Try reading the first page of the actual story in the LITB. Good old Dorrance, ripping someone off again. It’s just…man. It’s hard to see. I’m sure that with 4-5 years of CW courses, a critique group, and some coaching, this guy could probably have written something passable, but right now, it’s like a High School Junior’s efforts.
I admit I didn’t know what LITB means. I looked for it on the web and found lost in the basement… Then, I don’t know why, but I get that means look inside the book…
It is sad that publishers like Dorrance exist, but it is sadder that the authors do not realize that the work they are presenting is not a work that must be presented.
Dorrance gets fat off of providing “services” to authors that really are not clued-in. It’s sad. Anyone who googles or DuckDuckGos can see that they have MYRIAD complaints against them and almost anyone can do better (more service, less money) by simply being their own project manager. It drives me nuts when I lose a customer to the likes of Outskirts or Balboa–they’re not scammers like PA or Dorrance, of course–but it’s always because they will “manage” everything and provide a canned press release and make it sound like they’ll do marketing and of course, that’s silly. None of those publishers will do bupkus for marketing.
The other thing that boggles me is, people are TERRIFIED of uploading to KDP, Ingram, etc and so, they’ll pay royalties on their sales, for years, rather than take an hour and learn how to upload. Sad, sad sad.
I was reading Dorrance’s complaints at BBB and I can only say: well, fuck.
But the problem is not just Dorrance’s, the problem is that the authors do not understand that the covers, corrections, diagrams and illustrations they make on their own (in most cases) are useless.
Of course, before quality, Dorrance is more interested in money; that is why they faithfully follows Mr. Krabs’ business school and accept everything as long as there is money involved.
Yeah I can understand – I tried to steer my cousin away from vanity publishers but he went with Archway. I looked up Dorrance and they have (or had) an A+ rating at BBB – huh? Must have paid for their grade.
They are probably not looking at two Dorrances. Apparently the Pittsburgh PA BBB feels Dorrance stays within the letter of the law and answers complaints from customers. The problem is many of Dorrance’s custoners victims are naive about publishing, self publishing, and vanity press and get in over their heads. Thus hometown BBB gives them a A+ while Writer Beware has warned authors about Dorrance for years..
Yes, Writer Beware is also a great place! RipOff Report site has the “newest” at 2017 but I doubt they (or other vanity scammers) have reformed since then…
With all due respect, you can’t trust ROR as far as you can throw them, so don’t give ANY credence at all to anything that you see there. They are, effectively, a protection racket that milks small businesses (and larger), and then expects to be paid to ‘salvage’ someone’s reputation.
Any bozo–any–can say anything they want there, regardless of whether it’s a real customer, or not and under US law, the site owner isn’t liable for defamation, libel, etc.
At least with the BBBs of the world, they pretend to try to make sure that the complainant is a real customer.
ah, drat – thanks I hadn’t realized that. It sure seems real darned hard to see value in creating anything when either vanity presses want to rip you off and others just steal what you make by jacking your content. What’s a writer to do? Give it all away for free, and be good with the process of creation? If only I didn’t have these bills to pay…Then again, I’m going outside the scope of LBC, my bad, nothing to see here…
The Wikipedia article on Ripoff Report is stunning.
Ripoff Report has a business model of allowing anonymous complainers to post anything, but they will for a price investigate the complaints. Bloomberg Businessweek described that as “how to make money rebuilding reputations: have them destroyed first”.
Trust me, you have no idea. I won’t tell you just how evil that place is, but it is the WORST thing that exists on the Internet. I mean it, it’s pure evil.
No, I think it’s the same one. My perception of BBB is that it seems to be a “pay-to-play” setup. The worst offenders can just buy themselves out of bad ratings and award themselves high grades. If that’s the case, it’s very disappointing. I tend to look at “RipOff Reports”, which I’d hope are real customers reporting their experiences.
James F. Brown
4 years ago
Isn’t it nice to know that, thanks to the Internet and Amazon, even a 4th-Grader can publish a book!
How is it possible that someone gets money for publishing something like this?
Try reading the first page of the actual story in the LITB. Good old Dorrance, ripping someone off again. It’s just…man. It’s hard to see. I’m sure that with 4-5 years of CW courses, a critique group, and some coaching, this guy could probably have written something passable, but right now, it’s like a High School Junior’s efforts.
@ Hitch
A high school junior? You are being way too kind!
It’s my soft hearted nature…
I admit I didn’t know what LITB means. I looked for it on the web and found lost in the basement… Then, I don’t know why, but I get that means look inside the book…
It is sad that publishers like Dorrance exist, but it is sadder that the authors do not realize that the work they are presenting is not a work that must be presented.
Yes, sorry, LookInsideTheBook = LITB. Mea culpa!
Dorrance gets fat off of providing “services” to authors that really are not clued-in. It’s sad. Anyone who googles or DuckDuckGos can see that they have MYRIAD complaints against them and almost anyone can do better (more service, less money) by simply being their own project manager. It drives me nuts when I lose a customer to the likes of Outskirts or Balboa–they’re not scammers like PA or Dorrance, of course–but it’s always because they will “manage” everything and provide a canned press release and make it sound like they’ll do marketing and of course, that’s silly. None of those publishers will do bupkus for marketing.
The other thing that boggles me is, people are TERRIFIED of uploading to KDP, Ingram, etc and so, they’ll pay royalties on their sales, for years, rather than take an hour and learn how to upload. Sad, sad sad.
I was reading Dorrance’s complaints at BBB and I can only say: well, fuck.
But the problem is not just Dorrance’s, the problem is that the authors do not understand that the covers, corrections, diagrams and illustrations they make on their own (in most cases) are useless.
Of course, before quality, Dorrance is more interested in money; that is why they faithfully follows Mr. Krabs’ business school and accept everything as long as there is money involved.
Yeah I can understand – I tried to steer my cousin away from vanity publishers but he went with Archway. I looked up Dorrance and they have (or had) an A+ rating at BBB – huh? Must have paid for their grade.
You and El cochinote seem to be looking at two very different Dorrances, then?
Oh lord, TWO of them…
They are probably not looking at two Dorrances. Apparently the Pittsburgh PA BBB feels Dorrance stays within the letter of the law and answers complaints from customers. The problem is many of Dorrance’s
custonersvictims are naive about publishing, self publishing, and vanity press and get in over their heads. Thus hometown BBB gives them a A+ while Writer Beware has warned authors about Dorrance for years..Yes, Writer Beware is also a great place! RipOff Report site has the “newest” at 2017 but I doubt they (or other vanity scammers) have reformed since then…
With all due respect, you can’t trust ROR as far as you can throw them, so don’t give ANY credence at all to anything that you see there. They are, effectively, a protection racket that milks small businesses (and larger), and then expects to be paid to ‘salvage’ someone’s reputation.
Any bozo–any–can say anything they want there, regardless of whether it’s a real customer, or not and under US law, the site owner isn’t liable for defamation, libel, etc.
At least with the BBBs of the world, they pretend to try to make sure that the complainant is a real customer.
ah, drat – thanks I hadn’t realized that. It sure seems real darned hard to see value in creating anything when either vanity presses want to rip you off and others just steal what you make by jacking your content. What’s a writer to do? Give it all away for free, and be good with the process of creation? If only I didn’t have these bills to pay…Then again, I’m going outside the scope of LBC, my bad, nothing to see here…
If you are talking about writing and publishing your books that people can read for free, well, it works for me 🙂
The Wikipedia article on Ripoff Report is stunning.
Ripoff Report has a business model of allowing anonymous complainers to post anything, but they will for a price investigate the complaints. Bloomberg Businessweek described that as “how to make money rebuilding reputations: have them destroyed first”.
Trust me, you have no idea. I won’t tell you just how evil that place is, but it is the WORST thing that exists on the Internet. I mean it, it’s pure evil.
No, I think it’s the same one. My perception of BBB is that it seems to be a “pay-to-play” setup. The worst offenders can just buy themselves out of bad ratings and award themselves high grades. If that’s the case, it’s very disappointing. I tend to look at “RipOff Reports”, which I’d hope are real customers reporting their experiences.
Isn’t it nice to know that, thanks to the Internet and Amazon, even a 4th-Grader can publish a book!