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- Jul 16, 2006
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Alex didn't like the cover, I believe, because it in no way represented his story.
The only thing worse than being unpublished is being badly published
The book's dead. Move on.
Fine.
Then he has three choices:
1) Pay to get out of the contract.
2) Sue to get out of the contract.
3) Forgets about the book and moves on.
What he doesn't do:
1) Offer a different version of the book himself on Lulu.
To quote UJ for emphasis:
~brianm~
"Blurb: In this supernatural thriller, three aimless souls collide in a tempest of lust, violence and vice in Washington, DC, where the elitist country clubs they call their home can be as cutthroat as the business of staying popular. As their triangle grows tighter, they each battle to hold on to their sanity, one fleeing to Africa, the other two signing up for a cruise to Mexico. But they cannot evade their fate. And as they face down doubles and triples of themselves stalking them wherever they run, they will learn that the demons that haunt them will accept only blood for their final sacrifice."
I actually liked the cover EP did for my book. They supplied an art information form, and gave me what I wanted. But I agree, the cover Alex got was awful. Anemic, springs to mind, and really wishy washy. It looks as if the artist wanted to save on paints.
Maybe it's supposed to look like a bloodless zombie, crying tears of blood, because it's losing a game of golf. That's a golf club it has, I think. Is there anything like this in the story line?
I don't know about the cover (or about how important covers even are in e-publishing), but that blurb sucks the big hairy wazoo.
Kim Richards
Oh yes, we paid a LOT more than $1.00.
Did you guys actually READ the thread at AW and all the other forums spammed with this? Did you notice the date and players? Alex no longer sells his bootleg copy of The Berserk at the advice of his lawyer; Damnation Books does sell it.
The other smear campaign didn’t work either. Same author posted as multiple people and stalked our staff. Is that someone whose advice you want to follow? Both Eternal Press and Damnation Books are stonger for having to prove ourselves. Guess you missed that.
We love our websites. They’re current, they’re gorgeous. They successfully sell books. This is the only place I’ve seen hate on them to date. Most people actually like what they see. I guess there’s always a first.
If you hate us without actually knowing us, that’s your problem. “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” To each his own.
Effective immediately, the magazine is reopening to submissions.
Shawna is going to have a lot of reading ahead of her as we build the magazine’s fiction inventory back up....If you had a story that was with Shawna and would still like it to be considered, please email me ([email protected]) and tell me the name of your story. It will save Shawna the trouble of reading a story that has since been withdrawn. It also wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to let me know you’re officially withdrawing your story or that you’ve already sold it elsewhere.
Our new publishers have already have found some ways to cut costs for the magazine without hurting the product. They also have a wide distribution in the digital realm thanks to their book publishing business. This could help lead to additional electronic sales for the magazine while it continues being sold on newsstands and through subscriptions.
All current subscriptions will be honored and I understand that includes Dreams of Decadence subscriptions (which were applied previously to us to Realms of Fantasy subscriptions).
I don't know why people suddenly think because one of our companies sells dark fiction (not only horror, but dark fantasy, thrillers, erotica, science fiction and more) that Realms will suddenly be a horror magazine. It's called Realms of Fantasy so it will remain fantasy.
I'm really glad to see that Shawna and Doug are still on the staff.
IMO, if Shawna leaves Realms, it won't be Realms any more. Without an equally well known editor (e.g., Ellen Datlow) to replace her, it'll drop off the face of the earth in less than a year.
Given that Damnation has taken on a failing magazine with huge debts, does anyone know if they have the resources to keep it going?