s intervention (it was over drinks in the bar–why does that NOT surprise anyone?) I’d not be a happy Bantam author today.

But it’s also Cathy Clamp and Susan Grant. J.C. Wilder (Gawd, I love that woman!) and Janet Miller. Colby Hodge. Isabo Kelly. Susan Kearney. Catherine Asaro. Bonnie Vanak. CT Adams, Rowena Cherry and Stacey Klemstein. Liddy Midnight, Denise Agnew, Lynne Connolly, Cindy Dees and Rae Monet. Christina Skye, Jade Lee… the list is endless. Do you notice the mix of NY and small pressies? Ain’t that great?

RT is an author- and reader-fest. Egos are left outside and butterscotch martinis make dozens of friends. To me, it’s simply the best party on the planet.

This year marks author Lisa Shearin’s first RT. (What? You haven’t read her? Get thee to a bookstore!) Ann Aguirre will also be on my Science Fiction and Fantasy Romance panel. Her Grimspace will knock your readerly socks off.

Wednesday at 3:30pm is the (second) opening of my Intergalactic Bar & Grille. Bigger and better than last year. Ever wanted to be in the cantina scene in Star Wars? Don’t miss this party.

My flight heads out Sunday morning as, along with Stacey Klemstein, I’m teaching several workshops at the pre-con writer track. If you’re there, come say hey. If you’re not, mark your calendar for next year’s RT in Orlando.

It only gets better.

~Linnea

Linnea Sinclair
www.linneasinclair.com 
RITA(c) Award Winning SF Romance from Bantam Spectra
2007-08: GAMES OF COMMAND,  THE DOWN HOME ZOMBIE BLUES, SHADES OF DARK 

Coming 2009: HOPE’S FOLLY

I’m hip deep in galley edits and far too brain-weary to be pithy today. So I rummaged around some old files in my computer’s hard drive and found a poem I wrote eons ago. Which is a bit of fun. It was written when I still lived in NJ (yeah, that long ago) and our house was heated by oil, which was delivered by truck at the beginning of the winter. I put this in as explanation because those of you in the southern climes (as I am now) will have no clue as to the reference to an ‘oil  man’–which is not some wealthy Texan, no. He’s the guy who delivers the heating oil. 

THE SWEET SMELL OF 

The oilman smells of oil. 
Do I smell of words? 
Idle notions, vague ideas occur 
to mingle with events. 
Plots of stories hammer down my fence 
at night, to scatter 
at the light of day. 
All that lingers, my heroine’s sweet scent. 
Adventure-tinged, unpretentious. 

By noon, 
paragraphs unfurl their punguent plumes. 
A touch of sandalwood and spearmint. 
Practicality flees the room, 
the stench too powerful. 
A fantasy bouquet, 
Essence of Over-Active Imagination 
pervades. 

Then, when all good people lie abed, 
content to seek their rest, 
I’m besotted by my pen’s perfume, 
“Eau de Chapters”. A strong incense 
intoxicates my mind 
as my hero’s masculine scent assails me, 
and I breathe my stories
into life.  

~Linnea

Linnea Sinclair
www.linneasinclair.com 
RITA(c) Award Winning SF Romance from Bantam Spectra
2007-08: GAMES OF COMMAND,  THE DOWN HOME ZOMBIE BLUES, SHADES OF DARK
Coming 2009: HOPE’S FOLLY

Not Trump, the entrepreneur. Maass, the agent.

My local RWA chapter–Southwest Florida Romance Writers–hosted Donald Maass for a one-day workshop a few weekends back. I’d read his Writing the Breakout Novel over a year ago and found it interesting and workable. But like many of you, I’ve read a lot of how-to write books. Maass’ was interesting and workable but nothing significantly new.

Still, a chance to see the man in action enticed me. I heard he does a good dog-and-pony. He does. He’s pithy, personable and dynamic. (He also has a New York sense of humor that worked fine with me but I think may have been a tad off-putting for some non-NY/NJ-ers in the audience.) I’ve also heard that if  you get one workable idea from any book or workshop you attend, it’s worth the money.

I did. He was.

His workable idea–for me–was this: after you finish writing your first draft manuscript, print it out, go to the middle of the largest area of open space in your house, and toss the pages in the air. All of them. Let them fall where they may. Then sit on the floor and read pages at random, adding tension to each and every page.

Sound nuts? I thought so too at first. But he’s dead-on. Reason being, we read our manuscripts in page by page order. Again and again, as we write the story. Our minds get attuned to upcoming conflict (because we put it there) and we may be assuming or reading in more tension than is actually written.

Reading the pages out of order confuzzles the writerly mind. It makes you look at each page as a stand-alone entity. It makes you examine each page to see if you have tension.

What’s tension? To The Donald, it’s emotion. It’s immersing the reader into what the character is fearing, wanting, lusting for.  “What is the most powerful emotion felt in this scene?” The Donald asked in his wry New York accent. “Build details around that emotion.”

Still thinks it’s crazy? The Donald purloined pages from trembling victims in the audience and read scenes out loud. Then he changed one or two things adding emotion. And gosh-golly-dang, if they didn’t come out that much stronger.

And here I thought I’d heard–and read–it all. I hadn’t. Give The Donald’s idea a toss. It works.

~Linnea

SHADES OF DARK, the sequel to Gabriel’s Ghost, coming July 2008 from RITA award-winning author, Linnea Sinclair, and Bantam Books: www.linneasinclair.com
 
Something cascaded lightly through me—a gentling, a suffused glow. If love could be morphed into a physical element, this would be it. It was strength and yet it was vulnerability. It was all-encompassing and yet it was freedom. It was a wall of protection. It was wings of trust and faith.
 
It was Gabriel Ross Sullivan, answering the questions I couldn’t ask. Not that everything would be okay, but that everything in his power would be done, and we’d face whatever outcomes there were together.

You’ve likely heard the expression about “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” which cautions people not to quickly discard something that might be valuable (baby) with something of little value (used bathwater). It’s a tired old cliche. It came to mind, however, as I breezed through the brouhaha surrounding allegations of author Cassie Edwards’ plagiarism. If you’ve been living under a rock this week and I have no idea what I’m talking about, go here and here.

Okay, back with me?

I’m not going to talk about whether or not Ms. Edwards copied research text verbatim into her books. That’s already being talked about everywhere and my input on that would be superfluous.

I’m going to talk about something that I saw in a lot of comments and postings on the issue. It set me back a tad. It’s not something I’d not heard before, but I was surprised to see it crop up so quickly. And that something was this: “I’m never buying another book by Signet (Edwards’ publisher).”

Yes, I saw I’m never buying another Cassie Edwards’ book, which is a feeling I understand. An author has betrayed your trust or no longer subscribes to the same belief you do.

I don’t understand penalizing hundreds of other authors who had absolutely nothing to do with what Ms. Edwards did or did not do, simply because they write for the same house.

Note: I do not write for Signet/Penguin. I write for Bantam/Random House. Unrelated.

But this scares me. The last time I saw this reaction crop up was with book covers. A few–blessedly few–readers log from time to time at various blogged cover art discussions, and state that they 1) hold the author responsible for the cover art, even though they realize the author has little say and 2) if they don’t like a cover, they’ll never buy that author again. Ever.

Those are the kinds of things that make me want to pound my head on my desk.

The “I’ll never buy another Signet book” seems to be in that same camp. I understand readers are trying to send a message to Signet, or punish Signet for the stand Signet took in defending Ms. Edwards. But in my humble opinion, and as an author whose day and night job is writing books, penalizing authors who have had nothing to do with the brouhaha is tragic at best, stupid at worst.

Trust me, I have no idea what my sister and fellow authors at Bantam Spectra are doing right now. I have no idea if their prose is perfect or their research is annotated. I don’t have time. If one of them does something heinous and provably so, and you ask me, I’ll decry their horrible action with all my heart. But I’m not responsible for whatever they do, and to hold me in thrall in such a way is… nuts.

If an author from my publisher wins a huge award for his books, would you conversely buy all my books as well?

I’ve long had a problem with broad-brush tactics: all blondes are dumb, all Polish-Americans like to bowl, all teenagers are lazy, whatever. All Signet authors plagiarize and must be shunned. That would mean shunning Nora Roberts. A victim of plagiarism herself. And a Signet author.

I think it’s good to get impassioned over injustices. I’m all for taking a stand. Those of you who know me personally know I don’t suffer fools quietly and, after ten years of carrying a gun and a badge as a licensed PI, I’m a great believer that wrongs need to be righted, that the guilty should pay.

But as you raise that heavy tin bathtub of oily, soapy wrongs, please take a look at what else you’re tossing out into the gutter. There may be more than a few innocent author babies in there.

Respectfully yours, poolside, at the Home for the Perpetually Confused…

Namaste (I salute the Divine in you), ~Linnea

The Down Home Zombie Blues, an RT 4-1/2 star TOP PICK! Nov. 2007 from RITA award winning author Linnea Sinclair:
http://www.linneasinclair.com/DHZBCOVER.htm

“Linnea Sinclair’s recipe for success—undeniable passion, clever conversations and perilous situations, combine to produce another sensory delight with The Down Home Zombie Blues.” –SingleTitles.com