Re: Why John Ringo Threatens Science Fiction's Future

"John Ringo" <jringo1508@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>There are dozens of opinions. And the opinion of _anyone_ on USENET is,
>automatically, of less note, to me, than someone on, say, Baen's Bar.
>Why? Because the Bar functionally represents more of my core market for
>that series. So when there's a huge outcry on the Bar about something
>that I do, I make a very clear note of it. "Never kill the dog" in
>other words. However, when one or two individuals on USENET express an
>opinion, however strongly felt, I consider it _against_ the test
>marketing, if you will, from the Bar and have to wonder whether it's
>viable to change my direction based upon it.

Have I ever said that any of my suggestions would result in increased
sales? No. Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. I do know that it
would improve the book considerably. But you may well be correct that
you would lose some sales. If your only concern is money, what the
heck are you writing milSF for? Hasn't your agent told you that
fantasy is where the dough is at? Hell, go whole hog and write
romance if you want the big bucks.

But if you want to write a better book, don't overdo the in jokes.

>
>Now, there was someone else who commented on Ghost and the Sluggy
>Freelance stuff who seemed, to me, to be more of my core market. And,
>frankly, David, I paid much more attention to them than to you. You
>don't represent the majority of my bread and butter so why should I
>consider changing my writing for _you_, eh*? Because you _FEEL_ so
>strongly about it? (Sorry, chuckling.) Because... _you_ consider it
>"bad" writing?

It *is* bad writing. Whether you care is another matter.

>(Sorry, laughing this time.) I'm not sure what cred you
>bring to the discussion, if any. Are you a world noted literary critic?
>(Not that I'd, necessarily, give a rat's ass what such a person
>thought.) No? Are you a professional editor? (And most of those I'd
>ignore as well, I might add.) Are you a professional author? No? Are
>you a buyer for a major chain store? No? Are you anyone who in any
>measurable way has something that makes you _important_ enough for me
>to say "Here, I am clearly in the wrong! David Billek has spoken and I
>am asham'ed!"

Yes, I'm a person with clearly better taste than the fans who are
telling you to add more Sluggy references. If you have priorities
besides writing the best book you can write, by all means do whatever
you want. I'll continue to point out that you're pandering to your
fans to the detriment of the novel.

>
>I'm not dissing you, in particular, David. I'm simply pointing out that
>given that you have an opinion and others have _different_ opinions,
>there is no reason I should take your opinion as a reason to change my
>style, method or any other portion of system of writing. None. Zero.
>Zip. Nada.

Did I come to your house and camp out on your lawn demanding you
change your writing? I'm not sure where you're going with this. If
the only people who posted their opinions were those folks with a
reasonable belief that their opinion might make an author change their
writing style, well, there wouldn't be many posts here, on Baen's Bar,
or in any other forum for the discussion of SF.

The whole point of RASFW is to discuss F&SF. You seem to be saying,
"stop talking about my work because I'm not going to change."

Or (to use your own words) are you anyone who in any measurable way
has something that makes you _important_ enough for me to decide that
I'm clearly in the wrong? No, I think I'll keep talking about it
whenever the topic comes up. Thank you, however, for your input.

It's not like I'm on some sort of crusade, here. I'll repeat what
I've said about your latest stuff: Take out the completely
unnecessary "bun bun" references and get rid of or tone down Bast and
you've written some interesting stuff. The Bun Bun stuff was painful
but very short, thankfully. And I could even live with Bast except
for those rather revolting speeches about sex, rape, and dominance.
If I wanted to read your preachings about sex, I'd buy _Ghost_.

I did think _There Will Be Dragons_ was the strongest of the lot but a
lot of that has to do with the subject matter in the later books. I'm
not a big fan of naval combat.

On a tangent after reading your other posts, I'm still frankly
croggled that you find the level of discourse on Baen's Bar to be
higher than that on RASFW. I'm no John Clute but even this post is
longer, more involved, and more thoughtful than anything I've seen on
the Bar. And this post isn't anything to write home about if you know
what I mean.

-David
.

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