Wondering how writing crappy self-published books and creating an army of sockpuppets to write fake rave reviews of your work made Robert Stanek such a martyr in this supposed indie movement. . . :/ Stanek's piece is so ludicrous that I'm posting the whole thing instead of an extract.
I've been a writer in my heart since I was old enough to hold a pencil and a professional writer for nearly 20 years (writing as William Stanek and Robert Stanek). Over the years many would-be writers have asked me for advice about breaking in, and I've helped more than a few people get their first book/pro papers published (Butch, Charlie, Dan, Mike, Tim, Paul, Lisa, ...) Lately, more and more people have asked me about going indie as a fiction writer. My reply, straight up truth, hasn't always been well received, but it was always well meant. Being an independent is a tough road. It can be a lonely road. It can make you feel like the proverbial falling tree in the forest or the cat in Schrödinger's box.
Few people support independents the way they would support a commercially published author of equivalent status, and even fewer organizations. As an indie pioneer in digital and an indie voice, I've been helping to lead the way since 2001. To say the road has been a tough one would be a colossal understatement. Competitors set their teeth in almost from the start, and no few of them resorted to dirty tricks to boost themselves while pushing me down. For you see, it's easy to break something small, and it's easy to bully your way up. It's much harder to show compassion, to lend a helping hand.
I doubt those who have done these things have ever felt a moment's remorse. They've certainly never apologized. Some, given opportunity to do so, have instead added more injury. And others? Well, they've acted in ignorance, adding equal injury in their attempts to either maintain the status quo or lash out at something they didn't understand. They did so because the system is broken, and while they know this, they prefer what they know to what might be.
The broken system is changing--balance is coming. I for one welcome this change, and I can't help but be optimistic about what's happening in publishing today. I think it's a braver new digital world today than ever before, and I'm hopeful for publishing's future. For sure, there are many, many details to work out, but there just might finally be a time and place where all the world's dreamers have a voice.
Undeniably a tipping point occurred around November of last year. For the first time, people everywhere stood up, took notice, and heard the voices of the indie movement. Since then, more than a few indie voices have taken flight and launched into the stratosphere, not just selling thousands of books, but selling millions. That feat--the equivalent of moving mountains--is one no naysayer can deny. It happened. It's happening now. It just may represent Day 1 of publishing's new future.
Back to the trenches...
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Anyone knows what happened in November 2010? I didn't hear the voices of the indie movement in Montreal. Maybe there was a hockey game on that night. . .
13 commentaires:
he blows
The piece of writing is indeed colored with martyrdom. The actual rise of indie publishing is actually happening though.
E-books are rising as a market rapidly and alot of publishers are not able to compete with self-published writers who have deemed their chances better without them.(they can price books lower and still get more money than through a traditional publisher)
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/more-agents-explore-publishing-models.html
And now we are also seeing the shift of agents trying to turn into publishers as a result of Amazon and other market platforms.
The book businesses is in a chaos of sorts. No one knows what the future brings and not all are too happy about it.
Just leave it, this is getting old.
Why do you spend so much energy on Stanek?
I certainly would never have heard anything about this guy if you hadn't blogged about him.
While the photoshopped was amusing when I saw it the first time the topic's just gotten boring by now.
I forgot a word. It should read the photoshopped picture was amusing...
i'm not going to hop on this wagon.
i dont know why this guy always comes up here.
although i did check his amazon sales raiting in 2 books, 1 was in number 1.5 million, another was in 4.2 million.
how many books are sold at those placements ?
Seriously, I thought hitting on rejects was a thing for kids in school. Just leave him be, I don't know what's up with your anti-Stanek crusade, Pat. He sucks, you know it, we know it, let's move on.
C.B.
Pat, your Stanek posts never fail to entertain me! lol I do not follow what he's doing, but everytime I read about it I can't help, but laugh! Cheers!
clarification - his writing is worse, that he is - one has to admire how bad his writing is and yet that hasn't stopped him from publishing 50+ 7 chapter books - it is a travesty that amazon allows idiots like him to abuse their system - it is a sin that writing like his sees the light of day self published or not - but he is just like every other writer blinded by their own stories - no worse a wordsmith than terry goodkind/ no more repetitive than RA - meh
Have you ever reviewed one of his books, Pat? I'd love to see what you say!
Dude's an evil scam artist. Continue to mock. The man certainly deserves it.
the guy needs to be exposed ... when I bought one of his books 5 years ago it was becasue it kept on popping up in my Amazon recomendations (due to Stanek's spamming) and it had a 5000 or so sale ranking, so it seemed legit ... it was only after I tried reading it that I knew something wasn't right. He may not doing so well on Amazon now, but he still selling on B&N, audible.com, sony ebook store and other places. And my library just got of some of his books - what a waste of tax payer dollars!
I'm with the group that says it's time to let it go. I understand the desire to "not let this guy get away with this", but as has been stated, if you weren't harping on this, I'd never have heard about it.
You, and this blog, are better than that. I come here for insightful commentary and discussion of worthwhile sci-fi and fantasy novels, not high school level eviscerations of a perceived enemy.
Honestly, if you're going to attack hacks, this guy is the least (or just the start) of your crusade. There are plenty of legitimately-published crappy authors that deserve far more intense scorn than this guy.
Anyway, please let this go. It makes you look petty and makes me less eager to check in to see what's new.
I thought you might be interested in knowing that Robert Stanek's "Complete In The Service of Dragons (The Complete Series Omnibus)" is offered free in ebook format on Amazon today (2/10/12). I got a notification through Ereader News Today on Facebook.
I follow your posts daily and greatly admire your exposing this author for the fraud that he is!
Ronni Parker
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