Careercow Chuck Wendig / Charles Wendig / TerribleMinds - Terrible author, terrible person, ruined Internet Archive's online library

[ZMOT]

Splendid breakdown, but I would argue the publishers actually DO think this crap will sell... right up until there are several thousand unsold Roanhorse novels they bled money trying to push.

That and the ones who aren't already rich survive off grant money and Patreon. Most of these shmucks are bleeding money faster than thier publishers.

Gotta say its nice to see someone else here who keeps up with the sorry state of the spec fiction industry today.

aren't all those duds offset by the really big hitters that make up for it tenfold?
when I read it it reminded me of the mobile game market - throw out a lot of shit that will never stick, but when it does you're making bank.

 

[Boston Brand]

aren't all those duds offset by the really big hitters that make up for it tenfold?
when I read it it reminded me of the mobile game market - throw out a lot of shit that will never stick, but when it does you're making bank.

Combination of that and that most are owned by multinational publishing conglomerates. Still not nearly to the extent most publishers would like.

Case in point, Brandon Sanderson is one of the few living authors who turns a profit for Tor... its why the lefties at Tor won't touch him despite the fact he's a devout Mormon and Republican, albiet less so than Orson Scott Card. Sanderson and Card, along with the back catalog of guys like Robert Jordan are what keeps Tor from bleeding money. That's also way more lopsided than its ever been too.

That said, even they might not save them for long... the transition to digital is something damned few in publishing prepared for. Of the main spec fiction publishers, only Baen makes the majority of its money off digital.

The Covid-19 epidemic sped up twp trends that also has the industry shitting bricks: that libraries are quickly becomong places where people come to use computers, not books, and how fragile brick-and-mortor bookstores are.

If Barnes and Noble or Books-a-Million go tits up, for a lot of publishers, that may be a death blow, or at least trigger some MASSIVE cost cutting.

 

[Haramburger]

It can be ridiculously easy to get a "bestseller" on Amazon just by picking an obscure category.

Last Book on the Left comes to mind; not that it's a bad book, but True Crime is a relatively small section in most bookstores and many previous successes in the genre have been extremely dry reading. Making a coffee table book that's graphically stimulating, glazing over several different killers briefly was an easy success.

 

[Pope Negro Joe the XIIIth]

Last Book on the Left comes to mind; not that it's a bad book, but True Crime is a relatively small section in most bookstores and many previous successes in the genre have been extremely dry reading. Making a coffee table book that's graphically stimulating, glazing over several different killers briefly was an easy success.

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Unoriginal as fuck you lpotl fags.

Ripping off one of the best series of books from the 90's

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Book_Of

 

[Mola Ram]

Unoriginal as fuck you lpotl fags.

Ripping off one of the best series of books from the 90's

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Book_Of

Those books were amazing, and this is such a blatant ripoff I actually thought some of the same people must have been involved.

 

[Pope Negro Joe the XIIIth]

Those books were amazing, and this is such a blatant ripoff I actually thought some of the same people must have been involved.

I have the entire series in digital format at this point, the fact that they got so many exceptional cartoonists involved is incredible on its own.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Young writers are told to never work for exposure, but that is what Wendig and his friends did. They took the Disney deal and gave away the ownership of their creations for a chance to play in the Disney sandbox. He got the job because he was willing to get screwed.

With consoomer soytards like Wendig, I would not put it past them to be incapable of seeing Disney as the monstrous, uncaring, greedy media juggernaught that it is.
People like Wendig or Dobson seem to think that Disney is a pure and nice company, that tries to give joy and emotional warmth to the audiences, despite it being an incredibly cynical, twisted, evil corporation that at every turn nickels and dimes its customers, that throws its massive weight around to obliterate competition or sue kindergardens into bankruptcy over murals painted by the kids themselves.
Yet soytards will seal-clap whenever Disney shits out another turd of a movie with googly-eyed characters, that pays the slightest lip-service to some SJW ideology regarding diversity and LGBT stuff (stuff that is peculiarly placed in a movie to be cut out really easily in chinese and middle-eastern cuts of the movie). People like Wendig think Disney is a close buddy that would never do anything bad, they are that fucking stupid.

Maybe he accepted these shitty terms not just cause he was stumbling over himself for a chance of writing for Disney, but also cause he simply could not even imagine a situation where Disney would exert these rights in a way that was against Wendig's interests.

 

[Boston Brand]

With consoomer soytards like Wendig, I would not put it past them to be incapable of seeing Disney as the monstrous, uncaring, greedy media juggernaught that it is.
People like Wendig or Dobson seem to think that Disney is a pure and nice company, that tries to give joy and emotional warmth to the audiences, despite it being an incredibly cynical, twisted, evil corporation that at every turn nickels and dimes its customers, that throws its massive weight around to obliterate competition or sue kindergardens into bankruptcy over murals painted by the kids themselves.
Yet soytards will seal-clap whenever Disney shits out another turd of a movie with googly-eyed characters, that pays the slightest lip-service to some SJW ideology regarding diversity and LGBT stuff (stuff that is peculiarly placed in a movie to be cut out really easily in chinese and middle-eastern cuts of the movie). People like Wendig think Disney is a close buddy that would never do anything bad, they are that fucking stupid.

Maybe he accepted these shitty terms not just cause he was stumbling over himself for a chance of writing for Disney, but also cause he simply could not even imagine a situation where Disney would exert these rights in a way that was against Wendig's interests.

I'm not sure if that's better or worse than my theory.

Either way, lord knows they didn't do it for money. Again, I know an author who was approached who took one look at the contract and told Disney to take a hike.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

I'm not sure if that's better or worse than my theory.

Either way, lord knows they didn't do it for money. Again, I know an author who was approached who took one look at the contract and told Disney to take a hike.

Writing for Disney must be the sharpest double edged sword in all of media. On one hand, being able to say "I wrote for Disney" must be a real gamechanger for your career, cause that is simply a really big name to throw around... but on the other hand, it also broadcasts to everyone that you write for peanuts.

 

[Jet Fuel Johnny]

Funny thing is, you could use 'herkily-jerkily' and get away with it. It would have to be a gonzo scene or gonzo story, but you could get away with it.

About Reno the acid kicked in and everything had gone sideways on us. The interstate was full of cars moving herkily-jerkily every which way and I was trying to remember where I'd gotten these pants that seen to be made up of Miley Cyrus screaming about cottage cheese and celery.

It's one of those things that would be snicker worthy in one of those books.

But Cuck Wendig couldn't write his way out of paperbag with one end open.

 

[Boston Brand]

Writing for Disney must be the sharpest double edged sword in all of media. On one hand, being able to say "I wrote for Disney" must be a real gamechanger for your career, cause that is simply a really big name to throw around... but on the other hand, it also broadcasts to everyone that you write for peanuts.

Honestly, looking at how very little its done for any of the Disney EU authors, its the worst of both worlds. Lousy pay and its done very little for any of thier careers.

Spec fiction outlets only pay .08 cents per word, but a story on Analog or Fantasy & Science Fiction can make or break careers. There are ways to get peanuts to pay off for your writing career, but clearly working for the Rat clearly isn't one of them.

 

[Save the Loli]

Honestly, looking at how very little its done for any of the Disney EU authors, its the worst of both worlds. Lousy pay and its done very little for any of thier careers.

Spec fiction outlets only pay .08 cents per word, but a story on Analog or Fantasy & Science Fiction can make or break careers. There are ways to get peanuts to pay off for your writing career, but clearly working for the Rat clearly isn't one of them.

If you were a good writer you'd certainly be able to use it to boost your career. Problem is good writers aren't writing for Disney and the few who are like Tim Zahn already have careers.

I've heard the Disney Star Wars EU is an absolute minefield of guidelines compared to the old EU which probably ensures the only people writing it are your egoistical Wendig types trying to show how they're a Star Wars writer and are thus kings of the soyboys, insane activists who love to pervert a famous cultural artifact like Star Wars by including scenes of women menstruating and tampons, and people doing it for peanuts which at best gives you phoned in shit (like the nu-EU Thrawn books) and at worst gives you Blacker and Acker fart fetish books.

 

[Boston Brand]

If you were a good writer you'd certainly be able to use it to boost your career. Problem is good writers aren't writing for Disney and the few who are like Tim Zahn already have careers.

I've heard the Disney Star Wars EU is an absolute minefield of guidelines compared to the old EU which probably ensures the only people writing it are your egoistical Wendig types trying to show how they're a Star Wars writer and are thus kings of the soyboys, insane activists who love to pervert a famous cultural artifact like Star Wars by including scenes of women menstruating and tampons, and people doing it for peanuts which at best gives you phoned in shit (like the nu-EU Thrawn books) and at worst gives you Blacker and Acker fart fetish books.

Again, the one person I know who was offered the chance told Disney to hit the bricks as soon as he saw the contract. Probably helps his books sell enough he literally just quit his job to write full-time... puts out damned good space opera too.

I wonder if I could sweet talk him into sharing a copy of that contract.

 

[Imago]

aren't all those duds offset by the really big hitters that make up for it tenfold?
when I read it it reminded me of the mobile game market - throw out a lot of shit that will never stick, but when it does you're making bank.

Most books sell fewer then 5000 copies, but there are good bets and bad bets. Expecting Roanhorse or Wendig to write a genuine bestseller is like expecting Brenna Wu to make a hit mobile game.

Even the supposed success stories seem suspect. Look at NK Jemison. She is the big success story for the Worldcon/SFWA clique and is held up as the future of science fiction. And yet, when she quit her day job to become a full time writer back in 2016, it was patreon that allowed her to switch. There is no shame in getting paid, but does Sanderson have a patreon? What about Rowling or Correia?

This is why I think the publishers are on to the SFWA. They will praise her and give her awards, but they will not pay her like they pay Scalzi or Sanderson. Sales are not always a marker for quality and many great writers go unappreciated in their own time, but if you ignore the market for too long it threatens the viability of the entire industry.

Honestly, looking at how very little its done for any of the Disney EU authors, its the worst of both worlds. Lousy pay and its done very little for any of thier careers.

Spec fiction outlets only pay .08 cents per word, but a story on Analog or Fantasy & Science Fiction can make or break careers. There are ways to get peanuts to pay off for your writing career, but clearly working for the Rat clearly isn't one of them.

The relationship hasn't been great for Disney either. When Zahn wrote Heir to the Empire he created a number of iconic characters and helped keep interest in Star Wars alive between series.

Chuck's writing style and sparkling personality were a bad fit for Star Wars and they got what they paid for. This is a lesson in what happens when you allow your employees to make hiring decisions biased on personal connections over the interests of the company.

I don't know if you have access to Bookscan. But, it would be very interesting to see how the Disney Starwars books are selling compared to older properties like Harry Potter or Wheel of Time.

 

[AnimeGirlConnoisseur]

Chucky and the other Disney authors' belief that they're entitled to royalties really has no leg to stand on. They knowingly signed over everything they made to Disney, and Chucky even admitted this in his shitty TerribleMinds blog and they have no pre-existing contracts with Lucasfilm that say otherwise. These fucks were hired because they were cheap and gullible opportunists that had that nice dash of woke spice to make them trending in the eyes of Disney. They and their works never had any real value, and thinking they can fight against it in anyway is ridiculous, and all they're doing is dragging the actual rightful claims pre-Disney authors have down with them with petty legal bs. Hell, Chuck never even gave a shit about his crap until he saw Alan Dean Foster make some leeway with his case, but again, he and other pre-Disney authors had actual cases to present, while Chucky and the rest are just looking to get some extra cash without even having a claim to make.

Those I know who are aware of this have said that Chucky and his ex-Disney lot may only be doing this because they want to sabotage the pre-Disney authors, but anyone who's read Chuck's ramblings knows that the man is legitimately assmad that Disney fucked him over and legally took what he made. He's angry at seeing his godawful creations show up in shitty mobile gacha games, new books, and even in The Mandalorian without him receiving a single fucking penny or credit for it. He wants that gacha money so damn bad you can almost smell the greed on him.
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Also this was apparently his latest book release in April 3rd or 4th/whatever.
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The one based on a drunken tweet he made once late at night about finding out that he's a 'magical talking skeleton'.

So, does anyone know anything about this new book he published?

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

I don't know if you have access to Bookscan. But, it would be very interesting to see how the Disney Starwars books are selling compared to older properties like Harry Potter or Wheel of Time.

...or, you know, how their sales compare to old pre-Disney EU material...

 

[Boston Brand]

Most books sell fewer then 5000 copies, but there are good bets and bad bets. Expecting Roanhorse or Wendig to write a genuine bestseller is like expecting Brenna Wu to make a hit mobile game.

Even the supposed success stories seem suspect. Look at NK Jemison. She is the big success story for the Worldcon/SFWA clique and is held up as the future of science fiction. And yet, when she quit her day job to become a full time writer back in 2016, it was patreon that allowed her to switch. There is no shame in getting paid, but does Sanderson have a patreon? What about Rowling or Correia?

This is why I think the publishers are on to the SFWA. They will praise her and give her awards, but they will not pay her like they pay Scalzi or Sanderson. Sales are not always a marker for quality and many great writers go unappreciated in their own time, but if you ignore the market for too long it threatens the viability of the entire industry.



The relationship hasn't been great for Disney either. When Zahn wrote Heir to the Empire he created a number of iconic characters and helped keep interest in Star Wars alive between series.

Chuck's writing style and sparkling personality were a bad fit for Star Wars and they got what they paid for. This is a lesson in what happens when you allow your employees to make hiring decisions biased on personal connections over the interests of the company.

I don't know if you have access to Bookscan. But, it would be very interesting to see how the Disney Starwars books are selling compared to older properties like Harry Potter or Wheel of Time.

So nice to see someone else who knows thier shit about the spec fiction industry here! Not like I get to kvetch about it around the water cooler, you know?

Jemison is a really odd case... supposedly has 3 million books in print, the MacArthur grant, Masterclass, and TV rights. No small success there... but all of that came after getting multiple Hugos and having the industry boost her for years. Plus, I have never met anyone who has read one of her books outside the industry or assigned reading in college. If I had to guess, its the colleges pumping her numbers up.

Plus, I can tell you she lives in some midsize apartment in New York City. Meanwhile I know mid-tier authors who are making really good money, paying off houses, and of course, there's guys like Larry Correia who have literal "giant mansion money". On paper, she should be rolling in dough... in practice, part of the reason she's doing Masterclass is she needs the money. Either she's got a swiss bank account she's padding or Jemison's not making nearly the kind of money you'd think being the face of SFWA should make.

Even Scalzi is... lets just say his publisher keeps hoping the sales numbers have been declining since Redshirts and Old Mans War, they are regreting his last contract.

Meanwhile, to go over the three you named, Rowling is a billionare, Correia has a mansion with an indoor AND outdoor shooting range, and Brandon Sanderson has enough pull and connections he can literally call John Favrau to ask him about The Mandalorian while he's on a panel.

True story by the way. I literally watched Brandon Sanderson at a convention, whip out his phone, call Favrau, put him on speaker and ask a few questions about the second season of The Mandalorian. Like it was nothing.

I have no idea how much money Sanderson has made, but he has "paid entourage/staff and palls around with Hollywood movers and shakers" levels of it.

One other thing with the Star Wars and the pool of novelists they pull from...

The former EU very clearly favored military scifi and fantasy authors, ideally ones with an existing fanbase. Even Zahn was a bestselling author before Thrawn.

The New EU nearly exclusively hires YA authors and comic book writers, none of whom are any big names before or after they come on board and leave.

I'm curious how much is the influence of Lucasfilm's efforts to reorient Star Wars to that demo, and how much is the fact Chuck Wendig works a lot cheaper than Terry Brooks.

I do have a Bookscan account, let me see if I can find my log in... got any examples you want me to dig up?

...or, you know, how their sales compare to old pre-Disney EU material...

I can tell you that already: terribly. Again, remember what I said: your first sign is looking at whats on store shelves, and what's filling clearance bins.

Tons of reprints of old EU books, recent nuEU hardcovers/paperbacks, and pretty much anything Zahn slaps his name on is what you find on nearly every bookstore in America.

You find the other nuEU stuff in clearance bins or Second and Charles and other second hand retailers.

As for official sales numbers, as I said above, let me see if I can dig up my old Bookscan login.

 

[JJLiautaud]

So nice to see someone else who knows thier shit about the spec fiction industry here! Not like I get to kvetch about it around the water cooler, you know?

Jemison is a really odd case... supposedly has 3 million books in print, the MacArthur grant, Masterclass, and TV rights. No small success there... but all of that came after getting multiple Hugos and having the industry boost her for years. Plus, I have never met anyone who has read one of her books outside the industry or assigned reading in college. If I had to guess, its the colleges pumping her numbers up.

Plus, I can tell you she lives in some midsize apartment in New York City. Meanwhile I know mid-tier authors who are making really good money, paying off houses, and of course, there's guys like Larry Correia who have literal "giant mansion money". On paper, she should be rolling in dough... in practice, part of the reason she's doing Masterclass is she needs the money. Either she's got a swiss bank account she's padding or Jemison's not making nearly the kind of money you'd think being the face of SFWA should make.

Even Scalzi is... lets just say his publisher keeps hoping the sales numbers have been declining since Redshirts and Old Mans War, they are regreting his last contract.

Meanwhile, to go over the three you named, Rowling is a billionare, Correia has a mansion with an indoor AND outdoor shooting range, and Brandon Sanderson has enough pull and connections he can literally call John Favrau to ask him about The Mandalorian while he's on a panel.

True story by the way. I literally watched Brandon Sanderson at a convention, whip out his phone, call Favrau, put him on speaker and ask a few questions about the second season of The Mandalorian. Like it was nothing.

I have no idea how much money Sanderson has made, but he has "paid entourage/staff and palls around with Hollywood movers and shakers" levels of it.

One other thing with the Star Wars and the pool of novelists they pull from...

The former EU very clearly favored military scifi and fantasy authors, ideally ones with an existing fanbase. Even Zahn was a bestselling author before Thrawn.

The New EU nearly exclusively hires YA authors and comic book writers, none of whom are any big names before or after they come on board and leave.

I'm curious how much is the influence of Lucasfilm's efforts to reorient Star Wars to that demo, and how much is the fact Chuck Wendig works a lot cheaper than Terry Brooks.

I do have a Bookscan account, let me see if I can find my log in... got any examples you want me to dig up?



I can tell you that already: terribly. Again, remember what I said: your first sign is looking at whats on store shelves, and what's filling clearance bins.

Tons of reprints of old EU books, recent nuEU hardcovers/paperbacks, and pretty much anything Zahn slaps his name on is what you find on nearly every bookstore in America.

You find the other nuEU stuff in clearance bins or Second and Charles and other second hand retailers.

As for official sales numbers, as I said above, let me see if I can dig up my old Bookscan login.

It would cool if you could compare say the past 10 hugo's and nebula's (2020-2010) sales numbers with the previous 10 years (2000-2010) that would be quite interesting imo, or 5 and 5 whatever's easiest man.

 

[AnOminous]

Sales are not always a marker for quality and many great writers go unappreciated in their own time, but if you ignore the market for too long it threatens the viability of the entire industry.

It seems like the only place wokeshit genuinely "thrives" is in companies like Marvel which solely exist as IP farms to keep their trademarks being used "in commerce" even if it is by publishing shit nobody buys or reads except other wokeshits.

 

[Rakdos92]

The former EU very clearly favored military scifi and fantasy authors, ideally ones with an existing fanbase. Even Zahn was a bestselling author before Thrawn.

The New EU nearly exclusively hires YA authors and comic book writers, none of whom are any big names before or after they come on board and leave.

Man, imagine if Disney decided to hire authors like William S. Lind, Tom Kratman, and John Ringo. The shitshow would be hilarious to behold.