The pen is mightier than the sword

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN TAKE YOUR SEATS FOR THE SELF PUBLISHING SMACKDOWN - IN THE BLUE CORNER WE HAVE JOE KONRATH AND IN THE RED CORNER WE HAVE  JOSEPH DAY.

An almighty row has broken out between writers Joe Konrath and Joseph Day - the row has resulted in insults being slung back and forth and now Konrath's banned Jo Day from commenting on his blog, A Newbies Guide to Publishing.

Konrath, who is known for criticising traditional publishing took offence when Joseph Day had the temerity to criticise Konrath himself - Day wrote -  "The Nonsense About Book Prices
Is a book judged by it's price? Would you forgo buying one of Janet Evanovich's books for five dollars, and instead buy one of Joe Konrath's books for 99 cents because the price is lower?

That's what someone named Joe Konrath seems to be claiming. Who is Joe Konrath? A mediocre writer who for 12 or 20 years, I forget which, tried to break into the publishing business. After succeeding with a half ass police detective series, his publisher dropped him after a few books.

Though Knorath tirelessly sings the praises about self publishing through ebooks, he recently did a deal with Ace books, which is owned by Penguin publishers, for a science fiction book. According to Konrath himself, the book flopped in sales. Of course, also according to Joe Konrath, this is because the book price was too high. Could it ever occur to Konrath that maybe his fans are tired of his junk?"

To which Konrath replied -  "kudos to signing your name to your post. You are an idiot, but at least you aren't a coward.Allow me the honor of pointing out your bullshit.A mediocre writer who for 12 or 20 years, I forget which, tried to break into the publishing business.12 years. And I self published most of those books that were rejected. They helped me earn $600k last year. After succeeding with a half ass police detective series, his publisher dropped him after a few books."


From there it got really amusing as the authors slung insults back and forth, but what seemed obvious was that Konrath, who is fond of calling traditional publishers pinheads and idiots couldn't take any criticism himself, and when his claimed sale figures were called into question it seemed that a raw nerve had been struck. Whilst it is difficult to be precise regarding sales Konrath's rankings on Amazon do seem to suggest that his sales are nowhere near the figures he is claiming.

Konrath called Joseph Day a idiot and a pinhead but Day wasn't the type to back down and he hit back with -

"Okay fatso, you want to start calling people names, fine.First, I only skimmed through two of your Jack Daniels novels, and read the first four pages of Whiskey Sour before I became very bored. "It was raining...they called it lasagna". Oh Jesus,lol, please no more.

The books I skimmed were Dirty Martini and Cherry Bomb. Essentially they were the same story, with your hero Jack always running around and acting like an ass. Come on, Joe, the girls of Chicago are a lot nicer than that.

Btw, what makes you such an expert on police procedure and police departments. Certainly, you never were a policeman, because you'd never make the weight requirement. Let me guess -you treated some loud mouth cops to some beers, so they would reveal all the inner stuff of the Chicago PD. There's an old saying in the cop biz, and in the CIA - Those who know don't talk, and those who talk don't know."


Konrath then decided that he didn't want to fight no more and posted the following - "Mr. Day: Go play elsewhere. You have worn out your welcome. Future posts will be deleted."

The argument is showing no signs of cooling off and any level headed reader will see that Mr Day did make some valid points, but was shot down  seemingly because he dared to question Konrath's words. After that it all got a bit silly but it does seem strange that given Konrath's claimed sales figures he isn't sitting higher in the Amazon rankings. One person who understands something of how the Amazon rankings work told the Archive that,

 "My guess is Konrath is currently selling around 200 copies of each his Kindle books.  Maybe even a lot less."

I've tried to interview Konrath several times for the Archive but none of my requests have met with a response. And whilst I'm not sure what to think about his sales figures it would be nice to hear from the man himself. And in the interests of impartiality it would be nice to also interview Joseph Day for the Archive.


So come on guys -if you agree to be interviewed say so in the comments of this post.