Okay, well, this is old news but we thought we’d cover it anyway. If ya’all remember our post on The Banning of Robin Sullivan, you will know that anyone who disagrees with either Mac Stone or Uncle Jimbo, especially if you state your views on indie publishing (oops! I’m not supposed to call it that, am I? Oh, silly me!) gets banned from the infernal snake pit called Absolute Write. You will especially be a candidate for banning if you’re a successful independent author like Joe Konrath or — wait for it — Hugh Howey!
Here’s what happened from :
And yes, Michael Sullivan is the husband of the Robin Sullivan in our original post on the subject.
So, if you’re surfing the AW Water Cooler and you find yourself being attacked by snakes on all sides like Harrison Ford and Karen Allen in RotLA and end up getting banned for defending yourself, don’t worry! You’re in very good company. We now consider the banning of anyone from AW (especially a successful indie author) to be an official rite of passage. 😀
All indie authors (along with self-respecting authors) should ban Absolute Write. That place is a cesspool of hack writers espousing antiquated advice in the attempts to justify their fledgling, non-existent careers. The worst of them all is hack writer and mafia don of the AW forum, James M. (AKA “Uncle Jim), a creepy, arrogant, wanna-be writer whose “advice” to new and established writers is both ridiculous and laughable. He tries to establish himself as an authority, but if you check out his book sales (and have you seen those covers? Gads!) and writing ability, you will see that he’s nothing but a hack. Impossible to take him, or anyone at that forum, seriously. My advice to all serious writers? Run from Absolute Write as fast as you can. Your career will be better for it.
I am so glad I read this article and praise you for writing it. I’m an indie publisher, one woman show, that has been attacked by the ‘snakes’ on AW for years now and finally not only myself but a few of my authors decided to strike back. I’m actually shocked that myself as well as them have not been banned yet and find it amazing at how many would-be authors with my small press actually use AW for a go to when looking for a good publisher. The attackers on AW didn’t even bother to do any research into my business, or get to know anything about myself or how things work before just digging in tooth and nail. It’s been a thorn in my side for a while now and they even bully my authors endlessly.
They tend to enjoy focusing only on the bad reviews that some of my author’s books get and completely ignore anything good about them in any light. It would be wonderful if places like this could be seen as the true snake pits they are and banned completely, but of course that will never happen.
Thank you again for your post and for making me realize that I am not alone when it comes to being trashed on AW.
Sincerely,
K.