The Old Neverending PublishAmerica Thread (Publish America)

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ResearchGuy

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Aconite said:
The problem is, how does an inexperienced writer sort wheat from chaff? For example, if you don't already know something about fact-checking, how do you know the article is any good? ...
The answer, it seems to me, can be summed up in the oft-misquoted proverb, "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." Taste it. Chew it. (Read it. Think about it.) Does it go down like wheat? Or is it as unpalatable as chaff?

PA authors might wish to bear that in mind along with others. The proverb applies to what is read here as well as in a magazine. [Pro forma nod to PA added to legitimize for this thread.]

--Ken
 
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AnneMarble

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robeiae said:
I'm confused...are you talking about Brides Magazine???
I don't know which is more significant...you were reading Brides at 12 or you were also reading Newsweek.

No, I never caught the Bride bug. ;) I was reading Writer's Digest (and The Writer, back when they had the zzz covers) almost from the time I discovered Famous Monsters of Filmland. I'm older than my smileys look. :tongue

I didn't subscribe to Newsweek until college. (Dad was already getting Time.)
 

Sher2

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Kevin Yarbrough said:
I just found a pic of The Pickler. I can't paste it here, but go and take a look.

http://www.larry-boy.com/

I swear, that is how I imagined him.
Kevin, you are evil. Now you've destroyed the mystique. I'm going to ask the zobmi thang to pay you a visit in your dreams tonight.:roll:
 

Kevin Yarbrough

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Sher2 said:
Kevin, you are evil. Now you've destroyed the mystique. I'm going to ask the zobmi thang to pay you a visit in your dreams tonight.:roll:
All right, but make sure she leaves me a tip on my nightstand. And it better be more than a dollar.
 

JennaGlatzer

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Thanks, Sheryl. The editor-in-chief and I are trying to get to the bottom of this, because she's under the impression that PA never advertised with them.

If anyone can find an ad, please let me know, because she's taking it up with the marketing people right now.
 

JennaGlatzer

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(In honor of my 1000th post, a gentle reminder: PLEASE keep the off-topic stuff on the Office Party board, not in this thread.)
 

Sheryl Nantus

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JennaGlatzer said:
Thanks, Sheryl. The editor-in-chief and I are trying to get to the bottom of this, because she's under the impression that PA never advertised with them.

If anyone can find an ad, please let me know, because she's taking it up with the marketing people right now.

off to dig through my pages... will give update asap.
 

Aconite

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ResearchGuy said:
The answer, it seems to me, can be summed up in the oft-misquoted proverb, "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." Taste it. Chew it. (Read it. Think about it.) Does it go down like wheat? Or is it as unpalatable as chaff?

Except, as I said, an explanation can be plausible-sounding, logical, and, incidentally, wrong.
 

James D. Macdonald

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The marketing department and the editorial department at a good number of publications keep a barrier between themselves in order to keep their reputation for honest reviews and such. (This does get you things like a double-page full-color ad for a product in the same issue the review says that product sucks rocks, and the publisher gets a very unhappy phone call, but ... such are the perils of magazine publishing.)

Some newspapers keep a wall between the news staff and the editorial-page opinion folks, too. This gives you some strange effects like the Wall Street Journal's editorial page calling down brimstone on gay marriage at the same time the news section is reporting on the business opportunities in catering same-sex weddings.

For Writer's Digest -- take what's useful and leave the rest. The articles tend to come around every two years, but I suppose that's like this thread. The same information comes around every two months. It's just that ever (x-period of time) there's a new generation of writers who need to hear the standard advice.

"Read the back issues" isn't going to be any more popular than "read the whole thread."
 

Sheryl Nantus

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sorry, Jenna - I have copies up until 2003 'cause that's when I subscribed to the mag instead of grabbing it off the shelf...

I know it was a back page of the magazine and it would have been in 2002 - I signed the contract in Sept. of 2002 and had my "mistake" published in February of 2003.

due to a hard drive crash I've lost all my emails, but I know that they responded promptly to my email that I sent not long after seeing the ad in WD...

sorry.

:Smack:
 

ResearchGuy

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Aconite said:
Except, as I said, an explanation can be plausible-sounding, logical, and, incidentally, wrong.
By that reasoning, no one can ever learn anything by reading. Cannot trust anything, nor trust one's judgment to critically evaluate and test what one reads.

--Ken
p.s. I think we will just have to agree to disagree on this.
 
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keltora

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JennaGlatzer said:
Thanks, Sheryl. The editor-in-chief and I are trying to get to the bottom of this, because she's under the impression that PA never advertised with them.

If anyone can find an ad, please let me know, because she's taking it up with the marketing people right now.

Writer's Digest, September 2002, inside back full page ad for Publish America...

I am holding it in hand at this moment. *g*
 

Dawno

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James D. Macdonald said:
<snip>

Hey, if we send four copies and fifty bucks to the Pulitzer committee, we can say it's NOMINATED FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE.

(Who's up for it? It'll cost under $100, since with orders over $25 shipping is free from Lulu.com.)

I'll donate my copy and $12.50 if three others will do the same. This is a major sacrifice since I have one of the early collector's editions that I was going to sell on eBay and retire on the proceeds.

On the topic of PA at the bookstore thread one of the authors said

I think california is the best choice for such a shop in the middle of Silicon Valley.
I suggested the idea to some friends, and thay got excited. We all will need to help them.
I will give 10 books.

I live in Silicon Valley. A shabby 3 br apt. can rent for $2000 a month easy. The retail space here is amongst some of the most expensive in the US and stores are failing all the time in my neck of the woods. It is also home to a sizable well educated and fairly sophisticated population (for example, anyone ever heard of Stanford?) so there are already lots of bookstores everywhere, from specialty boutique stores to giant Borders and B&N's. Someone please tell this person that Silicon Valley can't support this dream before they lose their life savings trying.
 

T42

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keltora said:
Writer's Digest, September 2002, inside back full page ad for Publish America...

I am holding it in hand at this moment. *g*
Well, maybe in 2002 WD didn't know that the stooges were such Thugs! Hopefully that is the only ad they have ran. (I'm sure it caught the eye of many a poor wanna be authors though) Me, I just found them on the web....and boy I do regret that find!
 
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Aconite

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ResearchGuy said:
By that reasoning, no one can ever learn anything by reading. Cannot trust anything, nor trust one's judgment to critically evaluate and test what one reads.

Not by reading alone, no--or rather, one may learn something accurate, but it's hit or miss. Observation, testing, and experience, plus additional research in trustworthy sources, will allow one to eventually form a knowledge base from which to evaluate information. Reading, by itself, will only give one a theoretical base which may or may not have an accurate relationship with reality.

And now I think we've officially hit topic drift, so unless we want to bring this back around to PA, we should move the discussion if we want to keep at it.

P.S. I suspect you're right, and we'll just have to agree to disagree.
 
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keltora

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T42 said:
Well, maybe in 2002 WD didn't know that the stooges were such Thugs! Hopefully that is the only ad they have ran. (I'm sure it caught the eye of many a poor wanna be author though) Me, I just found them on the web....and boy I do regret that find!

I only looked at back page ads, so I have no clue without more serious flipping.

Librarians--We Rule Information...:D
 

ResearchGuy

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Dawno said:
...so there are already lots of bookstores everywhere, from specialty boutique stores to giant Borders and B&N's...
But has anyone TESTED the demand there for badly edited, overpriced books by unknowns? Perhaps science demands a side-by-side comparison of an all-PA bookstore next door to a B&N or Borders next to a bookstore specializing in (say) mysteries. Empiricism! That's the thing! Maybe there is an NEA or NSF grant in it.

--Ken
 

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To get us back on the topic of PA...

...have y'all noticed that their website looks like nothing has been updated in quite some time? They've not changed their "new releases" link in close to two weeks now, and nothing else appears to have changed. The longest running internet fossil in history is still there, the "Jamie Farr on Hollywood Squares" blurb. Maybe, the New Three Stooges have decided that the best way to fight back is to bore all of us picklers to death! If that happens, they'll hope we'll move on to another scam and leave them to their gloomy and nefarious dealings...
 

Aconite

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ResearchGuy said:
But has anyone TESTED the demand there for badly edited, overpriced books by unknowns?

Hey, it's the birthplace of the $4 cup of coffee. Who's to say?

Okay, I'm actually just interested in the grant money.
 

Sassenach

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Speaking of the Pulitzer, there's a thread on the PA boards in which the [so-called] nominee announced he didn't win.
 

keltora

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T42 said:
Well, maybe in 2002 WD didn't know that the stooges were such Thugs! Hopefully that is the only ad they have ran. (I'm sure it caught the eye of many a poor wanna be authors though) Me, I just found them on the web....and boy I do regret that find!

Well, Ann and Victoria had an article earlier that same year (April) about PoD. PA apparently declined to give them any information for their questionnaire--yet five months later, PA has a full page ad.

Sounds like PA was determined to put themselves above themselves...

Which is like being beside yourself in a way.;)
 

Sheryl Nantus

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keltora said:
Writer's Digest, September 2002, inside back full page ad for Publish America...

I am holding it in hand at this moment. *g*

oh, thank GOD.

I thought I was well on the way to senility.

:crazy:

I'm not sure if I'm more scared that I REMEMBERED it...

*sighs*
 
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