Writers Behaving Badly - The Author Guild Smackdown

Get some popcorn and a drink before you read the following links. This is better than WWE match!

Okay, we all know about Amazon acquiring Goodreads. Big whoop, right?

Well, Scott Turow, the president of the Author's Guild, wrote a screed last Friday that made the Unibomber look positively sane. But that's not the good part.

The entertainment comes in the comments on that post and the follow-up commentary over at The Passive Voice.

Highlights:

- Rather than address the merits of the situation, YA author Ellen Hopkins called Bob Mayer a "scorned author" who has not reached the "stature of [Scott Turow]" and told him to "shut [his] mouth."

And Bob, an ex-Green Beret, could kill both Hopkins and Turow with his little finger. It doesn't mean he will. Kind of like Amazon taking over the world.

- An anonymous commenter calling himself (herself?) "Clamps" accused self-published authors of "spamming their way to the top."

Isn't this one getting old? It's right up there with J.A. Konrath buying a million of his own books in order to hit the Amazon Top 100.

- Ellen Hopkins claims Amazon reviews are more skewed than Goodreads. Passive Guy jumps in with "Just like the New York Times reviews."

Seriously, Ellen? Do you not understand how you got those glowing literati reviews?


What does this all come down to?

Not a Selket-damned thing, folks. This internal fighting is stupid. It's ridiculous. It's why I've withdrawn from the writers' organizations I used to belong to.

Nothing really matters except getting our words down and getting our stories in front of readers. How you do it is up to you.

[Edit to add: Since I wrote this post, comments on the Author's Guild blog post have been closed. Gee, I wonder why. *rolls eyes*]