Lee Goldberg

Booksurge

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I got this email today:

Is Booksurge a vanity press? They are owned by Amazon, which sells the books, so isn’t that different?

Yes, Booksurge is a vanity press. Being owned by Amazon doesn’t change that.  The big clue is that  they charge for all their publishing services… starting at $498 for their "Author’s Advantage" package and on up to $899 for the "Master Bookmaker" option. Add another $999 for Professional Cover Design or "upgrade your book to a library-quality hard cover for a truly professional look" for another two hundred bucks (so everything else they publish looks unprofessional?).  Getting accepted by Booksurge doesn’t mean you’ve written a great book. It means your credit card is good.

Amazon sells iUniverse and other POD vanity-press books, too. I suppose the only difference is that orders might be fullfilled faster for Booksurge titles than other vanity press titles bought through Amazon.

The Five Stars

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I received an email press release today from Ben Costello, who has written a non-fiction book about GUNSMOKE, one of my favorite shows. Naturally, I was intrigued. I was even more intrigued when I saw the book came from Five Star, one of my favorite publishing companies (which is bringing out my book THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE).

I checked out the book on Amazon and discovered it was selling for the outrageous sum of $75. Surely, Five Star wouldn’t price the book so high… and then I noticed something. His book was published by "Five Star Publications." I’m published by "Five Star Publishers." (aka "Five Star Press," though not to be confused with Five Star Press, Five Star Publications’ publicity arm)

So I checked out Five Star Publications and discovered it’s a vanity press (to further complicate things, there’s also a Five Star Publishing, a completely different company, which does magazines for the Agricultural and Construction industries). Five Star Publications offers every publishing service you can imagine…for a price.

While I was at it, I visited Ben’s website, and discovered he’s represented by  Janette Anderson, an agent with Five Star Celebrity, which appears to be a division of — you guessed it — Five Star Publications, which published Ben’s book.

[Portions Deleted 7-27-05]

UPDATE 7-27-05: I’ve been contacted by Five Star Publications, who would like me to make it clear that Ben Costello’s book was not self-published. Although Five Star Publications does offer self-publishing services, they state that his book was published under a traditional publishing contract (you can see the complete text of their letter in the comments section of this post). I apologize to Ben Costello for the error. By the way, before I heard from Five Star Publications, I ordered the GUNSMOKE book. I couldn’t resist. I’m a GUNSMOKE geek.

I’ve also been contacted by Janette Anderson’s representatives, who wish to make it clear that none of her clients have paid to be published. I apologize for the error and have deleted the inaccurate portions of the post.

They also state that she doesn’t work for Five Star and that there is no affiliation between "Five Star Celebrity" and "Five Star Publications."  I replied to Ms. Anderson’s representatives that the press release on her site
seems to say the opposite — and that she shares the
same logo and website as Five Star Publications. Any reasonable person
would conclude there is an affiliation. But I said that if I am
mistaken, I will be glad to immediately correct any errors or
misinterpretations I have made.

UPDATE 7-29-05 –  Janette Anderson responds with a letter, presented unedited and in its entirety, to the issues raised in this post.

The Mail I Get

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I got this long, rambling email today.  Here are parts of it (I’ve removed the title of the book as a courtesy):

I am curious. As a published author myself, ("XYZ" Available at
http://www.lulu.com/XYZ and in stores in September) I was under the
belief that derivative works are the copywriter of the orginating copyright
holder. That basically Atlantis ASV belongs to Amblin/Universal
Entertainment. So my question is this: being the writer of seaQuest (which by
the way I happened to like, althought the final season was
disapointing)i found it odd that you gave them permission to continue with
their copyright infringment…

.. I am in the process of creating a similar work on the world in which
‘XYZ’  takes place. It will deal with animosities from a regime
change and a country that patrols the seas. The ships will be similar to
seaQuest (actually to the tech difference they are actually closer to Deep
Angel). Since my work is for profit, I don’t want to appear like I am
palagrising seaQuest, its derivatitve Atlantis or Deep Angel...

…So to wrap this long winded question: Where would you draw the line. How far
from preexisting story do I have to be to outside your window?

Here is how I replied. No offense intended, but you are a self-published author… that
is very different than being a "published author." That said, the rights to
SEAQUEST belong to Universal Television/Amblin. I didn’t give anyone permission
to do derivative works based on the series, nor could I, because SEAQUEST
doesn’t belong to me. 

 
The author of Atlantis can’t publish and sell his work without getting a
license from Universal, otherwise he faces the likelihood of legal action
against him by the studio. If your book is based on SEAQUEST, you would presumably face the
same risk.

I got this email from him in reply:

Thank you for your response. I know that the publishing world
mostly considers self publishing to be ‘vanity’ publishing. That don’t
bother me. And no it isn’t. My sub can fly in space because the tech level
of the world is more Babylon 5/Star Trek than seaQuest.

Huh? I have no idea what he’s talking about. I didn’t reply to this one, because it would obviously be a waste of time. But I find it fascinating that his  frame of reference for his original work is the technology of other science fiction TV shows (or fanfic based on the TV shows). What is the "tech level" of BABYLON 5 vs  STAR TREK vs SEAQUEST Fanfic? And why would anyone care? If you’re writing an original sf novel, it exists in its own world, the one you’ve created.

“Pseudo-Psycho-Fiction”

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I got this email today. It’s so, um, unique that the only way to do it justice is to reprint it in full.

Dear Mr. Golberg,

If you don’t delete this e-mail like I probably would,
I would like to ask you a question.

I have just completed my first book.
I Started this project with absolute unhappiness concerning a turn of events in
our society, and my idea to write about that unhappiness was helped along with
the encouragement of a friend of mine, and now it is a book. My original
intention was to do what the book suggests, but I found myself 1-million dollars
short of it happening.

To make a long story short, I was beyond words
unhappy with the unsettled massacre of Nicole Brown Simpson, and her boyfriend,
Ronald Goldman. I have written what I believe is the closest thing the world
will ever appreciate concerning justice in this matter.

I of course do
not know what your opinion of this matter is. You may think O.J. Simpson is
innocent. If that is the case, please stop reading this e-mail now, and continue
having a great life.

If on the other hand, you feel like I do…that
this injustice should not be forgotten, then continue reading. I have written a
book that is about 99% complete. It may have some subtle redundancies, and need
some fine-tuning, but I have worked over a year and a half on this book…24-7.
I usually got up at 3:00 am to go into work early to complete it, to my soon to
be ex-wifes angst. I guess few people understand writers…nuff said.

I
just do not know what to do with it. I understand your writing skills, and I
believe you understand obscure fiction. I have just ordered a copy of your book,
"The Walk" and I am sure from the description I have read that you are one of
the few people who may understand my writing style. I have recently submitted my
manuscript to LULU.com for self-publishing.

My question is this; I do not
have the resources to find a literary agent at this time, and I want this book
to be published before O.J. dies, which would in essence be a tragedy as far as
the book is concerned. Can you suggest a literay agent to me that I may offer my
manuscript to that would appreciate this form of vigilante justice? It is
pseudo-psych0-fiction, and hard to explain. I would be honored to send you my
entire book to take a look at if you so desire. I guarantee you you will not be
bored.
Thanks for your time.

Why do I get emails like this? I have to say, I am a loss as to how to respond to this one. Any suggestions?

Hypocrisy 101

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Robin Reid writes Real People Slash fanfic — fictional stories about real people having homosexual  sex (like, say Ashton Kutcher and Leonardo DiCaprio) and posts it on the Internet.  She doesn’t think it might be offensive or embarrassing to the real people involved or to their  spouses, children, family and friends.  Nor does she care. 

On the other hand, Robin thinks that quoting her biography, the one she posted publicly on the JACK website, is an invasion of her privacy and harassment. Honest to God. I’m not making this stuff up:

Luckily I’m a great big girl with tenure and academic freedom and publication
credit of my own, and I do not think anything that they are putting on the
internet about me is going to cause me problems. I’m pretty much "out" in major
ways on my campus mostly through the medium of my academic writing. My
department hired me, tenured me, and supports Academic Freedom, bless their
collective hearts.

However, I want to state that in principle what Lee and Paul Ziggy and Co.
are doing is invasion of privacy and harassment, simple and clear.

Let me see if I have this straight. Writing a story about two real people having sex and distributing it on the Internet isn’t an invasion of privacy or harassment… but quoting a publicly posted biography is.  Can someone please explain her "principles" to me? Because I don’t get it.

(Thanks to "Anonymous" for the heads-up).

Please Curb Your Realtor

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E8bdbacf72034d35969af9a590135dd3 My sister has been finding a realtor’s droppings on her front porch and she doesn’t like it:

At least once a week a shady looking character leaves her promotional crap at my front door.  Kim, if you’re reading this, and I am sure you might be because you’re probably the type of person who checks her site stats hourly, I’LL NEVER HIRE YOU TO SELL MY HOUSE. I WILL, HOWEVER, BE LEAVING VISUAL CHRONICLES POSTCARDS, BOTTLE CAPS AND MAGNETS ALL OVER YOUR FRONT DOOR. SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT.

You go girl!

(That’s a picture of the realtor, not my sister, by the way)

Is this Fanfic…or Sickfic?

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Corbin_bernsen2_1 Just when I thought "mpreg fanfic" (a fictional TV or movie character impregnating another fictional male TV or movie character) couldn’t be topped, along comes "Real People Slash"…fanfic in which two real people have fictional sex with one another like, say, Mr. T and Corbin Bernson.  What kind of person writes this "Real People Slash?" Look no further than Robin Reid. Here’s how she describes herself in her bio at JACK, an e-zine dedicated to homoerotic fiction by fanfic writers:

Robin Anne Reid was born in Idaho and left as soon as she could. She became a science fiction fan as soon as she learned to read, a J.R.R. Tolkien fan at age ten, a Star Trek fan at age thirteen, and a Harlan Ellison, Joanna Russ and New Wave SF fan at age fourteen. She is currently active in LotR LiveJournal fandom, writing both Real People Slash and Fictional People Slash. She has been addicted to writing sestinas for some years and always assigns them in her poetry classes. She teaches creative writing, contemporary women writers, and critical theory as well as Tolkien and Popular Culture classes. The internet provides her main social life since she currently lives and works in rural northeast Texas, living with twelve cats, three dogs, all more or less happily co-existing with cows, coyotes, skunks, and oppossums.

Somehow, I’m not surprised that a person who writes "Real People Slash" lives with twelve cats and considers the Internet "her main social life," are you? Now imagine what the people who read Real People Slash must be like. Horrifying, isn’t it?

It’s only a matter of time now before we get "Real People M-Preg Slash Fanfic." I, for one, can’t wait to read about Justin Timberlake carrying Brad Pitt’s love child.

UPDATE: The folks at "I Speak My Mind" blog discovered this hilarious piece posted anonymously at Fandom Jam… Check it out on the jump:

Read more

Tod on Rains on Rainbow Party

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My brother Tod reviews the controversial book RAINBOW PARTY in this month’s issue of Las Vegas City Life. 

The problem, however, is that Rainbow Party isn’t actually scandalous or graphic…In another time, Rainbow Party might have been a "very special" episode of "The Facts Of Life," replete with a nice moralizing sermon by Mrs. Garrett. It’s harmless in a disappointing way — there’s no sense of the very real pressures young people face regarding sexuality — but it is the controversy generated by the parents that is truly troubling, especially when one considers the ultimate message of the book: Practice abstinence. Of course, those cloistered and closed-minded enough to demand the book be banned have already spoken to this.