"You can search thousands of threads, and it is really the best source for finding out the dirt on the agents/agencies that you’re thinking of querying. Writers can talk about their experiences, and the moderators of the site have lots of experience in the industry and really do their research."The above is a June '14 blog snippet from one of the Absolute Write Water Cooler followers attempting to defend that board. It's done in subtle fashion. Nevertheless, the single statement above is like a sales pitch made by the owner Lisa Spangenberg--or let's just say, if Lisa had decided to write a boilerplate description of the AW Water Cooler, this would be part of it.
Two major false statements here, as anyone will see who really understands Absolute Write and its violent arena of competitive blathering: "best source for finding out the dirt" and "the moderators of the site have lots of experience in the industry and really do their research." When we read this, especially the last statement, we fell out of our chairs laughing. Even our interns were giddy. The only "moderator" with any "experience" at all is Teresa Nielsen-Hayden, known as Hapisofi, and she's a fraud of a former stafff editor pretending to be a current editor and an acquisition editor at that. Then a step down is Old Hack, a mediocre SF writer who pens bad to mediocre stories and self-publishes them with her husband, The Congenial Sage (both infamous bullies on Absolute Write Water Cooler).
The bigger point, however, is that this blog writer, obviously an amateur beginner writer, has been led to believe the marketing fiction (spun by Lisa Spangenberg and AW mods) that the Absolute Write Water Cooler is a place that will serve her/him well. Or is this all just a lie arranged to help AW defeat the rising tide of "hate sites" crawling up the Google search page like vengeful warriors climbing the wall of a burning castle? It's hard to tell. Suffice to say, the observation is false, absurdly and comically false.
Next, we have "the dirt" issue. Well, dear readers of W.A.R., as we all know, if the "dirt" doesn't exist, the moderators and sycophants of Absolute Write will make it. Matter of fact, the place is an ongoing dirt factory, and the owners are the corporate bosses of dirt production. We have examples of this synthetic dirt right here at W.A.R. It's everywhere. Not a day goes by that we don't have to cleanse ourselves.
Help us, dear reader. Spread the truth about this dirt factory. We have an ethical obligation to warn fellow writers who might stumble in and soil themselves. Let all smeared presses, "hate sites," and humiliated writers unite. We have nothing to lose but our pain.
I don't worry about the people who blog on the dirt factory. May they all go the way of two former well-known dirt factory moderators Ann C. and Dave K.--they are literally in the dirt at this time. Toxic people are toxic, and their poison implodes on themselves in the end.
ReplyDeleteThis is a bit severe, but I understand where your strong reaction comes from.
DeleteA correction to any possible misinterp above. Hack and Sage did once publish for commercial publishers, but now they self-publish their work. Rummage around their website and you can find it. Read at your own risk.
ReplyDeleteAnother apologist, Julianne something? She says on her blog that all the sites critical of Absolute Write are "Fake. Fake, fake, fake." It's funny though, but even somone as ass kissy as her admits the writer advice on AW should be taken with a grain of salt.
ReplyDeleteTo simply write off all the sites critical of AW as "fake fake fake" is itself an act of being disingenuous.
DeleteLook at this quite simply. You have a freewheeling chat board packed with anonymous and amateur posters, as well as poorly credentialed moderators and holier-than-thou owners. Now, add to that a hostile cultural tone feeding on ignorance and prepared to compete with itself, and what do you have?
ReplyDeleteAbsolute Write Water Cooler.