Month: December 2014

Why Zoella’s book being written by a ghostwriter matters:

Posted on by blablablaandgabbler
Girl OfLies: The First Novel NOT by Zoella

I do not watch Zoella’s YouTube videos, though I had heard her name tossed around before the news broke that her recent book was written by a ghostwriter.

She apparently was breaking some record with this book and people were comparing her sales to J.K. Rowling’s (which is like comparing the Mona Lisa to a spiral notebook doodle, but that’s beside the point). The point being, she is not J.K. Rowling. Her “medium” was barely similar. And this just further highlights the issues within the publishing industry/Big 6.

Here’s why Zoella’s book being ghostwritten matters:

1) It matters because it is a lie. You put your name on something, that should mean you made it. Maybe just endorse a book next time if you aren’t going to be the one who wrote it.

2) It means the publisher didn’t have faith in Zoella’s abilities as a writer. And, since it is clear they didn’t, then why did they offer her a book deal? Doesn’t this show that big publishers are more interested in buying brand names than artists?

3) It means that Zoella didn’t care enough about her fans to actually create something for them.
Granted, she’s probably a busy woman. Making all those videos. Then again, maybe she should just stick to making videos. That seems to be what she’s good at. That, and taking our money.

 

-BLA

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 [“BLA and GB Gabbler” (really just a pen name) are the Editor and Narrator behind THE AUTOMATION, vol. 1 of the Circo del Herrero series. They are on facebook, twitter, tumblr, and goodreads.]

Aphrodite’s gears are a little rusty…

Posted on by blablablaandgabbler
Work them gears, gurl.
Work them gears, gurl.

There is a Goodreads giveaway going on right now for the print edition of THE AUTOMATION – Vol. 1 of The Blacksmith’s Circus series.

[“BLA and GB Gabbler” (really just a pen name) are the Editor and Narrator behind THE AUTOMATION, vol. 1 of the Circo del Herrero series. They are on facebook, twitter, tumblr, and goodreads.]

On Authors and Anonymity:

Posted on by blablablaandgabbler

Ms. Ferrante has always said she wants readers to focus on her work, not on her. “I didn’t choose anonymity. The books are signed,” she wrote. “Instead, I chose absence. More than 20 years ago, I felt the burden of exposing myself in public, I wanted to detach myself from the finished story; I wanted the books to assert themselves without my patronage.”

Read the rest here.

[Can we start a club called Authors Anonymous? Would totally be Vice President.]

OMEGAVenusMiloPrint3

[“BLA and GB Gabbler” (really just a pen name) are the Editor and Narrator behind THE AUTOMATION, vol. 1 of the Circo del Herrero series. They are on facebook, twitter, tumblr, and goodreads.]

Dear Taylor Swift, don’t “Shake It Off,” Shake It Out:

Posted on by blablablaandgabbler

At the very least we've stolen.

  [“BLA and GB Gabbler” (really just a pen name) are the Editor and Narrator behind THE AUTOMATION, vol. 1 of the Circo del Herrero series. They are on facebook, twitter, tumblr, and goodreads.]

On New York Publishing:

Posted on by blablablaandgabbler

“There was another consistent trend I found when interviewing zombie novelists for my article: fervent distaste for the New York publishing industry. And maybe that’s the real reason why publishers and agents never bothered reaching out to them; it’s not that they don’t recognize the sales and money potential for these authors, it’s that they’ve spent the last decade sowing so much bad blood within the writer community that they know approaching them for a book deal is a lost cause. Midlist authors have been burned once, and now with Amazon and their own marketing abilities they can ensure they’ll never be burned again.”

Read the rest here.
[“BLA and GB Gabbler” (really just a pen name) are the Editor and Narrator behind THE AUTOMATION, vol. 1 of the Circo del Herrero series. They are on facebook, twitter, tumblr, and goodreads.]