Diary of a Mad Editor

Archive for 2008

The Mad Editor’s Round-Up #1

Welcome to the first edition of my blog carnival, The Mad Editor’s Round-Up:

Writings

Pandora Parker presents Man Of Stone, saying, “Hello — I am looking for feedback and comments on my work. I write short stories — which I have been told there is no market for what-so-ever. No way, no how not ever. Anyway, I would appreciate any feedback by way of comments on any stories on my site : http://www.skirttales.com/SkirtTales/Home.html
Many thanks in advance from Pandora”

AdmirableIndia.com presents Trip to Kanyakumari: Chapter 7: Suchindram

Library of Congress Blog presents The Library in Verse

Interviews

Poetic Asides with Robert Lee Brewer presents Interview With Poet Tom C. Hunley

Literary Criticism

Blogs To Note presents > Does Grammar Matter?.

Publishing News

Money Blue Book presents The Future Demise and End Of Newspapers and Print Media.

Writing Tips

Isaac Yassar.com presents Do It With Style! saying, “If you want to write something, make sure you do it with style !”

>Blogs and Instant Messengers: the Bane of Good Writing Habits.

Suite 101 presents Diversify to Keep Freelance Dollars Coming In: Economy-Proof Tips for Writers.

Copywriting Help presents Marketing for Writers when Writing Isn’t Enough

Etc.

Mad Kane’s Humor Blog presents Fantasy Dear Editor Letter.

Money Blue Book presents Battling Blogger Burn Out and Lack Of Blog Posting Frequency.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
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Past posts and future hosts can be found on our

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Apparently Any Retard Can Be Accredited By the Better Business Bureau

It’s time for another scam alert. If you are a regular follower of the Writer Beware blog you’re probably already familiar with this one, but if not here’s the scoop:

It seems that, like that great and terrible mythical monster the Hydra, you cut off the head of Airleaf, the publishing scammers that were put out of business a while back, another head just grows to take it’s place.  I give you Jones Harvest Publishing founded by Brien Jones, a former executive at Airleaf aka Bookman Marketing aka Bookman Publishing(who it’s been alleged in the past that he was guilty of theft and sexual harrassment — who knows if any of that is true, but you got to figure he learned a few tricks from his former employer).  The thing that I found most entertaining is the tagline on the Jones Harvest blog: “Good people doing the right thing in an industry where most people do the wrong thing.  That’s some hilarious shit when you consider the brand of publishing Jones is into.

Go to the website and you can clearly see that it’s  yet another vanity press for no-talent wannabe writers. Bad writers of godsmack awful books with badly-designed covers.

I tracked one of these so-called authors on the Internet, a poet who is allegedly “world-renowned” despite the fact that I’d never heard of him (And let’s face it, when it comes to poets that matter, I’ve either heard of them, read them, know them by reputation or know them personally).  The poet, who’s name is J. Kellogg Burnham has a book of George Bush - themed poetry called The Long Shadow of the Bush.  Imagine a really awful poet who was writing bad poetry about a hundred years ago and you can kind of imagine what Burnham’s style of poetry is like.  But, you don’t have to take my word for it — you can find his book on Google Book Search and  read suffer through it yourself.  In tracking Burnham, the only place I could find anything about him was on websites of other “affiliate sites” owned and operated by Jones Harvest (unless you count the 1907 NYT obiturary of a James Kellogg Burnham — think it’s the same guy?): authorcelebrity.com, greatconceptbooks.com, starredreview.com, etc. Brien Jones makes no secret of the fact that he owns all of these websites (and even if he did make a secret of it Whois.net tells the tale), but it does pose the question to aspiring authors: If the only place you can find these writers is on websites owned by the publisher, how can any of them be “world renowned,” “distinguished” or “bestsellers,” huh?  Who’s talking about these authors? Where are their books being reviewed? Who’s buying them?

Hey, even bad writers have the right to put their work out there (can’t imagine why anyone would want to read their shit, but bless their hearts for trying), but there are certainly better, cheaper, less ethically-challenged options than signing a contract with a company that makes it’s money exploiting those delusions.

New Jersey Marketing Consultants Offer Real Support for Webmasters

Let’s face it: It’s extremely difficult to build your website’s brand in a sea of websites that make-up the Internet. As your website grows, there will probably come a time when you’ll need to engage the services of a professional offering consulting Internet marketing services.

The problem with that is, most of the so-called SEO/Internet marketing pros online often turn-out to be some guy who lives in his grandmother’s basement who maybe read a book, took a seminar, or perused Google’s own support page. In other words, they don’t have the bone fides to back-up their rhetoric when it comes to navigating Web 2.0. Thankfully, there is one company (that happens to be located in my own neck of the woods) — Reciprocal Consulting. Reciprocal Consulting, formerly Foreman & Pike Consulting, is a company made-up of serious IT professionals with solid track record for success. With over twenty years experience in Information Technology and with employees who bring with them knowledge from many areas including webdesign, telecommunications, Internet and traditional marketing, webmasters will find that both their brand and their reputations are in good hands. They offer services ranging from pay-per-click management and search-engine-optimization to social networking optimization and competative marketing intelligence.