When aspiring authors attack

Some writing friends of mine recently alerted me to an aspiring author attacking a published author on Twitter. An author was accused of being a fraud because he was doing a three week tour that only went to major areas. When I read the Twitter feed my jaw nearly hit the floor with the one question…Why?
What would possess an aspiring author to do such a thing? I thought by now most people who want to break into publishing know the following tings about the industry:

1. It's a small, small world.
2. Agents/editors may check up on your online presence, and they want someone professional.

So many authors put themselves out in social media and respond to fans when they have no obligation to. They answer questions, support bloggers and give fan insights into their life as a writer (and sometimes their personal life too).

Social media is a great way for people to network, gain valuable industry insight and knowledge and create an online presence that shows agents and editors that you are serious about this journey. Ranting tweets against people in the industry is a good way to burn bridges and expose yourself as someone who is unprofessional. For more on Twitter ettique, check out this post from Angela James.

I'm not going to get into the ins and outs of the argument, but I will say that the published author handled himself like a true professional with logical responses. He impressed me so much I'm going to buy one of his books.

Coliloquy & creating buzz

Anticipation is such a great social media strategy. Create the buzz, get people salivating before you've even launched is the ultimate sign of success.

Peguin did it with the "Sekerit" project, aka Book Country. And now Kindle are doing it with Coliloquy.

We know that they're publishing in a new interactive publishing platform and have given an author a 10-book deal!

We know that agents are excited. We know that authors are excited.

Know I want to know - are you excited?

Finished! Done!

Squee!! Excitement plus. I finished my rewrite. Thanks to the editorial advice I received from Zoe Walton, I rewrote MISHCA, and renamed it SLEEPER. Hopefully now my blogging will resume.

It was a hard thing to take your baby, rip it apart and then put it back together again. The hardest thing was that I actual had to dump the original concept that sparked the whole MS. But never fear, it that concept will work in book two.

So what's next? I've got multiple stories that I will work on, and I'll let myself be guided by the muse. They include:
DESERTER: The sequel to SLEEPER.

KARMA: A Greek Mythology - a novel version of the short story I wrote for the Australian Literary Review's YA short story competition and was the runner up.

GROWTH: A YA Contemporary version of the short story I wrote for THE BASICS OF LIFE anthology.

BOY FROZEN: A YA Science Fiction that looks at twins, epilepsy, aliens and high school.

DIRTY RAINBOW (working title): A YA Dystopian set thousands of years in the future, where men are extinct and cyborgs help the human race live on.

EMERALD: A YA Steampunk/dystopian set in the future after a nuclear fallout and environmentalist rule.

Do many ideas, so little hours in the day.