Re: Whew! pretty long dry spell here is ASA

[Bob La Londe <none@none.com99>]

On 9/23/2020 10:39 AM, Jim Davis wrote:
> On Tuesday, September 22, 2020 at 9:05:01 PM UTC-4, Bob La Londe wrote:
>>
>>> So that's the end of my fishing story. Yours obviously is still in progress. Cherish it.
>>>
>>>
>>> Best wishes for your wife's recovery
>>>
>>
>>
>> You aren't to bad a story teller yourself.  Maybe break things up a
>> little to make it easier to read.  I bet using the spoken word in person
>> you would be tell it pretty well.
>
> Yeah, I just started typing and kept going. When I got done I saw it all bunched together but it was late and I was beginning to nod off so I just left it. Sorry.
>


Why I am not an outdoor writer

I may simpley not be that good.  I've only ever submitted a couple
things for publication and they have all been published, so maybe with
practice I could be, but I had some experiences that made me quit trying.

This is a little bit of a rant so feel free to skip it if you want

I took a shot at outdoor writing a number of years ago.  One article was
submitted to a regional rag, and they published it.  After I rewrote the
article a dozen times, and butchered it removing most of the useful
content to fit their idea of how short an article should be.  The
agreement was I would do that in exchange for so many months free
advertisement of my fishing website in their rag.  I spent a lot of time
on the article, and when it was done it was useless, but my goal was to
get my name out there and show some writing credits to show other rags.
They might have known how to publish a magazine, but they didn't know
shit about a useful and helpful fishing article.

I expected to get a copy of the magazines that carried my advertisement.
  I didn't.  When I asked about it I was told if I wanted a subscription
I could buy one.  I asked that if they do that to all their advertisers.
  Make them pay to see their ad was published.  Then I was told I was
not an advertisers and if I wanted a subscription I could buy one.  I
reminded them of the deal and mentioned I still had all the original
emails.  The chief editor then claimed that my emails were forwarded to
them with out that information.  I finally told them that under fair use
I could publish expose' articles on outdoors websites showing their
magazine if it was for the purpose of supporting an argument.  That I
had proof they whelched on a deal.  They could sue me, and I could
counter sue, and in the end they would lose, but I would rather they
just honor the agreement.  Especially since I had reworked the article
at their direction more like an employee than a free lance writer.
Finally they capitulated and the next month I received a copy of their
rag.  In the classified section about 1/2 an inch tall was a badly
pixilated url for my website.  Just YumaBassMan.com stretched and
distorted so badly it was barely readable

That magazine didn't last another year.  They went to an online presence
that was so disorganized and chaotic as to make it less useful than the
article they made me butcher.

I was so disheartened by the whole process I never submitted another
article to another rag.  Not even the local newspaper who had in the
past published some of my short essays unedited.

I was smart enough to retain ownership of my work so that I could
republish it if I wanted to.  They had limited rights to publish it in
their magazine and I agreed not to publish it elsewhere for a limited
period.  Here it is.  (my version) Back then I thought it was the Opus,
but now I see it was just another so so article as I reread it.

The Stick Worm Phenomenon
http://yumabassman.com/forums-new/index.php/page,page3691.html

After all of that I still wrote and published a few articles on my
website.  Then one day I got a heads up that a commercial bass fishing
website had stolen one of my articles word for word including typos.  I
contacted them and said they either needed to remove my article or give
me credit with a by line of my name and website url.  They responded by
telling me it was a shitty article, and they were in the business of
building a website and they weren't going to let me steal web traffic
from them or profit off their works so they were going to remove my
crappy article.  I was a little shocked.  Those thieving bastards stole
from me, and then accused me of trying to steal from them?

I thought that was the end of it.  Until many years later a friend of
mine qualified to fish the Classic.  He did it through the Federation
structure.  Its quite an ordeal to make it up to the classic that way.
I posted a congratulatory message on his Facebook page.  A simple short
sentence like, "Congratulations on qualifying Steve."  I received a
nasty message from somebody I didn't know demanding to know why I didn't
give them credit for saying that sentence first.  I didn't even know who
they were.  It took me a while to figure out who they were and why they
were being a jackass over me congratulating my friend on his
accomplishment.  Yeah he was one of those guys from the paragraph above.
  It turns out he had posted that sentence on a web forum I hadn't even
seen, but now he thought because I also congratulated Steve it was the
same as being a POS thief willfully and blatantly stealing other
people's work.

I think this was the article they stole.  I could be wrong.  It was a
long time ago.

Getting Started On Popper Fishing
http://yumabassman.com/forums-new/index.php/page,page290.html

I can't see trying to be in the writing business again.  It think it
would totally ruin my enjoyment of writing.

Special credit to Sarah Sneed who was the only English professor who
ever TAUGHT me anything about actually writing.  English 102 Writing
Research Papers.

Now I just hack out something when I feel like it.  I often don't bother
to proofread or edit anything.