Marketeer, I look at the Big Bend/Marfa website and all I see is a bunch of amateurs happily engaged in a role-playing game.
Allison Bruning/Espinosa loves to refer to herself as a "best-selling" author "known" for her historical fiction. How many books has she actually sold? How many people have heard of her outside her immediate circle of friends and co-workers?
She calls herself a screenwriter, but has she sold any of her screenplays? In July 2013 Bruning wrote on her blog:
Field of Grace:
A post WWI Drama you don't want to miss
This isn't your typical post from me but I have some wonderful news to share with all of you. My full length feature screenplay is being considered for production by Junto Box Films. I just need all of your help. Can you please go to this site, register, follow my project and give it a 5 star review? The five star review is very important. I need 80 star reviews of 3 or better stars. As I write this I only have 19. Please help my dream come true.
http://www.juntoboxfilms.com/projects/field-of-grace#.Ue2YChaWeZP
http://allisonbruning.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/field-of-grace-dream-come-true.html
There has been no activity on Juntobox's Facebook and Twitter since 2014 and
Field of Grace was never made.
Just how meaningless the term "best-selling" can be nowadays is demonstrated by Marfa's "Author of the Week":
The author of the week is chosen from the Race to the Stars competition. The author chosen either has the highest bestselling ranking out of all Marfa House print, ebook and audiobook bestselling rankings or has won the Race to the Stars contest in more than one category.
Amazon rankings for his three short stories:
#1,778,160 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#2,751,615 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#2,358,187 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
The second story has 22 pages and is also available as a 29 minute Audiobook priced at $4.15. Amazon ranking:
I just hope he's happy with whatever he paid for the conversion.
Marfa VP Chasity Tarantino writes on the Mountain Trail Writers blog:
People take for granted the simple act of word of mouth. When it is indeed one of the strongest marketing tools, people talk. Just yesterday I was having a conversation with my mom's nurse. She seen me working and we got to talking, before I knew it I was giving her a list of my books. You never know who could become a potential client or reader. Talking about what you do should always be at the top of your game.
http://blog.mountaintrailwriters.com/p/from-desk-of-vice-president.html
Ignoring for a moment the writer's atrocious grammar and misuse of the term "top of your game", what does she mean by "a list of my books"? She has five titles on Amazon (not counting an anthology), all published by Marfa and all badly edited. They're short stories with a combined page count of 115 pages - hardly "books"!
More advice from Chasity:
Blogs, such as this one are your best friend. Request reviews, sign up for guest posts, do interviews, and one of the most important and effective marketing solutions, blog hops. Blog hops get you exposure to anywhere from a few to hundreds of bloggers. This is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to get exposure.
Yes, it's cheap and easy. But it's promotion, not real marketing.
Another way to market yourself and to get in touch with the people who have already started to support you is to go to events such as conventions. Here you can meet people face to face and engage in a much more direct marketing plan as well as meet the people who have already given you support. You can give a clear vision that you support your fans back as well. This is a very positive feedback marketing plan.
http://blog.mountaintrailwriters.com/p/from-desk-of-vice-president.html
You'll need books to sell at conventions. Who pays for them? Something tells me it'll be the author. And I can't find any evidence that Ms Tarantino has any experience in either marketing or publicity, although as Chasity Brewer she reviews books on NewsBlaze:
http://newsblaze.com/author/chas/
Being an avid reader with a passion for books does not qualify anyone to give advice to novice authors or be the VP of a publishing company.
Marfa editor Melissa Meeks appears to have no real professional experience:
I won spelling bees in High School and edited graduate papers in Jr High. I started freelancing after college as a side job and eventually discovered book blogging as a way to discuss books I read.
http://blog.mountaintrailwriters.com/p/melissas-musings.html
If the Melissa who edited Tarantino's
Wicked Fame, quoted in my previous post, is indeed Melissa Meeks, I wouldn't want her anywhere near my book.
Why hasn't Allison Espinosa responded to Peter Kayo Zinchetero, the Malawi author who wanted to know what happened to his two novels when Mountain Springs House went under? MSH must have been chronically underfunded to resort to an Indiegogo campaign. The fact that said campaign raised not a single dollar suggests that the company was unknown to anyone other than its founders and unfortunate authors.
Was Espinosa connected in any way with the "traditional small publishing house" Page Turners Publishing Company, which was incorporated only a week before it published her novel
Calico? Because it gives every indication of being a self-publishing front for Toney Dunaway/L.A. Tripp.
Who are the script consultants, directors and choreographers behind Lost Mine Films? Because you don't provide any names, let alone any information about their previous experience.
Finally, I couldn't help noticing this:
In 2007, Allison was named Who's Who Among America's Educators.
https://www.bigbendpro.com/allison-bruning
I've never heard of this award and a Google search turned up nothing. However, there is - or was - a "Who's Who Among America's Teachers". From TeacherChat Forums (April 2007):
There is a publication called WHO'S WHO AMONG AMERICA'S TEACHERS, which is published by the same publisher as WHO'S WHO AMONG AMERICA'S HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS and THE NATIONAL DEAN'S LIST.
To be included in the teacher's publication, you must be nominated by a high school or college student who is in the top 10% of his or her class.
There is no cost to be included in this publication, but those teachers have the option to purchase memorabilia from this company, such as coffee mugs.
What some teachers are telling me is, "This award is a pile of s***t."
Is that true? Again, there is no cost to purchase anything from this award catalog.
A reply:
As far as I know, submitting your name to it will put you in a book and you can say "Hey, I was a Who's Who teacher of the year" and a kid really does have to nominate you and that feels good.
However, this "foundation" or whatever they call themselves is really a business. They are more interested in selling their books, mugs, pins, etc, and turning a profit. It wouldnt hurt to submit your name, but just don't fall into the trap and buy their stuff.
http://forums.atozteacherstuff.com/index.php?threads/whos-who-among-americas-teachers-is-not-a-valid-award-true-or-not.45393/
IF this is the award to which Allison refers it's really nothing to be proud of, particularly as another contributor to the discussion claimed that WWAAT refused to divulge the name of the student who supposedly nominated him/her.
On a similar note:
She was also honoured her sophomore year with admission into the All-American Scholars register.
https://www.bigbendpro.com/allison-bruning
IF this is the All-American Scholar Award offered by the United States Achievement Academy - I couldn't find an All-American Scholars Register - it's no more impressive than the Who's Who Among American Educators. From a 2006 message board:
United States Achievement Academy
I actually worked for the USAA in 1982 for a month, until I was struck with a case of conscience and morality. I challenged the director/founder/owner, George Stevens, about the legitimacy of this organization. As far as I could see, he created a bogus "honorary" award, claiming to have the status of the "who's who". I told him that I felt he was taking advantage of people who couldn't afford it, and was preying upon the parents of students who might never have the chance to be included in a "nationally published directory". And then I quit.
Anyone can be "nominated" by a teacher/counselor/coach in any category. Thus all students everywhere are qualified for this "honor". The nominees are automatically accepted and can send in their biography for inclusion in the USAA yearbook at no cost. But if you wanted your picture in the book, you had to pay a fee and to purchase the book was about $80 back then.
And if I remember correctly, none of our local schools were allowed to participate - because of the school board rules, trying to protect the students and parents from this fraud.
I believe that USAA began giving out scholarships after Dr. Stevens left the organization. So while they still operate the yearbook - they give a tiny bit back. I know a girl who still works there and says that they sell between 1 and 1.5 million books each year.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=322461
I'm sorry, but the whole thing - the bizarre Race to the Stars competition, the Zazzle-style lists of author swag, the photographs for sale by Castolon Studios, the dubious awards flaunted by the founder - fairly screams "amateur hour"!
