September 2006 Archives
Web Fiction
Publishing on the internet is a slippery slope. Questions of ethics and copyrights are daily concerns. Many publications have exceedingly low pay, inconsistent profit sharing, or don’t pay at all. Traditional publishers are skeptical of web publishing experience because it is such a different world.
The medium is tricky for readers, too. Reading long works on a screen is difficult. Free publications abound, but the quality of writing can be dubious.
Sometimes, however, an author makes the most of a tricky medium and a trickier genre to create a fabulous, intelligent body of work that is as addictive as any novel series I’ve devoured. Introducing I, Robo the personal journal of Nikola Tesla’s atomic powered robot with complete, automatic intelligence.
Well done, Ben.
Eulogy
Monday morning I got a nasty little surprise. I was planning on a relaxing day, pounding out an outline and tidying up a my most recent story. I pulled my laptop to me, and hit the power button, and my nightmare began. I met the “black screen of death” and after turning it over to my Hubby, I learned that my hard drive was toasted.
My laptop (“Raul”) was a good old friend. I got him as a gift when I graduated from college and he’s seen me through ever since. Locked away in his inaccessible hard drive is a wealth of stories, poems, article, graphics, music, saved games. Thank goodness I was mostly backed up!
Raul will be missed, as all passed loved ones are missed. May he rest in peace.
In the mean time, does anyone know where I can get a HITACHI_DK23BS-20-(PM) in good condition?
Ghostwriting Ethics
It is interesting to read the information available about ghostwriting these days. The Counsel of Science Editors, an elite group to which I do not dare aspire, seems to believe that is of justifiable, if questionable, morality but no nurse or academic in his/her right mind would do it.
I personally believe that it is a standard part of the nonacademic world. Business Execs don’t have time to do all of the writing they are required to do, and brilliant ideas are frequently brought to the page by someone with a better feel for the language that he-who-was-inspired.
In academic circles, be you a student, a researcher, or a previously published doc, it is completely unacceptable. It is a secret to be hidden from the world. It is a stain that will ostracize you from your peers until the end of time. Putting you name on someone else’s work? Terrible! Even if the ghost only beefed up your outline or made your dyslexic ramblings into a readable essay.
Yet it is still a common practice. You can buy a prewritten essay only for 20-30 dollars a page or have one custom written for a little more. (Don’t believe me? Google “buy essay” to see the evidence!) How do we reconcile this? I don’t see it as unethical to work for these companies, but I cannot because of the moral code of my university. Writing for a service that would have my clients expelled seems like a good sign that they would expel me too. Damnitall!
