Adam whines

[yendi]

1. shadesong is still sick. And a quick glance at her latest post will let you know exactly how much the doctor she saw today (not her regular one) sucked ass.

2. Amazon woes continued. Called and spoke to a rep (after ten minutes of their "new" phone system), who refused to let me speak to a supervisor, again, and finally took my name again and promised me someone would call me today to get things straightened out. I'll believe that when I see it. Quick summary of the situation: Amazon fucked over my wishlist and reverted my ship-to address to my previous address. At least one, maybe more, gifts have now been shipped to an invalid address. When I called, the rep in India (and if she wasn't physically in India, she found an American company that's willing to hire phone reps with accents that are impenetrable) eventually explained that she had no idea how that could happen, but they'd take care of it. After three days, I got a condescending email from Amazon explaining where to click to change my address. Yes, after three days they sent me a form letter and ignored my actual problem. So yeah, I was not happy with the phone rep I spoke to this morning.

3. Got a terse email from my editor this morning, telling me After missing so many issues and not submitting any reviews for the review books you've been sent, I have to ask if you're still interested in writing for Bookslut. If so, I need a definite commitment from you to submit a column and at least two book reviews for the January issue.

This was surprising, as I'd only missed the November issue, and I'd told her I'd miss it, given the whole getting-married-in-October thing. Then I saw that my column (which was pretty-damned review-happy) wasn't in the December issue, even though I submitted it on Wednesday. I'd assumed it was an editorial choice (I hadn't had shadesong copy-edit it, since she's been sick), but was told that she'd never gotten it (and I guess it wasn't missed enough to merit a "where's your column" note). Lovely.

(and yeah, I'm about four books behind, review-wise -- mea culpa).

EDIT: The response: If you resend it, I'll save it for January. Lovely. Just fucking lovely. Especially since it's a "what to buy for the holidays" column.

4. Scrubs looks to be a clip show tonight, and Gilmore is a rerun. Meh.

5. Work, we won't even get started on.

6. I ripped yet another pair of pants yesterday. When they talk about the weight crisis in America, they always talk about the rising cost of healthcare for those of us who are obese. They never mention the constant econimic turmoil created by needing to buy new clothing. Short-term solution: Buy new (and cheap) pants. Long-term, as always, is to lose weight. It might happen. Not during this season, but it might happen.

7. John Abraham is out for the game against the Steelers. Granted, we were likely to get our asses kicked with him in the game anyway, but without him, my Jets are in trouble.

8. Insert anything I omitted here. I'm sure there's more shit.

Comments

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

It becomes a 'what to buy in the January sales' column instead? Dunno if this will be workable.

[yendi]

*nod* I'm still waiting to hear back from her. I'm just a little irked, especially given the utter lack of apology or even concern on her part. Frankly, it doesn't exactly make me feel too valued, you know?

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

You man, have too much going on.

Do you get a winter break?

[yendi]

Heh. Funny!

Seriously, we do get two days off around X-Mas (which we'll be using for traveling), and that week between Xmas and New Year's is slow as hell, even if I don't take vacation days. Not terrible, all things considered.

[tofu-cat.livejournal.com]

Man, what a shitty day/week you've been having.

Heh. Amazon. We put our wedding registry there for ease of over-seas friends/family. I'm not exactly sure how many shipments we missed, but there were a few supposedly purchased items that never showed up. So, what can they do about it? Nothing. Because we're not the buyers so they can't release that information to us, or re-send the shipments. Fucking pigs. And that's insulting pigs, that is.

[yendi]

The last time this happened (two moves ago), it was semi-my-fault, in that it never occurred to me that changing my shipping address wouldn't change my WL address. They re-sent the book then, so when it's completely their fault, I damned well expect them to resend it. And to apologize profusely.

[storme]

8. I lost my wallet.

Rar. This week sucks a lot.

[yendi]

*nod* I was just catching up and saw that post, in fact.

[kizlj.livejournal.com]

jessa seems kinda hands-off with the editing, to an occasionally frustrating extent. when I did the article I wrote, I sent it in ... and heard nothing. Since that was the first time I'd filed, and it wasn't a review but a reported piece, I'd kinda expected to hear if it was ok or not. Instead, I only found out it was running when I saw it in the issue -- typos intact. sigh. still, I like the site, so I suppose it's worth the pain. and can we ljers have a preview of your holiday guide story, pretty please?

[yendi]

Of course you can! I'll post it tonight/tomorrow morning (it's on the home machine). Although since it's all stuff I haven't already covered, a certain favorite author of yours (and mine) won't be making it. Just more proof he needs to publish Blood of Angels today, dammit!

[coffeeinhell.livejournal.com]

I admire your stick-to-it-iveness as regards writing for Bookslut, I must say. My experience was less than pleasant -- after my initial query I never heard anything back, except to suddenly start getting the books-picks e-mail ... indicating that I'd been accepted as a writer, but had never even received a courtesy "welcome aboard" note.

It took three responses to those book-pick lists (the last with a, "you know, I'd LIKE to review for you, honest) before I suddenly received a couple of books in the mail ... no e-mail, no enclosed note with the books, nuthin'. And then she never ran my reviews.

If I was a really sucky writer, or a plebe who had no idea how good I was, I might take it as a sign that what I submitted was lousy. But as a professional writer who gets paid honest-to-gawd real American money for what I write, I know I don't suck -- and here I am, willing to knock some stuff out for *free* and this is what happens. It was just a fantastically unprofessional and annoying experience all around.

And I'm still on her damn mailing list.

[yendi]

I hadn't realized things were still in such a limbo state. Between that, "not getting" my column, and mentioning in the blog that she was surprised to hear that Paula Danziger died (even though I'd emailed her about it), I suspect she's got a fast trigger finger on the delete button.

My experiences for the most part haven't been too bad. Granted, I don't get warm fuzzies from writing, or highlighted on the blog page, but with two exceptions (one time a column was poorly edited, the result of Jessa bringing on some folks to help who turned out to not be what she expected, and one time when a book that I was supposed to review, and really really wanted, never arrived and was supposedly stolen by an assistant, but Jessa ended up publishing a review of it in the Washington Post), everything had been fine up until now. And since I didn't (and don't) have a paying writing gig, it's not as if I can really afford to be choosy.

[coffeeinhell.livejournal.com]

Oh, you can afford to be choosy. Trust me. Especially since, as you say, you're not getting paid anyway.

The problem with a lot of website editors is that they treat writers like crap -- you'd think that since they aren't paying anything, they'd at least go out of their way to stroke their writers to keep them happy. But as long as writers are willing to write for free and be treated like crap, they'll continue to not pay anything and treat writers like crap ... because there will always be a steady stream of writers wanting to get something -- anything-- on their resume, and will put up with it.

At this point, though, you have clips. You've written enough for her that you have a collection of reviews, you've had a column on the site, and you could peddle your work elsewhere. You could do a little research and submit query letters to some better websites, some print publications, even. You're smart, you can write and if you want to continue to do what you're doing, it's possible you could do it for someone who behaves like a professional.

I suggested to a friend of mine, who was having trouble finding an outlet for an author interview he'd set up, that if he absolutely needed to find somewhere he might contact Jessa. He did, and she was just as flaky and haphazard with him -- this is a writer who's been published in the Wall Street Journal and national magazines, fer crap's sake. He told me afterward that he'd thought I'd been exaggerating when I'd warned him about her unprofessional behavior, but she pulled all the same stuff on him and he was disgusted -- especially since he was giving her the piece for free.

Yeesh.

Just because you've never been paid cash money for what you do, don't think that diminishes its value. The work is what it is, whether you do it for five bucks or $500 or for free. She wouldn't have a website if there wasn't any content -- what you have to offer is valuable, and deserves to bve treated as such.

[aussie-nyc.livejournal.com]

Amazon did that to my wishlist 3 years ago. It ended up as two wishlists, only one of which I could edit, but both of which came up if you searched for my name.

[jagette227.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about John Abraham. After watching the Steelers live on Sunday night, I understand why they are 11 & 1. I was waiting for their quaterback (won't even try to spell his name - I spent all night calling him Whataburger)to do something that looked like a rookie mistake...there were none. He's a machine. I'm almost for certain that I'll be seeing the Steelers in Jacksonville again on Feb. 5th.

I wish your Jets all the best anyway. One day, my Jaguars will be in the same space that all the good teams inhabit. We're not far. I think Leftwich has a good head on his shoulders, he just needs to be turned loose. They are too constricting on him. That and Fred Taylor has to stop dancing on the field. I wish he'd back to his old days of where he would just tuck the ball, put his head down and barrel through.

[dragontdc.livejournal.com]

Verily, thy day sucketh mightily!

May it repent and sucketh no more!