A New York City radio station asked for listeners to volunteer to review books that were self published. I volunteered. They sent me four books to review. At first I was surprised at how bad the books were. The grammar was horrible. There were tons of spelling mistakes. And these were published books, albeit self published at the author's expense.
I reviewed the books on Amazon. In those days I was a frequent contributor to Amazon, so much so that they sent me a baseball cap that said Amazon on it and also sent me a letter telling me I was one of their top 100 reviewers. Those familiar with Amazon know that you don't get paid for your reviews, that everyone can write reviews.
In my Amazon review of one particular book, I suggested to the author that I could edit his book and eliminate the many errors in it. He took me up on it. He offered to pay me five hundred dollars, mention my name as editor, and give me a copy of the finished product. I accepted.
He began sending me chapters by computer, and I'd send them back to him edited, eliminating all the grammatical and spelling errors. At first I also volunteered to do some rewriting, but he said he lost his "voice" in the book so he only wanted me to do the grammar and spelling corrections. So that's what I did.
When the project was over, he thanked me and told me how much he and his wife loved what I did. He said he would rave about my editing in the beginning of the book. It was nice to feel so appreciated.
A few years passed. No book. Then he wrote to me that he finally was at the point of publishing the corrected version of his book. But he said that he had already made all the corrections that I suggested, that he had mistakenly sent me an early draft of his book, and that the later draft didn't have any of those errors in it. He was lying through his teeth.
He never did send me a copy of the revised book. He obviously didn't mention me in it. It was a weird experience. Why did he lie like that? You don't send someone your book, chapter by chapter, over a period of time, rave about the editing, pay a guy five hundred dollars, and then somehow discover that you had sent the guy the wrong version of your book. It was nothing but a lie. It mystified me. I lost all respect for him.
He has a good imagination. He wrote a pretty interesting story. His technical writing skills are on the level of an eighth grader, but flowery. His integrity and honesty are non-existent. He couldn't possibly get a book published by anyone who would pay for the publication, because he writes like an eighth grader. That's the simple truth of it.
lfbno7 posted on Dec 16, 2007
| views: 211
Comments
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wakingharmony said on Dec 17, 2007....
What A BU*T!! what was the book hehe i wont read it ...not that I ve even been anywhere to buy a book in years! I miss that. I have a cousin in Arkansas Rochester that has a few books on Amazon... can remember name right now but that is a bummer.......if he had only know how many more books he would have sold "YOU" being editor. -
lfbno7 said on Dec 17, 2007....
The book is called Bitter Roots. It's about a voodoo curse that dates back to before the Civil War. Pretty interesting idea. -
wakingharmony said on Dec 17, 2007....
wow cool. too bad he was a turkey about including you as editor. -
cntlvmenuf said on Dec 18, 2007....
I am surprised too...I'd have thought he would have lied to get away from paying you the $500. Thats strange though....may be he was afraid you would steal his thunder. If he keeps sending his work to various people for editing, isn't likely somebody will publish one of his books as their own?...(would serve him right) -
lfbno7 said on Dec 18, 2007....
He had to pay me the whole $500 before I would release his last chapter edited. I never trusted him. I liked him, until he made up those ridiculous lies. But I agree with you, the important thing was the cash. He's a fine story teller. This whole story about black slave women and white masters, and the black male slaves get pissed and come up with this voodoo curse that ends up killing off a lot of guys throughout several generations. I remember this one scene he wrote where a black girl was going down on a guy driving a car and then the car crashed and both of them were killed, and the cops see the bodies, and her dead body is still going down on him in the front seat of the car. What an image. Sex and violence. Blood and gore. I'd like to see it as a Disney movie. Get these really clean cut Disney type pricks doing the acting, and have them do that scene. That would be pretty amusing. Hey, clean cut people go down on each other too. Or else maybe the cartoon version starring Mickey and Minnie. -
CreativeWoman said on Dec 19, 2007....
Sounds like the guy was quite a shifty character.
Once upon a time, I used to review books for a website. It was fun, but like you say, no pay. I went on to other things. If I could get paid for it, I would do it all the time.
Several years ago, I did an outline for a woman of her own book to create talking point for her. She was debating another author on MSNBC. I always thought it was strange that she would pay me to do that for something she had supposedly written.
CW
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cntlvmenuf said on Dec 20, 2007....
lfbno7:....I thought Disney specializes in kid's movies???CW: Interesting....may be she didnt have the time to go through her own book but if she saw an outline she'd remember what she'd written. I think I'll try and see about reviewing and editing as a part time gig....I love to read and to write and I am a little strapped for cash. -
Anomia said on Dec 20, 2007....
Maybe the guy never got around to fixing the book and was embarassed by his own sloth. There are lots of reasons people lie. Because you protected yourself, nothing really happened to you except you were disappointed, so that's good! -
pookiedookie said on Dec 21, 2007....
you let him off. you had proof on your computer that he had sent you all those chapters, but still you let him off. says something about you and him doesn't it?(you have true character, he does not) -
lfbno7 said on Dec 21, 2007....
thank you pookie.
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