I was a member there on and off for quite some time. Met some great critique partners there, but sadly, the moderators and their minions have a way of running people off the boards. They are abusive to the members and will ban/suspend anyone who defends against the abuse. I've watched it happen to too many good people. If you prove one of their lies wrongs, they will delete your post and ban you. They are using their power to hide the truth. What is worse is that they then start rumors and/or misrepresent new authors and publishing houses.
This is where my most recent receive comes into play. After seeing how they treated others, I long since left, but as I started a new publishing house, a thread was started there, and so I revisited to answer some questions. The moderator (VeinGlory) approached the situation that was very clearly to everyone witnessing attack. Anyone who posted to say that and defend our publishing house had their post immediately deleted; anyone who agreed with VeinGlory had their posts remain. This created a false sense of what the community as a whole thought of our publishing house. If anyone doubts this, contact me and I can send you references for our publishing house, and you will see clearly that there are no posts from them on absolutewrite. There is a deceitful reason for this.
They said that my editing experience, having assisted several authors previously into print deals with publishers in goodstanding, was not enough to prove we know what we are doing.
They said that our first book being a 5-star, bestseller, did not count.
They called the author of that bestselling novel an "aspiring author" and that, to them, was further evidence we don't know what we are doing (can anyone explain the logic on that one?)
They said that ranking in the top 1% on editing skills tests also did not count.
My experience in business, having helped my husband set up and run a successful business, does not count if I don't offer proof. I offered the only proof I can (proof of income and assets) and they ignored that and moved onto the next thing to attack us for.
Several times throughout the conversation, and politely requested they just let us do our thing. Withhold judgment until they had more to go on. Let others decide for themselves. But they would not let it go. On and on they went. They denied they were attacking us and every time someone said otherwise, they deleted that person's post and banned their account. They claimed THAT person was attacking THEM... But that they were not attacking me. The reality is, they are attacking us, and this is not the first time they have done this. And they feel they are allowed to do this but no one else is allowed to say contrary. The "gang mentality" there is frightening.
The reality is, as veinglory showed in the thread with one of her comments, that a small pub once shut down without paying her the money they owed. I am so sorry that happened to her. But our business works on available funds and not credit, which means we don't spend money we don't have, and any money that comes in for a book will go directly to the author (we don't have creditors to repay!)
Veinglory says we won't be around in 2 years. I asked her to check back with us in 2 years, then, but apparently it's actually her MISSION to spend the next two years making that happen. We will not be deterred, but I did want to bring this to light in a place where Veinglory is nor a moderator who can delete the evidence.
If you are an author looking for background information on a publisher that is based on fact and is NOT biased, try preds and eds instead. They investigate and go based on fact, not whim.
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