Ah, the Interwebs. Lunacy at its finest, dissected for all to see.

One could spend hours poking and giggling at Mssrs. Zooty and Flappers. Or just Mr. Man-Behind-Zooty-And-Flappers. The spelling errors alone are enough to send a writer into a twitching coma of merriment or irritation, depending on mood and temperament.

Now, I’m not saying the publishing industry is perfect. Far from. There are a lot of things that make it hard for the producers in the industry (i.e., writers) to get a living wage. And forget health insurance for producers! That’s just crazy!

But what doesn’t make it better are predators outside the pool, trying to make a quick buck off someone’s desire to be published.

Now carry me to the bonfire with pitchforks and screaming if you want, but I’m going to say right here and now that not everyone deserves to be published. It’s not an inherent right like breathable air or food security, or like liberty (though the current administration has done its bit to return us to tyranny. That’s off-topic.) Like any job/career, you need a certain amount of training and proficiency to make a living, and even that isn’t assured. It’s serious work. I don’t know why people expect it not to be, but I suppose there are those who want to take shortcuts in any industry. Sometimes a shortcut turns out to be valid. Most of the time, however, shortcuts are a scam.

It’s not easy to pour your heart and soul into a manuscript and have it rejected. It’s not easy to deal with multiple rejections and trying to “break into” publishing. It’s not easy to get an agent or a book deal. It’s not easy because publishers need to make their money back, and consumers don’t want to pay for crap. Nobody can tell when or what the next Harry Potter will be, (consumers are fickle) but publishers have to guess. That makes them nervous, because they have kids to feed and jobs to keep too.

Again, the industry is far, far from perfect, especially when seen from the writer’s point of view. But those offering “shortcuts” that disobey Yog’s Law are predators and nothing but.

There’s a difference between paying a proven editor for his/her time and effort, especially when that said editor makes no promise to publish the work. Paying someone to query-blast or e-publish you is a scam. And scammers usually get nasty when exposed. *sigh* Hence, Internet amusement. I’m left shaking my head when reading stuff like Zooty & Co. I mean, I derive a certain amusement from the errors and the flailing, but I also sigh at the thought that some nascent writers are going to get soaked, and soaked good, and maybe quit writing because of it.

Which is outside my control and power, but it still makes me sad. Even if one doesn’t get published, the exercise of writing is valuable in and of itself. I felt that way before I ever got paid a dime OR got a rejection slip. (And not just blogging, which I distinguish from the art of writing fiction and the exercise of writing a paper diary.)

Anyway, wacky Internet hijinks. I suppose, since I’ve done nothing but bitch and complain in my last few posts (health has not been good, but we’re working on that) I should offer some entertainment, at least.

Here’s the absolute funniest thing I’ve ever seen on SNL, Andy Kaufman and the “Mighty Mouse” bit. Every time I see this, it slays me.

And to add to the Andy K fun, his Elvis was always more Elvis THAN Elvis. And we all know how I feel about Elvis.

And to round it off, Gene Wilder doing “Pure Imagination”. Which was my favorite part of the old Willy Wonka movie, and a song I still sing to the little ones every now and again.

God bless YouTube. Last but not least, to leave you with a smile…

ROBIN OF SHERWOOD PLUS BONNIE TYLER EQUALS WIN!!!!!!

There now. Wasn’t that worth getting up out of bed for? I certainly thought so. And yesterday, when I was so determined to go slow?

Three thousand words of space opera fell out of my head. It seemed so easy and innocent. Jeez. Why does my Muse taunt me with fantasy and then spit out space opera? It just doesn’t make any sense.

Good morning, and good luck, my friends…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 2:19 pm and is filed under Real Life, Rant Rant Rave, Writing, Cool Stuff, Weirdsville. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.