thoughts and opinions by author s. andrew swann
S Andrew Swann | August 12, 2010
Been a while since I posted some writing-related spam. Unlike a lot of fly-by-night endeavors designed to separate a newbie writer from their money, this one is not really a scam. At least, I’m sure they’re giving you something for the money. A lame something, but something. That is perhaps the best thing I can [...]
S Andrew Swann | February 17, 2009
Just for the hell of it, while cleaning the spam out of my Akismet filter, I decided to capture some text and pump it though Wordle. Here’s what I got.
S Andrew Swann | May 22, 2008
NOTE: This only applies to Blogger, not WordPress. I just got comment-spammed, so I’m switching on the word verification in the comments.And, BTW, if you post something with the name “winlotto” I’m probably going to delete it no matter how “nice” you say my blog is.
S Andrew Swann | March 19, 2008
Well, the annoying spam-meisters who’ve been peppering me with ads for self-published books have ended up on the radar of Writer Beware. I should point out that if your publicist spammer includes in their subscriber list harvested emails someone who works to publicize nasty scams that target neophyte authors (i.e. things like charging to spam [...]
S Andrew Swann | February 12, 2008
Today I got a new book spam. This has come to me via Media E-Blast, a company whose name was coined by someone in a desperate attempt to make unsolicited spam and e-mail harvesting all respectable and Web 2.0ish. Here’s my first piece of advice: Paying some “consultant” to make you a fancy JPEG ad [...]
S Andrew Swann | January 30, 2008
Many moons ago I posted about a spam query letter I got. (Not to be confused with the spam book promotion I received recently.) Just to reprise, the query was about “A Best Seller waiting to be published – Discover the Revolutionary New Way to Heal Yourself!…” Needless to say, the first mistake was confusing [...]
S Andrew Swann | January 23, 2008
One of the most important elements in being a pro writer (or artist of any stripe) is the ability to accept criticism. Not only will you receive it from editors and, if you get published, fans and reviewers, but if you wish to improve your craft you need to accept that others will read your [...]
S Andrew Swann | November 30, 2007
You may have read my earlier post on how not to query agents. Here’s a follow up, using another spam message I got recently. I am genuinely mystified at the thought processes that produce things like this. Spam in general is only effective because it only requires .01% of the recipients to respond and order [...]
S Andrew Swann | June 24, 2007
I have just been the recipient of the strangest spam I have ever gotten. No Nigerians involved, no performance enhancing drugs and (thank god) no goatse double-penetration felch hentai. No this spam was obviously a labor of love by a single individual who has absolutely the wrong idea about the publishing industry. (My comments in [...]
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