I’d Be Negligent If I Didn’t Share This With You
Published July 30th, 2008 | 
If you’ve followed this blog over any length of time, you probably are aware that one of the things I am constantly carping about in the Digital Age of small press publishing is a lack of professionalism among many practitioners of the literary arts. A lot of writers and editors in the small press are self-taught. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with this if you are actually learning something of value. Unfortunately for some, “self-taught” translates into a sense of entitlement to one’s ignorance. In the Digital Age, either through ignorance or willful disregard, it’s easy to cut corners. Sometimes manuscripts are not properly vetted before the file is uploaded. When we consider how easy it is for any ignoramous to set himself up on the Internet posing as an expert despite dubious credentials and, how easy it is to publish a book using Lulu or some other POD services, it’s easy to imagine how small press writers and publishers can get into legal trouble over the things they publish.
One of those issues that we don’t hear much about — one that doesn’t necessarily apply to authors of fiction and poetry for the most part, but certainly applies to writers of non-fiction is the concept of “negligent publication.”
What is negligent publication, you ask?
When information and/or advice is published in a book or periodical (or on the Internet) that causes harm either to the reader or leads to harm caused by the reader based on use of that information, the publisher is potentially liable for “negligent publication”.
Probably one of the more infamous cases of this in which a publisher was sued and lost is the 1997 case Rice v. Paladin Press. For those of you who are not familiar with Paladin Press, they are an independant publisher that specializes in publishing controversial anti-establishment non-fiction titles on a variety of topics like how to evade paying taxes or how to survive in the wilderness, etc. Well, back in day, they published this little book called Hitman: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors. The book explains, in some detail, how to become a contract killer, the methodologies for committing murder and getting away with the crime. In truth, most of the people who bought the book were either writers of crime fiction who bought it for research purposes or true crime afficionados. Unfortunately, one guy who bought it was a career criminal who was looking to commit murder. The guy was later found guilty and sentenced to death for triple homicide. When it was discovered that Hitman served as a bible of sorts for his crimes, the family of the victims sued Paladin. Paladin offered the 1st Amendment as a defense and lost. Rightly or wrongly, the Right of Free Speech was not deemed an adequate defense in this case despite the fact that in most cases of negligent publication, the law sides in favor of the defendant.
Why did Paladin lose?
The book presented the information matter-of-factly and the author did nothing too dissuade anyone from actually using the information.
In reality, the book isn’t even a work of non-fiction. The author, Rex Feral is a pen name for a wannabe mystery author who repackaged a crime novel as nonfiction to suit the needs of Paladin. Either Paladin knew this and didn’t care or didn’t vet the author or manuscript at all before they published it.
Using the 1st Amendment in this case was probably viewed as arrogance by the judiciary. After all, speech that can be seen as advocating or inciting illegal violent activity has never really been fully protected as free speech in this country.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve purchased titles from Paladin, myself (for research purposes only of course) and it’s probably true that lots of people have a hard-on for Paladin because of the controversial nature of their publications. But if there was ever a clearer example than Hitman of what not to do when publishing a book, I’m not aware of it.
So this is something to consider, my small press comrades, should you try this at home:
Ask yourself whether the information you are publishing is even accurate. Did you factcheck?
Ask yourself if the information provided can potentially cause harm. If you are publishing an article on how drinking Drano can cure cancer — guess what? Drink Drano and you will die regardless of cancer. So, is there irrefutable proof of your claims to the contrary? You know — case studies, research, boring stuff like that. Make sure you’ve added a clear “explain-it-to-me-like-I’m-a-4-year-old” disclaimer and never underestimate the stupidity or desperation of your readers.
Ask yourself if the author is who they say they are. Are they really an expert on the subject they are writing about? If the very notion of a “Drano” cure for cancer isn’t enough to tip you off, maybe the fact that the author isn’t a licensed medical professional in good standing but, instead, works at Walmart, might do the trick.
Being a small press publisher isn’t easy. Limited resources just makes the job harder. But that’s no excuse to cut corners or be irresponsible. You can’t control who your readers are. You can, however, protect yourself.
You Think They’d Really Be That Desperate?
Published July 29th, 2008 | Yesterday morning, I was at the post office picking up some submissions. I opened a few of them while I was there as per my normal custom and began to read them. The first submission was just good enough to get assigned to my “maybe” pile. The others were definitely going into my “no-way-in-Hell-never-ever” pile. In fact, the third submission I read was so bad, that I loudly exclaimed, “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me with this shit!” My friend Tony was on duty and he started chuckling.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
So I told him. And told him. And told him. Several minutes later, he nods his head and says, “You know what?”
“No. What?”
“Maybe you oughta start a magazine that just publishes bad poetry. Call it Your Poetry Sucks Review.”
“Huh? Yeah . . . I don’t know about that. Interesting concept though.”
Truth is, I was seriously considering it. But then, I thought:
A) Who’d want to read it?
I do recall some years ago, there was a magazine (can’t for the life of me remember the name of it) which published only material that had been previously rejected. I don’t know for a fact that all of the material was necessarily bad as “rejected” doesn’t automatically mean that a piece of writing is unpublishable. Nonetheless, as far as I know that magazine didn’t last too long, so I can’t imagine there’d be this great demand to read a similar magazine.
B) Why should I create a publication opportunity for poetry that shouldn’t see the light of day?
I’ve always been of the opinion that bad writers have the right to write as much as they want to, but the public has the equal right not to have that crap foisted onto them and it’s an editor’s job to police the situation. I’d be dishonoring and disrespecting my readers if I made it easier for these deluded individuals to get their work out there.
C) Who in their right mind would agree to have their suck-ass poetry in a literary magazine dedicated to poking fun at what terrible writers they are?
Actually, I do know of a few godsmack awful writers who’d love to be in such a publication. They are so deluded about their talents that they are oblivious to any criticism of their work. I could make fun of them to the trump of doomsday and they simply wouldn’t care as long as I spelled their names correctly in the byline. Most writers, however, would be offended and wouldn’t give me permission to publish their work in such a way. So, I doubt I’d be able to fill many issues over the long haul.
Besides, poking fun at the odd writer here in this blog is one thing — those writers more or less ask for it. Devoting a whole publication to the practice is another fish altogether. Even I’m not that heartless.
Sometimes You Wanna Go Where Absolutely No one Knows Your Name
Published July 29th, 2008 | It’s midnight and I’m offering up a few thoughts before retiring for the night.
Thought #1: Bad poetry doesn’t get any better when you are sleep-deprived. Like this one guy who sent me a submission of ten short poems typed in mouse print on two sheets of paper. Just thinking about his cringe-worthy micro-poetry makes my eyes bleed.
Thought #2: I hate being broke.
Thought #3: And if I weren’t broke, I’d be somewhere else right now. Probably somewhere far away from here. Perhaps someplace exotic like Puerto Vallarta or maybe somewhere a little closer to home like a Kissimmee vacation villa. Fiji sounds even better.
Yeah, if I had the bank, I’d go to one of those travel sites like Rentalo.com and rent one of those Destin condos. Just pick a destination and get multiple offers directly from the property owners. Then all I’d have to do is get a passport and some travel medical insurance, then I’d be on my way.
I can almost smell the fresh, salty air! I’d be on a beach somewhere — hopefully with a cold beverage in one hand and a nice young hottie occupying the other.
Ah, but alas . . . that’s just a dream.
We curmudgeonly editors don’t get to take vacations to exotic locales. We just get to read more bad poetry written by bad poets who, likewise, are too poor for any activity save for writing more bad poetry.
