I thought I read somewhere that the thing you linked was a fake... Maybe I missed something?

I've been avoiding all this Bioware drama

Only took you 1.5 months to reply.

They were talking about popularity, not quality (assuming they really did said that).

People claim so yeah, but I've yet to see the evidence.

Dear god every time I start writing my book I get a little frightened of the inevitable comparisons my book will be going through. It's made me pause more than once. How could I ever hope to compare to these giants that have come before me? Then I realize all the other authors pretty much had to go through the same thing and they most of them weren't dunked into a pot of boiling oil.

Most of them were. Most publishers only actually publish three or four of the 5000+ manuscripts they receive.

Of those 5000, 4000 are immediately thrown in the trash without opening the envelope.
Another 900 get thrown in after seeing the layout.
Of the 100 remaining, 50 get thrown out after seeing the title.
40 more get dumped after reading the first page.
The ten remaining have their first chapter read, after which at least five more get the boot.

That's a bit OTT. Publishing companies have readers -- I forget the professional term -- that go through the first few pages/chapters of each manuscript they receive. If those readers vet a book, then it goes to a... All technical jargon has escaped my head. Anyway, books go through several readings before they're accepted.

That's not what I hear. http://www.ian-irvine.com/publishing.html for instance, who's gotten quite a lot of books published, says the same thing (see Lesson 3). Publishing is a brutal business, and no publisher can pay to have people read books.

Its not hers, I dont remeber the actual author. But her "book" is terrible. Its actually a comic, from what I was able to read. I think the last thing I remember, is Hitler being killed with the sword of the monkey king.

God that was horrible to read through.

I'd read that

2 out of 3 pages full of nothing but fandom [censored]. Congratulations, people. lol

Their writers are definitely overrated, but I've read the developer comments on Twilight and this is misconstrual of what David Gaider said. He said that even though Meyer's books are not his thing, she writes well to her audience. That's not the same thing as saying she writes well. I'd like to think I'd have had better taste as a teenage girl, probably my Twilight phase corresponds to a small obsession I had with Wuthering Heights. Suppose I should thank god that Twilight didn't exist then so I actually had to read something challenging to get moody about. I digress...

I liked the first two Dragon Age novels. They aren't high literature, but the author doesn't claim them to be. Loghain is by far the most interesting character in the series, so without him or any good antagonist the story suffered. Haven't read any of the Mass Effect novels or the new DA one. I'm sort of over Dragon Age so not terribly interested anymore.

There are publishers who hire people to read through the first (I remember now) 10 pages of each book. Same goes for companies that option movie scripts, etc.


So they just pull the lucky manuscripts out of a hat?


I believe he said that she writes romance well. I disagree, vehemently. Granted, I haven't read much romance, but if he were looking for someone to emulate in that regard, he'd do well to read Margaret Mitchell, or Jane Austen, or... Someone not-Stephanie Meyer.

Not to dismiss your argument, but the man's published more books than we have, so I imagine he knows what he's talking about.


No they throw those in the trash that they didn't ask for, the so-called unsolicited ones.

What I'm saying is, just because that's been his experience, doesn't mean it's true of every publishing house. Where does he live? That could just be the practice of publishing houses in his province/state/whatever, or his country. Or he could be applying to publishing houses that only do specific genres, or... Etc.


Okay.

I saw a BSN post where he refuted that and said that he had only said she knows her audience and writes to them well. Also something about people being dismissive just because something is popular. Though in this case I think the dismissiveness is accurate. If anything, I think he takes too much influence from Joss Whedon.

Why can't book writers even have a clue of what there writing about?

Also, 22nd Infantry division my ass!

Anyone can write to their target audience, if your target audience likes trashy pulp novels then, your a trashy pulp writer. If you want people to accept that the trashy pulp is something that its not, then dont cater to that audience and write better.

This sort of book is why i hate any company computer game companies, rpg companies, getting writers who have no idea about the subject matter, to write books about their product, i read the D&D series of books and you could tell they had no idea, and then Shadowrun, same thing, and the list goes on, i read the flood, when i saw the authors name i thought it was familiar but couldnt place it but i was positive the name was also familiar with bad writing.

Ive known people that have submitted to write these type of books and they arent as picky as a publishing house is, i read the guidelines a few of the places had, and they set their standards arent that high, lots of text in the guidelines but no real substance.

David Gaider is the lead writer of the games as well, so he's not a hireling who doesn't know the material. He helped create the world. I got the impression he was only reading Stephanie Meyer to see what the fuss was about.

Oh, you might be talking about the Mass Effect books, right? They probably had to hire on because Drew Karpyshyn left to work on SWTOR and then left Bioware completely.

There's a worrying amount of personal attacks and call-outs in this thread. Differences of opinion are fine to have (wouldn't be much of a forum if everyone always agreed about everything, wouldn't it?) But it does need to be discussed in a civil manner.

Myself, I've heard about the hooplah being raised over the new book, but I haven't read it yet, so I can't really comment too much on that. It does sound like a bit of a mistake, however - you are talking about a franchise with some very dedicated fans; not to mention one that already has a fair amount of established lore by this time. Heck, the Codex in those games are pretty extensive for a sci-fi RPG.

So I can't say I feel too bad about the backlash. You write a novel set in a specific franchise - it's no secret that your target audience is going to be the sort of fan who's going to be especially interested in the game's lore. So you can't really be too surprised if they catch you on it when you forget to cross your t's and dot your i's with respect to established lore.

Myself - I've read the first two Mass Effect novels, and am currently working my way through the third. I rather enjoyed them, actually. It's a video game book. I'm not expecting Shakespeare, here. Frankly, I think it would be a mistake to expect "high literature" from what's basically going to be a pulp fiction sci-fi caper in the first place.

I think they're really probably among the better of the video game novels I've read. It's light reading, sure, but that's also exactly what it's supposed to be. I'm not sure I understand specifically what would categorize them as "bad writing." They expand upon characters from the game, show more of the franchise's universe, and the game's story actually does some interesting things with intertwining events from the first three novels into the third game.

At least it's better than the Assassin's Creed novels I've read (which were just rote re-tellings of the events from the games.)

I've done some research into getting published. The majority would be as you say, but there are a few out there who do pay people to read at least a larger chunk of the books for them. It's unusual though. Typically one would subscribe to the writers market to ge tin contact with publishers/publishing agents to try and get your book dropped in somewhere. It's rare that publishers just look in their emails for submissions. OR at least the emails listed on the site. If they do take direct submissions then most of them will say that. Though send a courtesy email to find out what that publisher does. It's a complicated thing.

Email? If you haven't got an agent, or if you're just trying your luck, you mail a manuscript. Of course nobody's going to bother to read it if 1. it's unsolicited and 2. you make them pay (paper, printing costs) to read your manuscript.