Ah, wait, I found it. Ew.

Damn, you saw through my facade!

OH yes, I forgot the part about his wife wanting to slap the woman. Dude. Seriously? Slapping her for being a braggart? You'd better line up about a million men first, if that's the case. Because seriously, I can see that the lady was obnoxious and whatever, but again--the Canadians can and should speak for themselves if they want her to go away, and I SERIOUSLY suspect if it was a man, none of them would've blinked an eye at the "I have connections/can get you an agent" bullshit.

Maybe the wife wanted to slap the poor socially awkward* woman because she had the temerity to not know who her husband was.

*(I loved the part where he said he LOVES socially awkward people...except, of course, the ones who don't kiss his ass.)

Less gross? That's all you've got?

ita said it better:

I mean, there is so clearly a way (myriad ways!) to tell that story and make stupid lady seem stupid without also painting himself an ass.

The meat of the encounter—regarding self-publishing and its merits in relation to traditional publishing—would make for an interesting discussion, but the way he characterized the woman is appalling.

I gather he's well-known in more than his own mind? My limited SFF reading hinders me here.

He self-published Wool on Amazon, and then it was picked up by Simon & Schuster to print an omnibus edition, and film rights were sold to 20th Century Fox, so it's kind of a big deal. But I wouldn't have recognized his name on his badge either.

The meat of the encounter—regarding self-publishing and its merits in relation to traditional publishing—would make for an interesting discussion, but the way he characterized the woman is appalling

Yeah. There's an ongoing discussion in the SFF community regarding "traditional" vs. self-publishing (Scalzi has talked about it at length), but there's no reason to be so horrible about it. Dude got a good deal--but there's no guarantee he wouldn't have been as successful with the backing of a major publishing house. Some people aren't going to make it whatever they do, because they're not good enough. And for some people self-publishing makes sense because they have the talent, the persistence, and the time to put into writing & marketing.

And some people are wrong and/or self-aggrandizing without being "crazy bitches."

There's an ongoing discussion in the SFF community regarding "traditional" vs. self-publishing

The same argument is going on in a lot of other writers' circles, too, and has been for a few years now. I know a couple romance writers who had their rights reverted are doing really well reissuing their own backlists.

I loved the part where he said he LOVES socially awkward people...except, of course, the ones who don't kiss his ass.

I loved the part where he said he loves to interact anonymously with people, and then calls this woman a crazy bitch for not knowing she's speaking to a Very Important Published Author.

If rolling one's eyes at a self-important stranger was a slapping offense, I'd be slapped several times a week.