13 Saturday Jul 2013
Posted in writing life
I submitted Gruesome Cargo II to SNM Horror Magazine. Let’s see if they accept it because of the self-cannibalism. I knew that story was going to be hard to place because of the really graphic subject matter.
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A candid look at a controversial author and publisher. The man that is Nickolaus Pacione and these blogs are sometimes in depth
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Gosh! It sounds like a famous tale by Steve King.
It explores self-cannibalism. Ramsey as much I respect you, I don’t need a fucking critic!
Mr Pacione, every writer does. You do.
All I say is give my anthologies a chance. You might see what April Derleth saw in me.
I met April in Sauk City. She was a very pleasant person but no judge of literature, which she acknowledged by employing editors – Jim Turner, Peter Ruber – to choose books for Arkham House publication rather than doing so herself.
She coined me the hybrid of her father and H.P. Lovecraft. She taught me how to be a publisher. I was given Other Worlds Than Our s by April to wish me luck as a science fiction writer. I sent you a .pdf of the fourth Tabloid Purposes. Give it a chance.
I have.
You will love it. If you like old school horror the guys on roster deliver the goods
I am afraid it demonstrates all the perils of amateur publication, and in addition the contents need a considerable amount of editing.
I was using a program called Open Office. I didn’t have Microsoft word at the time but I did the best I could. I am a desktop publishing company. Every aspect of the anthology was a labor of love.
None of which alters what I said.
Don’t be so damned critical, just sit back and enjoy the book. I put a lot of my creative effort into the project — it showcases my talents as a photographer.
You need to sit back and relax a bit because you never know that you might come across a new favorite writer that would emerge in the small press.
I have often done so, and have helped quite a few. Unfortunately, everything I sampled in your anthology cried out for professional editing, which it had not received.
You have to realize the tools I was using when I was editing Tabloid Purposes IV. I had to re-boot the entire book from a .pdf file.
I’m talking about the prose, not the layout (problematical though that is).
We all put our creative efforts into Tabloid Purposes IV — that book was a labor of love on my part. You really need to read more do it yourself horror authors. Don’t be a mass market snob. Open your mind because you might have a new favorite author if you read the stories in there. Don’t be a damn grammar nazi.
I’ve attempted to offer you professional advice, Mr Pacione, from nearly forty years of editing anthologies myself. It is clearly of no use to you. I pity your contributors.
I’ve been doing anthologies since 2004, I got the advice from other publishers like Cyber-Pulp, Litrix, Wild Cat Books, and Arkham House. I am learning new tricks and using different word processors to edit the book — when I did Tabloid Purposes IV I didn’t have word. I know what I am doing Ramsey. Skip the formalities Ramsey. Some of those contributors are now big in other fields of fiction and others are widely published in other genres. You have to realize the anthologies are home published from a desktop.
The prose.
The anthology was meant to be enjoyed, not picked apart by someone it is a total critic.
Mr Pacione, here is an example of criticism:
I think the telegram very bad, almost amusingly bad. Certainly it doesn’t strike the note you want. It is much too definite, for one thing, and Lovecraft by and large avoided being too definite in descriptions of his malignant entities. Redo this—and bear in mind that nobody wd. write “what is this thing that flops unspeakably down the passage etc.” Nonsense! This only makes the story ridiculous. If a man is composing a wire and hears something come, he might scrawl, “Oh, God—it’s coming!” or something of that sort, but hardly the silly lines you put down here, which, instead of inspiring with horror, only fill with jeering laughter.
I actually inspired a writer to write about a haunting that took place at his old place where he used to work at. He started writing from reading a story I did as a pen name. He read my true paranormal account and decided to write his own — it was a submission I took from a reader of the magazine for the 11th Issue. One of the contributors of my magazine wrote her first Lovecraftian Horror story because of reading my catalog.
Your incompetence is certainly an inspiration to me.
Fuck you — all you are is a goddamn rip-off artist. Come up with your own plots and characters. You need to leave my characters and stories alone you fucking queer.
Comment and e-mail address removed because the troll is impersonating author with a fake title called Fifty Shades of Gay and passing pen name off as life partner. The bio is a lie.
I am editing your fucking comment and removing website from it being linked because I do not allow impersonators trolling my goddamn blog.
Doubt it’ll be the self-cannibalism that gets it rejected. But that is, of course, what you’ll blame and claim.
Look — I was good enough to appear in the same magazine you sold your steampunk vampire story to years earlier so I am publishable. I had a few alumni from that magazine submit to my magazine. So why don’t you shut the hell up and let me get my submissions, Go back to writing in your fandoms and bastardizing someone else’s characters.
I am just a mere fanfiction writer who likes to screw over publishers who appear in the same magazine they also appeared in years earlier and edit anthologies ripping off rival publisher’s titles.
Look up Tales of the Talisman 2.4. I am going to edit your comment because you are being a raging bitch. I will not allow you to pull that bullshit on my blog. Go back to writing Gargoyles Fan Fiction if you are going to diss my appearance in the same magazine that you sold to years earlier.
I am aware that you were in Tales of the Talisman. I know this. Thank you for acknowledging that I’ve also had a story there. I noticed you neglected to mention it when you were boasting earlier about Dagstine. Didn’t post the ToT cover, for some reason. Hmm. Wonder why.
Then quit dissing me as a writer. I was published there first as a nonfiction writer. I gave Dave two stories to choose from — The Typewriter was chosen then Flying Cigars went to Specficworld.com. My appearance was the first time I saw my work illustrated. Let me get my submissions because I want to give writers a springboard even if it is a 4theluv.
Are you going to quit dissing ME as a writer?
As long you keep fucking me over with my book sales and try to rail road my submissions I am always going to see you as a fandom writer. You keep dissing my publications without giving them a chance. I was taken seriously as a publisher when I did issue 12 of my magazine because I got permission to a famous science fiction story I never thought I would get the permission to publish.
I am a shitty fanfiction writer who likes to use a veteran small press publisher as a public toilet.
And on to the deleting, are we? Typical. Can’t face it, can you?
If you keep warning people away from my submission calls on FanFiction.net, then why the hell should I allow you to comment on here — if you are going to keep dissing me I am going to keep linking your fan fiction website showing the world that your entire publishing history before you sold stories was entirely in fanfiction.
So what? It’s not like that was ever a secret.
Then why the fuck must you take a ripe shit on everything I’ve done as a writer and a publisher when I proved myself ten times over and can hold my own with the best in the business.
That has nothing to do with what we were discussing. Focus.
“…everything I’ve done as a writer and a publisher when I proved myself ten times over and can hold my own with the best in the business.”
Mr Pacione, please don’t be silly. Read the example of criticism I posted. Would you be able to make use of similar criticism if it were applied to your work and that of your contributors? To spare anyone from having to scroll up, here it is again:
‘I think the telegram very bad, almost amusingly bad. Certainly it doesn’t strike the note you want. It is much too definite, for one thing, and Lovecraft by and large avoided being too definite in descriptions of his malignant entities. Redo this—and bear in mind that nobody wd. write “what is this thing that flops unspeakably down the passage etc.” Nonsense! This only makes the story ridiculous. If a man is composing a wire and hears something come, he might scrawl, “Oh, God—it’s coming!” or something of that sort, but hardly the silly lines you put down here, which, instead of inspiring with horror, only fill with jeering laughter.’
Let me ask the question still more straightforwardly. How would you react to such criticism?
I had mixed reactions, when someone called my published works fan fiction I suggest they had a tumor on their nuts because they never made the rounds with magazines. I was turned down twice from Weird Tales, and magazines said I didn’t pick them up fast enough. When I had people lift my titles and concepts I suggest that they have better luck getting their own mother pregnant. My lesson of having a thick skin came from being on the radio in 2003, the DJ kept interrupting me every other word. I had some flaming faggot named Lokust picking on my official website saying I would never be published — I had people in the business tell me my career was buried before it even started so I said “Fuck You I will do it myself and bring some authors with me in the process.”
I’m not being clear enough. The paragraph I quoted is an example of necessary criticism. It is specific about the text that’s being criticised. Forgive my bluntness, but your work needs this kind of forthright criticism.
I don’t like it seen get anally raped. I had one website rape one of my publications and encourage the piracy of another book of mine. I saw my books get burned on YouTube.com and an asshole try to altar my novel then put some other faggot’s name on the byline with a bastardized cover. I managed to make a few sales with my work over the years so I am doing something right in the token payment markets. What it needs is a publisher who has the brass balls to run it.
Mr Pacione, who do you think wrote the criticism I quoted above, and to whom do you think it was written?
Okay, I’m sorry, man… but when Ramsey Campbell condescends to appear on your blog and offers you free advice, you don’t sit there and tell him where to stick it. Swallow some of your pride, Nickolaus, and recognize that everyone — everyone! — needs an editor and can stand to improve.
You seem to believe yourself above criticism. This is an awful place to for a writer to be, if he hopes to become truly successful.
I took a lot of criticism and heat for what I do in the business. I told Ramsey not to be so damn critical of me because I know what I am doing as a publisher. I’ve been writing horror for over 20 years and been publishing anthologies for almost ten years. My recent anthology I edited was the first time I had MS Word so I could do it right. I get the wrong kind of criticism and assholes insulting every magazine I got published in then sending my publishers hate mail for publishing me. My publishers get bullied for running me and vile sluts like Mary Sangiovanni fucking me over. I was truly blessed with talented writers over the nine years. I am still learning as an editor, when I did Tabloid Purposes One and The Ethereal Gazette: Issue One — they were a learning curve for me. I had mass market pricks using my titles as their public toilets. When he picked apart my labor of love he can’t look at it like a grammar nazi it was meant to be enjoyed as a fan.
“I took a lot of criticism and heat for what I do in the business.”
I’m not really sure what this has to do with Ramsey Campbell.
“I told Ramsey not to be so damn critical of me because I know what I am doing as a publisher….”
Ah, I see. Look, not to put too fine a point on it, but says who (beyond that April Whatsername you mentioned before)? I get that it’s a labor of love for you to publish, but contentment with mediocrity is no virtue. You can’t demand the reader simply ignore the grammatical, typographical, and (as Mr. Campbell has noted numerous times throughout this entire conversation) prose issues and “sit back and enjoy.” These things are vital TO the enjoyment of a story, because inattention to these details simply pulls the reader out of the moment and reminds him (or her) that (s)he is reading a (poorly edited) book.
You can’t demand that people enjoy the work as a fan (period, but for the sake of argument, I’ll continue) if you can’t put the effort into proper editing. And as Mr. Campbell mentioned, this isn’t merely a grammatical issue. He’s not being a “grammar nazi.” The prose itself is problematic. This means the way the pieces are written comes off as confusing or unrealistic. This has nothing to do with grammar; it is a fundamental issue in the way the story is written, and it must be addressed if you wish for the reader to enjoy the work “as a fan.”
Please take this in the spirit in which it is intended. You seem to have the tendency to write off all criticism as being some sort of personal attack. You have responded on numerous occasions to simple critique with vitriol and name-calling.
While I believe you believe you know what you’re doing as a publisher, it must be at least somewhat apparent that flat refusal to examine your work, or to improve your publications, plus the evident tendency to simply alienate anyone who sees you as anything other than the brilliant genius you believe yourself to be, can only harm your reputation and, with it, the potential for both attracting writers and selling your publications.
I have gotten good criticism for my work in the past but all the criticism I got in the recent years is by assholes willing to use it as a public toilet.
But, I’ve read some of your work, Nick. It does need criticism. It isn’t perfect, and needs to improve greatly. I get that you’ve been published in a magazine — and congrats! That doesn’t mean every word to fly off the tips of your fervent fingers into your word processor is solid gold.
And to be honest, though I haven’t read the particular piece that WAS published (other than self published), I admit I’m frankly surprised. An editor and publisher myself, I would NOT have done so with any sample I’ve seen to date. To be frank, there’s nothing an editor can do to make them workable. They need the benefit of serious critique, and a solid rewrite.
That some people are so put off by your overall demeanor as to hurl abuse instead of useful criticism is in no way an implication that all criticism must be ignored.
Nick, you make a lot of excuses for not putting the effort in to improve your work — and seem to demand grace from the reader, when it comes to your stories and books, even though you yourself display very little grace when it comes to your dealings with others.
If you put half the effort into improving your style and prose as you do into insulting others, blaming others for your problems, or lamenting about using a word processor that frankly works just as well as Word, I think you could actually get some very workable stories put together.
I know this won’t change anything, but that’s my .02.
You haven’t read the print exclusives. All you judged of me are my freebies. I sold my work over the years so I am good enough to be published and can hold my own with some of the more established writers in the business. The print stories are my better stories. I collected my print exclusives and lost material in one book.
Mr Pacione, who do you think wrote the criticism I quoted above, and to whom do you think it was addressed?
I think Mr. Pacione is trying to deflect your constructive criticism.
Ramsey, It would be an honor to have you critique any of my work. Positive or negative, I would probably frame it and hang it on my wall.
Out of sheer weariness I’ll answer my own question. The paragraph I quoted was from August Derleth to me. Unless you can take that kind of criticism where it’s necessary you aren’t likely to develop as a writer.You need it, Mr Pacione, but I really don’t know if I have the time.
I developed. My writing styles changed over the years. I got a lot of feedback from a journalist who interviewed me for the first time, she compared me to Richard Matheson. I didn’t see the comparison until after I became published and started writing ghost stories from doing Cthulhu Mythos. All the feedback I got over the years was entirely by people who blatantly flamed me. I developed as a creative nonfiction writer. That is where I really got published for over the years — my nonfiction is darker than most horror writers fiction.