“Lazy Brit Writer” Not Such a Bad Chap

By Neal 

ben-myers.jpgBen Myers (left), the novelist and music journalist who wound up in a flame war over a Guardian post, saw the item I wrote about him earlier this week and emailed to set things a little straighter. “With hindsight, I think I was wrong to respond to John Scalzi‘s critique in such a pathetic and reactionary way,” Myers writes (and, honestly, who among us hasn’t gotten sucked into an online exchange we’ve later regretted? Lucky you, if so!). “What was disappointing about it all was that the article I write for was pro-writing, pro-reading, pro-libraries and pro-the internet, but that all kind of got lost in the deluge of comments.”

But being the object of an American author’s scorn hasn’t been a completely negative experience for Myers—he’s actually gotten some freelance work from the exposure, including an offer to write some promo material for an unnamed band’s next album and another offer from “your nation’s largest monthly music magazine.” (I forget; is that still Rolling Stone?) “If Myers thinks our little snarkfest helped, then I’m glad to have helped,” Scalzi replies on his blog. “To other authors: No, I won’t stage an online spat with you just so you can get work.”