Raider Publishing / Purehaven Press

[Helix]

It's a small world, isn't it?

It truly is.

If I ever finish my current projects, I am going to write a picaresque novel called The Ad-Ventures of Green Screen Clive.

 

[aliceshortcake]

Gawd, the things I do for AW.

After trawling through the first 10 of Amazon.com's 68 Raider Publishing International pages I can confidently state that Adam's "average Amazon ranking" for Raider is sheer baloney. It's lucky for Adam that he makes his money directly from his authors because any commercial publisher with these rankings would have gone under years ago:

Ranking under one million - 1 book (the "bestselling" alien Jesus tome)
1-2 m: 7
2-3 m: 14
3-4 m: 12
4-5 m: 26
5-6 m: 20
6-7 m: 2
7-8 m: 4
8-9 m: 3
9-10 m: 4
10-11 m: 6
11-12 m: 1
12-13 m: 2
13-14 m: 2
Unranked: 2

Most of the Raider books I looked at were instantly identifiable as the products of a vanity press - poor cover designs, clumsy fonts and back cover blurbs so awful they were embarrassing to read. Very few of them have a Look Inside feature, probably to hide the fact that they weren't properly proofread or edited.

The sad thing is that a couple of them sounded interesting and might have stood a chance of commercial publication, such as the autobiography of Carlton Duncan, the first black headmaster of a British secondary school. Instead Mr Duncan went with Raider, was poorly treated by Salviani and gave an account of his experiences on Ripoff Report!

 

[Filigree]

This was something else I found in my investigation of other vanity pubs: their most-common clients appeared to be misery memoir writers, members of fringe sociopolitical groups, senior citizens writing family histories - and business or academic professionals.

The latter group seems to confuse print services, business/academic publishing, and vanity publishing. They also seem just as likely to jump into a vanity contract without researching first, though a little less likely to repeat their vanity publishing experience as a client. Business owners in unrelated fields appear slightly more likely to found their own vanity press later, claiming their business experience gives them an advantage.

I haven't crunched numbers, I'm just looking at my overview.

 

[aliceshortcake]

I've just noticed that Evil Deeds of the Subconscious Mind was published by Raider in 2010 but reissued through CreateSpace last year. If Raider no longer owns the rights to the book I don't think they should be using that promotional video on their website.

 

[Filigree]

He's probably counting that his target client base won't know that. Or he just doesn't update the website links.

 

[aliceshortcake]

The Winter 2014 issue of The Raider Literary Magazine is now available!

Please enjoy the latest edition of our magazine, including interviews with Raider authors, excerpts from recent releases and much more. The issue is free to download or view online and $7.99 USD to purchase in print. Take care and we hope you enjoy it!
http://raiderpublishing.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/the-raider-literary-magazine-winter.html

Oddly enough, 'John Raider' (aka Adam Salviani - John Raider is a character in one of his books) posted that in November 2013. Well, there's nothing like planning ahead.

Desperately keen to get my free download, I clicked on the link and was taken to MagCloud:

The Raider Literary Magazine - Winter 2014
Buy Print: $7.99
Buy Digital: Free with Print Purchase
http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/647361?__r=466173

So...it's not actually free, is it?

The preview is too small to allow you to read anything other than the headlines, but we're informed that

...someone falls in love with a Raider book every forty five minutes...

Yes, it's Adam Salviani. He's the only person making any money out of them.

There's also an article about 'Raider Classic' Treasure Island. What the heck? Surely Raider isn't publishing classics in the public domain?

Yes:

We have the honor of announcing that starting this month in addition to the dozens of new titles that Raider Publishing releases each season... we will proudly be presenting a monthly offering of some of the greatest titles that the world has ever seen. Every thirty days for the next year a classic story will be republished as a high quality paperback and available to readers worldwide.

The first "Raider Classic" will be Treasure Island By Robert Lewis Stevenson. A full list of the upcoming titles are listed below.

Treasure Island
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Robinson Crusoe
King Solomon's Mines
The Time Machine
The Mysterious Island
The Great Gatsby
Pride and Prejudice
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
The Lost World
Anthem
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

We're sure that all of you readers will be enjoying these titles in the months ahead. Be the first to collect all 12!

Treasure Island will be released on October 31st, with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to Follow on November 30th.
Posted 7th October 2013 by John Raider
http://raiderpublishing.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/raider-classics.html

It was thoughtful of Adam to provide a full list of a list, and it's nice to see Robert Lewis Stevenson getting his fair share of the limelight. For too long he's been overshadowed by the more famous Robert Louis Stevenson. And I'm sure people will be falling over themselves to collect all twelve titles because there can't be a book-loving person who doesn't already own at least half of them.

 

[Helix]

It was thoughtful of Adam to provide a full list of a list, and it's nice to see Robert Lewis Stevenson getting his fair share of the limelight. For too long he's been overshadowed by the more famous Robert Louis Stevenson. And I'm sure people will be falling over themselves to collect all twelve titles because there can't be a book-loving person who doesn't already own at least half of them.

Ah, Robert Lewis Stevenson. Like Charles Dikkens with two ks, the well-known Dutch author.

 

[Filigree]

You'll find quite a few vanity publishers (and struggling small presses) who reissue OOP classics. All they're out is the formatting and cover, and they have something 'legitimate' to pad their catalogs.

 

[aliceshortcake]

I was hoping Adam himself might have written a preface and notes for each classic volume. His mastery of the English language would have added a new lustre to the works of Austen, Fitzgerald etc.

 

[Filigree]

If he doesn't, someone should. As a horrible joke.

 

[Unhappy]

The Winter 2014 issue of The Raider Literary Magazine is now available!



Oddly enough, 'John Raider' (aka Adam Salviani - John Raider is a character in one of his books) posted that in November 2013. Well, there's nothing like planning ahead.

Desperately keen to get my free download, I clicked on the link and was taken to MagCloud:



So...it's not actually free, is it?

The preview is too small to allow you to read anything other than the headlines, but we're informed that



Yes, it's Adam Salviani. He's the only person making any money out of them.

There's also an article about 'Raider Classic' Treasure Island. What the heck? Surely Raider isn't publishing classics in the public domain?

Yes:



It was thoughtful of Adam to provide a full list of a list, and it's nice to see Robert Lewis Stevenson getting his fair share of the limelight. For too long he's been overshadowed by the more famous Robert Louis Stevenson. And I'm sure people will be falling over themselves to collect all twelve titles because there can't be a book-loving person who doesn't already own at least half of them.

Adam Salviani used to have a bookshop (might still have) where he was selling the books of his writers. It was also in this bookshop where he sold his reprints of the Classics.

 

[victoriastrauss]

Yes, it was in Suffern, NY. Not there any longer, though.

- Victoria

 

[aliceshortcake]

Does anyone know if Salviani still lives in New Jersey? The Advertising Standards Authority and Hackney Trading Standards will soon be wanting to speak to him!

 

[aliceshortcake]

Remember these statistics on Raider's website?

Publisher Average Amazon Sales Ranking
__________________________________________________ _______

Raider Publishing 805,003
iUniverse 1,392,950
Authorhouse 2,954,839
PublishAmerica 4,885,444

***Statistics Provided By Amazon.com

I e-mailed Amazon to ask if they really did provide this information to Raider. Surprise, surprise - it's completely bogus!

Amazon's response:

I have waited for the reply from Appropriate Department and they confirm that we won't provide any Average Amazon Sales Ranking to Raider Publishing International.

Does Mr Salviani tell the truth about anything?

 

[Unhappy]

Yes, it was in Suffern, NY. Not there any longer, though.

- Victoria

I suppose he had to close the bookshop because of debt - and no one coming in to buy the books.

 

[Unhappy]

Remember these statistics on Raider's website?



I e-mailed Amazon to ask if they really did provide this information to Raider. Surprise, surprise - it's completely bogus!

Amazon's response:



Does Mr Salviani tell the truth about anything?

Answer: No, he is incapable of telling the truth.

Aliceshortcake, the work you are putting into getting Adam Salviani is wonderful. Thank you! I think he must hate you. I always thought that I was the person he hated most in the world because I promised him several times (last was in January this year) in emails that I would not let him get away with what he was doing. For this reason - to remind him that I am still in existence - I regularly leave a comment on the two FB pages another of his victims had created.

The fake fiverr testimonials for both Raider and Green Shore have now stopped, so he is certainly reading what we are writing on the Web about him.

I wonder if it possible for this man to fall asleep when he puts his head down on a pillow?

 

[aliceshortcake]

I think he must hate you.

Well, put it this way - I'm not expecting a Christmas card from him this year!

 

[robjvargas]

Well, put it this way - I'm not expecting a Christmas card from him this year!

If you get one, check it for... substances.

'Nuff said.

 

[aliceshortcake]

As I mentioned on the GSP thread, Salviani has filed for Section 13 bankruptcy. I'd love to know who his creditors are - I'll bet they don't include any of the writers from whom he took money but never produced a book.

 

[MickRooney]

Busy week for Adam. His head must be spinning. The BBC today. The bankruptcy court on Thursday!

http://www.theindependentpublishingmagazine.com/2014/09/raider-publishing-international-founder.html

 

[aliceshortcake]

Here's the You and Yours segment about Raider:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p027q9b2

I'm very disappointed that Salviani wasn't confronted with the fakeness of the testimonials on the Raider website, merely asked if he remembered the names of the "authors" and the titles of their books (he claimed he couldn't). Needless to say he didn't bother to mention the rather important fact that he was due to appear in the bankruptcy court on Thursday! Still, at least it brought Raider's nefarious dealings to the attention of a wider audience - and Salviani said he'd return publication rights to the three Raider victims who took part in the programme. Whether he'll actually do this is of course another matter.

 

[MickRooney]

A TIPM take on today's BBC broadcast...
http://www.theindependentpublishingmagazine.com/2014/10/raider-publishing-international-bbc.html

 

[aliceshortcake]

I want to contact the Federal Trade Commission about Raider's website but I can't send the online form because I don't live in the USA. Could someone help me with this? I'll provide all the info, all you need to do is fill in the form and click "send"!

 

[Unhappy]

I want to contact the Federal Trade Commission about Raider's website but I can't send the online form because I don't live in the USA. Could someone help me with this? I'll provide all the info, all you need to do is fill in the form and click "send"!

Aliceshortcake, your continuing efforts to bring down Salviani is admirable. Thank you.

 

[Unhappy]

Here's the You and Yours segment about Raider:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p027q9b2

I'm very disappointed that Salviani wasn't confronted with the fakeness of the testimonials on the Raider website, merely asked if he remembered the names of the "authors" and the titles of their books (he claimed he couldn't). Needless to say he didn't bother to mention the rather important fact that he was due to appear in the bankruptcy court on Thursday! Still, at least it brought Raider's nefarious dealings to the attention of a wider audience - and Salviani said he'd return publication rights to the three Raider victims who took part in the programme. Whether he'll actually do this is of course another matter.

Haha! what a terrific business man is Adam Salviani! So he is going to return the publication rights of my book to me? I struggled for 3 months to get a reply from him when I terminated my contract with him, but he seems to have no knowledge of this. When I finally did regain publishing rights (English language print rights), Barnes and Noble as well as Amazon stopped listing my book but as Amazon informed me they did not have the legal right to stop their third party sellers from listing the book. I therefore still now come across listings of my book on Amazon's third party sellers.

Raider Publishing International and Adam Salviani had turned out a bad experience,but oh boy am I wiser today!