Train wreck in progress. Cover your eyes.

Tor editor Teresa Nielsen Hayden's blog, Making Light, has more than once taken on scam publishing houses, scam editors, and other forms of parasites which suck the blood of gullible writers. This is a little different. It concerns a man who avoided the scammers, but internalized their claims-- that no unknown writer can ever get published by a major company, and that the only possible difference between a popular and published writer and an unpublished beginner is the name on the cover. He then took it one step further, decided that popular authors probably aren't writing their own books, and put his unpublished manuscript up on ebay, to be sold to someone like Stephen King for $ 150,000, so King can then sell it as his own.

And then Teresa wrote about it. And then the author heard that she'd written about it. Read the comments all the way down for the full effect, which is almost-- but not quite-- too appalling to contemplate.

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/005569.html


ETA: I have now had occasion on the thread to state my policy regarding duels. This does indeed remind me of some choice moments at Green Man Review's letter column.