Category: Anthony Weiner

Self-Publish Tech Issue; Something for St. Jude; Weiner’s Snarky Director

Self-Publish Tech Issue; Something for St. Jude

The following tech issue that recently happened to me might not apply to new authors who are self-publishing, however, I think it’s important to mention for published authors who might be self-publishing back listed books. And, for those self-publishing more than one book at a time. There are some things you just can’t portend no matter how hard you try. And what happened to me late last night with Something for St. Jude is a good example of this. You may have heard me screaming at Amazon.

I’ve posted about how we’ve been re-releasing all my back listed stories and books from now defunct small e-press, Loveyoudivine.com. So it’s not really self-publishing in the sense that these books have already been through the publishing process from developmental editing, to covers, to copy editing. And in most cases, these stories have even been through more than that because many were trad published in anthologies that were released years ago by respected LGBT publishers like Cleis Press. They’ve gone through more than a few edits by excellent professional editors. I even left the original book covers, which I wanted to change, so readers would not get confused. So I thought I had nothing about which to worry.

Think again. Even though I’ve always been completely open and honest about all my product information…to the point of being a pain in the ass with blog posts like this, late last night I went to Amazon to check out Something for St. Jude and I noticed a review (a good review) that read, “False Advertising.” And since I don’t even advertise my books anywhere…or much of anything I write…I read the review a few times, bought the book myself, and figured out the issue.

Evidently, there was a tech issue during the upload where several short stories were added to the short e-book, Something for St. Jude. In other words, instead of getting the one short story for .99 as it had been described in the book blurb, the reader wound up getting Something for St. Jude, plus a few additional short stories for free. Of course when I get something for free by mistake, I say thank you and smile. But two readers were so upset they’d received all these short stories for free when they purchased the .99 e-book they left reviews about it. And I can’t thank them enough for leaving these reviews. This is truly the kind of feedback the world needs to see. If it hadn’t been for these reviewers mentioning this tech issue, I would never have known all these short e-books were being given away for free with a .99 short story.

Don’t get me wrong. I honestly don’t mind that people read the extra books for free and I hope that a few people enjoyed them. I’ve never been one to complain about these things, and my publishers often get frustrated with me because of this. But that’s because I do believe that when issues like this happen and someone benefits from it, good for them. To me it’s like going into the store, finding a mismarked item, and making the store honor the mistake. In fact, with all the e-book pirates out there pilfering my books, I’m kind of glad this mistake happened so readers who do pay and do things the honest way got a little surprise when they purchased SfSJ for .99 and found more than they’d expected. Good for them!

But, in the same respect, I felt awful about those poor readers who had received free e-books and didn’t want them. You can read the reviews here. I’ve left comments apologizing and thanking them for pointing this problem out to me. I still can’t thank them enough. And the problem has been fixed now, thanks to these dedicated Amazon reviewers, and Something for St. Jude is now one short story instead of five short stories for .99. As I said, had it not been for them I never would have known. And shame on me for not triple checking that. But as I said, there are some things you can’t predict no matter how hard you try. And when it comes to re-releasing back listed book issues, this might be one of them other authors should pay attention to. I’m still not completely certain how this happened. I checked all of the other books that were released around the same time and they seem to be fine.

I’d also like to add that if things like this ever come up and you need to contact me, my e-mail is public and I welcome all comments in private. I will respect your privacy and discretion is extremely important to me. rfieldj@aol.com

Weiner’s Snarky Director

It’s been established that Anthony Weiner is naughty. It’s been established he has a strong story. It’s been well established that other politicians can lie about anything and get away with it, from their book bio to their college records, but don’t do anything sexual in your personal life or your done.

And now it seems Weiner’s communications directer went batshit crazy about an article in NY Daily News where one of Weiner’s nasty little interns allegedly wrote a tell-all. According to this article, the intern claims Weiner had problems getting people to work on his staff. The only reason people were on Weiner’s staff were there to get closer to his wife and Hillary Clinton (Weiner’s wife works for Hillary). Basically, it sounds like the intern bashed all of them in a breach of confidence, including the communications director. And the communications directer, Barbara Morgan, went after the mouthy little intern without holding anything back. And it was very entertaining.

“It’s all bullshit,” Morgan tells TPM. “I mean, it’s such bullsh*t. She could f**king — f**king tw*t.” Oh.

Morgan goes on to say that Nuzzi is a “slutbag” and says “she sucked.” Also: “You know what? F**k you, you little c*nt. I’m not joking, I am going to sue her.”

In a statement this morning that was sent to reporters and available on The Washington Post, Morgan says, “In a moment of frustration, I used inappropriate language in what I thought was an off-the-record conversation. It was wrong and I am very sorry, which is what I said tonight when I called and emailed Olivia to apologize.”

My fifty cents: Sometimes you just have to get it all off your chest and let them have it.

Anthony Weiner Sexts; Channing Tatum on Broadway; J.K. Rowling Number One

Anthony Weiner Sexts

When I post things here on this blog, I actually do make a conscious effort to keep with the theme of Naughty Guys with Strong Stories. Mostly that’s about my fiction, however, I don’t think there’s been a naughtier guy with a stronger story than Anthony Weiner since the Bill Clinton era. And now that’s he’s running for mayor of New York City more information about his penchant for sexting has surfaced and every crooked politician in NY seems to have jumped onto the band wagon to seize Weinder’s weak spot, and they are calling for him to drop out of the race.

Three of his rivals for mayor — Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and former City Councilman Sal Albanese, both Democrats, and billionaire John Catsimatidis, a Republican — also called on Weiner to quit the race.

“Enough is enough,” de Blasio said. “The sideshows of this election have gotten in the way of the debate we should be having about the future of this city.”

So far, Weiner has the support of his wife and he’s not making any moves to drop out. And frankly, I hope he doesn’t.

While I do think that Weiner’s lack of discretion has created most of his problems because we live in a society that likes to cover these issues up all the time, I don’t think his issues should be a deciding factor on whether or not he can run the city of New York. At least in his case we know he’s an exhibitionist, he takes care of his body, and he happens to enjoy sex. Compare this to past politicians like John F. Kennedy or even the late mayor of NY, Ed Koch, and the only thing Weiner is guilty of doing is showing a little too much too often. The hidden sex lies about Kennedy were never actually addressed in public, and openly acknowledged. To this day, there are still people who think Jack and Jackie Kennedy were the perfect married couple. And Mayor Koch lived his entire life as a closeted gay man who didn’t even acknowledge the AIDS virus…and he was mayor during a time when thousands of gay men were dying from it. On another note, it took over two hundred years to acknowledge that Thomas Jefferson not only had slaves, but that he made his living…a very good living…on breeding slaves and selling human beings for profit. Maybe I’m wrong about this, but I think sexting falls into an entirely different category than selling human beings to make a buck.

Weiner’s wife has openly supported him so far. Anyone who has ever been married knows that what happens between spouses, gay or straight, is unique and not all circumstances are handled the same way. And unless you can stand up and say you have the ultimate perfect marriage, I don’t think anyone should be pointing fingers at anyone else. And, anyone who has been married knows that there is no such thing as the perfect marriage and that marriage is more about learning to compromise, mostly in ways you never could have portended when you were single. The levels or degrees on which we’re willing to compromise differ from person to person, however, no one has it perfect. And sex is a big part of everyone’s life and no one is willing to admit that openly. I personally know a few closeted gay politicians, Democrat and Republican, who come to New Hope because it’s a safe gay community, to visit their kept male lovers. These men are married with children and they live double lives. I wrote about this in the upcoming book, The Palm Beach Stud, with a minor character.

Anthony Weiner is obviously not perfect, but no one is perfect. At least he’s been open about his mistakes. Or at least I hope he’s been open about them. And that’s far more than we can say about any politician, including those who cruise men’s rooms and lie about that all the time. Most of the time we get nothing more than a spin and what they want us to know, thanks to crafty PR people and those who stand to gain a great deal of money from the system. At least we know Weiner’s not perfect.

Channing Tatum on Broadway

As with most things these days, this came from a tweet. Channing Tatum posted on twitter that the stage version of his recent film, Magic Mike, is headed for Broadway.

 “Magic Mike, The Musical” will be written by Aguirre-Sacasa, who co-wrote the book for “Spider Man: Turn Off The Dark.” Tony winning songwriters, Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, creators of “Next To Normal,” are set to write the songs for the musical.

Anyone who follows me regularly knows that I have never been a fan of torch songs, Broadway show tunes, or anything even remotely related to musical comedy. In fact, I dislike them so much I love to parody them…I’m still thinking about writing an erotic romance titled, Banging in the Rain based on Singing in the Rain. However, I passed on seeing Magic Mike in the theaters, and I even passed on renting it on demand because I didn’t think I would like it. From everything I had read about it at the time I imagined a bunch of straight guys involved in a typical hetero romance plot. So when I finally did see in on one of the premium channels I was a little amazed at how good it was, and how much I liked the storyline. I hope they do justice to the film with the play.

J.K. Rowling Number One

Who didn’t actually think this would happen? Seriously. I posted about Rowling’s pen name being disclosed last week, and about her new mystery suspense, Cuckoo’s Calling, and I didn’t have a doubt in my mind she’d hit the number one on more than a few bestseller lists.

J. K. Rowling will land at No. 1 on USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list on Thursday – but this time as Robert Galbraith.

As most of the world now knows, Galbraith is the pseudonym Rowling used when she released a detective novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling, in April. Despite good reviews, it sold fewer than 1,000 copies.

Even though I loved her adult book, The Casual Vacancy, I’m not planning to read the new book right away because mystery suspense is just not my thing, and lack of time. But I do find it interesting that a book with a pen name written by Rowling lingers around without doing much for a while, plus good reviews, and then it hits all the bestseller lists the instant her real name is revealed.

I do believe Rowling had nothing to do with revealing her name in public. But I can’t help thinking there’s also a problem with the book system as we know it and that we’re not getting all the information…or we’re not bothering to look for all the information…we need in order to find good books. So when I post about new web sites like Lazy Beagle Entertainment I’m hoping people will really start to take this seriously and that they will check it out and give a few new authors a try. Because the only difference between J.K. Rowling and an unknown author is that Rowling has a little more luck and a little more publicity on her side. And if that weren’t the case, her pen name, Robert Galbraith, would have hit all the bestseller lists, too, just based on the reviews alone. And that God awful title, Cuckoo’s Call, didn’t put her on the bestseller list. I’m not even sure WTF a Cuckoo is.

I don’t often talk about marketing and publicity here, especially PR firms like this one that represents Debbie Macomber and Nora Roberts, and is affliated with a few people who might suprise you because they keep it very toned down. But I think readers should know some of the things that happen behind the scenes, and I’m going to get into that more in the future. I may wind up in the river with a cinder block tied to my leg, but the information we are getting on a grand scale is not by accident. And those who often speak of full disclosure don’t always practice it. It wasn’t sheer talent that landed Debbie Macomber a movie deal with Hallmark. So there’s nothing more important nowadays than publicty and marketing, and the least of that deals with reviews.