Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a TURKEY!

jules

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James D. Macdonald said:
Maybe the next test should be submitting manuscripts at different times of day to see when the cutoff is.

I'm not convinced you'll find anything useful from that. My suspicion - if I were a money-grabbing unprincipled bastard^W^W^W^Wdirector at PA, there'd be a single big submission queue that everything went on, and every time an "editor" became free they'd pull something from the head of the queue, give it a cursory glance for obvious potential legal issues, and 99% of the time accept it. Anything that sat in the queue for over some threshold of time (probably 72 hours or so to satisfy their "response within days" marketing claim) would receive an automated form rejection. The result would be practically random rejections. If I were the slightest concerned with quality, I'd have the queue program show the editors a short excerpt and let them pick anything from anywhere in the queue (but with the proviso that they not spend more than a few minutes looking). That'd weed out the worst books, at least. But I doubt PA do that. First come, first accepted.
 

T. Nielsen Hayden

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Glory, glory! Congratulations to you all!

Special thanks to whomever it was that wrote the bit about "the new Tescos in south Clapham." Reading that line was like stepping on a stairstep that wasn't there.

Do the character names spell out a message this time?
 

aruna

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Tsu Dho Nimh said:
Hey! Howcome Sharla doesn't get nifty cover blurbs like Travis did?

You mean on the back cover? I just didn't see any option for that. Perhaps someone could explain how to go about it!

Also, the next phase is that Sharla is going to get her own website, where her masterpiece can be donwloaded for free. This is so that PA authors (or aspiring PA authors) can have a look for free at who they're keeping company with. But I need someone to dothe website for me. I am no good with that sort of stuff.
 

Old Hack

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This is one of my very favourite bits in the whole book (not that I've been able to read it sober, you understand):


QUOTE
If she got this job it would be the turning point in her life, all right, Nancy was very ambitious, she was going to go far, She would work her way up and who know’s, one day she might be hairdresser to the stars, Posh Beckham and that lot. LOL! All she had to do was play her cards right and meet the right people and in London that was easy. In Eastbourne it was not so easy, she was tired of doing blue rinses for OAPs, always chatting about their grandchildren and their arthritis and youhad to smile and preted you were interested.
(Eastbourne has many OAPs and is situated on the South Coast of England, nestling at the foot of the South Downs. Eastbourne welcomes over 4 million visitors every year with a busy programme of events and shows, all year round outdoor pursuits, spectacular coast and countryside and of course the traditional seaside holiday. The South Downs Way, near Eastboune, takes in picturesque villages and stunning scenery. It is suitable for walkers, horse-riders and mountain bikes.
The Sussex Heritage Coast is the finest example of unprotected chalk cliffs in Britain and includes the famous Beachy Head and Seven Sisters cliffs.
Beachy Head is the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain. At 530 feet high the majestic white cliffs provide magnificent views over Eastbourne and the Channel.)
END QUOTE

I just love that bit about Eastbourne. And I think that chapter was written by a certain Sharon Maas, who deserves a medal for her truly amazing prose.

Aruna, I might have suggested this first but it was your dedication to the cause which got it all done. You've worked tirelessly on this, and have to take most of the credit: or is that the blame?
 

underthecity

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So, what are the plans with this book?

A group of you wrote it, you submitted it to PA, they accepted it and issued a contract. Then you had Lulu print it.

Why didn't you go all the way with PA? You could have done the Option 3, where they do their full "edit," gotten your cover; you could have even infiltrated the PAMB. What fun you could have had.

Will you do a press release about this? Post PA's acceptance letter? Is this sting ms bound to become an internet legend like Purple Pony and Atlanta Nights?

What's the ultimate goal? It seems like a lot of work for 21 authors for it to end on this thread.

allen
 

Christine N.

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Because we'll sell more copies through Lulu, and actually GET the money for the copies that DO sell. It'll be accurate.

All for a good cause, of course.

Like aruna said, the original intent was to splash the story over Britian, since those were the markets that were interested in the story. The book was "done" long ago (well, it was pretty much done before it started, but that's another story altogether) and might have died (maybe better) if not for Tsu Dho Nimh taking it and submitting it from this side of the Pond.

I'm just happy to see it. Makes me grin.

Is there a foward, explaning why this terrible thing was written?
 
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maestrowork

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I must say, I am proud to be, FINALLY, a PA author! I told you all a couple of years ago that I would go with PA... you didn't believe me. I am glad I don't have to eat my words. (Chapter 26 is mine)

:D


Buy the book. It's for a good cause and benefits AbsoluteWrite.

p.s. oh, when does the Press Release go out? When do we do a group signing? Are y'all going to RWA convention?
 

maestrowork

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aruna said:
You mean on the back cover? I just didn't see any option for that. Perhaps someone could explain how to go about it!

I think you just put the blurbs in the backcover graphics and upload the file.
 

Atomic Bear

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Christine N. said:
Tee hee. It really was hard to write that badly. I had to un-learn all the good stuff people have taught me.
Yeah, well, it's no Eye of Argon, but I did my best :D

At some Sci-Fi/Fantasy conventions a group reads the Eye of Argon at midnight. The idea is the read as much as you can before you start laughing too much. Maybe this book will be read at Romance Writting conventions.
 

James D. Macdonald

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The initials of the characters' names in Atlanta Nights spelled out "PublishAmerica is a vanity press."

You can add text to the back cover as an option when you're doing the covers.

Log in to your account. Go to "My Recent Projects." Click on the title. Near the bottom of the next screen (on the right, in blue) is a Create New Revision button. Click it. You're back in the same sequence that you saw when you were creating the book to start with. Hit the "Save and Continue" button until you reach "Cover art." There you'll see the prompt "Click on a cover section to modify it." Click on "Back." You'll get a picture of your back cover, with a text box labeled "Description." That's where you can enter the text to appear on your back cover.

From there, "Save and Continue" to the end, and finish with "Complete Project."
 

maestrowork

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Christine N. said:
Is there a foward, explaning why this terrible thing was written?

I do understand Underthecity's concern, though. If all we get is a contract and a Lulu book, it seems it falls short of exposing PA for what it is, again (since we already had Atlanta Nights).

I think we can get a story out of this ("PA Strikes Again"). I would be so happy to talk about Crack of Death at conferences. Every writer should know about it and Altanta Nights.


Kudos to everyone involved to keep mum about this for so long. It was difficult not to talk about it.
 
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Old Hack

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Yep, a press release needs to go out, and a story or two written about this. After all, it was done to expose the sort of rubbish PA is willing to publish, and if we don't publicise it, we don't expose it. Volunteers, anyone?
 

aruna

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This book was written over a year ago. PublishBritannica was still going strong at the time. I spent the first couple months of 2006 putting it together - slowly. I submitted it to PublishBritannica - and I was speaking to BBC Watchdog at the time; they were closely watching - and it was rejected, with the note that PB was no longer accepting submissions. After that PB folded.

I could have let COD die after that, but I felt it was too good to waste.

We have learned thorugh this that PA is still acceptimg any rubbish. There wre rumours that they are getting more careful, that they are actualy reading mss and rejecting many. This proves that it's just not true.

Aspiring PA writers can read it and see what company they will keep once accepted. And they can learn that this Lulu book took me all of 5 minutes to publish. No kidding. Me, a Tech nitwit. For free. And I can sell it at a reasonable price.

Apart from that if we had let it be published by PA it would have taken several montths longer to get out there and we'd already waited so long. And who knows, PA might not have given us back our rights, just out of spite. THAT would have been a waste.
 

aruna

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Thanks, James, for the instructions. I'll do it tomorrow. Oh, and my account is working again. I rebooted the PC and then it was OK. OK, I'm off now. Hope you all have a nice publicity campaign going by the time I check back in!
 
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