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The Baffling Case Of AbsoluteWrite

There is a writing forum called AbsoluteWrite Forums. It is one of the oldest still going and is a place frequent by various industry luminaries and is a center for the crusade against the horrid vanity press PublishAmerica. In many ways, it's a great resource for writers, editors and publishers and until about a week ago I would have recommended it to anyone.

Now, I'm not sure.

I was once a member there (as zizban) and got banned for being a bad boy (and rightful so) but I still lurk there and read now and then. AbsoluteWrite strives for professionalism and a high degree of integrity. Then you get this.

Yes, professionalism at it's best.

The first thing to remember is this was posted at Stop the Goodread Bullies, a site devoted to apparently defending any vanity or self published authors on Goodreads. The people behind the operation seem kind of shady, But if you examine the thread in question you see that the banned poster and those that supported her made polite, logical arguments. Read for yourself and decide.

It gets a little weirder because it appears the owner of AbsoluteWrite is not who she says she is. Her given name is Macallister Stone and she uses it everywhere. I have no problem with this, we are all entitled to our privacy but when you ban someone from your forum because they are a "fucking bald faced liar" I have a problem.

You can't go calling people liars while you lie about who you are and hide your registration address behind a storage locker in Washington State!

So let's recap:

1. Use a pseudonym online.
2. Use a storage unit as your web site's address.
3. Accuse someone of being "A bald-faced liar".

This makes you a hypocrite.

If don't want anyone to know your address when you register a domain, there are plenty of proxy services you can use. Which makes the whole situation stranger.

To top it off, Macllister Stone's name is actually Melodi Susanne Sherman and keeps her name hidden while running a high profile website is some of kind of achievement but it raises one question: How come it hasn't leaked before now?

The reason is is she doesn't attend very many writing conferences except the famous Viable Paradise which is run in part by friends of hers. By keeping her offline profile low, she can keep her identity secret.

A less likely scenario is that her name really is Macallister Stone but the evidence is strong against this.

An even less likely scenario is that no one, not even her friends, knows her real name. I have a hard time believing this.

This whole thing with AbsoluteWrite is so convoluted and weird I doubt we'll ever know for sure.

Edit: a reader points out Macallister Stone and Melodi Sherman could be sisters or lovers. Possible but again unlikely.

Update:

A simple google search puts all doubts to rest. Melodi Sherman was once a manager at a farrier place. Macallister Stone says she is a farrier. This is what her site tag says:

So Macallister Stone is a lair and a hypocrite who committed perjury to hide her identity. It is sad and troubling, but mostly sad. Very sad.

Having A Thin Skin

Recently on a forum I frequent a self published author posted she gotten the following one star review:

Silly. Laborious - not a good read. Hard to get into and stay focussed. Not recommending this author. Not a good buy

Okay, fair enough. One star reviews can sting and can be sucky sometimes. When you put yourself out there, these things happen. Hey, look! Pride and Prejudice has seventy seven one star reviews! The thing is, sometimes these reviews are valid, sometimes not but in the end these things happen. Let it go.

Someone didn't get that memo.

The author's response:

This is the review.  This little story has not had any paid purchases for a long while.  That means to me that she downloaded a free copy.  If someone has this trash to report about a very short story that probably took them five minutes to read, why post a review at all.  I am floored!

There are two problems here. Whether it is a paid purchase or free download is irrelevant.Note: it says right next to the review it it was an Amazon Verified Purchase. The ponit is the reader didn't like the story. Further, the reviewer posted a review because they could and because they obviously felt the need to share her review with others. I hardly call "Silly." and "Laborious - not a good read." trashing the book. It's a statement of what the reader felt. Would this author have felt the same way if it was a five star review, that the person shouldn't have posted the review because they might have got it? free I doubt it.

Her friends were quick to join the pity party and trash the reviewer:

Ignore it ! We know your a great writer and story teller,
                           I loved all your stories..


It is hard for me to come to terms with a description of your work as "laborious," because it so much the opposite of the way I see it.  Not that you don't do the work of making it professional as well as unique and original, but because the spirit of the stories are so natural and meaningful.  

And how can a story be "silly" and "laborious" at the same time?

I am floored, to, at the actions of people who are so intent on harm.

Sigh. It goes on like that until they finally to get to ad hominem personal attacks on the reviewer, all because of one single one star review.

You want to play the "published author" game? Cool. Get thicker skin. Readers are a tough crowd.

Onward To Arachnid

The edits for Arachnid, Book Two of Thomas of Xuelition are finished. Next up: proofreading.

In all it will a year and a half between books, which in grand scheme of things isn't a long time but in this electronic day and age seems like a long time. This was due to two things: first I didn't know Booktrope wanted four more novels until I saw the cover for Ouroboros. I was surprised and delighted, yes, but also horrified, because omg I have get writing! Second, Booktrope changed the way it did things internally while Arachnid meandered it's way to them which resulted in a delay but also it will make things smoother in the future.

I don't have a release date yet for Arachnid but it won't be much longer now. I am very excited and I hope you'll follow along as things develop.

Arachnid is a prequel to Ouroboros, set early in Thomas' career. He's young and has a chance for a big payday but other people, other things have plans for him as well. We learn the origin of some of the things Thomas does as well a bit more about his dead (?) mother. Arachnid also sets up the next book.

Which is Tiamat. Tiamat takes places a few months after Ouroboros and directly connects to the events of Arachnid. The best part? I have already have the first draft done! Stay tuned!

To The Dudette Who Has A Crush On Me

Dear Dudette,

You seem have to a crush and/or an unhealthy obsession with me. You always think a new poster is me and when I post you call me by my real name instead of my user name. It's adorable your little crush on me, simply adorable.

I think we both know by now that you miss my postings on PublishedAuthors and you are hoping, nay, longing for my return, so when a new poster comes along, you hope and pray it's me, but despite your hopes, you are wrong. Oh you think you are correct, but  you are not and seeing your unrequited desire for me in action is almost heartbreaking.

Also, dudette, by calling me by my real name and while you hide in anonymity? Cowardly. A coward, a bottom dwelling piece of human garbage who doesn't have the vagina to confront me with your actual name!

So while you continue you little crush on me, I will continue to regard you as little more than a yippy little dog: annoying yes, but also easily ignored.

Edit 10/22/2013

This is the dudette with the crush on me:

Beware Of Shelagh Watkins and PublishedAuthors.org

Recently I took a gander at PublishedAuthors.org and saw Shelagh Watkins, author of Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine and other books and saw she posted this:

There is no difference to the final product if you self-publish with Lulu.com or allow Publish America to produce a book for you.

Through Lulu, you have to format the interior, produce the book cover design and upload the files to their site. They print exactly what you send. If you require help, there are editors to help you with the layout and cover design -- but you have to pay.

With PublishAmerica, the first thing you do after signing the contract is answer and return an author questionnaire (same as a commercial publisher) to be sent with the full manuscript. Then they run a grammar/spell check. If the manuscript is covered in green and red underlines, the manuscript is sent back and the author asked to clean it up. Some go onto the PAMB and ask why the manuscript has all these green lines and kind souls (like Carol Troestler) offer to help them to tidy up their work (Ann recently assisted a colleague with a commercially published book, for which she was paid).

PA do a light edit, format the book interior and send it back to the author, who's given a fortnight to proofread. When all the editing is finished, the pdf file is sent to the cover art department. The cover is then sent to the author for approval. Once approved, a release date is set and the book goes on sale on the PA website. Six weeks later, the book appears on Amazon and eventually is offered for sale on forty or more book selling websites.

No costs to the author are incurred from start to finish. The author is offered a once only opportunity to buy the books at a discount of 55%. I don't know how many books need to be bought to qualify at the present moment. The will be given the chance to buy at lower discounts for set numbers of books at a later date.

About ISBNs: Both PA and Lulu buy the ISBNs in bulk and are the owners of those numbers. They are free to the authors. When the books appear online, the publisher is attributed to the ISBN holder, i.e., PA and Lulu. If self-publishers want to own the ISBN and appear on Amazon as the publisher, they have to buy the ISBN at the rate set by Bowker. Similarly, if self-publishers want their book to appear on sellers' websites other than Amazon, they have to pay for distribution.

The difference between the two companies: one does all the work at no charge; the other does none of the work and charges if self-publishers require assistance.

All the PA authors (apart from DK, and possibly Abe) on this forum, knew exactly what they were getting: a book published at no cost that would help them to learn more about the business with no financial outlay. DK thought she was a "proper author" -- although I'm not sure that the process she adopted of selling the books herself fits with the image of herself as a "real" author. Abe thought that he could distribute the book himself but failed to make the necessary arrangements with PA and feels let down because of this. Agai

n, I don't see how this kind of author intervention sits with the idea of PA being a "real" publisher.

If you take into consideration that PA authors had differing views of themselves and their publisher, then there are probably as many different reasons for publishing with PA as there are authors.

See original post here.

Later she added:

I received equal printing rights for the book two years after publication because the book wasn't selling. I was given full e-rights at the same time. PA support wished me well and said that they didn't want to hold back any author who might find new ways to reach a bigger readership. I found the support staff courteous, helpful and always pleasant. 

PA had fulfilled their part of the agreement to publish my book; they had given me equal rights before the seven years were up and full e-rights. There was no need for me to ask them to publish a second book that would fail to make a profit for either me or the publisher.

There are several ways to take this: First, she's ignorant of PublishAmerica and it's business methods. I find this hard to believe, she'd have to be willfully ignorant of all the information that is out there and has been for years. She's not dumb, that she's shown that many times.

She may not know a lot about publishing, but she's got PA's MO down pat. She published one of Alice Crooker's books, Living By The Swamp, and Alice purchased one hundred copies from Shelagh "To Make It Worth [Shelagh's] time."

The only thing that is left to conclude is that Shelagh Watkins is a shill of PublishAmerica and a liar. She lets the many former PublishAmerica authors who frequent her forum think they have escaped PA's clutches, when in fact she is lying day and day in out to them, pretending to be their friend when it is closer to just a friendly prison warden.

The domain registration for PublishedAuthosr is hidden behind a proxy. I have no doubt now that behind that proxy stands PublishAmerica or someone closely connected to them.

I cannot state this strongly enough: Stay away from PublishedAuthors.org!!

Socially Speaking

There are various ways for you to connect with me online. This will get it's own page eventually.

Twitter, Heello and Twii: @zizban
(I don't always post on all three and mostly not the same posts on all three. One of these days I'll decide on one).

I am on Google+, I have a fan page on Facebook.

Finally I am on Goodreads and (if you must) MySpace.