So, there's a bit of a story out there where this writer decided to
blog about how she got her novel published. The short of it is, she supposedly tricked editors into a lunch and then handed them her manuscript. And was subsequently offered a contract ten days later.
But if you go by her story, she makes herself out to be a super-creepy, stalkerish, scam artist.
"I looked in a number of books, and called the person who was thanked for "editing" the book.
I selected 6 people, and had myself call them directly to "confirm" the lunch date he or she had made with a name I made up -- that sounded familiar to everyone, but didn't exist.
Three people were embarrassed enough to "recall" the lunch date, and actually showed up.
One stormed out immediately.
The other two felt trapped.
[...]I had hooked two big people in the publishing industry with the biggest lure -- and con -- around."
And she's
proud of this! And supposedly, that resulted in this:
"Imagine my surprise when I awoke to an advance check --and a contract -- for my new novel!"
Except, there's a problem. No corporation is going to hand over money without a signed contract already filed away. You don't just get surprised one day by a contract and check in the mail. By the time the first part of the advance comes, you'd already know it's on its way.
There are numerous other problems with her story. And, I've read some of her sample work on her site. It's not quite there yet as far as being publishable, so it lends even more doubt to her story. Also, she has a description of her supposed
luncheon in this blog post.
More details on the
Absolute Write Water Cooler thread. It's no use trying to comment on her blog, though. She deleted all the critical comments.
So, word of advice: if you're going to lie about getting your novel published, try not to come across as a grade A jerk when you do. And do some research, for god's sake. A good lie should not cause a dozen bullshit-detectors to go off simultaneously.