Sound and Fury Signifying nothing.
I kind of wish it would die, but I seriously doubt it ever will.
Dagstine is still trying to pull a "booga booga" on the horror community with Pacione's memoirs. I keep saying that, while they are aggravating at times, they are essentially harmless. Even if Pacione named names, in this day and age, a writer would have to be buggering children or sacrificing babies to even get an eyebrow raised at what they do in their real life.
Anyone who tried to read Pacione's memoirs would wonder what drugs the author was on when he wrote them. That's why no one in their right mind would ever take what he wrote seriously. There never was any dangerous libel or threat to the community from the works of Pacione.
Dagstine is a drama quean [sic] of the first order. Nothing more. He thinks that he is a sainted individual, and yet he hangs with the worst provocateurs in the industry.
Unless you are someone with major credits and a name, controversy no longer sells books. The number of hits someone gets on their website is not and never has been an indication of sales. The majors published books by people whose websites and blogs got huge numbers of comments and attention, only to be disappointed by the sales figures.
With so much free stuff on the net, one of the first things that a person will do, when shown a new author involved in a controversy, is to google them. The vast majority have something out there free to read, either in an ezine or on their sites. If they don't like the writing style, then there are no sales.
Back in the 1950s, 'banned in Boston' could get you more sales. But back then writers were less accessible than they are now. Today, the public has become jaded and inured to controversy. The media and publishers have done controversy to death and most folks have become yawningly blasé about it.
As the old saying goes, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
Dagstine cannot write his way out of a used condom. Philbin can write, but no one really cares about his subject matter beyond a tiny fraction of hardcore fanatics who like reading about time travelers raping baby dinosaurs.
Trying to force feed -- by way of controversy -- the reading public what they do not wish to read will not sell books. Disparaging your readership and fans will not sell books.
Dagstine and Philbin are excellent examples of what is wrong with small press horror these days. Talentless writing, poor characterization, and books and novels based upon delivering the "scares" is not going to sell books. The pond is shrinking.
The old tired formula of man goes to haunted house, monster eats him, is no longer working for the larger reading public, which is dominated by the soccer moms.
Furthermore, regardless of what the powers that be say to the contrary, the US is in a recession. The bulk of the book buyers is the Middle Class. There was a time when writers were principally trying to compete for people's beer money. But in this time of rising costs, more often we are competing for their grocery and gas money. There is less and less discretionary money in people's pockets.
Economics alone are accounting for the largest share in the dwindling pond of people who will buy horror and other genre works. At $15 for a small press tradepaper, $7.99 for a mass market book from the majors, and $4.99 for the average indie ebook, what are people going to buy?
Controversy alone is not going to break someone out of the small press ghetto and into the high class sales of the mass market.
Dagstine is still trying to pull a "booga booga" on the horror community with Pacione's memoirs. I keep saying that, while they are aggravating at times, they are essentially harmless. Even if Pacione named names, in this day and age, a writer would have to be buggering children or sacrificing babies to even get an eyebrow raised at what they do in their real life.
Anyone who tried to read Pacione's memoirs would wonder what drugs the author was on when he wrote them. That's why no one in their right mind would ever take what he wrote seriously. There never was any dangerous libel or threat to the community from the works of Pacione.
Dagstine is a drama quean [sic] of the first order. Nothing more. He thinks that he is a sainted individual, and yet he hangs with the worst provocateurs in the industry.
Unless you are someone with major credits and a name, controversy no longer sells books. The number of hits someone gets on their website is not and never has been an indication of sales. The majors published books by people whose websites and blogs got huge numbers of comments and attention, only to be disappointed by the sales figures.
With so much free stuff on the net, one of the first things that a person will do, when shown a new author involved in a controversy, is to google them. The vast majority have something out there free to read, either in an ezine or on their sites. If they don't like the writing style, then there are no sales.
Back in the 1950s, 'banned in Boston' could get you more sales. But back then writers were less accessible than they are now. Today, the public has become jaded and inured to controversy. The media and publishers have done controversy to death and most folks have become yawningly blasé about it.
As the old saying goes, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
Dagstine cannot write his way out of a used condom. Philbin can write, but no one really cares about his subject matter beyond a tiny fraction of hardcore fanatics who like reading about time travelers raping baby dinosaurs.
Trying to force feed -- by way of controversy -- the reading public what they do not wish to read will not sell books. Disparaging your readership and fans will not sell books.
Dagstine and Philbin are excellent examples of what is wrong with small press horror these days. Talentless writing, poor characterization, and books and novels based upon delivering the "scares" is not going to sell books. The pond is shrinking.
The old tired formula of man goes to haunted house, monster eats him, is no longer working for the larger reading public, which is dominated by the soccer moms.
Furthermore, regardless of what the powers that be say to the contrary, the US is in a recession. The bulk of the book buyers is the Middle Class. There was a time when writers were principally trying to compete for people's beer money. But in this time of rising costs, more often we are competing for their grocery and gas money. There is less and less discretionary money in people's pockets.
Economics alone are accounting for the largest share in the dwindling pond of people who will buy horror and other genre works. At $15 for a small press tradepaper, $7.99 for a mass market book from the majors, and $4.99 for the average indie ebook, what are people going to buy?
Controversy alone is not going to break someone out of the small press ghetto and into the high class sales of the mass market.
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contemplative