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I was a member of AW for a while, and I find myself going back every few months to check up on some of the horrible discussions. The advice is juvenile and hardly critical or informed...incompetent in many ways. Creative writing is being taught on this site as though there were rules to writing fiction! Any opinion given as advice that challenges this status quo in any way is immediately dismissed, as though there were one way in which fiction must be undertaken, and one way only. I have also gotten into EXTREMELY passive aggressive debates with other users and mods on several occasions, and, although that is the lay of the land when it comes to internet forums, there tends to be causes to incite such exchanges. On AW, no such causes are needed. It is also important to note that the vast majority of advice being given is coming from fellow amateur/unpublished writers, many who are far too inexperienced in both life and actual writing to possibly have the perspective to form good critical advice, and many of whom clearly don't read books--how are they expected to write?!? I would put good money on 75% of the users not even knowing who Borges is, and these are people who are supposed to be giving legitimate advice? Their credibility isn't helped by the fact that several of the published authors on the site are self-published (not inherently bad), and most of the published works (both self and not) are horrible supernatural romance/horror romance/fantasy romance (notice a trend?), the kind with well built white vampire dudes on the cover. Again, nothing inherently bad about this fact, except that, to me, the trendy YA/teenage audience these cookie-cutter works cater to is further evidence that they actively perpetuate and defend a kind of status quo, in which anything that challenges the fiction they write is artsy/pointless/breaking nonexistent rules/evil.
Further proof that many of the users are incapable of reading critically, including mods: I tend to word my posts very carefully, using very specific vocabulary and always prefacing and qualifying what I am saying with caveats and so forth, so as to allow for the possibility of my opinion on said writing subject not meshing well with others, so anyone who puts a smallest amount of effort into reading it will be able to understand I am offering a single perspective on an otherwise all-encompassing issue. Yet I would get post after post, some from mods themselves, dismissing and attacking points I made, almost always ones I prefaced with something like "to NEEDLESSLY do this is bad", as if I did not go out of my way to state clearly that I did not mean what I said as an "absolute" truth. If the people meant to be giving advice cannot even read an internet post carefully enough to grasp what was actually said, I doubt their ability to truly help anyone. Thankfully, I can say in the few years I was with them back in the day, I gained a few pointers on how NOT to teach someone, and, now that I'm an English tutor at my college, I hope to do what AW can only dream of doing--actually helping someone improve their work with thoughtful criticism.
I was a member there on and off for quite some time. Met some great critique partners there, but sadly, the moderators and their minions have a way of running people off the boards. They are abusive to the members and will ban/suspend anyone who defends against the abuse. I've watched it happen to too many good people. If you prove one of their lies wrongs, they will delete your post and ban you. They are using their power to hide the truth. What is worse is that they then start rumors and/or misrepresent new authors and publishing houses.
This is where my most recent receive comes into play. After seeing how they treated others, I long since left, but as I started a new publishing house, a thread was started there, and so I revisited to answer some questions. The moderator (VeinGlory) approached the situation that was very clearly to everyone witnessing attack. Anyone who posted to say that and defend our publishing house had their post immediately deleted; anyone who agreed with VeinGlory had their posts remain. This created a false sense of what the community as a whole thought of our publishing house. If anyone doubts this, contact me and I can send you references for our publishing house, and you will see clearly that there are no posts from them on absolutewrite. There is a deceitful reason for this.
They said that my editing experience, having assisted several authors previously into print deals with publishers in goodstanding, was not enough to prove we know what we are doing.
They said that our first book being a 5-star, bestseller, did not count.
They called the author of that bestselling novel an "aspiring author" and that, to them, was further evidence we don't know what we are doing (can anyone explain the logic on that one?)
They said that ranking in the top 1% on editing skills tests also did not count.
My experience in business, having helped my husband set up and run a successful business, does not count if I don't offer proof. I offered the only proof I can (proof of income and assets) and they ignored that and moved onto the next thing to attack us for.
Several times throughout the conversation, and politely requested they just let us do our thing. Withhold judgment until they had more to go on. Let others decide for themselves. But they would not let it go. On and on they went. They denied they were attacking us and every time someone said otherwise, they deleted that person's post and banned their account. They claimed THAT person was attacking THEM ... but that they were not attacking me. The reality is, they are attacking us, and this is not the first time they have done this. And they feel they are allowed to do this but no one else is allowed to say contrary. The "gang mentality" there is frightening.
The reality is, as veinglory showed in the thread with one of her comments, that a small pub once shut down without paying her the money they owed. I am so sorry that happened to her. But our business works on available funds and not credit, which means we don't spend money we don't have, and any money that comes in for a book will go directly to the author (we don't have creditors to repay!)
Veinglory says we won't be around in 2 years. I asked her to check back with us in 2 years, then, but apparently it's actually her MISSION to spend the next two years making that happen. We will not be deterred, but I did want to bring this to light in a place where Veinglory is nor a moderator who can delete the evidence.
If you are an author looking for background information on a publisher that is based on fact and is NOT biased, try preds and eds instead. They investigate and go based on fact, not whim.
In my experience with the forum, all I ever did once was post an outline with a 'racist' main character. So because I was 'noobie' to the board, they all swarmed around me and sought to belittle me and equate me with having the same opinions as the main character.
They proceeded to stalk one of my word press blogs, and apparently got wind of some of the post I written in that were supposedly private blogs based on word press security settings. Then when I asked about what an author should write about on their blog to build their platform, instead of answering the question they instead said 'You could write about anything, though talking trash about people probably wont get you any readers.'
How would they know this, if they had not personally found some way to get into that blog despite word press security settings? And now they spread rumors about me on twitter, and apparently 'turning off' various agents about me. Thus these agents are relying on the information said about me rather than through the horses mouth.
Avoid this website like the plague.
As of April 9th, 2018 I have been banned from AbsoluteWrite. Their reason was that "I find personal amusement at the expense of the AW community" . What does that even mean? I researched the internet, concerning AW, and found plenty of warnings but thought I would check the site out anyway. As it turned out, all the warnings were true. Most of the moderators are actually bullies with badges and the site is misleading as it advertises itself as being "open minded". Open minded as opposed to what, Stalin's Soviet Union?
I waded into a political thread where the future POTUS, Trump, was being trashed by Clinton supporters. Yes, I voted for him, but that's not the point. I should've been allowed to express my opinions in a thread on a site that is supposed to be "open minded". I was immediately blocked from that thread and accused of being a troll. My next negative experience with AW came when I ran across a thread that was actually discussing why there needed to be ages of consent in regards to sexual relationships. I'm not a prude but I chose to get involved when somebody on the thread said that it is completely okay for a 60 something year old man to have a sexual relationship with a ten year old boy. As a father who suspects one of his sons was molested by my ex wife's father, I absolutely disagreed with this opinion and expressed my own. AW responded by removing that thread.
I find AW to be extremely politically correct and oversensitive to the point they have become tyrants. If you don't agree with their group think opinions you are labelled as a troll or a sock puppet and they threaten to ban you as if somehow that is of the same magnitude as being excommunicated from the church. I write dystopian fiction but don't want to belong to a dystopic writers' group so I have accepted my ban as a boot to my fanny to find a better group to join. I'm looking at Reddit, Scribophile, and SFF Chronicles as a replacement for AW. They need to change their name to Absolute My Way or the Highway Write.
First of all, RealityFix, I think you mean "politically INcorrect" because anybody who is afraid of someone else's opinion on anything or who feels compelled to diminish or demean them simply because they disagree with them is... well... incorrect. But that's another issue for another time.
Your primary point, the lack of open-mindedness and a new breed, as it were, of people intent on belittling others for fun rather than focusing on the purported objective of the site - writing - is a sad and terrible trend. I have found this to be the prevailing attitude on others writers' sites as well.
I recently returned to WritersBeat after a long hiatus of several years and had the 'audacity' to disagree with another's opinion. Despite the fact that I NEVER single out any person, I will not ever make personal attacks just because I have a differing opinion, I was soundly thrashed by one person (not even the person whose comments I disagreed with!) who decided I was talking about him. It seemed he, as well as a couple of others, including a moderator, took it upon himself to verbally attack me at every and any opportunity.
This, unfortunately, seems to be an unfortunate trend throughout society, not merely writing. One would hope that the writers' connection might help people to rise above the pettiness of social disagreement and allow some more dignified level of discourse on the topics of discussion. Sadly, it seems we have a way to go to climb out of this abyss.
On a more personal level: Good luck with your own writing!
The members are extreme left-wingers, which they're entitled to be. But they do not tolerate any dissenting views and will gang up on anyone who dares to contradict the group's world view.
On Apr 21 2018 I made a post to this forum and immediately was attacked with a tirade of accusations plus the F word. Those reacting to my post didn't take time to ask for clarification but made (false) assumptions and lashed out based on those assumptions. I conclude Absolute Write is an uncivilized place to get ripped apart but not a place to find community.
Absolute Write is simply a community of far-left bigots who will not tolerate any political opinions from the right. It is a platform where liberal lunatics get off on bashing Donald Trump, and telling everyone who wonderful and progressive Islam is. Disagree with them at your peril! Lol!
Yes, I tried to join Absolute Write three times in the past month and never got the confirming e-mail. Even sending an e-mail directly to Melodi Sherman (alias "McAllister Stone") didn't even get the courtesy of a reply. Seeing the comments above, that made me search and find thousands of other negative comments on many sites, I am glad I didn't get into it! It does seem to be a one ugly-grrl show from an owner, who apparently bought it, who thinks she can say anything. Maybe the inability to process new memberships means it is going to collapse soon as a result of the lawsuit, which is as it should be.
I'm still a senior member there from late 2004 and have given expert advice and help on any subject. I have been recently dog-piled, called vicious names, accused of woman hating (because dare I, a man, wrote an erotic romance book), told that I stole someone's identity to use for a pen name, violated Disney copyright, that I should be proud of my transsexual heritage and on and on and on and on. When looking for a story critique, they got personal with me and called me a mysogonist (sp?). I was then suspended for 30 days for defending myself. None of their accusations are True. None of them. I'm an ex-federal cop with an award for heroism from the U.S. government. I am not some piece of trash old man who fakes having a terminal illness
All that is left on AW are a bunch of inexperienced indie writers who have no idea how to write, publish and comment on the industry. I think they especially hate men for some God awful reason. All of the old time A-list writers and pros have left. I only go back to comment on the most harmless threads. When I was there they ran off Hugh Howie, insulting and belittling him for his opinions about publishing trunked novels. I came to his aid and got slaughtered in the process. Hugh went on to become rich and famous, shutting the mouths of all those who's condemned him.
I've also been stalked by two women from AW who tried to embarrass me when I'm writing to my celebrity actresses on Twitter. I'm true fans of theirs and they answer back with hearts. I reported both those [censored] stirring women to FB and Twitter.
The mods are insulting and reckless with their condemnations. Mac has thrown several cursing fits that would make a soldier blush.
I know who hacked that site and tried to destroy it. The reasons were quite straight forward. If AW every attacks or swarms another person who is innocent of any charges, there will be another more powerful shutdown attempt. And I would gladly like to see that happen if such foul conduct springs up again. I am TRICERETOPS, a very proud and experienced writer. I will miss all of those people I was in contact with for over 15 years. AW's active attendance is falling away to nothing as we speak. They will soon be gone unless the lurkers finally decide to barge in, become members, and take over.
Well, they sure read my comments here because I got banned today! Yahooooo! That is one less "woman hater" out of their midst. I've also seen nearly every small press in the Beware thread torn to absolute (pun intended) shreds in dog pile fashion The trials of Zharmae Publishing is/was something right out of a horror story and did not ever cease with the most long-drawn attack on the publisher I've ever seen--they could not leave well enough alone. The problem is, all the negative posters didn't have the ingenuity of replying with new or constructive suggestions, they parroted the post before theirs, driving home the same negative analysis. This went on for hundreds of posts.
Watch out for AW spies and trolls who read these messages--they go right back to admin and the owner of the site, or even the select mods, whose job is to rat you out.
Mojo, I think I know who you are and the publishing company. Please feel free to contact me via PM. Has your career or publishing company been damaged or affected by your onslaught? Are you still being stalked or harassed in any fashion? This is under the heading of Cyber Intrusion, and is primarily operated by one of the many FBI departments associated with the Computer Crimes Task Fore headed by The FBI. These "suits" we called them, and still do, are experts in forensic computer analysis and deep probes. It's very easy to file a report. However, you shouldn't do so if you do not have any proof of hardship or documented evidence that shows loss or mental anguish and suffering. What's so ironic and flabergasting is the fact that I was stalked on the Internet, even my books were viciously attacked, while the perpetrators seemed to have entirely glossed over my law enforcement background. I'm not retaliatory in nature. But I will say this, it is so very, very dangerous to [censored] with me.
First and Foremost--don't be afraid of anyone. I hope ALL of you find a new home group that welcomes you and judges you not for your personal opinion, beliefs, race, creed, color, sexual orientation or most generally speaking, your wish to exchange ideas about writing. I'm the CEO of Guerilla Warfare for Writers, an industry watch dog and writer advocate, in par sometimes with the temper of Harlan Ellison. Ha!
Try SFF Chronicals group. Author's Den, LinkIn, Writers.com, Inkit, Stage 32, Reddit, Goodreads, Kindle Board Cafe, Tumbler, Pinterest, Instagram, BookBub, Writing Forums.com, Fanfiction.net, Library Thing...
Yes, I'm a member of those. Don't forget about 30 writer's sub-groups on FB
Blessed wishes, stay safe and healthy through these trying.
I have never encountered so much extreme far-left liberal scum in my entire life, as I did on AW. I got banned today, for disagreeing with their extreme far-left delusions about diversity being 'our greatest' strength, and their incessant Donald Trump bashing.
First I went into an anti-Trump room, told them why Trump was better than Biden (oohhh... they couldn't stand that), so then they all ganged up on me, taking cheap shots, telling me that my sources and links supporting my views were not acceptable, basically because I was pointing to conservative feeds and basic common sense, and not CNN or any left wing [censored] university studies published on hard left websites.
I read all their rules, followed their guidelines, but when I told them that 'diversity is not our greatest strength', they could not stand it any longer. My ban was for 'not following moderators instructions', but I did. They just couldn't tolerate any conservative, pro-Trump or right wing view. AW is good for discussing fiction, but if you disagree with their far-left members about Trump, diversity or immigration, they just gang up, insult you, then you're banned.
Bunch of extreme, far-left liberal lunatics. Scum of the earth.