Impressed/Not Impressed post

[erastes]

Unimpressed in a giggly way: Vadrial Vail by Vincent Virga

I loved Gaywyck, I didn't see the purple it was accused of, but Virga goes completely off the edge with VV.  Here's a snippet and I'll say no more about it. "Fingers tightened and arms clamped as both engaged in the intense business of grappling with embrocated bliss. Exultantly, in various ways, they shed by turns - and twice together - the pearly tears of Eros."

And I've been taking stuff OUT like this, from Transgressions.  Perhaps I should bung it all back in again. Embrocated bliss? Pearly tears of Eros... Oh dear lord...

Impressed: The Charioteer by Renault

I have no right to be impressed, I mean, the woman is a goddess, I knew that having read 2 or 3 of her others, but this is fabulous, fabulous writing. It's not what her characters say, it's what they don't say, the pauses, the hints, the body language. There's a wonderful scene where Laurie is picked up in a bar and his picker-upper uses underground language to assess whether Laurie is that way inclined, it's clever and subtle and wonderful.  When I grow up I want to instil emotion the way she can.

Impressed against my will; Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer

It's taken me weeks to get this finished, for such a small book, and although I liked the premise of the book, which concentrated more on an older character, an unmarried aunt of all things, and an older man I couldn't really get into it because of the oft complained about by me, jargon.  But I soldiered on, and it did get better, although I skipped a lot of the dialogue because of the gobbledegook.  But the last few pages completely enraptured me, and I fell heavily (and far too late) in love with the characters.

Not Impressed: Clean Sheets

I don't know if I'll bother submitting to them again.  They responded quite quickly and accepted the piece, said that someone would be in touch "shortly" to "work closely with me regarding edits" 

No one got in touch for months.  I queried them a couple of times, to be told they were behind, but repeated that someone would be in touch. No-one did. After about six months (They accepted the story in September 06) I asked them if they were still interested and they came back quite quickly to say yes they were, but still nothing about editing.

Then suddenly out of the blue, I got an email from someone called "noblebill" with no text in the email - no "Hi Erastes" or anything, just a link to the galley-proofs on the site.  There were a couple of errors I spotted, so I emailed them and told them.  Guess what? No response.  When the story went live I didn't even know until I started getting hits on the website, and yes, the errors are still there.

I still hadn't had any contract, or indication of when I'd get paid. (There is nothing on their submission details detailing rights of publication either, so I don't know what they expect as to rights.  They could consider that they have right "forever" -  but as I haven't been given a contract, wasn't told of rights assigned, haven't signed anything, and haven't recieved a penny, It's hardly even a publication!) 

Finally, as a last straw - I emailed them today and have been told I need to wait another 60 days for payment.  That's not exactly professional in my book. Granted they are "busy" but if being busy is interfering with dealing with your source material (authors) so badly that authors won't be bothering with you again, then you are TOO busy and you need to look at your set-up. Sorry.

Unimpressed.

Comments

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

And I've been taking stuff OUT like this, from Transgressions. Perhaps I should bung it all back in again. Embrocated bliss? Pearly tears of Eros... Oh dear lord...

Dear god, don't you dare. There are discerning readers out there. And try saying "grappling with embrocated bliss" six times when you're pissed. And that 'tears of eros' urple is so bad I'm amazed I haven't encountered it in shitty SS/HG fanfic. *weeps* Or perhaps I have, and just blocked the bastard out.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I have a good mind to borrow all the urple and bung it in a fanfic. I'll be famuz.

I've tried saying it three times when sober and failed. I'll be drunk soon, will try again.

*G*

They need icons, though.

[julesjones]

I had a very good experience with Clean Sheets on both occasions last year (one acceptance, one rejection) -- but I suspect that it depends in part on which of the group of editors you get. Reported experience does seem to vary between very prompt and competent, and black hole.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Nod nod. I am sure you are right, that it depends very much on who you deal with. It's a quandary, whether to comment on the black hole process and risk getting blacklisted or suffer in silence and therefore they don't know that perhaps some of their procedures may need shoring up.

*sigh* I'm glad you had a good experience, though.

Black Sheep

[dubaiyan.livejournal.com]

ditto re. ending pages!

Re: Black Sheep

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I just LOVED them. "Oh no, this isn't an elopement, it's an abduction, you don't agree to an abduction!"

Just love Miles to BITS.

Re: Black Sheep

[sabethea.livejournal.com]

I am SO GLAD you quoted that line. Absolute. Favourite.

Have you read Venetia? It has a middling aged heroine (by heroine standards: bloody younger than me... hmph) who is great.

I have to admit, though, liking some of GH's stuff about younger ones, because there's a kind of cuteness factor.

I also read them far too many times, and actually find myself using the jargon in every day life, which makes people look at me strangely.

Re: Black Sheep

[erastes.livejournal.com]

No, I haven't read any of them (that I'm aware of, I may have read them as a child, but I doubt it, my mother was a bit of a literature snob and whilst I could read anything I wanted to read, she deluged me with books and I didn't realise that she was steering my reading until I was grown up.

I may try another, as long as I can put up with all the "brown" and "first stareing" and crappy jargon...

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

RE: Clean Sheets, I would suggest checking again ont eh language used on their submission page on website. IF there's nothing there saying that submission means automatically accepting their contract, then technically that is not a legal publication. You did not get an agreement, you don't know what rights they offered, nothing. It'd be interesting to see how they reacted to a writer threatening to turn them in to PEN or some other writer's rights organization, and see whether you got an answer.
Also, technically, posting on a website where there's public access and not membership only, constitutes first rights publication. At this point you can't take the story back and claim first rights exclusive when you sign about it with someone else. This may not matter on a single story, but you may want that later on, and it's extremely bad practice on their part.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I will check, thank you for the advice. I know that technically it IS first rights publication, but it just makes me furious that I could have changed my mind at some point, even, and they would have still gone ahead.

I checked roughly, and I need to trawl back through my emails to make sure I check all my correspondence, too.

Thanks again

[rmanley.livejournal.com]

*pipes in, black eyes and all (snerk)*

I warned you about VV, didn't I? How'd you like Placidia? *tries to keep a straight face*

And The Charioteer! Aren't her male characters utterly scrumptuous? They're beautifully masculine without all those annoying "masculine" markers of broad walls of muscles, obscenities that make the crudest sailors blush, and all sorts of chest-thumping whatsits that make me roll my eyes.

Yes, I can only hope that I was able to create characters in GF that are a pale, pale shadow of Renault's at most. *sigh*

Re: Clean Sheets. I was in a bit of a conniption over another publisher regarding pretty much the same issues you pointed out. In my case, I never was given a chance to edit my story (though I was promised that I would be working with an editor), the pay I received was *half* of what I was promised (the amount to begin with was small, and quibbling over an even tinier amount was pointless), and the check was made out to my pseudonym, not my real name.

It was a very interesting experience trying to cash it at my bank, let me tell you.

"Hi. I just had gay porn published, and I was paid $X for my pains. Can I cash this even though it doesn't have my real name on it? No, I didn't jump a little old lady in a dark alley, I swear."

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I did what I NEVER do, I skipped to the end of VV because I was fairly sure there was a sex scene of sorts there, and I wanted to see what sort of level it was, and that's where I found THAT.

So I havent discovered her yet, although I did spot a lot of I LOVE MY WIFE angsting. Here's hoping, that as they got together at the end, she DID fall off the cliff.

The Charioteer is wonderful, and Laurie isn't even angsting for what he is, not as much as you'd imagine. I love the way he brushes the guy off in the bar. Just stunning writing.

*giggling at you cashing your porn widow's mite*

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

Re cashing a check to your pseudonym--all you have to do is sign your pseud, write "pay to the order of (your real name)," below that signature, sign your real name, and deposit it. Half the time banks don't even check anything--it's all done through scanners--and if they do ask you have the contract with your pseud and legal names.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Good point - thanks Lee!

[rmanley.livejournal.com]

Heh. The bank just asked me to sign both my pseud and my real name at the back of the check and then cashed it. Of course, the teller still had to consult with her supervisors, but it was all good in the end.

[vinnie-tesla.livejournal.com]

When did CS start paying? Last I checked, you were still supposed to swoon at the honor of their simply running your work.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

*LOL!!!!*

Maybe they just swooned at how wonderful my porn was and their guilt was so overcoming that they couldn't bear to publish it for free?

*roars laughing*