Lori Prokop, online huckster and the originator of the Book Millionaire scam, posts this claim on her website:
“I’ve never seen anything like your four hour book signing at Barnes and Noble in Las Vegas. More than 1,174 people gladly stood in line for hours to meet you, buy your book and have them autographed. The line wove through the aisles of the store. Barnes and Noble
removed floor displays to make room for your book buyers. The Las Vegas NBC
affiliate covered the event and said they had never seen anything like it.
That’s amazing in Las Vegas, the city of excitement and entertainment.”
— Tali Mauai, Co-Author of the audio book
From Zero to Hero
I thought it was pretty amazing too. So, in the spirit of fairness
and accuracy, I checked into Lori Prokop’s claim (made through Tali Mauai) with friends in Las Vegas and my book industry sources and, as far I can tell, there was never any such booksigning event for her at a B&N there in the last five years nor the corresponding booksales that she implies she made. Perhaps she would be kind enough to provide the
exact date of the event and specific store where it took place so we can corroborate her claim?
Oddly enough, Lori uses the same claim from Tali, slightly reworded, to push her "Chiropractic Best Seller Book Program," a scheme to convince chiropractors that it would be a good idea to pay her vanity press to publish their articles and books. Note the significant differences (which I’ve boldfaced and italicized) between the two versions of the claim:
"I’ve never seen anything like our four hour book signing at Barnes and Noble in Las Vegas. More than 1,100 people gladly stood in line for hours to meet us, buy our book and have them autographed. The line wove through the aisles of the store. Barnes and Noble removed floor displays to make room for our book buyers. I felt like a local celebrity and my life has never been the same. I love it. The Las Vegas NBC affiliate covered the event and said they had never seen anything like it. That’s amazing in Las Vegas, the city of excitement and entertainment.” Tali Mauai, bestselling co-author, Zero to Hero
There is yet a THIRD version (again, with the differences in italic and bold-face) of the quote, this time pushing her seminars that will allow you to "discover your powers to heal yourself, achieve abundance and create what you want in your life."
“Lori, I’ve never seen anything like your four-hour
book signing at Barnes & Noble in Las Vegas.
More than 1,100 people stood in line for hours
to meet your authors, buy their books and have
them autographed. Barnes & Noble removed floor
displays to make room for your book buyers.
National media covered the event and said they
had never seen anything like it.” Tari Mauai, Bestselling Author, from Zero to Hero.
I wonder which quote is "the truth." Again, perhaps Lori would be kind enough to clarify for us exactly when which author, selling what book, had this mobbed Las Vegas booksigning that made members of the local (or it was it national? Perhaps even GLOBAL) press corps faint with astonishment.
Shame on this person. There is just no excuse for such blatant dishonesty. Sigh…
Making light of Lori Porkchops is like shooting fish in a barrel. Pass the gun…
Another author embellishing the truth. Just what the publishing industry needs. Why…soon enough, authors will garner the same suspicion that politicians and government officials get. I surely hope it doesn’t come to that. The author should be changing her genre to fiction or fantasy!
She probably never expected there’d be anyone checking such a claim. Glad you’re there to keep her tootsies to the hot coals.
Too bad there will always be plenty of gullible people out there, eager to be published, who won’t see your warnings about her and her ilk before it’s too late…..
If you’re going to lie, LIE.
Lee, I’ve never seen anything like your book signing on the International Space Station. More than 7 billion people stood in line for three generations to meet you, buy your books, and sacrifice their children to you as their god. The line wove between the planets out to the asteroid belt, and was constantly in motion to avoid collisions with the larger moons. Jesus Christ himself altered space and time to allow everyone to have their book signed before they died, which unfortunately meant that getting your autograph also signalled the immediate end of each fan’s life. Honestly, at one point I was afraid that the mounds of ashes from the recently departed would prevent their descendants from getting their own copies signed, but thankfully Merlin transformed the ashes into gold coins, which were removed in short order by the dwarves of Iron Mountain. Pan-dimensional media covered the event, and in fact several cultures were formed, flourished and died while existing entirely in the queue to get your autograph. It truly was “Beyond the Beyond”! And that Konrath guy thinks we should be impressed by 500 store drop-ins! Ha!
-Buddha, author of “Zen Little Indians, a Non-Confrontational Guide to Racial Sterotypes”.
Here’s what a REAL booksigning (not a fantasy one) feels like: (courtesy of experience)
I’ve never seen anything as pitiful as my four hour book signing at Barnes and Noble. No one showed up to buy my book. But I did get asked where the bathroom was. A line wove through the aisles of the store — for Harry Potter. I felt like the town leper. And my book tour hasn’t gotten any better since then. Can I go home now?
Tess,
Thank you so much for that! Nothing like starting the day with a hearty laugh. Sadly, it’s way too close to the truth for me. Not all of us can be Lori Prokop or Tali Mauai.
Lee
Lori:
Only you can help! ( The Real World of a POD author)
Virtualbookworm.com Publishing Inc.
Current Royalty Report – Details
Bold items = paid
orders
7/16/06 to 8/15/06
Dates Sale Rtn. List Sales Rtn. Rlty Rlty
Order / Pay Units
Units Price Amt. Amt. %. Amt.
Meade, John S.
Nobody’s Investment 978-1-58939-701-9
1 0 $13.95 $6.17 $0.00 0.50 $3.08
Ingram Distributing
5/10/200 5/15/200
6 6
Source: Ingram Ref: Type:
1 0 $13.95 $6.17 $0.00 0.50 $3.08
Ingram Distributing
7/10/200 7/14/200
6 6
Source: Ingram Ref: Type:
TOTAL FOR: Total All Orders: 2 0 $27.90 $12.34 $0.00
Total Paid Orders: 2 0 $27.90 $12.34 $0.00
Nobody’s Investment
Royalty = $6.16
Terms: Royalty Paid on Paid Orders Only
Total All Orders: 2 0 $27.90 $12.34 $0.00
Total on Paid Orders (bold details): 2 0 $27.90 $12.34 $0.00
TOTAL FOR: Royalty Paid $6.16
John S. Meade
Explanation: Sale Units = number of items sold. Rtn Units = number of items returned. List Price = $ amount sold using cover price. Sale
Amt = $
amount sold using discount price (actual amt. collected). Items in BOLD are orders that have been paid for by customer. If author receives
royalty on PAID ORDERS only, then royalty is calculated on BOLD lines only. Royalty depends on if author is paid on cover (list) price or
on net
received (cover minus discount). Royalty is calculated on each sale (sale * royalty%) and then added together for final amount. Fractions
of a
cent that occur when multiplying are rounded down (truncated). Because it is possible for an author to have a several different royalties
per
each title and because royalty payments are computed at the “detail level”, this rounding will result in a loss or gain of several cents per
product.
8/16/2006 9:36:58 AM Page 474 of 654
(quote) Making light of Lori Porkchops is like shooting fish in a barrel. Pass the gun… (/quote)
More like shooting sock puppets in a barrel. I wonder how long it will take her legion of supporters to haul ass over here and tell us we’re just bitter and if we only got to know Lorie we would love her for all the nice things she’s doing for amateur writers to help them bypass the evil commercial publishing industry.
Tess Gerritsen said: “I’ve never seen anything as pitiful as my four hour book signing at Barnes and Noble. No one showed up to buy my book. But I did get asked where the bathroom was.”
Not even that day in 1997 when you came to do a signing for HARVEST at my Mr. Paperback store in Rockland, Maine, and the one person who showed up was an idiot whose only concern was whether or not you were American?
I felt about two inches tall that day, but you were very gracious and understanding about the whole thing. Michael Kimball came for a signing a month later and that was a bust, too. Rockland wasn’t a big book-buying town. I guess that’s why the store closed for good less than a year later.
Patrick,
hey, nice to see you here! My experience at Mr. Paperback that day was not all that unusual for a booksigning. And any author who’s been on the road knows this — and takes it in stride.