You have to love it when a little box shows up on your computer screen, telling you you have a new email message, and it shows the title as, "Cry Me A Fucking River." Yes, I couldn't wait to see what that one was about! Fortunately, it also identifies the sender, so I knew it was from Brian, so chances were I'd find it entertaining.
See for yourself. Authors talking about how their book deals ruined their lives.
Yes, indeed, cry me a fucking river. My heart just bleeds for James Frey...
And, in the congrats department, my friend Rob Lord marks the publication of his story, For I have Sinned over at Powder Flash Burn. Go check it out!
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15 comments:
Q. Do you want to know what the best thing about James Frey is?
A. He blurbed Charlie Huston's book Six Bad Things
You can't make this shit up.
By the end of page 2 I was thinking, "Blah, blah, blah." Kick me, please, if I ever moan about trying to write around kids. Being forced to make the most of the limited time I have has definitely improved my work!
Cry me a fucking river, all right. Who would have thought success could be so awful? Failure - that's the way to go. I've been so blind. I'm going to stop trying immediately.
Brian, I can see that as the blurb on James Frey's next blog book... "You can't make this shit up." Unfortunately for him, it will be signed 'anonymous', not Oprah.
Christa, helps put things in perspective, doesn't it? We have our bad days, fair enough, but this...
Kris, ha. Good luck with failure. Hope it works out for you. ;)
Ditto on the topic subject - was a newspaper article really warranted on this?
I agree with Vincent here. This was a very lame article. I guess it must have been a slow news day.
Okay, I confess, I'm not even going to read the article. But there's some wisdom in, "Be careful what you wish for." Especially because you can't really know what "it" is like until you get it, and it may not be what you thought it would be.
I did read a terrific book called "Everything I'm Cracked up to Be," by Jen Trynin. It's her story of getting close but not "making it" in the music biz. Through the (incredibly honest) book what becomes obvious is that she just doesn't have the personality for what goes along with making a living as an artist - which I think is a lot different from "being an artist." Not everyone does.
Vincent and James... I'm with you guys.
John, at the end of the day, if any of them don't like how it turned out, they can kill the deal and hand their money back. I get the 'be careful what you wish for' thing, but I don't think it fairly applies to situations that are pretty ludicrous, like many of the ones included here. People got contracts and then found it hard to write the book? Some of us write the book and then get the contract. If we found it hard to write we'd just quit before we signed on the dotted line.
I have to admit, the blogger thing made me laugh. Gawker probably had a field day with that, since they're pretty scathing about giving bloggers book deals just because of their blogs, and I agree.
If you're going to write a tell-all that involves someone else yeah, you might just find yourself getting sued. Something to think about before you sign the deal, I'd say.
Well, damn. Who'd a thunk writing was such hard work? Or that you'd struggle with losing touch with friends, maintaining romantic relationships, paying the bills, completing your work on schedule, swings between extreme self-doubt and grandiosity, or *gasp* gaining weight from spending so much time on your ass reading and writing?! 'Cause, y'know, it's soooo much different than a real job.
I don't understand what's so tragic here. Frankly, writing isn't any more glamorous than the ditch digging job one interviewee was contemplating. Sorry, fresh out of sympathy. Perhaps they should have saved $5 dollars from their respective advances and bought themselves a clue gun. I hear it's cheaper than the therapy bills of the poor, struggling, over-worked writers tend to rack up.
Ha Angie! Agreed.
You'd never think locking yourself away in an isolated farmhouse would make you feel lonely would you?
And i never realised that writers can't excersize, really..
I pay taxes too. And i pay bills. And i'm not a writer.
Makes you wonder!
Chelbel
Wait... writers can exercise? I've just been so out of touch. Thank you, chelbel. You've set me on the path. :) (Yeah, it is rather funny, isn't it? I think they picked the most disfunctional ones out there. What secretary can't relate?)
My Horrible Ordeal
By Paris Hilton
Our Horrible Ordeal Listening to a Whiny Skank Cry a River for three frigging Days, but Fail To Build a Bridge and Get Over It.
Paris' Cell Mates.
Okay...
Title of Paris's inevitable Book?
GO!
Enjoyed the article. Made me realise what to be grateful for-learning to finish a book and writing regardless of what's going on. Who woulda thunk having to have a day job can have benefits.
Thank you for the link to this most enlightening article.
I'm going to vomit now. :-)
(What's the deal there? They didn't mention genre writers at all. There are FAR more of them, and some actually do make a living and manage not to whine about it...)
How be you, Sandra?
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