tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post3890655779566012165..comments2024-02-14T01:50:56.112-06:00Comments on The OF Blog: Remember when I went HAM in December 2011 on perceived pressure from publishers?Larry Nolenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16001420558511460998noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-57862651291953784852012-02-03T06:25:06.267-06:002012-02-03T06:25:06.267-06:00"R/A agrees and understands that they will us..."R/A agrees and understands that they will use an unbiased rating system and each Review/Article must include a rating from 1 through 5; 1 the lowest and 5 the highest."<br /><br />This is the second time I've seen this kind of weirdness (though the other time wasn't in the context of a book review). Do lots of people really have a hard time understanding that putting something on a numerical scale doesn't make it "unbiased" or "objective"?Kevin S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06076147424768269913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-61371807555364054482012-02-01T11:36:06.190-06:002012-02-01T11:36:06.190-06:00Bullshit comes in all forms and sizes. Right now, ...Bullshit comes in all forms and sizes. Right now, the German blogosphere is laughing its ass off because a small publishing house threatened to sue a blogger over a negative review. Seems like the publisher saw the review as an attempt to smear the book, because the blogger said she couldn't bear to read more than 90 out of 900 pages (and she's right, it's incredibly poor writing), and because she tagged it as fantasy, while the author (who calls himself John Asht) prefers it to be labelled as "fantastic adventure" or "historical mystery adventure".<br /><br />The publishing house turned out to be the Asht's personal vanity press, and over a month later Asht published a rant on his own blog, in which he suspects online reviewers to form a kind of syndicate in order to make authors pay for positive reviews. <br /><br />Well, this is the funny part of the whole thing, but Asht's post also contained a scarcely disguised rape threat (now deleted but documented on screenshots) against the blogger. And he was shit-headed and stupid enough to link it on half a dozen publishing-related Facebook pages.<br /><br />The shitstorm this caused has been going on for more than a week now. So yes, sometimes it really leaves you dumbstruck about what some "smaller publishing entities" are able to do.Anubishttp://hermanstadt.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-69837397489612151262012-02-01T10:59:56.038-06:002012-02-01T10:59:56.038-06:00On the upside, that blog you linked reviews books ...On the upside, that blog you linked reviews books <i>and</i> sex toys and I feel the compulsive need to subscribe. Unfortunately, I have no interest in romance novels. More book blogs need to review sex toys though.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16504273309594020933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-87317696639249629152012-02-01T10:14:35.027-06:002012-02-01T10:14:35.027-06:00That's insane...
I've never seen anything...That's insane...<br /><br />I've never seen anything like that before. The worst thing I ever had done to me was a publisher tried to send me a book for review (can't remember what it was now), but they thought I was going to pay for postage. It was never discussed, and I've never heard of that done to a reviewer before...Plus, I was a poor college student, so $8 was kind of not worth it.<br /><br />It makes you wonder what people are thinking when they come up with these policies. But then you just have to remember that there are suckers everywhere. Someone probably fell for that contract...Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13571452656553970472noreply@blogger.com