“Some of the vaguest language ever devised has been used here in the last three days...The fact that there are 45,000 ‘trailblazers’ here couldn’t devalue the title any more.” https://sfstandard.com/2024/09/19/comedian-john-mulaney-brutally-roasts-sf-techies-and-ai-at-dreamforce/
Posts
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“Some of the vaguest language ever devised has been used here in the last three days...The fact that there are 45,000 ‘trailblazers’ here couldn’t devalue the title any more.” https://sfstandard.com/2024/09/19/comedian-john-mulaney-brutally-roasts-sf-t... -
"Of all American homicide victims killed by people they don’t know, approximately one-third of them are victims of the police." https://granta.com/violence-in-blue/"Of all American homicide victims killed by people they don’t know, approximately one-third of them are victims of the police." https://granta.com/violence-in-blue/
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Bwahahaha every time I do a monster publishing thread I get at least five concerned emails from people who are afraid I'm tanking my own career.(Note that this is ENTIRELY DIFFERENT from the conga line of friends who would line up to slap me silly were I Behaving Badly In Public, each and every one of whom I am *most* grateful for.)
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Bwahahaha every time I do a monster publishing thread I get at least five concerned emails from people who are afraid I'm tanking my own career.Bwahahaha every time I do a monster publishing thread I get at least five concerned emails from people who are afraid I'm tanking my own career.
My dulcet darlings, there's so very little left to torch. It's *fine*, I promise. If I go down for telling truth, oh well.
I'm not pressed.
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Okay, some of you wanted a thread about finding an agent with trad publishing in...well, the state it's in.@mwl We’re just too stubborn to know when to quit!
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Okay, some of you wanted a thread about finding an agent with trad publishing in...well, the state it's in.@mwl ...that's a good point. I just know that someone's gonna swan into my feed with, "but your writing isn't that good anyway" and felt the need to get ahead of it, I guess.
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Okay, some of you wanted a thread about finding an agent with trad publishing in...well, the state it's in.(To be exquisitely fair I am 100% the problem in my own career, since I am unwilling to put up with a lot of publishing bullshit. But the point still holds that I can make trad pubs and agents money, which is being left on the table because of the industry's *preference for exploitation*.)
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Okay, some of you wanted a thread about finding an agent with trad publishing in...well, the state it's in.Now, this is not to drain you of hope! When you *know* the game is rigged and the deck stacked, you can make more appropriate choices.
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Okay, some of you wanted a thread about finding an agent with trad publishing in...well, the state it's in.Even if I were a much bigger troublemaker, I'm still enough of a proven workhorse that *someone* would want a 15% cut. New/middling writers, especially those unwilling to do performative bullshit on TikTok/Goodreads/wherever, have a much more difficult time.
Look, the whole industry is fucked.
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Okay, some of you wanted a thread about finding an agent with trad publishing in...well, the state it's in.My point is this: If trad publishing (still the thing most agents are focused on dealing with) has lost *even me*, if *even I* with my track record get ghosted by multiple agents, that says something:
IT'S NOT YOU. It is (by and large) not the writers' fault here.
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Okay, some of you wanted a thread about finding an agent with trad publishing in...well, the state it's in.Now, it could be that I've been vocal about problems in the industry and am seen as a troublemaker. It could also be that at my stage, I expect an agent and publishers who *do their damn jobs*, and that's seen as less ideal than a wet-behind-the-ears duckling who's easy to pluck/exploit.
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Okay, some of you wanted a thread about finding an agent with trad publishing in...well, the state it's in.If you're a new writer, it may seem hopeless. Let me tell you something.
I have 70+ titles in print, I hit my deadlines as a matter of course, I am midlist but a fair success. I make steady $$ for publishers. You'd think I'd have no trouble getting an agent, right?
Wrong.
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Okay, some of you wanted a thread about finding an agent with trad publishing in...well, the state it's in.This means reputable agents are snowed under, new agents are awash, bad actors and grifters are having a field day, and to top it all off, trad publishing itself is (as I've said before) cutting its throat at the BookTok gaming tables as private equity hollows out its corporate structures.
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Okay, some of you wanted a thread about finding an agent with trad publishing in...well, the state it's in.The time lag between a whole lotta folk seeking publishing and enough reputable agents ready to provide supplemental services (keeping track of submissions, contract negotiation, protecting the author from publisher exploitation, fielding subrights queries, etc.) is not ever gonna be short.
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Okay, some of you wanted a thread about finding an agent with trad publishing in...well, the state it's in.Due to a few different tech advances, anyone thinks they can write a book. This is fine and good, this is great! It also means there's a LOT of manuscripts for any agent to get through on a daily basis.
The glut also opens things up for bad actors of various stripes.
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Okay, some of you wanted a thread about finding an agent with trad publishing in...well, the state it's in.Finding an agent has never been easy, since reputable, effective ones are at a premium even when the industry is in healthy shape. (Which it...really never has been, just less sick at some few bright shining moments.) And right now, whew! Things are an unholy mess.
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Okay, some of you wanted a thread about finding an agent with trad publishing in...well, the state it's in.Okay, some of you wanted a thread about finding an agent with trad publishing in...well, the state it's in.
Buckle up, and please be advised this may not be the advice for you. Take everything below with a grain of salt of any appropriate size, depending.
Let us begin.
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So I see the org that runs NaNoWriMo is coming out in support of "AI" theft, just in time for Labour Day. And they're dressing it up as defense of marginalised folks, which is even more rancid.Ah, so one of the NaNoWriMo org's big sponsors this year is Pro Writing Aid, which has gone all-in on using writers' work to train its "AI", and is no doubt selling data sets to other "AI" thieves.
How very interesting.
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So I see the org that runs NaNoWriMo is coming out in support of "AI" theft, just in time for Labour Day. And they're dressing it up as defense of marginalised folks, which is even more rancid.I might do a private NaNo, since I'm Just That Way, but the org's lost me for good. Fuck that noise.
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So I see the org that runs NaNoWriMo is coming out in support of "AI" theft, just in time for Labour Day. And they're dressing it up as defense of marginalised folks, which is even more rancid.For the curious, I'm referring to this piece of nonsense. https://nanowrimo.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/29933455931412-What-is-NaNoWriMo-s-position-on-Artificial-Intelligence-AI