SF Writers Sting Supposedly Traditional Publisher

deeptrace writes "A group of SF writers all submitted purposely awful stories to a publisher that purported to publish only selected high quality works. They created the worst story they could come up with, and it was accepted for publication." Their press release is pretty funny -- and if you'd like a sample of their insane prose, it's available through the book's Lulu site. (Where, Yes, you could also buy the whole thing.)

Re:The Press Release Text

[elSpike]

Dear Writer, Your posting of the Press Release Text is rejected as it does not seem to have paragraphs of any kind. Regards, Slashdot readers.

oh thats easy

[zephc]

copy-paste any chapter of Battlefield Earth

Slashdot editoral process ?

[jaiyen]

Maybe the editor who accepted the book for publication could fill michael's position at slashdot - sounds like he'd fit right in !

Re:oh thats easy

[Ingolfke]

We're steal waiting for someone to reveal that that was just a great hoax, then we can all laugh together. Until then I will continue to shudder here in my basement, away from the light, away from one John Travolta.

My Review of "Atlanta Nights"

[lildogie]

This book is better than any book ever written. It is better than any book that will ever be written in the future. And I haven't even read it yet.

Re:SF is broader than sci-fi

[Leo McGarry]

I don't believe that the word "to speculate" is often used as "to make up ridiculous stuff in order to entertain 13-year-old girls with a Welsh fetish."

Re:preview

[Vampyre_Dark]

Pain.
Whispering voices.
Pain.
Pain. Pain. Pain.
Need pee--new pain--what are they sticking in me? . . .
Sleep.
Pain.
Whispering voices.

Woah.. slow down... is this a preview of the story, or a first hand account of reading the front page of Slashdot?

Love the name...

[vspazv]

You'd think someone would have realized something was wrong with the pen name Travis Tea...

Re:preview

[Kufat]

The last time I read something that bad, I was surrounded by Vogons.

Re:No surprise here.

[Anonymous Coward]

How do you think stories get published on Slashdot?

I know! I know! The correct answer is: "multiple times", right?

Re:preview

[starling]

We will therefore just monitor his sign's,

Aieee!!! Feral apo'strophes. Oh noe's th'ey're spr'ead'ing !!!'!' G'et the'm o'ff!!''!'
TH'E'Y'RE A'LI''V'E''''''''''''''''''''''

coming soon

[prockcore]

I hear WB bought the rights to the stories and have hired Travolta.

Here's another explanation...

[wizard_of_wor]

This could simply support my own theory that science fiction is like flan: there's no difference between the good stuff and the bad stuff.

Actually, I'll amend that: reading nearly any science fiction is like eating flan, but reading Neal Stephenson is like eating flan from between Jennifer Connelly's breasts while you're high.

Goodkind

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't this happen every time Terry Goodkind gets something published?

Re:Follow a publishers formula = get published.

[infonography]

Good one, my karma is stuck on spiffy and I unchecked the moderations box. Karma-whores get paid by becoming moderators, I would say I'm a Karma-slut.

Re:preview

[CAIMLAS]

Dear sweet mother of God! That's so wretched!

I've seen better writing from bad high school students. Though, on the flip side, it's likely on par with most of the romance novels out there.

Oh, what suffering.

It was a dark and stormy night

[infonography]

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

--Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

Yes yes, karma-whoring again, go ahead and say it.

Re:preview

[ocelotbob]

No, it's the firsthand account of a server being slashdotted

Pain.
Whispering voices.
Pain.

The initial few; a mere trampling by a few hundred people, commenting amongst themselves before the story goes live to the masses

Pain. Pain. Pain.
Need pee —new pain— what are they sticking in me? . . .

The slashdotting. Lots of people, the server is trampled into jelly

Sleep.

until the admins pull the plug.

Pain.
Whispering voices.

Afterwards, a few people looking at the site, some commenting, the server never the same.

Re:Weird acronym use

[cgenman]

To understand, think "Linux" vs. "GNU/Linux".

When you put it that way, it makes me really care what the sci-fi community wants to be called.

Re:It was a dark and stormy night

[howhardcanitbetocrea]

shouldn't that be "and the rain fell in bit-torrents..."

Not so stupid as you think:

[ActionJesus]

Akk. apologies if this multiple posted...

1) Get bunch of writes to write "crappy" novel
2) Advertise how bad it is on slashdot
3) Profit!

Just because its horribly bad doesnt mean some of you wont be buying it out of curiosity.

Re:Nothing new...

[Anonymous Coward]

Wikipedia does much better, as usual.

Wkipedia, as usual, has more spin than a top quark.

Re:From the site

[Nighttime]

"A note of caution: reading this thing may cause temporary brain damage."

Do they mean the manuscript or Slashdot?

Re:Here's another explanation...

[Tackhead]

> Actually, I'll amend that: reading nearly any science fiction is like eating flan, but reading Neal Stephenson is like eating flan from between Jennifer Connelly's breasts while you're high.

Flan or flarn?

Watching Star Trek is like eating flarn. Watching B5 is like eating flarn out from between Mira Furlann and Claudi*ahem*, uh, never mind. We have always eaten flarn.