Dear readers,
Some of you are aspiring writers. Some of you are published writers. All of you are heavy readers. And almost universally, my readers are people who love small presses. I myself am a fan of small presses. But sometimes small presses are run by ignorant pricks.
Here’s a handy guide that will help you determine if the editor of a small press is an ignorant prick:
— Did he change the title of your story so that it now contains a misspelling?
— Did he fail to tell you he changed the title of your story before the story went to print in an anthology?
— Did he make you sign a contract allowing the press to edit your work but then confused editing with rewriting?
— In those rewrites, did he change the gender of a character, create a name for another character and include implied rape in a story where there had not been rape prior to the “edit?”
— Did he call you unstable and mock you when you contacted him about these appalling breaches in editorial conduct?
— Did he impugn his own press as he scrambled to call you such a bad writer that no professional press would touch your work?
— Is his name Anthony Giangregorio and does he run Undead Press?
If you answered yes to some of these questions, then chances are your editor is ignorant or a prick. If you answered yes to all, then the ignorant prickiness goes down to the molecular level and you should use your stories as cat litter before you submit them to such a press.
Sadly, Mandy DeGeit did not have this handy list for reference and was fucked over by Undead Press. But through her suffering we’ve all learned a important lesson today, I think.
Much love!
Anita at IROB
PS: Increasingly, I think that perhaps old Tony is really an evil, ignorant prick.
PPS: There is now no question about it. Tony really is an evil, ignorant prick. He very recently made a veiled threat against writer Alyn Day, mentioned in the link above. Yes, I can hear the neckbeards explaining, ever so patiently, that old Tony isn’t threatening Alyn. Why wouldn’t an editor who has been shamed for his dreadful treatment of writers decide to stop by the homes of one of the writers who outed him as a cretinous jerk? Don’t we always stop by the homes of people who have exposed our shoddy business practices? Couldn’t possibly be that Tony wants to intimidate Ms Day by implying he plans to come to her home “for a talk.” So let’s all add whistle-blower intimidation to the long list of things wrong with this choad.
LOL, I <3 you
Hils, here is a passage the editor added to her story:
“Something strange happened then. I recalled a moment when I was a boy. I was playing in my backyard when the dog in my neighbor’s yard escaped through an open gate. My neighbor, an elderly man who lived alone and spoke in a thick accent (I later discovered that is was German), managed to corral the dog back into his yard. I watched, fascinated as the man ripped his long black belt from the loops at his waist and brought it down with a hellish fury upon the dog’s back. The dog slunk down and rested it’s head upon its paws, resigned to its fate. Why didn’t it fight back? Why didn’t it bite the hand of the master?
With the only friend I ever truly had writhing between my legs, I became aroused.”
I mean… I sort of feel like he’s getting off easy with me only calling him an ignorant prick. I could also add untalented hack and yuckmeister to the list of descriptive but well-deserved abuse.
wow… Definitely not a “professional” publisher. If there hadn’t been two different blogs saying the same thing, I’d call it a hoax. It seems too unreal for anybody to be that ignorant. Talk about an author’s worst nightmare.
As unbelievable as this assholes antics have been thus far, he also implicitly threatened one of the women who blew the whistle against him. See my PPS above for details.
It’s so unbelievable because we so seldom see such arrogance married to such idiocy. Had credible sources like Nick Mamatas not linked to the whole debacle, I would have had a hard time believing it myself.
yeah, only in TV and movies do people actually come clean with how stupid they are and reveal their dastardly intentions. People in real life (even mildly intelligent ones) keep it well-hidden. Whenever I hear about someone who is so open about being evil, I tend to assume it’s a hoax. But every now and then you come across someone who really can’t hide it. Incredible…