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To all my agented and published authors and publishing professionals, this thread comes from a place of love: PLEASE RECONSIDER YOUR TWEET ABOUT THIS BS THING.
We need better ways to protect writers.
We need better ways to protect writers.
I've seen WAY more "my agent is one of the good ones!" tweets - and I'm sorry, but we all know a BS client that would have said the same thing 2 days ago. That is unhelpful, inaccurate, and even insensitive in this climate.
Also, all "VET AGENTS!" claims. I'm sorry. I love you. You're a good person. But I've talked about how I've hated the idea of this before. My "do not query" list started in a chat of 100 people. Even after I created it, 100+ more writers contributed. BS STILL WAS NOT ON MY LIST.
And lastly, another thing I have hella problems with - "NO agent is better than a BAD agent." If we already KNOW it's difficult to tell what "BAD AGENTS" are which, then this refrain is especially unhelpful. See below tweet: https://twitter.com/themoosef/status/1276193687236571137
Additionally, you find out you have a bad agent after you sign a book contract - what then?
So let's stop pussyfooting around the REAL solutions to the problem. We have let the industrial balance of power sway too much in the industry. How do we protect new and rising authors?
So let's stop pussyfooting around the REAL solutions to the problem. We have let the industrial balance of power sway too much in the industry. How do we protect new and rising authors?
Not secret lists or gossip accounts (PLEASE STOP TREATING YA WHISPERS LIKE IT IS HARRIETT TUBMAN, Y'ALL. IT IS NOT AN HR DEPARTMENT). I'm talking about unions and lawyers (like SFWA does). Review boards and public testimonial resources organized well enough to be accessible.
We need to do better for writers - I'm saying it like that even though I'm one of the writers the industry needs to do better for. But - there IS no way to close this gap in knowledge. Not with how publishing is set up.
So we need radical solutions to combat that.
So we need radical solutions to combat that.
