I'm running into the worst kind of censorship... where over 500 literary
agents politely aver because they know they would have to take some heat for
marketing my book. here's the link. http://www.geocities.com/paris/concorde/4446/spear.html

and here's why the bitches are jamming me. http://groups.google.com/groups?q=smeagol+gollum+soc.culture.israel&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&edition=us&hl=en

here's some more reasons. http://groups.google.com/groups?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&edition=us&q=docmartian

and here's a post that describes a step in evolutionary thinking that will
destroy most preconceptions upon what reality is about. http://www.livejournal.com/users/docmartian/34580.html?mode=reply

what i'm asking for... is for you to have your literary agent contact me at
docmartian@msn.com. I can support my book at an academic level, at a pop
culture level, or at a marketing level. It is the "jackass" of literature.
You'll be able to find a million reasons why my book should be banned. I'm
telling you it should be published... if for no other reason then because it
opens peoples minds.

cheers!
Doc


p.s. israeli trolls responses follow.

Like Baum's first book of Oz, may I recommend that you try self publication? If you sell a bunch, publishers will be knocking at your door.

Options definitely exist of online publication (free--but make sure you obtain a copyright anyway--), or some means of having readers pay for the viewing of materials online, or POD (print-on-demand) publishing. That way the book can be listed on very high-profile sources such as Amazon.com but the author isn't put out by paying printers and binders to put together a batch of copies (at least 500) which then sit taking up valuable space until you sell enough to turn a profit. (Trust me--I've been there!)

By the way, even if you used your Tolkien-inspired name as a pen name, I don't think nobody could do nothing. You CAN'T copyright a name, and people have named their children after Tolkien characters!

I followed some of your links and, um, maybe the reason you've been rejected by literary agents ain't because of censorship.

My advice? Go the self-publication route.

Never mind. No encouragement from this end.

[This message has been edited by jfaronson (edited 01-08-2004).]

I suggest percevalpress.com. They aren't accepting anythig for this year but make contact for stuff they'll take in '05.

I suggest going to an exorcist.

Ought Not,

That's a good idea, too.

I've seen this on other BB . . . the idea of calling people trolls just because they disagree with your view. You pre-labeled persons who disagreed as "trolls" in your first post.

I clicked to your sites, but, frankly, couldn't really figure out what you were "up to". What is the angle? Just anti-Israel? What would a publisher publish, in this case? What is the message?

Failure to publish something isn't necessarily censorship; in many cases it's just good taste.

Sage advice.

Over 500 agents turned you down? Let me guess, they just don't recognize how GOOD your "book" is?

The only description for the silly, internet-journal nonsense you wrote is........boring.

You could spend days reading the same type of drivel at any of a number of internet journal websites.

docmartian,

I have good news and I have bad news for you with this post. I briefly browsed over your writing, and personally I don't think I could actually finish reading a simple chapter of the book, nevermind the entirety. Your writing style is too short, punchy. I've noticed simple errors in punctuation all over the place, and your descriptions of scenes and actions seems limited. I agree with many other posters when I say I wouldn't read this book, and that you are not being blacklisted but that the publishing companies just don't think you are ready yet.

That's the bad news. However, I'm not telling you to give up. By all means, no, do not give up! You've proven to yourself, and to me at least, that you have the determination and the ability to sit down and finish a book. That's the hard part in writing a book or novel, trust me. What you need now is to work on your writing style, desperately, my friend. In addition you should work on how you describe things, the "voice" you use in your writing (ie: the narrator), and I would assume you might wish to try and learn some more about plot structuring. We could all always use more work on plot structuring.

To begin with, doc, I would recommend you go and buy a copy of a book called [u]The Elements of Style[/u] by Strunk & White. It's a short little book (65 pages) that was written about thirty years ago by a college professor out of frustration for his student's writing skills, and then, ironically, edited and published once more by a former student of his if I remember correctly. Read this book. Make it your bible at first, and then when you have fully mastered what it has to say you can feel free to break some of the rules presented in it.

Another excersize you might want to try is to take a notebook and pen and, on a nice sunny day, go sit outside in a park or somewhere similar. Just sit down and look around you, at the people, the animals, the sun, the trees, the grass, everything. Then start writing. Write down in that notebook everything you see, describe the scene back to yourself on those pages, and then when you feel you've done a good enough job close the notebook (don't re-read it) and go home. Open it up about a week later and read what you wrote, think about how you could change it and make it better. Do this excersize whenever you have the time and I promise you your descriptions will improve.

For now this book will not be published. I would recommend just shelving it (but not forever) and coming back to it in a few months, a year, but not much more than that. Then when you come back to it, start writing it again. Edit it, rewrite important parts that you feel you didn't convey appropriately. Rework the whole book, and then resubmit it to publishers and see where it goes from there.

Good luck to you docmartian, I hope to one day see your book on the shelf of my local bookstore.

[This message has been edited by A Shade of Grey (edited 01-31-2004).]

A Shade of
Grey

A "Waukeganite". Wow! Welcome!!

Also, I think ' docmartian ' kinda disappeared. Unless he's waiting for a 'cue.'

Nice post, A Shade of Gray. Good advice for all of us!!!