SF Authors Sting Publisher

[T'lara]

Ok this was just one of those "huh" what the things I saw and had to post this.

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire2005/i...ory=0&id=30389

SF Authors Sting Publisher

A group of more than 30 SF and fantasy authors, upset at one online book publisher's marketing tactics and its derogatory comments about SF in general, perpetrated a hoax against the publisher, several members told SCI FI Wire. PublishAmerica, based in Frederick, Md., purports to be a traditional publisher, not a so-called "vanity publisher," which charges authors a fee to print their books. But Jim McDonald decided to test that assertion by coming up with an intentionally awful bogus book, Atlanta Nights by Travis Tea, to be written by several

SF&F authors and submitted to PublishAmerica to test the publisher's standards. When the publisher accepted the book for publication, the writers revealed the hoax, and the publisher withdrew its offer of publication. "The fact that they'd attacked science-fiction and fantasy writers [as] untalented hacks provided the motivation and the avenue of approach," McDonald said in an interview. On its Web site, PublishAmerica said, "[SF and fantasy writers] have no clue about what it is to write real-life stories, and how to find them a home."

Several young authors also have complained to Writer Beware, a Web site run by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, alleging that they were duped into signing with PublishAmerica, said Ann Crispin, a Washington, D.C.,-based author who volunteers running Writer Beware.

McDonald conceived Atlanta Nights in the spirit of Naked Came the Stranger, a 1969 hoax perpetrated by Newsday columnist Mike McGrady and several well-known writers and critics, in which everyone wrote a chapter that was sexually-explicit and deliberately inconsistent with other chapters. It was a runaway hit.

For Atlanta Nights, McDonald asked several authors, including Sean P. Fodera and Victoria Strauss, to write the worst prose possible, using only sketchy details about characters and events to occur. The book was full of mistakes and inside jokes. There are two chapter 12s, no chapter 21 and a computer-generated chapter 34. Two authors wrote about a wedding of two characters, and there are many misplaced modifiers, malapropisms, spacing errors, incorrect descriptions and laughably bad writing (from Sherwood Smith's chapter 1: "Her [breasts] belonged to a beautiful face carved out of ice and whipped cream, with a pair of glowing emerald eyes"). Even the author's name was a joke when spoken fast.

As the group hoped and McDonald said he expected, PublishAmerica offered a contract. "We'd suspected that they offer contracts to essentially anything that's sent them, and that they don't read submissions before accepting them," McDonald said. After the group went public, PublishAmerica sent a letter of rejection. Asked to comment, a PublishAmerica spokeswoman asked that questions be e-mailed. As of press time, the publisher had not responded to SCI FI Wire's questions.

McDonald said this isn't the end of sting manuscripts heading PublishAmerica's way. "Kevin Yarbrough sent in a manuscript that consisted of the same 30 pages repeated 10 times, and had it accepted," McDonald said. "Dee Power has a sting manuscript that they've accepted. I'm sure that there are others in the works." Curious readers can buy Atlanta Nights, with proceeds going to the SFWA's Emergency Medical Fund.

[REG]

So, is this what? SF writers 1, Publisher 0?

[Sho-sa Kurita]

Moneygrubbers and literary snobs. There's an attractive combination.

OT: I've never understood the attitude of 'literary snobs' that SF&F aren't worthy of being called literature. A friend and I took a short story writing course back in our college days. I won't pretend either of us is Kurt Vonnegut, but basically you didn't dare write anything that wasn't contemporary fiction in that class. Really sad, because the prof was an excellent teacher, he just sucked when it came to his grading practices. And his few published works weren't any great shakes either.

[Hugh Casey]

Note the part that says that they "charge a fee to print their books".

No legitimate, non-vanity publisher should charge a fee to publish your book. If a publisher decides that you are worth publishing (which is not the same as deciding if you wrote a good book... it means that they will make MONEY on your book), then they will cover the costs of publishing your book, and you will be paid with an up front fee, residuals from the sale of the book, or a combination of the two. Period. A publisher should never charge you a fee... they make thier money from the sale of your book. And every publisher and editor that I've met (and, having run an SF con, I've met quite a few, and some of the best in the industry) is absolutely PASSIONATE about good writing... nothing gets them more excited than discovering a new, good writer.

This is not to say that vanity press doesn't have it's place... there are some works that are not marketable and still good, if not great. Sadly, most vanity press is pretty bad, actually. There are some out there who help poor, deluded people think that they are great writers, and those BASTARD PUBLISHERS just don't see it! (sigh) Sort of the literary equivilent of those poor people who come to auditions on "American Idol".

What we have here is really a vanity publisher pretending to be a regular publisher, but they will tell you that what you write is good (even if it isn't), MAKE YOU PAY FOR THEM TO PUBLISH IT, and then probably drop all of the sales and marketing of the book back into your lap. They are misrepresenting themselves. This is unethical and immoral. And they deserve to be exposed for what they are.

I will now climb down off of my soapbox. This has been a public service announcement.

[REG]

Publisher Defends Hoax Charges
Source: Sci-Fi Wire

In an exclusive interview with SCI FI Wire, the president of PublishAmerica defended his company against charges by a group of SF and fantasy writers that his company is a "vanity press," despite falling for a hoax perpetrated by the writers. The writers, in response to PublishAmerica's criticism of SF&F writers, concocted a deliberately bad bogus novel, Atlanta Nights, and submitted it for publication to test whether PublishAmerica would accept anything; after the hoax was revealed, PublishAmerica rescinded its offer of publication.

Speaking for the first time about the hoax, Larry Clopper, president of PublishAmerica, based in Frederick, Md., said his company knew about the hoax before it became public knowledge and withdrew its offer of publication at that time. PublishAmerica is a "print-on-demand" publisher, meaning it creates books as demand rises, much like CDs and DVDs, and that PublishAmerica has never charged authors to sign up with it, a characteristic of a vanity press, Clopper added. "It won't be too far in the future when warehouses stack thousands of books [and] wonder if they'll be sold," Clopper said. "Our model is so totally anathema to a vanity press. ... We have a thousand authors who have not had one book printed. That goes to prove we take the same risk in publishing anything as every other mainstream publisher."

As for the hoax book, cooked up by author James D. MacDonald with the help of more than 30 SF and fantasy writers, Clopper admitted that PublishAmerica's acquisitions team accepted the manuscript before reading the entire thing, but added that staffers later noticed problems and suggested it be rejected before MacDonald went public. Clopper said many mainstream publishers similarly do not read the entire manuscript before making an offer of publication. "The hoax failed," Clopper said. "It was a very amateur gag."

MacDonald previously told SCI FI Wire that other hoaxes are being perpetrated against PublishAmerica. Writer Kevin Yarbrough sent a 300-page manuscript consisting of 30 pages repeated 10 times. Clopper said he recognized such a hoax, although he did not know who was the author. "In that one, the hoaxster apologized that he had done such a thing," Clopper said.

The publicity surrounding Atlanta Nights and PublishAmerica has not caused the publisher to change anything, Clopper said. "We have nothing to apologize for," he said. "There are people out there who say things about people who enjoy enormous success. We don't call people names. That's not just all of what we're about. We're about honesty and integrity."