Another Post About BlazeVox

There has been a whole lot of talk about Blaze Vox, and I’ve read some of it. I know another post about the whole mess might seem over the top, but the issue is personal for me, as last week, my full-length manuscript was “accepted” by Blaze Vox.

At first, as I think any sane person would be, I was wary. Paying money to have my book published? I had heard good things about Blaze Vox, their books, and their authors. I didn’t like the idea of having to pay money for something I had worked really hard on, so I politely declined their offer (and the offer to publish an ebook for free) in an email.

A few days later, I was chatting with a poet friend and the subject of Blaze Vox came up. She told me to go for it, that Blaze Vox was a wonderful press and that their editor, Geoffrey Gatza was, and I quote, “the man.” For the record, she’s known Geoffrey only by reputation. At any rate, I know that this particular friend of mine has fantastic taste and is very knowledgeable about book things, so I emailed Blaze Vox back and said I would like time to consider the opportunity further.

I was thinking, Finally! I’ve been working so hard on this book and getting rejection after rejection and it’s finally going to pay off! I’m going to have a real book. 

Of course, this was my own fault. I let emotions take a big chomp out of my brain, got excited, did all the things a calm, collected human shouldn’t do. My friend’s got a full-time non-writing job and has, I assume, little time to spend in the meddles of internet stuff, debates, etc., which this whole Blaze Vox thing mostly is, at the present moment. I doubt she had heard anything about the whole mess.

I emailed my husband about the conversation I’d had with my friend and told him I was going to go for it.

A few minutes later he emailed me back with a link to this blog article.

As I read it, I felt like somebody was slowly letting the air out of me. I felt cheated and dumb. How many people have received this “acceptance” letter? Obviously more than they originally said. We’re coming out of the woodwork like abuse victims. The numbers clearly don’t add up. I felt ashamed–I’m smart! I swear to God! How did I fall for something like this?

There are some who come to the defense of Blaze Vox, which is fine. I’m certainly not devaluing the books they have published up until now or even those who chose this route. But I could never have my book published by a press which made me to feel cheated and ashamed. I spent hundreds of hours writing and arranging this book. It’s my child. And I felt like a creepy guy with bits of sandwich stick in his mustache drove up in a van with tinted windows and convinced me to send my child to daycare with him.

That said, I emailed Blaze Vox AGAIN to let them know I would not be taking advantage of this so-called opportunity. I know I deserve a good home for my book, and if it has to take years, then it’s going to take years. Doing it the hard way is hard, but sometimes you have to fucking man up and do things the hard way.