Showing posts with label myths. Show all posts
Showing posts with label myths. Show all posts
Saturday, May 13, 2017
Publishing Myths General Guidelines and Good Advice
Publishing Myths General Guidelines and Good Advice
Winner for best cloud-sourced myth(s):
It dont mater how bad youre speling or grammer is, or how illegibly formatted your submission. As long as you have an idea thats the new Harry Potter or DaVinci Code, publishers will send your book to a ghost writer to be written, slap a celebritys name on it as "author", and give you all the money. Or none of the money.
Alternatively: it doesnt matter how unsalable your idea is if your writing is limpidly beautiful and lyrically whatever. Its only about Art. Who cares how many books we can sell?
Alternatively again: it doesnt matter how beautiful your writing is, because its only about money. Publishers are actively rejecting most slush manuscripts as "too good" and only publishing cliche-ridden drivel because thats the only thing that sells.
Only the young and vivacious get published. Publishing isnt just a popularity contest in terms of your manuscript, were also looking ahead to the interviews youll have to do in a bikini. So wax now.
You must get rejected 26 times. LEngle, Seuss, Grisham, Karen Jay Fowler... all the best writers have been rejected exactly 26 times. (No doubt this number is because of some secret cabal in publishing.) If you get a 27th rejection, though, it means youre crap.
Once you are published, its easy-peasy to get all your friends, family members, and crit group partners published, too. Once youre in the secret club, you can recommend up to 26 new members per month. (No, of course your editor wont mind the influx of recommended manuscripts--shes doesnt have to read them, just put them on the secret orders altar and read the secret fortunetelling bones over them.)
Moreover, this is really the only way to be published, since publishing houses go to any lengths to avoid reading submissions. This includes giving false addresses (ha, Candlewick is located in "Boston"! Honestly, who would fall for that?) and simply moving away from old buildings once they become heavily impacted with piles of slush.
Finally, if you earn out your advance and make your publisher glad they worked with you, you clearly didnt get paid enough. Fire your agent, so that at least someone will have learned their lesson.
Thanks to Sam, Chris, Merry, Tricia, Literaticat, Carol, Michael, Vonna, Hope, and A.L.!
P.S.: Anonymous, the secret society of bloggers (led by Nathan Bransford and Literaticat) is factual. This was a MYTHS contest.
Available link for download
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Obamacare Myths both sides
Obamacare Myths both sides
FactCheck.org has been dealing with myths about Obamacare, really the Affordable Health Care Act, since 2009. However, that does not stop the opponents from trotting out the same old spurious claims about it at all. Likely, we will see more and more of them. Recently they picked the top three to give facts rather than fiction about Obamacare. I’ll just list them from their blog.
§ Republicans have made the overblown claim that the law is a job-killer, but experts predict a small impact on mainly low-wage jobs. The Republican National Committee says 8.2 million part-timers can’t find full-time work “partly” due to the law. That’s the total number of part-time workers who want full-time jobs, and there’s no evidence from official jobs figures that the law has had an impact.
§ Proponents say premiums will go down, while opponents say they’ll go up. In general, employer plans won’t be affected much, and a price change for individuals seeking their own insurance will vary from person to person. Obama claimed that all of the uninsured would see lower premiums than what they could get now (before accounting for federal subsidies), but that’s not the case.
§ Critics continue to make scary claims about the government coming between you and your doctor, but the law doesn’t set up a government-run system. If anything, the law comes between you and your insurance company, forbidding them from capping your coverage or charging you more based on health status. Meanwhile, Obama can’t promise you can keep your plan. Employers are free to switch coverage, just as they were before.
Then there is the claim that 8.2 million Americans can’t find full-time work partly due to Obamacare. Another false claim. There is just no evidence for this just guesses based upon ideology.
There is also the claim it is job killer, another overblown statement. There may be some loss of low-wage jobs but economists see this as minimal.
Next is the claim that premiums are going up because of the law and the counterclaim that they will go down. Well, it depends. If you are uninsured and have a pre-existing condition you will pay less. If you are young and healthy you likely pay more, but as I wrote earlier, that true for insurance companies as well. Employers may see an increase of 1 to 3% because of added benefits. We did see a 9% increase in family plan premiums but that was due to higher medical costs (we always see to miss that we have the highest health costs of anywhere in the world and that has nothing to do with Obamacare.) As to individual plans the jury is out, some will go up some down and some will receive subsidies to offset in the exchange plans.
Next, all the uninsured will pay less on the exchanges that they would in the individual market even without federal subsidies. Not true. We still have to work with a very high priced medical system and the ACP won’t change that. It is also misleading to claim that 8.5 million Americans will receive rebates of about $100 because of the law. It is a per family number not a per person number.
The claim you won’t be able to choose your doctor and the government will get between you and your doctor is just plain wrong. This is the boggy man of creeping socialism. It fits right there with death-panels, shear fabrication.
The claim that you can keep your plan and your doctor is misleading. Companies may change providers, some may have to change insurance companies. It’s up in the air.
Then there are those who claim folk applying for federal subsidies without facing verification and is another blatant lie.
Is congress exempt from the law? No. Actually by 2014 they will no longer be able to get insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. It is part of the law.
The Affordable Health Care Act is incredibly complicated, which leads to all this misinformation by folk on both sides of the issue. The simple solution of course would be to just adopt and single payer plan – but the big buck folk in the medical and insurance fields have scared everyone that than will destroy the country totally ignoring how well in works in the countries that have such programs.
“My mind is made up don’t confuse me with the facts” continue to rule the day.
click to enlarge
Available link for download
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Publishing Myths Contest!
Publishing Myths Contest!
I read with great interest about Ally Condie’s recent 7-figure deal with Dutton. It has us aspiring writers all in a kerfuffle. In online writer’s forums, the skinny is that Ms. Condie, like Stephenie Meyer, is Mormon, a graduate of BYU, and mother to three children. This has spawned speculation that the upper echelon of publishing is comprised of a “Mormon Mafia” of BYU alumni. Will my odds of getting published improve if I move to Provo, convert, and squeeze out another kid?HA HA HAHAHGAH AHAHA HSNORTHAHA! Oh, whew. There should be a class at the gym thats just rolling around on the floor while guffawing.
Thats fabulous, and a terrific kick off to our new years contest:
MAKE UP THE BEST PUBLISHING MYTH.
Points will be awarded mostly for humor, but having some slight connection to reality or some vaguely believable "proof" will make for the strongest contenders. Ideally, Id like to see several of these myths go on to long, anonymous lives on the internet where they will be passed from newbie to newbie like a cold in a preschool.
Entries should be posted in the comments here, by January 1st.
Available link for download
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