• Guest please check The Index before starting a thread.

Rain Publishing

Richard

13th Triskaidekaphobe
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
1,868
Reaction score
316
Location
England
Website
www.richardcobbett.co.uk
"I am new to this industry, and maybe one of you seasoned professionals can explain to me what Ms. Rivers has to gain through this scam."

It's a signing fee, usually. "Oh, dahling, I just LOVE your manuscript! Just sign on the dotted line and cut me a cheque for $500 so that we're both investing in your future and we can get the process started and make millions and squillions!!!"

Not that Tilly is necessarily doing that, I should point out. That's just the scam that almost inevitably emerges from adverts like this. She may just be entirely cluelessly dancing naked through Cloud Cuckoo Land on a field of dreams. Who can say?
 
Last edited:

aka eraser

Fish Whisperer
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
6,795
Reaction score
1,732
Location
Gone around that next bend.
Website
www.frankbaron.com
My guess is that it's yet another subsidy/vanity publisher. There's nothing wrong with them if they're upfront about what they do and what they charge.
What set my antennae to quivering was the coy, flowery language clearly aimed at the starry-eyed neophyte combined with the lack of hard information about who they are, what they do and (most likely) how much they charge.

Methinks this flower is a Venus Fly Trap.
 

Jakalyn

Registered
Joined
Mar 15, 2005
Messages
45
Reaction score
12
Location
USA
I have to agree with everyone else here. I went to the website and there are only two authors listed, one of those being Tilly Rivers. Tilly Rivers has 4 books that are "to be released in the summer of 2005". not one that says it has already been released, yet on this link, http://zeek.ca/4u/article.php?op=Print&sid=188 she talks about a book that was already released and "sold out in 14 days!" (a book that, by the way, isn't even listed on amazon)

this whole thing smells a little funny (just mho)
 

tvwritergal

I've been duped by her...

Alright, so i wasn't just asking. I did some work for Ms. Rivers' site which I have yet to be compensated for (it has been well over two months). I see she has posted my work on her site and I am still being fed stories about how the money is on it's way.
If her silly little blabbering solicitation for manuscripts isn't emberassing enough for her, add scamming a graphic designer out of much needed money and promising it is on it's way for several months. I am naive for believing her for so long, but her accomplis who is listed on the "friends" portion of the site made it seem like she was just accentric and didn't deal well with the business aspects of her job.
Well Ms. Rivers, at least my research skills are better than my bull$^&* detector.
Thanks to those of you on this site who have given me the outside opionion I needed to be able to say this woman is totally scamming me and I need to serve her with some papers.
Tilly, they're on their way...
Sincerely,

TVWRITERGAL

By the way, to those of you who are familiar with these scams, what action, if any, can be taken against her...that is, if the address she gives is legitimate.
 

aka eraser

Fish Whisperer
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
6,795
Reaction score
1,732
Location
Gone around that next bend.
Website
www.frankbaron.com
Ouch tvwritergal.

What action to take? Hmm...just thinking aloud here, not advising or anything...wouldn't be prudent....

Wouldn't it be funny if say, oh, a web designer who got stiffed for designing a site added a big, bold banner to the homepage of the aforementioned site talking about how this person stiffed the web designer?

I think it would be funny. Just desserts even.

Just musing though....
 

Julian Black

Will Read Slush for Food.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 22, 2005
Messages
218
Reaction score
94
Location
Seattle, WA
Website
julianblack.blogspot.com
Oh, boy--I'm having way too much fun:

Tilly is well known in the literacy world for her erotica creations.
[gigglesnort]

There's lots of fluffy-bunny maundering on about hope, dreams and creativity, but nary a word on how Tilly Rivers (and the entire website is All About Tilly) plans to publish, promote, or distribute actual books. While PublishAmerica takes the populist road when bilking its authors, Tilly has decided on the New Age route.

Is it just me, or does anyone else feel the urge to clout her upside the head with a copy of The Elements of Style? Or maybe Eats, Shoots and Leaves (since it's in hardcover, and will hurt more)?

Yes, I'm feeling a touch mean today. It's nice to have an appropriate target at my disposal, however.
 
Last edited:

three seven

(Graeme Cameron)
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
3,084
Reaction score
525
Location
Norfolk, England
Website
www.facebook.com
tvwritergal said:
...that is, if the address she gives is legitimate.
The address on her submissions page has a Yellow Pages listing, complete (obviously) with phone number. It seems to be an apartment though, not an office.
Make of that what you will.
 
Last edited:

IWrite

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 16, 2005
Messages
375
Reaction score
34
This is my favorite part from the website:

"We are developing a leadership role in the publishing business.."


Yes I am sure the CEO's of Bantam, Simon & Schuster, Doubleday, etc. are all looking to Tillie for advice and guidance.
 

Dawno

Shiny!
Super Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
11,261
Reaction score
3,279
Age
66
Location
someplace around here, anyone seen my keys?
victoriastrauss said:
Y'all think it's time to port this one to Bewares and Background check?

- Evil moderator

Out of curiosity more than any particular opinion on the matter, would this get moved over because the post and the site are loaded with red-flag language or has someone actually gotten evidence that there's something of which to be wary?
 

aka eraser

Fish Whisperer
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
6,795
Reaction score
1,732
Location
Gone around that next bend.
Website
www.frankbaron.com
Dawno said:
Out of curiosity more than any particular opinion on the matter, would this get moved over because the post and the site are loaded with red-flag language or has someone actually gotten evidence that there's something of which to be wary?

I think tvwritergal's nonpayment story makes the answer to your question "all of the above."

I'm going to take Victoria up on her kind offer to babysit this one on her forum.
 

Euan H.

Unspeakable
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Messages
530
Reaction score
106
Location
London
Website
euanharvey.com
Wandering Sensei said:
And what's a "photographer extruder"?

Much like a sausage machine, only messier.

Rain Publishing could have called the writers that join our team the author's page, about the author or any of the other well-used conventional names used to describe the new authors that have joined our team.

However we have chosen the "Writer's Circle"
Because you'll go round and round in circles and never get anywhere...
 

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Isn't it about time for ol' Tilly to show up in person to say that we're a bunch of meanies for saying all these terrible things about her, and that no one called her on the phone because if they had she'd have set 'em straight, and besides we're all poopieheads?
 

tvwritergal

Thank you for the advice. I am looking into a collections agent now. Say, just for argument's sake, if one did want to post a big banner across Ms. Rivers' site, how would one go about doing this?

TVWRITERGAL
 

AnneMarble

Nefarious Ghost Fan
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
2,922
Reaction score
3,044
Location
MD
Website
gorokandwulf.blogspot.com
James D. Macdonald said:
Isn't it about time for ol' Tilly to show up in person to say that we're a bunch of meanies for saying all these terrible things about her, and that no one called her on the phone because if they had she'd have set 'em straight, and besides we're all poopieheads?

I'm surprised that hasn't happened yet. When I looked at the original incarnation of this thread (on Paying Markets, I think), and saw that it was two pages long, I thought that's what had already happened. :)

Which publisher is more clueless? The one who makes a drive-by posting inviting writers to sign up with her publishing company, and then never checks the post again, thus never realizing that people are calling her a poopiehead? Or the one who comes back again and again and calls us poopieheads?
 

WSB

Registered
Joined
Feb 26, 2005
Messages
23
Reaction score
0
You'd have to have access (passwords) to her hosting account to upload anything to her site. Did you just do graphics and send them to her to upload, or did she have you upload them yourself? I'm not sure of the legalities of doing something like that though, so tread carefully. Maybe the collection agency would be a better idea. ;)
 

DaveKuzminski

Preditors & Editors
Requiescat In Pace
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
5,036
Reaction score
859
Location
Virginia
Website
anotherealm.com
Or you could put her name on your own website in big, bold lettering stating that she hasn't paid you yet. Fix it up with a date stamp that remains current and don't take it down until she does. Make sure you mention the name of her site so that any searches that find her site will have a chance of finding yours as well.

Also, if you have any emails from her acknowledging the debt, forward a copy to P&E so that a warning can be posted about her writing site.
 

Julian Black

Will Read Slush for Food.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 22, 2005
Messages
218
Reaction score
94
Location
Seattle, WA
Website
julianblack.blogspot.com
If you Google "Tilly Rivers," this thread is the first result. If you Google "Rain Publishing," this thread is the third result, but the first one specifically related to Ms. Rivers' publishing venture.

Do not mess with AW writers, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup...
 

reph

Fig of authority
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
5,160
Reaction score
971
Location
On a fig tree, presumably
James D. Macdonald said:
Isn't it about time for ol' Tilly to show up in person to say that we're a bunch of meanies for saying all these terrible things about her, and that no one called her on the phone because if they had she'd have set 'em straight, and besides we're all poopieheads?
. . . and that we should apologize at once for taking that tone.