Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Ich bin ein curmudgeon

People suck. In particular, I've been dealing with two people -- one is a friend, one a complete stranger -- who attacked me for doing things they thought were wrong. In the first instance, the friend is a known "sea lawyer" (i.e., someone with no legal background who gets into arguments on subjects he knows nothing about), and he tried to tell me I was "price fixing" when I was simply negotiating my wholesale price with someone who wanted me to make an item for his shop (it's not price fixing if you aren't the sole supplier, and I'm not). In the second instance, I was attacked by someone (and yes, I mean attacked -- you should see the emails) out of the blue for posting something on my website that I have full permission from the author to post. The attacker now owns the item in question, having bought it from the author, and thinks she owns all the intellectual property pertaining to that item as well. Which is ridiculous.

Yeesh.

You know, being an author (even of a relatively obscure book) can be a real pain in the ass. I have no delusions of grandeur about this book. It's netted me a few thousand dollars, which has paid for my garden beds and some plants and otherwise paid off some bills. It's been a modest success in the hobby. But I still have to go to work every day to pay the bills, and I still put my socks on one foot at a time. I don't like the kind of fawning adulation I get from some people; any competent writer participating in the hobby could have written the book. It's not that big a deal. Worse yet are the few people I run into who think they have to score points off me by proving me wrong in an argument. That's just dumb, and ugly.

All this has put me off writing any more books. I really should write #2, and get it published, but there you are.

I can only imagine what a huge pain it would be if one were a truly famous person. Makes you understand some of the famously reclusive authors. At least I have the option of switching hobbies and being completely unknown again.

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