#1 New York Times Bestselling Author & TV Producer
I don't know whether Louise Snead, publisher of Affaire De Coeur, is dishonest or stupid or self-deluded..or a little of all three. As you may recall, I took her magazine to task for her unethical editorial practices (accepting advertisements in exchange for reviews) and for an outrageously unethical conflict of interest (her advertising director co-owns … Read more
Chicago Sun-Times book critic David Montgomery explains why he doesn't review self-published books. In my experience the overall quality level of self-published fiction is not sufficiently high for the books to be given serious consideration. This is not to say that all self-published fiction is bad. The law of probability alone would indicate that at … Read more
The folks at Affaire de Coeur are blogging about the controversy I sparked by rejecting their positive review of my book and outing the unethical conduct at the magazine . They write: I don’t know whether I like this blogging business. It seems that anyone can say anything they feel like, whether it has an … Read more
Bonnie Kaye, who was a key player in the demise of the Airleaf vanity press scam, is now leading the charge against Jones Harvest Publishing, a sleazy vanity press run by Brien Jones, a former Airleaf exec (who is also doing business as Author Celebrity, Starred Review, Great Concept Books, Book Wheat and Author Profile, … Read more
Imagine my unbridled excitement and shock when I got this email today, informing me that I have been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize: REF:PULITZER PRIZE,2009..RSVP!!! ATTN: I write to acknowledge the above attachment to us of your inclusion as a norminated finalist for the Pulitzer Prize,2009. I forward you same, to enable you contact us … Read more
The Telegraph is amused by Blurbings.com, another inept "service" aimed at hopelessly stupid people who've already been suckered by a vanity press and are eager to throw away even more money: It had to happen sooner or later: an American company is offering writers gobbets of praise with which to decorate the covers of their … Read more
I’ve had some very nice emails today from people who attended the International Mystery Writers Festival in Owensboro, Kentucky and enjoyed my play, MAPES FOR HIRE. I also stumbled on a blog by Tony Brewer, who led the foley team who did most of the live sound FX for the “radio” plays. He writes: … Read more
The following comment from Bill Williams was posted in the back-blog discussion a blog entry of mine regarding an iUniverse author who feels that I’ve "pissed on her parade" by slamming vanity presses. Her book was positively reviewed by bookreview.com, which is notorious as a place to go to buy positive customer reviews and have … Read more
The Fourth Annual Scribe Awards are now open for submissions. The Scribes, presented by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers (www.iamtw.org), honors excellence in licensed tie-in writing—novels based on TV shows, movies, and games. Here are the submissions guidelines: The Scribe Awards and How You Can Enter The IAMTW will present SIX AWARDS in … Read more
Amazon won’t carry any print-on-demand books unless they are produced by Booksurge, the online site’s own POD printer. This is clearly an attempt by Amazon’s Booksurge to steal market share from their arch rival Lightning Source, which produces the majority of POD titles for companies like iUniverse and PublishAmerica. This news has, of course, rocked … Read more