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that generated random text based on patterns found in the previous chapters (34). Characters change gender and race; they die and reappear without explanation. Spelling and grammar are nonstandard and the formatting is inconsistent. The initials of characters who were named in the book spelled out the phrase "PublishAmerica is a vanity press."
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include nonidentical chapters written by two different authors from the same segment of outline (13 and 15), a missing chapter (21), two chapters that are word-for-word identical (4 and 17), two different chapters with the same chapter number (12 and 12), and a chapter "written" by a computer program
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cience-fiction and fantasy writers have it easier. It's unfair, but such is life. As a rule of thumb, the quality bar for sci-fi and fantasy is a lot lower than for all other fiction. Therefore, beware of published authors who are self-crowned writing experts. When they tell you what to do and not to
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that paid no special attention to the sales potential of the books they published, since most of their revenue came from the authors rather than book buyers. PublishAmerica had previously made some derogatory public remarks about science fiction and fantasy writers, because many of their critics came
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The completed manuscript was offered to
PublishAmerica by an unrevealed person not usually associated with fiction. The manuscript was accepted for publication on December 7, 2004. The hoaxers reviewed the contract with legal counsel, and made the decision not to carry the hoax through to actually
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But, alas, the SciFi and
Fantasy genres have also attracted some of the lesser gods, writers who erroneously believe that SciFi, because it is set in a distant future, does not require believable storylines, or that Fantasy, because it is set in conditions that have never existed, does not need
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believable every-day characters. Obviously, and fortunately, there are not too many of them, but the ones who are indeed not ashamed to be seen as literary parasites and plagiarists, are usually the loudest, just like the proverbial wheel that needs the most grease.
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do in getting your book published, always first ask them what genre they write. If it's sci-fi or fantasy, run. They have no clue about what it is to write real-life stories, and how to find them a home. Unless you are a sci-fi or fantasy author yourself.
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and
Rachael Saltzman, who were also slated to co-write and co-direct the film. The options money has gone to the SFWA Emergency Medical Fund. Production was tentatively scheduled to begin August 2011, but on May 16, 2011 the
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collaborated on a deliberately low-quality work, complete with obvious grammatical errors, nonsensical passages, and a complete lack of a coherent plot. The effort was partly inspired by another collaborative "hoax" work,
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The primary purpose of the exercise was to test
PublishAmerica's claims to be a "traditional publisher" that would only accept high-quality manuscripts. Critics had long claimed that PublishAmerica is actually a
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On
January 23, 2005, the authors publicly revealed the hoax, and PublishAmerica retracted its acceptance the following day, stating that after "further review" the novel failed to meet their standards.
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from those communities; those derogatory remarks influenced the decision to make such a public test of
PublishAmerica's claims.
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for publication. Its website further stated that the company received over 70 manuscripts a day and rejected most of them.
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authors, with the express purpose of producing an unpublishably bad piece of work, so as to test whether publishing firm
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At one point, PublishAmerica posted articles on their
AuthorsMarket website stating that, among other things:
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would still accept it. It was accepted; after the hoax was revealed, the publisher withdrew its offer.
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In retaliation, a group of science fiction and fantasy authors under the direction of
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738:"Absolute Write Water Cooler: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a TURKEY!"
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was created from a revision of this article dated 3 January 2016
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Chapter 34 – Computer-generated by the software Bonsai Story
Generator
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770:(Press release). PRWeb. January 28, 2005. Archived from
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The authors subsequently published the book through
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all the previous events of the plot had been a dream
584:"PublishAmerica accepts Atlanta Nights manuscript"
289:The authors of the chapters of this book include:
709:"Vanity Presses: Sound Policy with Denise Howell"
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807:, January 28, 2005, accessed February 18, 2011.
768:"Science Fiction Authors Hoax Vanity Publisher"
489:for a film in February 2011 by producing team
271:Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
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652:"Author's Market: Never Trust the "Experts""
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678:"Author's Market: Only Trust Your Own Eyes"
498:campaign ended without reaching its goal.
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18:Intentionally bad 2004 collaborative novel
923:at the website of contributor Andrew Burt
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748:from the original on September 27, 2007
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825:from the original on February 18, 2011
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378:Chapter 17 – Charles Coleman Finlay
817:Saltzman, Rachael (February 2011).
794:"Atlanta Nights and PublishAmerica"
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281:is a bad book written by experts."
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907:Travis Tea -- The Official Website
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718:from the original on March 9, 2008
427:Chapter 28 – Danica and Brook West
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957:Works published under a pseudonym
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582:Meg Phillips (December 7, 2004).
430:Chapter 29 – Rowan and Julia West
224:Under Macdonald's direction, the
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269:" with all profits going to the
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714:. The Conversations Network.
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356:(There are two "Chapter 12"s)
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451:Chapter 35 – Catherine Mintz
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7:
819:"Atlanta Nights: The Movie"
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472:Chapter 40 – Judi B. Castro
411:Chapter 25 – Tina Kuzminski
366:Chapter 14 – Sean P. Fodera
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799:November 27, 2010, at the
475:Chapter 41 – Terry McGarry
433:Chapter 30 – Derryl Murphy
414:Chapter 26 – Ted Kuzminski
398:(Chapter 21 was "missing")
393:Chapter 20 – Chuck Rothman
354:Chapter 12 – Shira Daemon
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375:Chapter 16 – Ken Houghton
342:Chapter 10 – Mary Catelli
216:The distinctive flaws of
168:Never Trust the "Experts"
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792:Nielsen Hayden, Teresa
445:Chapter 33 – Deanna Hoak
402:Chapter 23 – Jena Snyder
380:(Identical to Chapter 4)
345:Chapter 11 – Andrew Burt
273:Emergency Medical Fund.
183:Only Trust Your Own Eyes
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202:Naked Came the Stranger
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848:Listen to this article
321:Chapter 6 – Brook West
318:Chapter 5 – Julia West
314:Charles Coleman Finlay
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707:(November 15, 2006).
371:Teresa Nielsen Hayden
275:Teresa Nielsen Hayden
241:publishing the book.
211:Naked Came the Badfic
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962:Self-published books
947:Collaborative novels
899:More spoken articles
684:on December 12, 2003
658:on December 17, 2003
592:University of Denver
548:Tea, Travis (2005).
774:on February 3, 2006
632:on October 30, 2008
626:"Ah, Schadenfreud!"
389:Kevin O'Donnell, Jr
118:collaborative novel
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942:Literary forgeries
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705:James D. Macdonald
606:on January 5, 2007
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931:Categories
895:Audio help
886:2016-01-03
752:January 9,
532:References
456:Peter Heck
423:Robin Hobb
407:Paul Melko
267:Travis Tea
261:under the
257:publisher
236:Submission
226:denouement
145:Background
41:Travis Tea
712:(Podcast)
263:pseudonym
70:Publisher
912:Contract
897: ·
823:Archived
797:Archived
778:March 5,
746:Archived
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716:Archived
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48:Language
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855:minutes
285:Authors
126:fantasy
51:English
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60:Parody
604:(PDF)
587:(PDF)
116:is a
56:Genre
831:2011
780:2006
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638:2009
612:2007
560:ISBN
556:Lulu
481:Film
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
