Toilet Paper Chronicles: Did I "Get It" right?

An open letter to regular posters at TB2000 and the Debunking Y2k forum: (http://stand77.com/wwwboard/board.html)

As many of you know, I am an author. Specifically, the author of a book titled The Toilet Paper Chronicles: Gallows Humor from the Y2k Underground.

What you do not know--and couldnt possibly know--unless you have already purchased the book, and in that case have already been notified or will be notified shortly, is that shipment is being delayed as a result of revisions that I--the author--deemed necessary. The premise of the book is--and has always been--how difficult it has been for the average person to understand what is necessary to prepare for Y2k. So many experts. Who to believe? What to believe? And as Ive said from my first post regarding this book in any forum--if you cant find something funny in all of this confusion, you had better head for a rubber room. I stand by that statement.

As one pre-reviewer has already written, Toilet Paper is an issue (tissue?) hard to ignore.

On to the point of this post:

I have a critical chapter at the front of the book that has been revised. It is potentially incendiary. Then again, many might call it balanced. As a veteran journalist, Id like to make certain that it is balanced.

I need one reviewer from the TB2000 board, and one reviewer from the Debunking Y2k forum.

You all know who you are.

I will check this board for your suggestions, but Id like to hear from you directly.

Moderates, start your engines, please.

Thanks, in advance.

-- Marianne Michaels (scipublic@aol.com), October 31, 1999

Answers

Very unprofessional. First, advertising here again. Second, delayed shipment to paying customers. I ordered a copy 2 weeks ago and no sign of it yet. Third, the snottiness. I remember Stan or somebody offered to pre-view the book and the snotty patronizing response was "Yes, if you are a professional book reviewer."

-- Ct Vronsky (vronsky@anna.lit), November 01, 1999.

Count, I have a somewhat different take...

Marianne...I'm so pleased your book is being published. I know that writers cannot write without being changed,......and that often I begin a manuscript and it goes on a joyride I did not expect. Anyone who has never attempted a book-length manuscript cannot know this...

I also know that you have received negative stuff on both ends of the ridiculously polarized Y2K spectrum....

Be well. The rest of those who would criticize before reading....go to your rooms! (aka: contempt prior to investigation)

She in the sheet, upon the hilltop,...

-- Donna (moment@pacbell.net), November 01, 1999.

Count,

Send me an email and I will make sure you get a refund. This week.

Donna,

Thanks.

Marianne

-- Marianne Michaels (scipublic@aol.com), November 01, 1999.

I don't want a refund, I want the book as advertised. I'm able to wait and will post as fair a review as I can if I ever receive it.

The best thing for authors in this internet age, especially authors who just care about getting the story out, is to post the manscript, even if still a work-in-progress, on the public internet. Then you can spread the material and get useful feedback, maybe even something useful from people who are not professional book reviewers.

We can look to James Weley, Rawles as an instructive example. His book Triple Ought was completely posted on the internet (by him) for years prior to publication. That book is hundreds of pages, and whatever the artistic quality of the thin fictional overlay, it contains a huge amount of very carefully researched non-fictional materal. This represents a lifetime of the author's knowledge and that of many dozens of consultants he used. Now he has finally gone to a hardcover version, but the script based on the book is still available on the internet. I bought his book also, in hardcover, to compensate him for the excellent value that his book represents.

-- Count Vronsky (Vronsky@anna.lit), November 01, 1999.

As a professional courtesy, a reviewer normally receives a copy of the book, gratis.

-- Ken Decker (kcdecker@worldnet.att.net), November 01, 1999.

Donna, I respect your point of view. Your one remark about negativity has something to teach me. I won't post any more responses about the TP Chronicles until and unless I post my review of the book if I get it.

-- Count Vronsky (vronsky@anna.lit), November 01, 1999.

As a "sometime reader" of the debunk forum, I know for a fact that Marianne is getting grief over there for her want of a balanced perspective....I've got two manuscripts, on unrelated topics ready for agent/publisher....if you've not written with intent to publish...you really need to hush, and read....

Marianne...my email is real...I'm good for chewing on most anything, anytime.....

Be well, Lovelies.

-- Donna (moment@pacbell.net), November 01, 1999.

Put both Donna and Marianne in the Yourdon Mudwrestling Pit, their sleek bodies oiled, their passions inflamed!!! Yes!

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), November 01, 1999.

I have learned well the lessons taught by Gilligan and the shipwrecked crew's staged version of Shakespeare...

*singing* "Never a Doomer nor a Polly be, do not forget, prep without debt."

I'd love to revue, spatted now in the middle of the road as I am.

The E is real.

-- Uncle Deedah (unkeed@yahoo.com), November 01, 1999.

Errrr, that should read "splatted" in the road.

Blame my editor.

-- Uncle Deedah (unkeed@yahoo.com), November 01, 1999.