That's what this much talked-about literary agent has done. Turns out she was displeased about her inclusion in the Writer's Beware 20 Worst Agencies List, which was also posted on Absolute Write (AW), one of the best online writer's resources. And in order to settle scores, she called up AW's web hosting company, asking them to shut down the site. The hosting company owner panicked and chose to pay heed to the agent. As a result, this wonderful community of writers (I can attest to that; I have been a member for a short time, and I already love it there) is now left without a home, at least for the time being.
I suppose Ms Bauer forgot to take basic arithmetic into account. "There is power in numbers" and bloggers across the blogsphere are proving just that to her. If not for this step, she wouldn't probably have received such high amounts of bad publicity in such record time, amounts enough to bring her greater disrepute than what she has possibly earned in all her years in the business.
It's a sad day when serious, sincere, yet unsuspecting writers fall prey to scamming predators in the publishing industry. The power of blogging is changing the equations, though. And if agents don't get their act together in this business, they will be outsmarted. No; no one will actually shove bad agents out of business, physically. That will happen all by itself, because writers will stop approaching them altogether.
BarbaraBauer
Absolute Write
I suppose Ms Bauer forgot to take basic arithmetic into account. "There is power in numbers" and bloggers across the blogsphere are proving just that to her. If not for this step, she wouldn't probably have received such high amounts of bad publicity in such record time, amounts enough to bring her greater disrepute than what she has possibly earned in all her years in the business.
It's a sad day when serious, sincere, yet unsuspecting writers fall prey to scamming predators in the publishing industry. The power of blogging is changing the equations, though. And if agents don't get their act together in this business, they will be outsmarted. No; no one will actually shove bad agents out of business, physically. That will happen all by itself, because writers will stop approaching them altogether.
BarbaraBauer
Absolute Write
11 comments:
Thank you for your post. Here's hoping AW is up soon, yes? I have a great blogging event I want to get going soon!
Hello Bhaswati
How nice to discover your blog and to get to know you a little (and with time perhaps more). I am a regular in the New Delhi circuit -- I visit India every 2 years, even though She robs me, poisons me and tries to kill me every time I go, it is an unrequited love, I guess, perhaps the greatest of my life.
I will be back to read around later -- i have to go to bed now to nurse a sore soul with a book -- but am giving you a link already. You deserve one based on the little I have seen.
Br
Gawain
Dawno, no problem at all. Of course AW will be up soon, and I can tell what a huge success our blog event is going to be!
Gawain, do I call you that or Sir G? Your cerebral maturity prompts me to go for Sir, :P.
Many thanks for the kind words. That's nice to know, your love for India. I know of a few people smitten by this particular attraction. For all its bizarre contradictions, India is truly a place to die for. I know I am biased, but this is a fact. Thanks for giving me the link. I am honoured.
By the way, what does "Br" stand for?
Amen to that, Jason.
I am sure AW will be back soon. It's too strong a community to be put down like that.
Scamsters! May fleas infest their armpits!
I hope all those scammers (is that a word?) get to see your comment, Yoda. They deserve that for sure.
We shall overcome!
The writer's ant hill is full of army ants.
Right on, Bernita!
Hey sury,
Not sure if you know this or not but Roger Carlson set up an AW Refugee Camp forum on his website that you can go to until the AW forums find a new home. Here's the link:
http://www.rogerjcarlson.com/forum/writerforum/default.asp
Thanks for the link, South. I did visit the Refugee Camp via someone's blog. I am so glad AWers can still meet and interact at one place. 'Can't wait for the site to be up.
Thanks for the link!
I know what you mean. I hope they'll be able to get it back up soon.
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