Author Services

Has anyone ever tried one of these author services? If they have connections with agents or publishers for short stories, I think they'd be worthwhile, as I know from personal experience it's hard to find agents and publishers that are willing to look at short story collections. However, I'm wondering whether they're just a glorified Kinkos. Anybody know for sure? Anyone tried a similar service?

Writers are like....

I recently read a personal essay by Russell Banks that he'd written about the writing process. At the end, he's talking to a guy, Jocko, he'd once been friends with, who was more or less a criminal. But Jocko had always hung out with musicians and poets. Banks asks him why, and this is Jocko's answer:

"Yeah, well, artists are a lot like gangsters. They both know that the official version, the one everyone else believes, is a lie."

An interesting analagy, don't you think? Writers can feel--or seem to be-- like outlaws, on the fringe of decency, normalcy. And some of them aren't above stealing and taking no prisoners.

But perhaps this metaphor is now belabored.

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