Cengage Gale (formerly Thomson Gale) / Schlager Group

I haven't, but I can assure you Thomson Gale is quite legitimate. I work for Thomson West, the legal branch of the Thomson publishing company...it's a GINORMOUS company.

Congrats to you - this sounds cool!!

If you don't want something published in there, I'd leave that info out...or if you're totally uncomfortable with it, just pull your entry. I think they would honor your request - as I said, they're a huge publishing company and very well-respected. There's no reason for them to keep you in there if you don't want to be...

Rhonda

No problem! Hey, you gotta do what's right for you, you know?

Gale Research -- the original Shovel Ware!

I've yet to see anything from them that didn't have substantial errors of fact in it. Nevertheless, many libraries have reference books from them.

Not a scam.

I got the same email, and am letting the entry go in as is. The biographical and other information was correct--which it ought to have been, since it came directly from my website and several interviews I've done.

- Victoria

Thomson Gale is legitimate and CA is one of their more popular and longest-running titles. New editions are issued every year and students often refer to it for research on authors and their works. I remember using it when I was in high school, which was... awhile ago. Schlager Group is an editorial house often under contract by the company.

hopeful said:

Okay -- a few more details: attached to this email that I received was a listing that did indeed contain my name, date of birth, place of birth, my parents' names, my religion?!? (odd, no?), my race (also odd, no?), and all of this was followed by various and sundry information about jobs I've held and some of my publications.

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This information is part of a tagged template that Gale uses in order to classify data. Considering your entry is a biographical one, it's not odd. All their bios contain this type of classification. I'm surprised they sent you the whole tagged entry though. That's just an invitation for confusion.

Some of it was current and accurate and some of it was not. Also included were my home address and my email address, both of which I consider private. It was unnerving, I have to say, kind of like someone had pulled bits and pieces of old and new resumes and had sort of cut and pasted them together to create this strange, only half-accurate, little bio-blurb.

I wrote back asking if they could consider pulling my entry altogether, because the whole thing honestly creeped me out a bit, but who knows if they will honor my request. I somehow doubt they will.

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If you ask them to remove your entry, they should. You could also contact Thomson Gale directly and repeat your request. Their number is 1-800-887-4253. (Hit zero to avoid the automated system and say you want to speak with the managing editor of Contemporary Authors.) If your home address is listed in the phone book (or turns up in a Google search), that's probably how they got it.

What do you guys think?

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Personally, I'd keep the entry in. It's cool and gives you exposure. Libraries always buy CA. I would, however, correct the errors, which could have originated with the original author of the entry or through other information that's out there on you.

I've yet to see anything from them that didn't have substantial errors of fact in it.

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Ha, you should see how the material starts out! (Yes, former employee here. ) Quality control is always difficult the way reference publishing works nowadays, but I always try to exercise vigorous fact checking. Things slip through, but corrections can be made in reprints or new editions, and if a correction comes from outside, they are made at the next opportunity. The many ways in which reference publishing is messed up, however, is for a separate thread discussion!

yay! i'm so glad it worked out...

Yes - definitely legit. The info about the research center where I work is included in one of their directories, and I receive a notice once a year to make sure it's up to date.

I'm grateful for this thread. At first I assumed that my contact from this company was a "who's who" type scam. How lovely to discover it is legit.

Many thanks, Absolute Write!

Gale Group/Schlager Group/Cengage/"Contemporary Authors"

I've just received an email from a gentleman who works at the Schlager Group, "an independent contractor for Gale Group," which publishes the "Contemporary Authors" reference books.

http://www.schlagergroup.com/index.php


http://www.gale.cengage.com/


The search results for the "Contemporary Authors" books on the Gale website:

http://www.gale.cengage.com/servlet...chType=As&searchBy=subTitle&search_dropdown=0


The email tells me I'm to be included in the next edition, has a few questions I can choose to answer or not, and comes with a fairly long and detailed biography (which is what they plan to publish) for me to look over. I'm assured I don't have to pay anything or buy a copy or anything of that nature, and I don't have to approve the copy or respond at all, but they'd appreciate it if I did.


We don't have a thread on them here (ETA: I SWEAR I did a search!! I must have blanked on the "Schlager" part and thought I was just looking for "The Gale Group," sorry), so I figured I'd go ahead and start one. Obviously they're legit companies, but I am curious if anyone else has any experience with these reference books, or anything like that?

Gale Group is the bunch for whom the term "shovelware" was coined.

Yes, they produce a ton of reference works that show up in libraries all over the place. But it's hard to make it through the table of contents of one without finding howling errors of fact.

Famously (in some circles) these are the guys who conflated Robert Charles Wilson with Robert Anton Wilson. They're pretty much the hard-copy pro version of Wikipedia.

I worked for them, like many other grad students, in the past.

I would not do so again unless I were very very hungry. It took two years for one check to arrive. They are less than scrupulous in some of their practices regarding originality and payment.

The quality of their products varies widely. I know distinguished scholars who have published impeccably researched bibliographies with them, and like Unca Jim I have also found howling errors in other of their reference works. And like pretty much every humanities grad student in the US, I have also worked for them myself and seen how that sausage is made. (It is made by underpaid graduate students who have caffeinated themselves long beyond caring about accuracy.)

The "Contemporary Authors" books mostly float on orders from libraries, but a while back they decided to market them to the authors themselves a la "Who's Who." It doesn't hurt to fill out your entry--it's not a scam, nor does it mark you as an arrant newb to be listed there--but I wouldn't buy one on a bet.

James D. Macdonald said:

They're pretty much the hard-copy pro version of Wikipedia.

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That's probably news to our local English faculty member who brings his students to use these specific books every semester.

ccbridges said:

That's probably news to our local English faculty member who brings his students to use these specific books every semester.

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I am surprised there is an English professor anywhere in the US who didn't work on these books themselves! They are pretty approximate productions, but they are easy to use, which is why libraries like them. In any case, like every flawed resource, there are benefits to be derived from them as long as people are vigilant about doing further fact-checking.

Well, Cengage puts out some of the most reputable reference books in the world (says the girl who took the library studies Reference class last semester).

That series you are talking about, Contemporary Authors, is highly used and widely referenced, in both print and through subscription databases. They also have other series like, Renaissance Authors, Young Adult Authors, and such.

They're very much like a single-subject encyclopedia. I don't think they NEED your permission to include you, if they feel you fit the criteria of the series, just as they don't need to include you if Encardia suddenly decides they want to write an encyclopedia article about you, or if Wikipedia does, for that matter. If they consider you a public figure they can publish such an informational article.

However, they do want to be factual and are asking you to look over the article to make sure they have things correct. If there's something you don't want included, make a polite notation.

Completely legit, and actually, I find it kind of cool, since I've used that series in my studies.