Monker wrote:Rockwriter wrote:You evidently haven't read my book, so let me educate you about its contents. I actually go into a fairly long and multi-sided discussion about how those negotiations went down, both rounds of them, talk about BOOMCHILD and its delays, and all of it. I don't say Tommy didn't want to be part of it. What transpires is that the talks fall apart, he gets another opportunity, and so on. But in that era Tommy does make the comment that he wasn't "excited" about doing Styx again, because he could tell it was going to be more of the same. By the way, that's not something I pulled out of thin air. It came from a personal interview with none other than Tommy Shaw himself. So there's that.
Then obviously Toph did not give the full story of what is in your book, or took the quote out of context.
As far as "anything can be self-published", I suppose that's true, but in the instance of biography, I am constrained by all of the exact same laws that constrain any other publisher of non-fiction.
That is true. However, even a biography can be very amaturish when self-published. There is a Journey biography that is very much that way. Everything I have read about self-publishing is to be very suspicious of it being a very amature effort. Now, it is not always the case...especially if it is from an established writer...but it should send up red flags.
I had to have my sources straight, I have to have multiple sources. And if you had read the book you would know that I present point-counterpoint on every single issue, so there's no editorial bias. And the ideas and material come not from me, but from personal interviews with the direct participants in the events, as well as lots of archival research. An indy publisher can be sued just like anyone else.
Then those quoting you are doing a disservice to you when they do not give the full story of what you are trying to say and do. People take these things, interviews and articles, books, and whatever, and twist them to satisfy their own agendas. That is now what I think is going on here more then anything.
My main point was there was more to what happened then what was quoted here. If the complete picture is what you tell, then that is a good thing. It's like the old quote, "Even the devil can quote scripture if it suits his purpose."
By the way, you should never put all faith in ANY book, because the writers are human beings, and the subjects themselves are human beings with bias.
Yep, I agree with that too.
When you say there's a Journey bio that's self-published, are you referring to that 'Steve Perry: A Singer's Journey' thing? Or is there an actual Journey bio? Journey is actually going to be my next project, so if there's a competing title out there that I don't know about, I need to see it, I guess. I know that Steve Perry book got knocked horribly. Not to brag, I just want to point out that my Styx book has averaged 4 1/2 stars out of five in customer reviews on Amazon, and has gotten positive reviews from the legitimate press including Classic Rock magazine, Record Collector, and Goldmine, as well as online sources. So I'm really grateful that in most instances I've been able to overcome the stigma that is attached to self-publishing. Incidentally, that stigma exists for a legitimate reason: a lot of self-published books really do suck. Print on demand technology has opened up the book writing field to a lot of people who aren't very good writers, in much the same way that home recording on laptops has opened up making records to people who aren't capable of making very good records. Just because you CAN do something, that doesn't always mean you SHOULD, LOL. But it also doesn't mean that a legitimate writer can't utilize a new technology to maximize the control and profit for a legitimate piece of work, which is a large part of why I chose to self-publish. More control and more profit . . . these are a few of my favorite things, LOL.
Anyway, my book is part of Google Book Search, so if you want to check it out for yourself without risking buying it, you can do so by reading excerpts here
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id= ... #PPA219,M1
I think the section relevant to this discussion is from page 208 to page 218. I'm sure part of it is not part of the preview, but there's enough there for you to get the gist at any rate.
Thanks, I hope all is well.
Sterling
