Stealing From The Writing Chicken Coop

[dr_phil_physics]

Grokked From Scalzi's Blog

John Scalzi's Whatever today has an article on James Frey preying on MFA writing program students with a really lousy book packaging contract, referenced from a New York Magazine article about the YA novel packaging mill Full Fathom Five -- you can read the details there.

Yeah, we're talking about turning your work over to another person, who will control it, not you. And losing one's copyright. For up to a big $250-$500 payday. Plus promises of more if there's a media deal for TV or film. Makes one wonder what the hell they teach in MFA writing programs. Apparently, there's not much publishing business being taught. And to re-write James Frey, "a crappy deal is still a crappy deal, not an opportunity".

One of the commenters wanted to know if, after the Cooks Source scandal about plagiarism, has this become something like National Kick Authors Month? Sadly, no. People have stolen other people's writing and come up with massively unjust contracts for a long time. Another commenter suggested that people would be "better", for very poor values of "better", going the self-publishing route than with this contract. The only good news is that these things usually only affect a few writers.

As for James Frey, he's not a stranger to controversy and questionable ethics. You can read in the Wikipedia article about his A Million Little Pieces, which had been an Oprah featured book. This new deal isn't going to polish his starry little luster very much, IMHO.

I'm sure there'll be more about this on the web. But my point is basically that if you want to be a published writer, that doing a little research on your part and asking people about the business side of writing will go a long way to cut down on the odds of you being taken advantage of. And some people will allow themselves to be taken advantage of, because they either buy the deal or don't know any better.

Really.

Dr. Phil

Comments

[steve-buchheit.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately that lack of business acumen training is wide spread across the "Fine Arts" programs. If I have to listen to another whiny-butt painter talk about how "starving is how I get my best work done, NEVER WORK FOR THE MAN..." ugh! Really? No, sorry, I want to make a living and do things with that money. But then I've always had a deep mercenary streak in me.

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

That's okay. When I was in Physics grad school, our elders assured us that it was no problem getting a job -- just send out letters to a couple of places. One of the younger faculty members took us aside and pointed out that our elders hadn't looked for a job cold in decades. He said the job market was rough, and to send out as many resumes as we could -- that the difference between applying for school and applying for a job was that there was no fee for the latter. (grin) In my first 2 years after I got my Ph.D. I sent out 300 applications, got 1 interview, no job. That poor market (1989-1991) forced the American Physical Society and the American Chemical Society to get serious about helping young scientists with their careers.

Increasingly, I think that many programs need to get "with the program" and offer serious career counseling as part of their major. Some do, and their students are the better for it.

Dr. Phil

[steve-buchheit.livejournal.com]

Agreed. What I've learned on the business (and academic) front was hard won. It would have been nice to have a little more of that instruction in class (I did get some of it outside of class, hint to all students, talk with your professors outside of class, I'll say that over 50% of my education happened that way).


And I tend to be a dick about it with both my nieces and nephews. But as I tell them, once you step out of class, it isn't a nice world. If you don't have your shit wired tight, the rest of the world will eat you alive.

Had to explain the mechanics of job searches to a nephew recently when he announced he wanted to be a "forest manager." After all, it pays pretty well. He never thought about the level of competition for such a job, that it required years of experience in other jobs that don't pay nearly as well, and that there only are so many positions out there and they only come available when someone 1) retires or 2) dies.

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but Swamp Loggers looks so cool on the Discovery Channel.

Dr. Phil