"Handbook For Mortals" Shows the Trad Publishing Industry is Corrupt, Too

One of the persistent drumbeats that traditional publishers and authors like to sneer is that only getting published makes you a "real" author. Self-published books are crap, they say. Indie authors are bad writers who attempt to manipulate the system with shoddy work and lousy covers, taking away space from the long-suffering "real" authors. After all, they say, if they were any good, authors would be published through a traditional publishing house, which ensures that only quality material reaches the shelves and success. If only that were true, then books like Fifty Shades of Grey wouldn't be out there. Or the most recent example, Handbook for Mortals.


As a self-published author, I've been following the story of Handbook for Mortals by Lani Sarem with great interest, but have a different take than others have. If you haven't heard about it, you can read the full story in all its shocking detail at Punjaba, but the short version is that a new novel called Handbook for Mortals shot to the top of the New York Times Bestseller List in its first week. When people on Twitter started looking into it, they discovered several bookstores were called to place bulk orders, and great effort was made to make sure the bookstores reported to the NYT List. In other words, someone (at this point, clearly the publisher) just bought thousands of books to try to make the list. There's apparently also an attempt to post fake reviews on Goodreads and an alleged movie deal on IMDB with the author starring in the first film (yes, Lani Sarem, the author). Even the cover seems to be a rip-off of artwork by an Australian author named Gill del Mace who was not happy to see it.

Seriously, read the article. It's crazy, and it's a complete crapstorm that is still ongoing as I type this. It seems like the only reason this book exists in the first place is the author originally wrote it as a screenplay and is trying to get a movie made on the condition that it's based off a "best-selling" novel. Wait'll you get to the part about the connection to Blues Traveler.

This isn't the first time it's happened and it won't be the last, but I'm always reminded of the sanctimonious tone traditional authors like to have when looking down their noses at self-published authors. Yeah, some indie books are crap and some self-published authors do some pretty rotten things to try to be a success. But traditional publishers aren't exactly paragons of virtue, either.

Oh, and in case you're wondering if the book itself is actually any good, it's not. Here's an excerpt courtesy of HuffPo where the main character Zade describes herself, that classic narrative device everyone hates:

I’m slender, but I do not believe most would say skinny. Not ‘hot-girl skinny,’ at least. I have long legs that are toned but I think my thighs are too large and I do not have a thigh gap. My arms are kind of flabby and while I do have an hourglass figure I have always felt my butt is a little too big and my face is a bit too round.

There's also a bit about "the chunky pieces on the lower half of my long hair, which I had dyed to be a multitude of fun colors" which (by a shocking coincidence) perfectly describes the author herself. If you still think people are piling on, check out the sample and reviews (legitimate reviews) on Amazon.

Yeah, this just keeps getting better and better. Keep bringing such quality material to bookstores everywhere.

Related: 6 Reasons Why Indie Authors Are NOT Destroying Literature

UPDATE: Just wanted to add, whenever this sort of thing happens, I wonder what would have happened if a group of dedicated sleuths on Twitter hadn't decided to investigate. How many times have authors gotten away with all of this and went on to success?


"My name is Timothy McGill, and I'm a time travel addict..." Time Junkie, now available in paperback and ebook formats!

Why Content Mills Are Bad For Writers [Rant]

A while back, I talked about how I wished there was a "Uber for writers," a place for on-demand work where writers could earn quick cash by banging out short stories and novels for customers. Well, my mistake was thinking of fiction, because it turns out there are services online for writers to produce nonfiction on demand. Quite a few of them, in fact. And they all suck, at least for writers.



I'm going to talk about one specific service I signed up for, but I'm not going to provide the name or link to the website, because I don't want to promote it. A lot of these places are alike so you can find it or one like it if you're interested. They're all called "content mills," and they work as brokers for nonfiction content. You sign up and clients post descriptions of the text they want, how long they want it to be, when they want it by, and how much they'll pay for them. Most of the jobs tend to lean towards blog posts and articles, but also for things like product descriptions. Basically, any text that you would find on the Internet, you'll find a client trying to hire someone to write it for them. For example, I signed up for jobs to write articles on the health benefits of air purifiers, a description of an educational app, and a list of scary things about Alzheimer's disease.

The writing is really tedious. You wouldn't think it would be hard to crank out 300 words until you've written everything you can think of about belly button lint and realize it's only 124 words and you have to find another 176 words.

The jobs also don't pay that much. I earned maybe two or five dollars per article, but I only wrote 300-500 words per job, so you do the math on how much that would be per word. I also had to do a lot of research because I had zero knowledge of any of those topics, so if I were getting paid for the hour, I'd be earning below minimum wage. It's a lot of work for very little pay. Another problem is that while I'm waxing on about air filters, I'm not writing any fiction that I actually want to write.

That's the danger of these content mills: if you wanted to make real money, you'd have to grind out a ton of writing for very little pay, and you're using the time you could use to write things you actually want. Content mills have worn down writers who fell into them because they can be draining.

Then there's the moral aspect of content mills. I wasn't too comfortable writing what were essentially advertisements disguised as instructional articles that would probably show up on some blog. I also saw some pretty unethical things being offered that I refused to take. For example, one company was asking for 1000-word reviews of health supplements. The company insisted they wanted high-quality writing because they're a respected source for product reviews, but the only thing they provided to potential writers was a link to an ad for the product. That means writers would have to make up their entire review, because I doubt the client expects writers to buy the supplement, try it out, and give their honest opinion. The company was offering 10-20 products to review at a time, so I'm guessing all their "respected" reviews are farmed out to content mills, which makes them worthless to consumers. That's disgusting.

Worse than all this is the message that content mills send: that writers are disposable. Writers are expected to grind out quality work for ridiculously low wages to save some company having to hire a quality writer on staff who will earn decent money for their work. The whole thing just feels sleazy and dirty.

In the end, I learned that content mills are really bad for writers, just like Uber is really bad for drivers. I shudder to think it might be the future of the writing industry.

"My name is Timothy McGill, and I'm a time travel addict..." Time Junkie, now available in paperback and ebook formats!

Professor Accuses Latina College Student of Plagiarism Because of "Hence"

Via Tiffany Martinez

A young woman attending Suffolk University in Boston got a shock when her paper was returned by her professor. Not because she got a bad grade, but the reason why and how. On her blog, she explained:

This morning, my professor handed me back a paper (a literature review) in front of my entire class and exclaimed “this is not your language.” On the top of the page they wrote in blue ink: “Please go back and indicate where you cut and paste.” The period was included. They assumed that the work I turned in was not my own. My professor did not ask me if it was my language, instead they immediately blamed me in front of peers. On the second page the professor circled the word “hence” and wrote in between the typed lines “This is not your word.” The word “not” was underlined. Twice. My professor assumed someone like me would never use language like that. As I stood in the front of the class while a professor challenged my intelligence I could just imagine them reading my paper in their home thinking could someone like her write something like this?

When she says "someone like me," she means that she's Latina.


For background in her post, Tiffany Martínez explained she's a McNair Fellow and student scholar. She's presented at national conferences in San Francisco, San Diego, and Miami. She crafted a critical reflection piece that was published in a peer-reviewed journal managed by the Pell Institute for the Study of Higher Education and Council for Opportunity in Education. She's consistently juggled at least two jobs and maintained the status of a full-time student and Dean’s list recipient since her first year at Suffolk University. She also used this past summer to supervise a teen girls empower program and craft a thirty page intensive research project funded by the federal government.

But to her professor, she couldn't possibly be bright enough to use the word "hence."  It’s patently offensive that a professor would dismiss an entire work as plagiarism simply because she used the word “hence.” While I agree it’s not a common word, it’s not proof of plagiarism. Just an elevated style of writing.

This really bothers me for personal reasons. My African-American mother, who was a valedictorian at her school, a published author, and was a Certified Public Accountant for many years, went to get a loan to start her own accounting business. She wrote up a professional business plan, put it in a binder, and submitted it to the loan officer.

The officer took one look at it, laughed, and said my mother didn’t write it. My mother continued to insist that she did write it, but the officer just kept laughing and threw it back onto the desk. She wouldn’t even look at it. Because of course, an African-American woman could never write a business plan on her own.

Know this sort of thing happens all the time, where people put minorities into boxes and won’t even accept their attempts to rise above them.

Also, as a graduate who earned a bachelor's degree from ASU, I'm offended by the blatant breach of procedure. I took the liberty of checking Suffolk Universities’ ethics policy, where it says: “A faculty member suspecting academic misconduct will contact the student using the Suffolk email address to schedule a meeting and will make all effort to do so within five business days of detecting the incident. During the meeting, the faculty member will present the documentation that led to suspected academic misconduct. If the faculty member reaches the conclusion that academic misconduct has occurred, he or she may impose limited sanctions that are meant to acknowledge the behavior in the context of providing remediation and addressing skill development.” [emphasis mine]

Clearly, her professor did not do this. If he or she suspected cheating, the professor needed to provide proof, specifically the writing that was copied. It’s impossible to prove something in the negative. In this case, the professor is making Tiffany prove that she didn’t cheat, which isn’t possible. What is she supposed to do, submit the entire body of the world’s written work to prove she didn’t copy it?

Sadly, the comments on the author's blog reflect the world at large with comments like:

Another Whiny latino playing the fake race card when she doesnt [sic] agree with the truth!!! You are whats wrong with the world,and also a horrible person! 

Get over it! Nobody uses the word “hence” stop playing the race card you lazy brat

Hope you get kicked out of school for plagiarism. Playing the race card to get out of trouble, what a douche bag you are!

And those are just the three most recent. With an attitude like that, no wonder she's struggling.

I wish Tiffany well in her studies. Her hard work is an inspiration.

[Via Cosmopolitan via Buzzfeed]

"My name is Timothy McGill, and I'm a time travel addict..." Time Junkie, only 99-cents for a limited time!