Is there an award for Most Contorted, Barely Readable Prose on a Publisher's Website? I think not, which is a shame because I've found a potential winner:
http://www.donnaink.org/
I doubt if there's an award for Busiest Website either. Too bad.
[Marlon Brandon Voice]"They coulda been a contender!"[Marlon Brando Voice/]
The first thing to catch my eye was the following news:
If you're lucky enough to find the elusive coupon codes you can take your pick from books with blurbs like these:
CEO-President and Founder of DP is Donna L Quesinberry:
The banner headline "Delivering Readers' and Authors' Dreams, One Book at a Time Because Books are Eternal! Grab Your Piece of Eternity Today..." suggests that the company is a vanity press. This isn't the case, but it isn't clear how selective they are - particularly when they seem to be relying on sponsorship rather than making money from selling books:
Sponsorship means Indigogo:
Another red flag:
In what sense is ZenCon "a third party servicer"? It makes no secret of its affiliation with DonnaInk and the company's website is written in identical tortuous business-speak:
http://www.donnaink.com/#!who-is-zencon/c1enr
The mention of ghostwriting brings me via DP's 'Disabled Author Store' to their most prolific writer...Lanaia Lee! AW regulars will remember that in 2007 Lee's novel Of Atlantis made her an internet legend when it was revealed that she had paid phoney agent Christopher Hill to ghostwrite it. Hill simply plagiarized chunks of David Gemmell's The Dark Prince, Lee paid pseudo-agent and vanity publisher Cheryl Pilsbury to publish it (no, I'm not making this up), then we all sat back and enjoyed the fireworks when Lee splurged extracts from the book on various websites and claimed it was all her own work.
Quesinberry has written what seems to me to be a horribly patronizing introduction to Lee's novel Paradox Five in which she gives a sanitized version of the Of Atlantis fiasco. Since Lee is still playing the disability card for all it's worth () I doubt if she minds.
I can’t help wondering how much Lee paid for what I suspect was extensive editing, if not rewriting.
Books from the DP disability shelf are available at a special price:
I'm sorry, but at $20 for a 180-page paperback you won't be getting a pity purchase from me.
http://www.donnaink.org/
I doubt if there's an award for Busiest Website either. Too bad.
[Marlon Brandon Voice]"They coulda been a contender!"[Marlon Brando Voice/]
The first thing to catch my eye was the following news:
DonnaInk Publications announce a 10% discount for all titles from 1 May through 30 June. Look for the coupon code throughout the website - it is located in inconspicuous areas.
If you're lucky enough to find the elusive coupon codes you can take your pick from books with blurbs like these:
A shaving of interpretive minimalism, which encapsulates atmosphere with some really vivid free-flowing images reinforced by a reflective, introspective voice. Takes a cosmic bent like a poetic cinematographer to another plane ... ethereal as in do otherworldly folk (if you believe) do what earthlings do? Visualization like this perhaps suggests that the author be a filmmaker.
A compilation of innocent and innocuous images, which share snapshots of motherhood in real-time, without the precepts of a pose. Gives a fresh glimpse into moments otherwise lost to selfie's.
CEO-President and Founder of DP is Donna L Quesinberry:
ABOUT DONNAINK PUBLICATIONS
DonnaInk Publications, L.L.C. began through natural progression and intuitive synergy. Having created over 10,000 publications in the past, Ms. Donna L. Quesinberry, CEO-President and Founder determined to pay it forward from government (federal, state, local) publications and documentations to aid authors in presenting original works to readers.
This concept was expounded on by Ms. Quesinberry, normally referred to as "Q" during the legacy to lead trend navigation the information technology platform established in the 90's to 2000's. This transition focused largely on records management, content development, paper and digital performance set the bar for the publishing industry and Q knew where legacy to lead trend was going for authors and their readers. And, voila' DonnaInk Publications, L.L.C. was born...
Our publishing house retrofits tradition and couples it with emergent industry trends. By retrofitting tradition, publishing ideals are preserved while embracing lead trend digital and technological advancements in representation titles and their authors.
This is a novel concept, but we are into novels here.
The banner headline "Delivering Readers' and Authors' Dreams, One Book at a Time Because Books are Eternal! Grab Your Piece of Eternity Today..." suggests that the company is a vanity press. This isn't the case, but it isn't clear how selective they are - particularly when they seem to be relying on sponsorship rather than making money from selling books:
DonnaInk Publications, L.L.C. has made traditional publishing a reality for our authors. We do not charge reading fees and signing fees. We learned during our sole proprietorship and adjusted out corporate vision to map to publishing industry standards.
Therefore, sponsorships are often accepted to aid authors in seeing their dreams fulfilled in order to attend events, travel to signings, and etc., which are not affordable to the publishing house at this time.
Sponsorship means Indigogo:
We aren't really asking for donations (unless you are so inclined, we'll accept them if you do). We are asking you visit the storefront and purchase a book and in the purchase notes say "Indigogo." We don't want to burden you with lots of work. We are only asking you purchase one of our titles and thereby allow us to entertain you a little this summer. In this way, you'll be supporting fledgling and cool company and our authors!
We have a target of $3,600.00, which is approximately 200 retail books.
What do you get in return? Aside from the feeling of awesomeness that is you helping us . . . you get a book!
We've set a modest goal of $3,600.00 to aid with overhead and costs for goodies to help our authors sell and for electric to keep the printers running: things like business cards, websites, production, and marketing promotions, and etc. cost $$ to keep the publishing house vibrant for our authors and their titles and most importantly their readers.
Using a traditional mindset - we don't charge our authors fees to publish their books - we rely solely on "sales."
If we achieve up to 50 purchases the campaign will target internal publishing house requirements . . . if we achieve 200 books or more then some very lucky authors get to attend some fabulous conventions this summer in order to synergize with their reader base, which is our hope.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/donnaink-publications-l-l-c
Another red flag:
Developmental Editing / Ghostwriting
Titles requiring extensive rewrite, editorial development and/or ghostwriting are referred to a third-party servicer (ZenCon an Art of Zen Consultancy)
http://www.donnaink.org/#!publisher-guidelines/c1xo8
In what sense is ZenCon "a third party servicer"? It makes no secret of its affiliation with DonnaInk and the company's website is written in identical tortuous business-speak:
http://www.donnaink.com/#!who-is-zencon/c1enr
The mention of ghostwriting brings me via DP's 'Disabled Author Store' to their most prolific writer...Lanaia Lee! AW regulars will remember that in 2007 Lee's novel Of Atlantis made her an internet legend when it was revealed that she had paid phoney agent Christopher Hill to ghostwrite it. Hill simply plagiarized chunks of David Gemmell's The Dark Prince, Lee paid pseudo-agent and vanity publisher Cheryl Pilsbury to publish it (no, I'm not making this up), then we all sat back and enjoyed the fireworks when Lee splurged extracts from the book on various websites and claimed it was all her own work.
Quesinberry has written what seems to me to be a horribly patronizing introduction to Lee's novel Paradox Five in which she gives a sanitized version of the Of Atlantis fiasco. Since Lee is still playing the disability card for all it's worth () I doubt if she minds.
Publishing houses typically consider quality of writing, storyline, sales, marketing and work required to produce a book when reviewing an author submission for publication. People with strong opinions advised me to steer clear of authors with disabilities, especially Ms Lee...
With a homespun disposition, Lanaia's lack of pretentiousness and previously published credits featuring a formidable 20K plus followers; resulted in an affirmative response to her request for us to publish her titles...
As a publishing house, we decided to extend a hand of gentility toward Ms Lee and work to achieve more polish aiding her in setting a barometer of success 'in a positive direction.'
It is my hope readers will share all of Lanaia's titles with a mindset of tolerance while reflecting on the hardships this author (and any brain insult survivor) endures.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1939425204/?tag=absowrit-20
I can’t help wondering how much Lee paid for what I suspect was extensive editing, if not rewriting.
Books from the DP disability shelf are available at a special price:
All novels under 400 pages represented on our disabled shelf cost $25.00 retail and $20.00 publisher discount. Often, book sales earnings are the primary income for authors who are disabled.
We ask readers to support our disability shelf and the brave individuals who write yet another day while maintaining limited capacities otherwise taken for granted.
http://www.donnaink.org/#!product/prd15/1353588891/paradox-five,-by-lanaia-lee---nc
I'm sorry, but at $20 for a 180-page paperback you won't be getting a pity purchase from me.