

One of the better services provided by the Science Fiction Writers of America is Writer Beware, maintained by Victoria Strauss and Ann Crispin, which lists scammy vanity publishers, book doctors, fake agents and other entities devoted to separating hopeful writers from their money.

Predictably, Writer Beware has attracted a lot of approbation from the people who appear in its annals, and this, in turn has spawned a mysterious website called "The Write Agenda," a front for shadowy, pseudonymous individuals who purport to be a writers' group that seeks to correct the record as set out by Writer Beware. The Write Agenda includes a blacklist of writers who spoken out in favor of Writer Beware, as well incoherent bilious rants about those who make it their hobby to expose scammers and con-artists.

I woke up this morning to discover that The Write Agenda has added my friend John Scalzi to its boycott list, but not me. Frankly, I'm jealous.