Book Publishing @ MindSay 
I had followed a link in another mindsayers post many months ago and entered an on-line photo contest at
www.photo.com . Then I promptly forgot about it - it was a monthly contest and obviously I didn't get a notification so didn't get selected for my photo of a windmill in Texas :
>
So today, imagine my surprise when I thought I had received an early Christmas gift!
A notification letter in the U.S. mail from the International Library of Photography ( aka photo dot com )saying my pic had been chosen for publication!!
It included a form to give them permission to publish, a promise of a copywrite notice to accompiany the picture, a sample of my photo, right there in the letter, wow! And the proposed name of the book of photos that was to be published in early 2008.
And that's not all! They listed the library of congress serial number for the book! AND told me I was still eligible to be selected from those in the book, for a prize ranging from a modest $25 medallion, to the $1,000 first place!
But wait! There's more! For a low, low, price, I could pen my own 'photographer's bio' to be published with my winning entry! And if all that isn't enough, I have first shot at buying the book at a low, low, pre-publication rate of ONLY $70 !!!
MY GOD!! (how expensive is that book gonna be if that's the discount price?)
But don't worry, they said, "BRUCE, you don't have to buy the book, your photo has already been selected for publication".
So, looking outdoors to my pickup truck, I clearly see it is NOT full of turnips, thus I couldn't have just fallen off it, and I googled.
*did you ever notice that without the ogle, googled spells GOD?*
I digress.
This outfit has been running this scam legally since 1999!
http://www.betterphoto.com/forms/QnAdetail.asp?threadID=12825
http://www.acecam.com/photography/11077.html
They apparently manage to repay disgruntled ripped off customers so the multitude of Better Business Bureau complaints against the Owings Mills, Maryland company must get recorded as settled. But think of the millions they must get every year from people falling for this overt expensive form of vanity publishing. Oh yes, they do occasionally publish a book, and some people in various forums say they have received it, and it does contain their photo. But people, SEVENTY DOLLARS????? To get ONE picture published??????
You know, if this company was legit, they could actually make a decent living by being honest, soliciting photos, and publishing them in book form with the pre-order payment of the contributors. They could sell it to them at cost and then maybe even sell it on-line as a product with NO complaints against it that would encourage more photog wannabes to get in on the next publications.
In my letter, they call it Endless Journeys - the title they used according to some people who complained way back in 2003 ! They also use the same ISBN # 0-7591-5247-7 that they have used for years and years (it is different from the books that they really have published).
One response to the HUNDREDS of on-line complaints suggest going to Kodak.com and arranging to publish your OWN book of photos. I haven't researched that yet, but really, wouldn't THAT be worth a hundred bucks? To have a coffee table book filled with nothing but your OWN great photos? Look into it, and please, please, please, don't fall for this photo.com scam.
OK, I looked into it for you (your welcome). Kodak photobooks two styles, one $30 one $70 - the Legacy is the more expensive, 12" x 14" hardbound with a leather cover, 10 single print pages, or 20 double sided pages (40 pictures!) , that can be increased up to 40 single side, or 80 double side (uncertain of the costs of the larger page counts). And right now? Offering 20% off AND free shipping!
http://www.kodakgallery.com/PhotoBookOverview.jsp
But I guess as long as photo.com can trick people into throwing money away on a product that may never even be published, they will continue to do so.
In fact, “At one point, Opal Mehta contains a 14-word passage that appears verbatim in McCafferty’s book Sloppy Firsts."
In college, plagiarism will get you expelled. In the book publishing world, it will apparently land you a $500,000 deal.
That’s right, folks. Kaavya Viswanathan struck a half a million dollar deal with publishing giant Random House for copying someone else’s work. The truth was uncovered by a fan of McCafferty’s writing who noticed the similarities.
Could this really be true? Take a look for yourself. For your reading pleasure, I offer you the following examples:
1. All I Needed in a Best Friend:
From McCafferty’s book - Bridget is my age and lives across the street. For the first twelve years of my life, these qualifications were all I needed in a best friend. But that was before Bridget’s braces came off and her boyfriend Burke got on, before Hope and I met in our seventh-grade honors classes.
From Viswanathan’s book - Priscilla was my age and lived two blocks away. For the first fifteen years of my life, those were the only qualifications I needed in a best friend. We had first bonded over our mutual fascination with the abacus in a playgroup for gifted kids. But that was before freshman year, when Priscilla’s glasses came off, and the first in a long string of boyfriends got on.
2. To Buy Diet Coke:
From McCafferty's book - But in a truly sadomasochistic dieting gesture, they chose to buy their Diet Cokes at Cinnabon.
From Viswanathan's book - In a truly masochistic gesture, they had decided to buy Diet Cokes from Mrs. Fields.
3. Yet Another Example:
From McCafferty’s book - Sabrina was the brainy Angel. Yet another example of how every girl had to be one or the other: Pretty or smart. Guess which one I got. You’ll see where it’s gotten me.
From Viswanathan’s book - Moneypenny was the brainy female character. Yet another example of how every girl had to be one or the other: smart or pretty. I had long resigned myself to category one, and as long as it got me to Harvard, I was happy. Except, it hadn’t gotten me to Harvard. Clearly, it was time to switch to category two.
4. Playing a Big Joke:
From McCafferty’s book - He’s got dusty reddish dreads that a girl could never run her hands through. His eyes are always half-shut. His lips are usually curled in a semi-smile, like he’s in on a big joke that’s being played on you but you don’t know it yet.
From Viswanathan’s book - He had too-long shaggy brown hair that fell into his eyes, which were always half shut. His mouth was always curled into a half smile, like he knew about some big joke that was about to be played on you.
5. Something so Random:
From McCafferty’s book - But then he tapped me on the shoulder, and said something so random that I was afraid he was back on the junk.
From Viswanathan’s book - …he tapped me on the shoulder and said something so random I worried that he needed more expert counseling than I could provide.
6. 170 Specialty Shops Later:
From McCafferty’s book - Finally, four major department stores and 170 specialty shops later, we were done.
From Viswanathan’s book - Five department stores, and 170 specialty shops later, I was sick of listening to her hum along to Alicia Keys….
7. Invading my Personal Space:
From McCafferty’s book - Marcus then leaned across me to open the passenger-side door. He was invading my personal space, as I had learned in Psych class, and I instinctively sank back into the seat. That just made him move in closer. I was practically one with the leather at this point, and unless I hopped into the backseat, there was nowhere else for me to go.
From Viswanathan’s book book - Sean stood up and stepped toward me, ostensibly to show me the book. He was definitely invading my personal space, as I had learned in a Human Evolution class last summer, and I instinctively backed up till my legs hit the chair I had been sitting in. That just made him move in closer, until the grommets in the leather embossed the backs of my knees, and he finally tilted the book toward me.
I don’t know what is going to happen to this girl now. Obviously, to reference a post from two weeks ago, her credibility is destroyed, but how badly will that hurt her? I don’t know. If I were McCafferty I’d sue for that half a mil. She has a much better case than Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln (authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail) had against Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code) when they tried to, in essence, claim that they owned a part of history that he had injected into a section of his fictional story.
The reason I bring this up is because it raises an issue of proper conduct. What is the right thing to do? In this case, does Random House pull the book off the shelves? Would that be the appropriate action? Should they just ignore it and hope it goes away, or that this controversy will actually increase sales? Would that be right? It’s quite a dilemma.
I have a similar dilemma in my own life.
As I mentioned in my last post, an agent from The Cooke Agency apparently liked the first five chapters of my book and asked me to send her the rest. She said I could e-mail them to her, and she would print them out on her end.
So, I e-mailed them. And I haven’t gotten a response.
No message back saying, “I got the pages. Thanks. I will get back to you in a few weeks/months.” No, “They came through. Take care.” No, “Wow, your book is this long? Nevermind.”
Don't you think she should have acknowledged that she received them? Does that mean she didn’t get them? What if I wait a few months to hear back and it turns out she never even got the pages? What if she gets pissed off because she thinks I never bothered sending them?
What is the proper conduct? Can I e-mail her asking if she received them, or will that be bugging her? Everything I’ve read warns never to pester agents, so I don’t want to start now. But I'm not sure if she actually received my book.
If I were Random House, I would drop conniving little Kaavya Viswanathan. But I’m not Random House, I’m Matt Ulmer, and I have no idea what to do in this situation.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Opportunities to point and laugh at me?
*To avoid plagarizing as well as to recognize genius, please allow me this opportunity to point out that Viswanathan's story was brought to my attention by my dear, dear friend, Mr. Nicholas J. Weeks, and that the examples of the book's similarities were brought to you by the Harvard Crimson.
First, I received an e-mail from a stranger telling me he saw my story on the Philadelphia Inquirer blog. Since I didn’t realize I had a story on the Philadelphia Inquirer blog, I found this a little odd. But I did some searching, and was stunned to find:
http://blogs.philly.com/blinq/2006/04/index.html (It’s under Assorted Nuts. You might want to just do a find for Ulmer).
Since this little blurb had snuck under my radar, I wondered what else had, so like any good egotistical asshole would do, I performed a Google search for myself. My findings?
http://www.feedsforme.com/?rss=http%3A%2F%2Frss.arrivenet.com%2Fbooks.rss&title=ArriveNet+%3A+Books&search=romance (As of this writing, it is the fifth link, but it looks like they add new ones everyday. If it isn't there anymore, it was an article about me, just like this one: http://www.pr.com/press-release/9652).
And finally, when I woke up this morning stiff and tired and not at all excited about returning to work for a week, I checked my e-mail and found:
Dear Matthew,
My colleague Samantha North shared the sample chapters for Angel of Life with me. I read them over the weekend and think they're pretty terrific and I'd love to see more of the manuscript. You are welcome to submit via e-mail, if you like, and I can print out the balance of the manuscript at this end.
And could you tell me if you're speaking to other agents or publishers about Angels of Life?
With thanks,
Suzanne
Suzanne Brandreth
Director, Subsidiary Rights
The Cooke Agency
So apparently good things really do come in threes, because here are three good and totally unexpected things right in a row. In relation to the last one, do you remember when a few agents showed interest in my work but I was locked into a different agency? Well, as you will recall, that agency did not ask to see beyond my first three chapters, thereby unlocking me, so I sent copies out to the other agents who showed interest. This company asked for my first five chapters, and apparently, amazingly, impossibly, they liked them.
“I read them over the weekend and think they’re pretty terrific.” She read the entire thing over the weekend? Is that because she was totally sucked in and absorbed and couldn’t get enough? How “pretty terrific” does she think they are? Enough to warrant trying to find a publisher?
This is an actual, legitamate agency. Situated out of Canada, they are in partnership with the company that represents number one bestseller John Irving from The Cider House Rules fame. These guys are for real, and they loved the first five chapters of my book?
Am I getting too excited over this? Are my hopes too high?
After all, good things are supposed to come in threes, not fours.