Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Filtered

[Welcome to the American Organization of Major Publishers' author blog content monitoring system. The system will automatically engage as soon as you begin to write and will flag any offensive content. Please delete all offensive content prior to blog publication. A remote system administrator is standing by; if you need assistance with the system, please press f3. Thank you and happy writing.]

Some important news headlines that I've found lately:

Oprah's Deadly Eating Disorder EXPOSED!

Hillary attacks Bill's Secret Lover...he forces Hillary into sex therapy

Poor Nick: Vanessa's a Dirrrty Dancing Machine!

I haven't read them, but you probably have. What do you mean, you haven't? These are amazing publications. They have full color pages and photographs of famous people; Brad and Angelina are on their covers every other week. I see them each time I go through the checkout at the grocery store. I don't buy them, as I have plenty of liners for the cat boxes and the hamster's cage, but I'm sure someone does.

[OOPS1: Offensive blog content detected -- first warning]

Actually, I'm not sure who does. Lots of people pick them up and thumb through them while they're waiting, but then they put them back. I know, maybe they wait until I leave the store because they know I'm watching.

Supermarket tabloids are a fact of life for celebrities. So are the paparazzi. The only thing people love more than a wildly successful, popular person is to see that wildly successful, popular person fall on their face, get divorced, get hauled into court, have a sleazy affair, or lose a huge amount of money.

In our world, scandal is the great equalizer. It's also a tremendous comforter and pacifier.

[OOPS2: Offensive blog content detected -- second warning]

Take the Clinton story. Reading that a former President has to send his wife to a sex therapist makes an ordinary citizen who has ho-hum nooky three nights a week with the spouse feel superior. It doesn't even have to be true; gossip rarely is. Superiority over an American president is a very nice feeling for someone who makes thirty-five thousand a year, is wrestling an adjustable-rate mortgage ballooning out of control, and is trapped in a rotting relationship. Ordinary Citizen also has as much chance of becoming the President of the United States as Yosemite Sam does . . . but at least OC's spouse puts out.

[OH/MY/GOODNESS1: Offensive blog content meter overload -- final warning]

Scandal is a business, and often generates fame for people who otherwise wouldn't get any. Hedda Hopper was a classic example of someone who achieved fame only through defaming others. Born Elda Furry, the daughter of a Pennsylvania butcher, she ran off to New York to become a Broadway star, but never made it past the chorus line. She moved on to Hollywood, but despite appearing in 120 films, failed to become a famous movie actress. Even her marriage to an actor eventually failed. Poor Hedda.

When Hedda became a gossip columnist, however, she finally found the means to acquire the fame and success she craved: by damaging and often destroying the careers of actors and actresses. In her heyday she terrorized the studios and most of the Hollywood elite, and would crucify anyone who refused to kiss her ass. She turned in names of Hollywood pros she thought were communists during the McCarthy era. Hedda made so much money peddling scandal that she moved to Beverly Hills and christened her mansion "The House That Fear Built." She lived, probably very well, to the ripe old age of 80.

So how does this relate to what's happening to authors these days?

[WHAT/THE/HELL1: Offensive blog content meter offline; emergency sunshine and happiness filter engaged]

Why, it doesn't! I'm so glad that I'm a published author, because we don't have book tabloids and author paparazzi. No Hedda Hopper hopefuls out there making reps and money off bashing and defaming us. No one stalking us where we work, watching every word we write, waiting for us to do anything they don't like so they can misconstrue it or blow it up into a scandal. No one to use things that we can't control and have no say in, like bad cover art, as a means to ridicule us. No one to dictate to us how they think we're to speak, act or think, or to threaten us if we don't. No one to misquote us, smear us or otherwise crucify us if we don't suck up, kiss their ass, etc. Being an author is a wonderful thing.

Lots of people agree with me. According to a 2005 survey conducted by USA Today and the Association of American Publishers, 82% of Americans plan to write a book someday. As of the writing of this post, that is approximately 246,736,190 ordinary American citizens who want my job. I won't tell them that the average author in the U.S. earns less than $6,000.00 a year, usually has a day job, and enjoys as much glam in their lives as any ordinary citizen if you don't! Lol.

[HUH1: syntax error]

Do you know that you can walk into any book store in the U.S. and see our names on our books, right there on the shelf? Is that fame or what? And you will see them there, as long as we sold the book to a major publisher. And got a decent first print run. And weren't bumped off the schedule for a better-selling author. And if the bookseller ordered the title, and unpacked it, and shelved it. If you know precisely where to look. For a couple of weeks. Maybe. But it's another reason that being an author is a wonderful thing.

[HUH2: syntax error syntax error syntax error -- contact remote system administrator]

Some of my author friends worry about author-bashing becoming the new scrapbooking. Ridiculous. There is no such thing as author-bashing, didn't you know that, silly? And really, what could equal the delights of gluing photo corners and pretty stickers to specialty acid-free paper illustrated with sooooooo cute widdle pink and blue teddy weddy bears? Unless of course you're being tormented by demons--

[OH/SHIT1: warning, emergency sunshine and happiness filter system failing -- contact remote system administrator immediately]

--who stick redhot needles in your eyes while you're burning in hell.

[OH/SHIT2: system failure system failure system failure -- dialing remote system administrator]

I think that would run a close second.

[CRAZY/BITCH1: Remote system administrator override -- backup emergency sunshine and happiness system engaged]

Anyway, thank heavens authors don't have to worry about publishing being overrun with Hedda Hoppers. As for the tabloids, do you think the Clintons are worried about that story in the Globe? Will the story's writer be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize? Will it be aired on the Situation Room on CNN? Will Congress pass legislation making sex therapy available to any First Lady? Will Hillary Clinton open a therapy center for the tabloid journalists out there who keep bashing her?

[WHAT/NOW1: syntax error syntax error syntax error]

Maybe they could take scrapbooking classes.

[STOP/IT1: serious error -- backup emergency sunshine and happiness system offline -- contact remote system administrator and press f1 for manual restart]

My advice? I suggest that we pass on by and leave the Hedda Hoppers where they belong -- one rack above the chewing gum.

[THATS/IT/YOURE/TOAST1: fatal error backup emergency sunshine and happiness system destroyed. Remote system administrator has activated modem self-destruct sequence. You have five seconds to disengage.]

Related links:

[four]

Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, freelance journalist and former investigative reporter for the Globe, has some insights on how tabloids do business.

[three]

Daniel Gross's article Tabloid Shocker reveals that some tabloid dreck can't be made into commercial gold, and how much that's costing its owners.

[two]

Gotta go. Bye!

[one]

[FINALLY/YOU/DUMBASS1: Remote system administrator has deactivated modem self-destruct sequence. Thank you for disengaging. Please reinstall blog content monitoring software and reboot your computer before attempting to publish again. Happy writing and have a wonderful day.]

13 comments:

  1. okay, once i stopped laughing... here were my thoughts.

    Do you know that you can walk into any book store in the U.S. and see our names on our books, right there on the shelf? Is that fame or what? And you will see them there, as long as we sold the book to a major publisher. And got a decent first print run. And weren't bumped off the schedule for a better-selling author. And if the bookseller ordered the title, and unpacked it, and shelved it. If you know precisely where to look. For a couple of weeks. Maybe. But it's another reason that being an author is a wonderful thing.

    Looking at it like this? I almost feel good about how things are going. Not only was my book unpacked with a day or two of release, they've sold them and reordered and still have one or two copies on the shelf.

    And really, what could equal the delights of gluing photo corners and pretty stickers to specialty acid-free paper illustrated with sooooooo cute widdle pink and blue teddy weddy bears?

    I'll have you know I only used teddy bears when I was doing the pages of the bratlets when they were babies. Hi, My name is Shiloh and I'm addicted to scrapbooking. well, not addicted, really. I do one or two a year and it's cuz I take so many frickin pictures of my kids, I can't leave them all in boxes.

    You know, if there really was a content filter, I can just imagine the fun you'd have breaking it. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous2:12 AM

    My mother reads Life & Style on the stationary bike.

    I opened the most recent issue. After about twenty minutes, my eyeballs began to ooze pus and blood. My God, I don't CARE about these "fashion blunders" which appear to be about the same as the "fabulous fashions." It's so inane and, like many television shows, requires an utter suspension of thought to enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous2:38 AM

    Ha ha ha, I couldn't stop laughing through that.

    On the subject of tabloids: I only read high quality news like the National Enquirer. Who needs to read about Bill's latest love affair behind Hilary's back when you can read about how Jesus has already returned and left 200 years ago, or how Bat Boy has developed cancer from listening to Elvis Presley music. That's the news I want to read about.

    Jason

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous3:51 AM

    A coupla things:

    Now in the early hours of January 3, I am willing to bet a big box of very expensive truffles that on December 31, this will still be in my top three blog posts for 2007.

    I believe it might be necessary to institute a new award. The Hedda Hopper, for those online critics and scandalmongers who work so hard to emulate Hopper's style and ethics in pursuit of the same end: fame.

    ReplyDelete
  5. ~plaintively~
    When is everyone going to get their noses out of Clinton's crotch?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous9:45 AM

    *grins*

    *reads more carefully*

    But.... but....... .....

    I would still really like to see my name and my book on those bookshelves in book shops one day. Despite the many Hedda Hoppers out there.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Its gotten to the point I want an eyewash after passing the tabloids trying to pay for my groceries.

    I wonder how many paperbacks are ignored because they're sitting next to those rags in the check-out area?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Tabloids... What a waste of paper. Many good trees were cut down for that trash of so-called journalism. Ugh!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Damn filters!

    I was very tempted to suggest to someone on the Snark's latest crapometer that they had a ready-made audience in Sun readers (the Sun being the biggest-selling tabloid 'newspaper' the UK boasts). Except that Sun-reader-type-people don't read books.

    But...I didn't.

    The celebrity-insider-magazine seems to be proliferating over here. They must breed with each other in some disgusting incestuous fashion I don't even want to think about.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous12:24 PM

    Laurell Hamilton called - she wants to borrow your software. ;-)

    L.

    ReplyDelete
  11. But the real question is: How much compensation did you receive by one or more of the names you dropped/links you made?

    'Cause ya' know, I heard the disclosure police are on your tail. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous11:50 PM

    This has absolutely nothing to do with this post, but I had to say it before going to bed. I got my copy of Plague of Memory today, and just finished reading it. I cried my way through the last ten pages. I can't remember the last time that happened with a book.
    You write good stuff.
    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.