Controversy was ignited (perhaps even exploded) yesterday when the podcasting community, and more specifically the podiobooks.com community, caught wind of an article written for a magazine that essentially said that only books that have no chance of publication ever go onto podiobooks.com and real authors wouldn’t ever consider posting stuff on it.

Um… words really failed me when I read that.

It turns out that the author of the article has never listened to any of the books/stories found on Podiobooks.com nor did she do any research to confirm/deny some of the things she wrote. You know, little things like “putting your books up on the site would never, ever result in a sale to a publisher”.

As you might imagine, this started a real firestorm.

In an effort to provide full-disclosure, let me say that I am a fan of podiobooks. I am writing a story right now that is intended to go onto podiobooks.com as we speak. You can even find the first few episodes on this site and on iTunes. Am I doing it because I think the story is so bad it can’t ever be published as the article suggests? Not hardly.

I also read the article, other peoples’ comments and even the comments put out by the original author.

The article was so obviously wrong to me I just shook my head and went “Next!”. I responded to a couple of the upset tweets by people I follow as well as some of the comments posted against the article.

It reminded me why I rarely give my two cents in forums and why I’m always careful to put my statements out there as my opinion. My reasoning is simply this: I don’t consider myself an expert on anything. I am well-informed on many things and I generally know what’s what, but I know there are limitations to my knowledge on many subjects. I also know there are people out there who have a great deal more depth about certain things.

It was proven very clearly here, posting something, even if the venue isn’t largely read, will be seen. I see everything that gets written about me within hours, sometimes minutes of it showing up on the Internet. Whatever you write about, it will be found just as quickly.

At the end of the day ask yourself “Do I want to be remembered for saying something smart, or something stupid?” That should temper you typing one way or the other. I’m not sure the article was stupid; the author claims it was meant to be satirical. Unfortunately, the satirical elements don’t really come out so it sounds like an attack on certain authors and podiobooks.com itself.

Update

It almost sounds like I’m afraid to voice my opinion, doesn’t it? That’s not true at all. If I have an (informed) opinion about something, I will definitely talk about it. I WILL do my research first. Once I have a solid understanding of something I will comment on it. But not before.

Personal Update

Jennifer Rahn, who I met at Con-Version (24, I think) posted an interview with me. You can read it at: http://magnix.blogspot.com/2010/02/man-behind-scenes-interview-with.html.

I am now 20 – 25% finished writing ‘GalaxyBillies’. I will have it finished this year and I will be working to sell it this year too. Episode number 4 (actually the 5th episode) will be available this week.

I’m going to send out my Fantasy novel again. I still believe in it and I know it hasn’t been rejected nearly enough to shelve just yet.

No word on my YA contest entry. The contest site says it could be April 30 before I know. I need to be patient just a little longer.

Tags: foot in mouth, irreverent muse, Michell Plested, podiobooks.com, research, self-editing