Bad Writer Publisher Editor And Performance Event Practices

Me in performance - Photo by Andy N.

The vast majority of creatives, and their potential publishers, promoters, agents, and public performance or promotion supporters are fantastic people to meet and interact with.

Occasionally, I meet or collide with dreadful ones though, where egotism, Narcissism, laziness or discrimination can cause all manner of problems.

Bad Writer Practice

Talking a great deal about work in progress which rarely exists in any form, coming up with ideas of stuff they might write one day, collecting and perusing multiple books and guides on writing, but never putting pen to paper.

One writer attending writing workshops actually said with a straight face: “I have my novel written in my head, but I don’t want to write it down or send it to any publishers in case they steal my ideas’. This is like having a cure for cancer but not sharing it with the medical profession. It might as well literally not exist, and probably doesn’t.

Writers who expect you to beta read their work and start handing out copies of their work for instant critiquing, resenting a decline to do it for them, or the first hint of non-glowing praise for any words read.

Published writers who want you to appreciate or buy their books but run a mile when you point out that you wrote some too.

Writers who interrupt conversation to write down some great idea for their next poem or story before they forget it. The great revelation never manifests anywhere, and it is just a Narcissistic pretentious gesture.

Writers who assume that if they published more work than you, they somehow automatically outrank you. One comment I heard once. “I’ve got a degree in creative writing, so I know what I’m talking about.”

Rare Audio Recording CD of my Poetry, illustrated by Smuzz.

Writers who see other writers, in or outside their own chosen genres as competition rather than as fellow travellers, and feel bitter jealousy towards another author’s successes.

Writers who are friends with the editor and therefore expect the editor to accept and publish their work automatically, regardless of its quality, and then resent it if their work is either declined or sent back for revision (as an occasional editor I have sometimes faced this).

Writers who expect automatic glowing reviews and free advertising by their friends and resent an honest review that is anything less than a five star award.

At a creative writing workshop event that was being covered by a TV documentary crew (they were filming just one deservedly rising author), a writer present snuck over to where everyone’s coats were hung up and slipped copies of his self-published poetry pamphlets into the director’s coat pocket so he could find it and read it later. I will be very surprised if it wasn’t torn up and hurled in a bin as soon as the Director fished it out of the pocket.

Bad Editor Practices

Editors who accept work from their friends over and above work submitted more generally, creating an atmosphere of snobbery, elitism, nepotism, etc.

Journal editors who write most of the material themselves and exclude other contributors from getting anywhere.

Editors who accept any old rubbish just to pad out a publication. I see journals and newsletters (even bearing my work), filled out with irrelevant recipes, and even Wordsearch puzzles).

Editors who assume that they can do what the Hell they like with work submitted to and subjected to their editing. An editor’s role is to edit, not extensively rewrite. Some work submitted might be trimmed for publication, and there can be necessary spelling or grammar changes. Anything more drastic needs to be discussed with the author first, and if big changes are needed it should be the writer who does that, not the editor.

The editor of a Fanzine that accepted an early story of mine added whole paragraphs, jokes and extra characters to the work before publishing it. Though saying nothing, he had effectively made himself co-author, and completely ruined the story. Other authors fared worse than I did. One story went out with half the ink faded out, and a hand written scrawl from the editor apologising for it, adding the words, ‘never mind. It’s only a fanzine.’ That fanzine never got to issue two.

Editors who add their own comments or footnotes and asides extending, explaining or even correcting an author’s points very publicly, in a ‘look at me. I know more than my writers do’ fashion.

Another editor, this time of a non-fiction piece I wrote, rewrote it to the point of contradicting facts and cited quotations with his own unresearched unverified political opinions, (which I did not share) to the point at which I was seriously upset that he still added my name to the text.

Bad Publisher Practices

Avoiding vanity publishers, publishers who offer no payment to authors or contributors even when selling work commercially and for profit (I do often happily contribute to publications that sell only for charity), even some mainstream publishers can get things wrong.

Expecting authors to respect and adhere to deadlines (which I always do) but not keeping their own deadlines or promised reply / publication deadlines and schedules. By keeping work submitted for months after a promised deadline, a publisher prevents the author revising work and sending it out to other publishers quickly (I have had work (perfectly reasonably) rejected by publishers only to be happily accepted by other publishers at a later date many times).

Failing to fully pay the author(s) on time or in full in direct payment or royalties. Promising the authors complimentary copies of books or journals bearing our work, but then not sending them.

A body called the The Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS ) https://www.alcs.co.uk/ actively pursues unpaid royalties on behalf of its author members and they send me a sum of money every year. They wouldn’t need to exist if more publishers sent the payments out honestly or efficiently in the first place.

Arranging meetings with authors and then failing to turn up on time or at all. One publisher agreed to meet me to discuss a book I’d sent to him (at his own request), and arranged to meet me at 2pm. I waited, realising that I was missing a local stage show that I would have gone to had he turned up on time. After I gave up, writing him off as a complete no-show, he found me and told me that he was a bit late as he’d decided to go and see a show on the way – the very show I’d skipped in order to have my appointment with him. I was very tempted to tell him to shove his contract up his backside, but fortunately I didn’t as that publication eventually went well for me.

Publishers who never send writers rejection notifications on time or at all. A rare few even actually publish your work without telling you they have included it in a publication. Sometimes I’ve only discovered some of my work is out in the wild by sheer chance.

Bad Competition Judging

I tend to avoid writing competitions run by small presses and magazines. They usually charge the entrants a fee for taking part, and while this helps to pay judges (often well known publishers or authors) and goes towards prize money for winners and runners up, it can feel more like buying a lottery ticket than anything else. The funding should come from the publishers / promoters in the expectation of money made from the sales of the winning submissions.

Judging can be badly organised. The guest judges may not get to judge or even see all submitted work, but only a shortlisted selection picked by the organisers. I can understand the immediate rejection of work that doesn’t follow the rules or meet the competition criteria. If the line limit for poems is 40 lines and a submission runs to 41, then fair enough, it gets instantly disqualified. However, the judging and selection process can be very lazy and cynical too. It happened in a selection panel I was on, actually picking films for a film festival. We annually had about thirty films to watch to consider for inclusion in the festival, and for four years this was done. About ten of us watched some films each, in pairs and the ones best liked by both viewers went to the next stage of viewing. Then in the final year, the first two films sent in as good to go were picked outright. The third film was chosen by the committee chair because he personally loved it, and no one else was invited to even consider it. The other films, including some already watched by volunteer assessors including myself, were just shelved. They’d picked three ‘good ones’, why bother looking at the others? I suspect this can happen in literary competitions too. They can draw in hundreds of entries, but the judges at initial reading or even in the final shortlist, might just settle on the first half-decent works they read, and not even bother glancing at the rest. When you read the winning entry in a book’s competition selection, you may think, ‘was that really the best work anyone sent them?’ It might well not have been, but they couldn’t be bothered looking at the rest.

I attended (audience only) a hard poetry slam event with a selected judging panel of four local celebrity writers giving points to the brave and excellent highly talented entrants. Three judges were fine, but one purposely gave harsh points to everyone and cruel feedback comments too, clearly seeing herself as the Simon Cowell of the panel, and treating the event like a TV show comparable to the X Factor. It got so the audience booed the judge and several complaints were made. Unfortunately, that only happened to the competitors in the first half. After the drinks interval, the cruel judge toned it down and judged more sensibly because she was directly ordered to because she might have been lynched otherwise. That was great on one level, but it also meant that performers randomly put on in part two, automatically got better point averages than those brutally underscored for no reason other than performing in part one.

Judging competition writing or considering work for publication should be honest and objective, not prejudiced, biased, elitist, or subjected to the petty narcissistic whims of the reader/judges.

Bad Performance And Public Promotion Practices

Authors like to do book signings, public readings, and especially with poets, public stage performances. In many cases, these go brilliantly. Some, (a small minority in my experience) less so.

Offers to perform (even for free) are simply ignored, or the author/performer is assured that their proposal and pitch will be considered but it never is. No ‘thanks but no thanks’ message is ever sent. The author / performer only knows they are not included when they see the list of performers actually going on.

The reverse of the above is when the author/performer is only notified that they are included in a show at the last minute or in a few cases, when they turn up to watch the show they are left thinking they are not part of. (I often carry some of my poetry on me in case I get an unexpected last minute call to get up and do something, and it happens on occasion).

Double booking – At one event with multiple programme streaming events to choose from in deciding what to attend, I was actually on stage actively performing live to an audience when I was interrupted by someone asking me why I wasn’t at another activity right then and there, which was running at exactly the same moment. I told him to bugger off.

Lack of publicity – Weak promotion by the event organisers can lead to low audience attendance, though I have happily performed for as few as two attendees (not had a show with just one yet), as I think the show must go on. I do promote my own pending appearances, but I expect event organisers to also do such PR. It takes more than a last minute plug on Facebook to attract an audience.

Performers who don’t buy drinks at the bar or remind the audience to get drinks in too. Venues can only operate if the shows make a profit. This comes from two sources. 1/. Ticket sales at shows audiences pay admission fees for and/or 2/. Money made through drink and food sales. Performers may or may not get a complimentary drink for being on, but they should buy drinks (non-alcoholic if desired or if driving after the gig). They should also remind the audience to frequent the bars. I have seen performers sit through a two hour show without so much as a glass of water. Without decent till receipts, a bar will discontinue even a well attended monthly show and do something else instead.

MC’s who don’t bother to big up acts in providing introductions, or talk to performers to ask what they are doing, explain timings, etc.

Performers who extend their act, performing for twenty minutes when they were asked to do only five, compromising the time available to other performers. This is just vanity and disrespectful.

At shows including electric/acoustic music as well as spoken word like poetry or stand up comedy, musicians loudly rehearsing or tuning instruments while other acts are still live on stage is downright rude.

Performers who do their set and then leave the venues without staying to watch or support the other acts. Occasionally this may be unavoidable, but some performers simply do it habitually. You can learn a lot from watching other performers, audience members have time to compliment you on your own sets, and talking to other performers is a good way to learn about other gigs and events you could potentially get to attend or perform at.

Celebrity performers who gatecrash a show, pushing their way onto the stage between scheduled acts and in one case I saw while another performer was in mid-set, because they just happen to be around, and the promoters allow it. The reaction should be, I don’t care who you are. Wait until the end or come back next time. The circuit is no place for divas.

Performers who don’t alter their material to suit the audience. While parents bringing their children to a pub should not expect an artiste to tailor their adult material to the unexpected arrival of younger listeners, performers who knowingly take dark, or erotic material to a family event should be shot.

Events where the audience is too drunk or stoned to know or care who is performing what. (had a few of those).

Promoters not being clear just what their show is, or who they expect to perform. I was once invited to a show promoted as involving ‘Poetry And Music’. As a veteran of shows where I do poetry between music sets I thought this was perfect for me. As a newcomer to an event at which most performers were regulars, I was asked to go on first. The audience was huge, mostly young black folk. I launched into a poem, a tried and tested one I often use when being seen by an audience where no one has seen me before),. As I started speaking, the DJ cranked up the music. I stopped and stared at him. He stopped the music and stared back. I started performing again, and so did he, at which point I realised what the show was, a Rap Battle event (as in the film, 8 Mile). Poetry and Music was not some poets and some musicians, it was a collision of the two for supremacy. I could have quit at that, but I carried on regardless and yelled through my poem as loudly as I could. I actually saw the two poets who had come with me putting their poems back in their bags having chosen wisely not to go on. The audience actually liked what I’d done, not for the content (which they barely heard over the music overload), but because I hadn’t lost my nerve and fled the stage crapping myself. They could see that I really had no idea what the show was about but did it anyway, and appreciated my efforts. I watched a few of the event regulars in action before I left, and they were great. The problem wasn’t the show but its promotional invitations.

In Conclusion

It is easy to assume that any writer who doesn’t get recognition, or publication, is simply not very good. In some cases that may sadly be the case, but there will be good, potentially great writers, who have faced a wall of needless egotism indifference and bad workmanship from the very people who should be helping to get their work out there.

I have been fortunate in having some very good publishers, promoters, event organisers and readers. My writing can be quite niche, so while I like to think it is interesting, I do not realistically expect to be a best-seller, or household name author, or a millionaire. A few idiots of the kind described in examples above have slowed me down and let me down, but I have got round them from personal perseverance and supportive guidance through the much better editors, publishers, fellow authors promoters, etc, I have met with on the creative paths I travel. I hope, if you write, you meet more of the good ones than the bad ones too.

If you like my writings and you would like to see more, you can help fund my activity with a modest donation or two to my new Buymeacoffee Donations Page https://buymeacoffee.com/arthurchappell?new=1

Arthur Chappell