Don’t write fake Amazon or B&N reviews without mentioning that bit about being the author. Likewise, asking and/or paying others for 5-star reviews is shady.
Don’t plagiarize.
Don’t deceive or otherwise mistreat your teammates (editors, comic book artists, etc).
Don’t create or unilaterally edit your Wikipedia page. (Yes, they can find out). If there is a factual error on your Wikipedia page, propose a change in the Discussion section and be upfront about who you are. If nobody objects to your proposed change, then you can safely make the change even though you have a conflict of interest. For more details, please see Wikipedia’s guidelines for users with a conflict of interest. PS: Making enemies over at Wikipedia is REALLY bad business. Almost as much as the US Air Force or Google, they can really give you a bad day.
3. Anger and rudeness are almost always unhelpful.
A rude response to a negative review is MUCH more dangerous to your career than the review ever was. For more advice about how to take criticism well, please see this. PS: Don’t worry too much about negative reviews. There are several reasons a negative review might lead a reader to buy the book. For example, “This reviewer didn’t like it, but it sounds like the sort of book I would enjoy,” “After I heard about the book, I checked for other reviews and they generally sound pretty positive,” “Now I want to see if it really is that bad,” etc.
Please don’t publicly rant about the publishing industry. Most professional publishers do cursory Google searches on prospective authors before offering a publishing contract and it would be potentially problematic if your blog had several posts angry about the publishing industry. That’d suggest you would be harder to work with. (You wouldn’t apply to Ford or Toyota with a paper trail indicating that you were surly about car companies, would you?)
Be as polite as possible in your personal dealings. When a publisher Googles you, what will they find? If they find a news article about getting thrown off a plane for disorderly conduct, that would be (pardon my French) le bad. PS: If you DO get thrown off a plane for disorderly conduct, please don’t try to use the 9/11 attacks to make yourself look more sympathetic.
Don’t threaten a lawsuit unless you know what you’re talking about. In most cases, threatening a lawsuit against a reviewer is ill-advised. “Your negative review used quotes from my book in an unauthorized manner.” Fair use, chief. I’d recommend consulting with a lawyer before escalating a situation with legal threats. (If a reviewer publicizes that you’re incompetently trying to browbeat them, it could damage your reputation).
The Batman was terrible. If you’re mainly watching this for comedic potential, I’d get as many Spanish-speakers or gringos as you can find, and let’s learn about the difference between “el” and “la” with Batman. –There’s a spectacularly strange scene where Batman tries interrogating Riddler and Riddler bursts into a soprano rendition of Ave Maria. […]
–There’s intense violence but not a lot of feeling here. It’s not a very exciting movie. But it’s functional. It’s frequently tedious but rarely boring. Only the political sermons and Weasel are viciously bad. It’s definitely a huge improvement over the first movie. –Most of what sucked about Suicide Squad 1 was an overfocus on […]
1:30 – 6:55: Cyborg sees his Mother Box acting up. Then Mera sees her Mother box acting up. Then Amazon guards see their Mother Box acting up. Also there’s a Lex Luthor flashback where the computer shows him that Mother Boxes are plot relevant in case you missed that. PS: In the first 8 minutes […]
–Wonder Woman 1984 is not nearly as good at the original. Pluses: the cast is still very charming, and a few of the fight scenes are effective. I did actually like most of the first hour of the movie. –Setting: In the original Wonder Woman, the WWI setting contributes to a hard bleakness which effectively […]
1. I don’t know where to start with Captain Marvel. So many things went so wildly wrong that we’d need a presidential commission to get to the bottom of it. It’s like the Chernobyl of superhero movies. 2. If at any point you feel like your action movie would benefit from a character whose main […]
1. This version of Spider-Man is a useless toolbox who actively avoids doing interesting things, and what he does attempt is usually wimpy and/or incompetent. 2. Unlike most main characters, his choices don’t matter much. For example, he chooses to leave his supersuit at home (but his aunt sneaks it in anyway) and he tries […]
We’re up to 72 superhero movies since 2000 (current as of November 2017). You can download the full data here. Some observations: R movies are making up the quality gap with PG-13 movies. Superhero movies are improving. Over the last 5 years (2013-2017), the average superhero movie is averaging 70% on Rotten Tomatoes, up […]
