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Imagine being contacted by one of your customers one day and being alerted to a blogger who is posting false statements and insults about you and many of your competitors on a continuing basis.
Furthermore, the blogger is writing under a fake name...which previously belonged to someone else in the industry - a respected person - who had recently retired. To add insult to injury, when you approach this blogger to correct some of the numerous errors in their blog, they post more false statements about you, attack you personally, call you names like "ugly" and "self-masturbatory", and then blacklist you so you can no longer post comments in your own defense...all the while continuing to post false statements and refusing to correct the previously published inaccuracies. This situation is occurring right now.
I am Angela Hoy, the publisher of Booklocker.com and WritersWeekly.com. I am well-known in the industry for my activism performed through WritersWeekly Whispers and Warnings (http://forums.writersweekly.com/viewforum.php?f). Over the years, we have helped writers recover tens of thousands of dollars in fees from deadbeat editors and publishers, helped them negotiate better contract terms, assisted writers in obtaining payment after their copyrights have been violated, and have even assisted police in collecting evidence to prosecute criminals who have preyed on writers.
However, even I am not immune to being maliciously targeted by someone in the industry.
The blogger's fake name is "PODdy Mouth." Don't confuse this Poddymouth with the original POD-dy Mouth, a respected journalist who retired last year.
Nobody seems to know who the new Poddymouth really is but we all believe two things: The profanity and false allegations she posts are salacious enough to attract an unsuspecting following (drama breeds voyeurs and eavesdroppers) and Poddymouth thinks he/she is immune from legal threats because he/she thinks nobody can find out their real identity.
The industry reps I have corresponded with suspect Poddymouth is in someway associated with a competing POD company, either as an owner, an employee, or a contractor who is working for that POD publisher, and thus profiting from additional business they may reap while the blogger continues to libel the competitors. This blogger even appears to go so far as to skew dollar figures, making the math work one way or the other in order to make one company look worse/better than another. From mathematical manipulations, to repeatedly posting what appear to be blatant false statements and insults about people who dare question the "facts", while refusing to correct incorrect information posted in the past, it's obvious this blogger has an ugly agenda. Unfortunately, most readers don't check the math of a journalist and continue to blindly assume that what they're reading online is true...and fair.
For the purposes of this article, I will call Poddymouth a "she."
Here's my story.
I was contacted by a reader who knew the posts about Booklocker.com contained numerous false statements. I checked out the blog and was stunned by the phony information, innuendos and insults posted by this supposedly professional journalist (the blogger later claimed openly she was not a journalist). I submitted a few professional replies to posts made on the blog, pointing out inaccuracies and false statements dealing with not only Booklocker.com but other POD publishers as well.
Poddymouth responded by ignoring facts I supplied (not removing or even editing the inaccurate and libelous posts), but instead launching public attacks against me on completely different topics. I noticed she was doing this to other POD publishers who were defending themselves as well - a common diversionary tactic to divert attention away from her own errors. She even insulted readers who dared to question her "facts" or her research methods.
Poddymouth violated copyright law as well by posting song lyrics, which anybody in the industry knows you can't do. I alerted her to the copyright violation and, not only did she not remove the lyrics, but she joked about her copyright violation in another post. The copyright violation remains on her site today.
Nobody was safe from the public attacks and, if your response was professional and factual enough to prove she was lying beyond a reasonable doubt, your response was simply not posted to her blog. (She later claimed she didn't receive some of my posts.) Sometimes, responses were instantly posted but later removed by Poddymouth. I believe her responses to me were so heated because I was the only one with the courage to really stand up to her. Some other POD publisher representatives, perhaps afraid of what insult/false allegation she'd throw at them next, skulked away at the first sign of a potential deadly conflict. I don't do business that way. I know I'm right and I'm not going away.
Poddymouth has gained a reputation even among her readers as a very poor researcher. She does not contact POD companies to ask questions or confirm facts before posting inaccuracies. Her posts are riddled with comments like "I assume", "I believe", "let's just say", etc. It would almost be funny if her "assumptions" haven't hurt so many individuals and businesses.
Things escalated and I found myself called "ugly", "self-masturbatory", and a slew of other insults by Poddymouth, all designed to destroy my reputation.
Only after I sent her a note that ended with, "How can you sleep at night knowing how many individuals and businesses you've hurt?" did she stop responding to me, remove many of my rebuttal posts from her website, and blacklist me.
After things got really heated (she said it was my fault - that I brought out the worst in her), readers started berating her reporting methods and failure to correct her own posts as well. The heat was obviously too much as she abruptly ceased blogging one day. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief...but the false statements remained on her site.
However, it appeared to be a bluff. She started the blog up again a few days later, changed about three past posts (she removed numerous comments posted by me but left up many of her insults and false statements posted about us and others) and said she was going to ignore her critics and they were going to ignore her. In her words, "...they will pretend I no longer exist and I will return the favor."
What did that mean? She simply blacklisted numerous people (critics). Now, she is free to keep posting false statements about companies but the blacklisted individuals are given no opportunity to defend themselves. How can she continue to do this? It's simple. In order to obtain her real name, the company/individual who was libeled/defamed, would need to hire an attorney, go to court, and prove to the judge they were harmed by the libel. This would cost several thousand dollars. And, only then might they obtain a subpoena to give to Wordpress (the company hosting the blog) to determine the IP address of the blog's owner, Poddymouth. Then, there would be the possibility that Poddymouth might be using a fake IP address or might be located overseas.
The most successful route to getting the blog removed would be to send a mountain of evidence to Wordpress that contains specific links to and examples of the inaccuracies, false information, profanity, copyright violation and more posted on that blog. Wordpress does consider libel, profanity, and copyright infringement when removing blogs. Anybody else who has been libeled by Poddymouth (or anyone who notices any inaccuracies/blatant false statements/copyright violations that she posted) can send me a list of the specific lines of false information in her posts as well as links to those posts and I will add them to my list for Wordpress. My email addresses are: angela - at - booklocker.com and angela - at - writersweekly.com
Another option is to publicize her unprofessional behavior so authors will know she is not a credible and balanced source for POD information - far from it. As I said earlier, since many critics are no longer allowed to post rebuttals to her blog, unsuspecting authors are being led to believe the false numbers and "facts" she continues to post about innocent companies and individuals.
Below are just two of the posts I sent to Poddymouth that were ignored. Not only are the facts indisputable, but Poddymouth had the gall to leave her original false statements posted online, completely unedited. I attempted to post the first note below numerous times, but she censored the post (did not post it) over and over again. She later denied she censored any posts (claimed she didn't know how to censor posts)...but only after previously admitting she did censor posts. She was caught red-handed on that one.
I was then able to post pieces of it, one at a time (not all the pieces), but only long after that topic was posted and was too old for anybody to be reading anyway. The phony information had already done damage. (The damage inflicted by Poddymouth on many of the POD publishers is obvious by the negative comments people have left about POD publishers as a result of the false information she posted.) It didn't matter anyway. She later removed my posts but her errors/inaccuracies/phony "facts" remain on her site to this day (see link below).
Perhaps after this is posted, she might remove or edit the posts I detail below. However, in order to remove every false/inaccurate statement from her blog, she will need to re-research every post she's ever made. I doubt she will want to devote the time to do that because she obviously does not like to do real research (see examples of her statements below for proof). She also owes an apology to every company who has been harmed by her unprofessional and illegal behavior.
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POST ATTEMPTED IN JANUARY
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Poddymouth's original post is here:
http://poddymouth.wordpress.com/2008/01/27/when-do-self-publishing-pods-pay-royalties/
My attempted response:
Hi Poddymouth,
You said, "Most of the other things you mention here are irrelevant for my posting..."
When you post lies about companies and people, none of those lies is "irrelevant."
The book buyer is going to go where the author tells them to go to purchase their book. Just covering wholesale royalty rates gives unwary authors the impression that other authors are racking up sales on chance purchases through Amazon.com. Nothing could be further from the truth. Booklocker.com authors refer readers to Booklocker.com because they earn more than double the royalty rate by doing so. In addition, the customer gets the book faster and the author gets their royalties faster (because they don't have to wait for Ingram). The same is true for other publishers as well. The book buyer will usually go to the online store that the author refers them to. If you interviewed some POD publishers, you'd already know this. But, interviewing publishers takes a lot of time, doesn't it? More time than you're willing to devote, obviously.
Here are more examples of laziness in your "research" - these dealing with other POD publishers, who are also the ongoing victims of your inaccurate "reporting."
YOU SAID:
"Trafford - I couldn't find the timeframe in which they pay..."
Their contract clearly states: "Accounting of royalties: make royalty payments on a quarterly basis..."
(It took me less than 60 seconds to find that. See: http://www.trafford.com/downloads/contracts/PGContract-US-EN.pdf)
YOU SAID:
"Llumina Press - I couldn´t for the life of me find out their payment timeframe..."
Their contract clearly states: "Publisher will make royalty payments bi-monthly..."
(It took me less than 30 seconds to find that. See: http://www.llumina.com/contract.htm)
YOU SAID:
"Xlibris - Amazingly, even their contract doesn´t say when they need to pay you, and I couldn´t find the timeframe anywhere."
Their contract clearly states, "Royalties are paid on a quarterly basis if the amount earned exceeds twenty-five (25) dollars."
(It took me about 30 seconds to find that. See: http://www2.xlibris.com/pubservices/BWorderForm.pdf)
YOU SAID:
Createspace - "...although their minimum threshold is $20 for direct deposit rather than Booklocker´s $10 for some reason."
Wrong. You were talking about Booksurge, not Booklocker.com.
Also under Createspace - "I´ll just go with the 30% of the retail price (which the author can set) number and assume that´s what they pay you for the sake of this analysis."
"I'll just go with..."? "and assume..."?? Journalists don't "just go with" and "assume." They find the facts. If it's not a fact, don't publish it.
YOU SAID:
"iUniverse wants you to be confused into thinking you are earning 20% of the retail price of the book for wholesale sales, but you´re not."
That's a pretty strong accusation. Can you prove your statement is fact? No, you can't. Here's a fact. iUniverse could sue you for libel for posting something like that.
YOU SAID ABOUT LULU:
"They are similar to CreateSpace (which figures, since CreateSpace stole their pricing model from Lulu)."
That is another statement you posted as fact that you can't prove.
Here's another fact for you. CreateSpace could sue you for libel for posting that. That's just another reason you should watch what you write.
YOU SAID:
"Let´s just say that for a reasonably priced book sold through wholesale (which means NOT on their site, but on a real book retail site like Barnes & Noble), you´re earning between 10-15% of the retail price."
"Let's just say..."? More assumptions from you, not facts.
YOU SAID:
"Tate - I´ve never been able to find any info about any of these kinds of things on Tate, so to Hades with them."
While their payment time-frame is not posted online, their royalty rates clearly are.
YOU SAID:
Wordclay - "Which means their retail percentage is probably similar..."
Is probably? Well, is it or isn't it? Don't post it if you don't know.
YOU SAID:
"Don´t believe for a second that any of these places will pay you for a book sold in January in February."
Another lie. I already explained above that Booklocker.com authors are paid royalties in February for sales through Booklocker.com in January. This includes bookstores that order from Booklocker.com directly. If a bookstore orders from us in January, the author gets paid in February. Again, if it isn't true, don't write it.
YOU SAID:
"Ultimately, to compare apples with apples, they all pay you X% of the difference between the wholesale price of the book and the "cost" of the book..."
Another lie. Booklocker.com pays royalties based on the LIST PRICE of the book, which the author sets. Other POD publishers do this as well. Assuming "everybody" does something because most people do, and writing it as fact, is irresponsible journalism.
In addition, only discussing one part of the royalty equation (Ingram royalties only - instead of royalties for publisher-direct public and wholesale sales as well) is just another example of how you take the lazy way out. I know it's a lot of work, but it's better to post all the facts than just assumptions and lies that are convenient for you.
If you can't find something that you know exists, try harder. If you still can't find it, contact the publisher or one of their authors. Many authors have their own websites. Googling their name is the key and it's really easy to do.
It's obvious you rush through posts and don't expend enough effort to get the real facts about each POD publisher. If you worked for a real publication, you'd have been fired long ago.
While there are snakes in the POD industry, not every company is a snake. Posting assumptions ("I couldn't find...", "I'll go with..."), lies ("CreateSpace stole their pricing model", "iUniverse wants you to be confused") and drivel to elicit drama and clicks is irresponsible journalism. You also don't go back and correct your mistakes when they're pointed out to you by readers. Once again, irresponsible journalism.
If you don't start posting the facts, your blog will die. Nobody is going to keep reading garbage that somebody continues to pull out of thin air. If you don't have time to do proper research and then post lies about others, you should find another hobby to occupy your time.
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POST ATTEMPTED THIS WEEK
This post was completely ignored as I have been blacklisted.
Original post is here: http://poddymouth.wordpress.com/2008/03/19/game-8-sweet-16-of-self-publishing/
My Response:
Here we go again, Poddymouth.
Your information is incorrect and even your math is wrong this time.
MISLEADING STATEMENTS
You tried to lead readers to believe we publish books without covers when you said, "One package price of $424, unless you want a book without a cover, which is kind of like buying a car without a steering wheel."
At Booklocker.com, we allow authors to submit their own cover at no additional charge if they want.
So does Booksurge. However, you didn't mention that to your readers, nor make fun of them for it as you did Booklocker.
Your math is incorrect.
You artificially inflated the list price of the Booksurge sample book.
The result of the entire "game" is incorrect based on your mistakes.
*SETUP FEES*
Booklocker has two sets of setup fees: $317 and $492
Average is $404.50 (not $424.00)
Booksurge's packages range from $299 to $2749, (not $299 to $1849 that you wrote).
The average price of the 17 different options available to Booksurge customers is $1452, not the $1056 you wrote.
Note: Booksurge charges extra for interior images on their basic fee while Booklocker never charges extra for images. This further makes the numbers you posted incorrect.
*ROYALTIES*
Booklocker pays 35% royalties for sales through its own website and 15% through other channels.
Booksurge pays 35% royalties for sales through its own website (Amazon owns Booksurge) and 10% through other channels.
*AVERAGE BREAK EVEN*
We noticed you used the higher customer-direct royalty for Booksurge (35% instead of 10%) in your comparison but the lower wholesale royalty for Booklocker (15% instead of 35%). This was not fair.
You also used a higher list price on Booksurge's sample book which, of course, skews the results. This was also not fair.
Booklocker's Royalties
The minimum list price for a 150-page book at Booklocker is $12.95.
Royalties for the sale of that book through its own website - 35% of $12.95 = $4.53
Royalties for the sale of that book through any other firm - 15% of $12.95 = $1.94
Booksurge's Royalties
To be fair, instead of artificially inflating their list price, and because you like to assume, let's assume the Booksurge list price is exactly the same - $12.95. (Booksurge has books over 300 pages priced under $12.95 so there was no reason for you artificially inflate their list price like you did.)
Royalties for the sale of that book through its own websites - 35% of $12.95 = $4.53
Royalties for the sale of that book through any other firm - 10% of $12.95 = $1.30
Booklocker's Breakeven
Average breakeven for Booklocker on sales through its own site: $404.50 divided by $4.53 = 89 copies
Average breakeven for Booklocker on sales through another firm: $404.50 divided by $1.94 = 209 copies
Booksurge's Breakeven
Average breakeven for Booksurge on sales through its own site: $1452.00 divided by $4.53 = 321 copies
Average breakeven for Booksurge on sales through another firm: $1452.00 divided by $1.30 = 1117 copies
Even if you complain that Booklocker can't use its 35% when comparing to Booksurge's 10% or vice-versa, and even if you want to assume there are no images in the Booksurge book, the breakeven number is still significantly lower across the board when an author uses Booklocker.
Please correct the errors in your post.
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There were numerous other attempted posts on my behalf and deceitful, insulting, and inaccurate posts by Poddymouth but you can get the general idea from what I've provided here.
Below my signature are more examples of very recent (March) inaccuracies posted to her blog that have nothing to do with our company.
Have a beautiful day!
Angela Hoy
WritersWeekly.com / Booklocker.com
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MARCH 22ND POST http://poddymouth.wordpress.com/2008/03/22/self-publishing-tournament-sweet-16-round-2/
Part I: Average Publishing Cost
"Infinity has one package for one cost: $499."
She doesn't mention that doesn't include Ingram distribution, which is another $149.
The package she compares it to at Mill City Press includes Ingram distribution so she's not comparing apples to apples.
Part II: Annual fee
She admits Infinity doesn't charge an annual fee but instead criticizes their Ingram Distribution fee of $149...which has nothing to do with the annual fee topic.
Part III: Royalties
She compares Mill City's royalties for all sales to Infinity's royalties for wholesale orders only. Not a fair comparison. Infinity pays 30% for direct customer sales and 15% for wholesale orders. Once again, she's not comparing applies to apples.
Part IV: Average Book Breakeven
Since she's already using the wrong price for Infinity (per part I above, it should be $499+$149 = $648), the results of this part of the "contest" are wrong. The breakeven for Infinity should be 362 copies using the wholesale royalty of 15% or 181 copies using the customer-direct rate of 30%.
Part V: Wildcard
In pretty strong words, she penalizes Infinity for offering to pay authors higher royalties on books priced above their minimum list price...which doesn't make any sense.
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MARCH 18TH POST
http://poddymouth.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/sweet-16-of-self-publishing-game-7/
Xulon only publishes Christian books. Her post doesn't mention that fact at all. Any author of a book not targeting the Christian market is wasting their time reading this post.
Average Publishing Cost
Xulon charges extra for editing on ALL packages. Editing is included in some of the Virtual Bookworm packages (levels D-H). To compare apples to apples, services should be equal in the "average publishing cost." There are other add-ons offered/not offered by both companies that can greatly skew the average publishing cost.
Royalties
She compares a specific-sized book (120-pages) priced at $12.95 at Virtual Bookworm ($3.18) to a flat $2 at Xulon when they claim the royalty is $2-$5 per book. She did not investigate how much the royalty would be on a comparable 120-page paperback priced at $12.95.
Average Book Breakeven
Since the "Average Publishing Cost" above is incorrect (doesn't include editing services through Xulon but does through Virtual Bookworm), these numbers are not accurate. In addition, she compares a $12.95 book to a $13.99 book...which, again, is not fair.
Wildcard
She posts a blatant lie about Virtual Bookworm here. She states, "...their bookstore shows 3 books…"
There are numerous books in their bookstore...paperbacks, hardcovers, and ebooks alike.
She says: "their copyright date says 2007"
The bottom of every page on their site says Copyright 2008.
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I added one more here regarding today's Poddymouth post. It's important to note that I submitted a note to her blog the other day about false statements she made about Virtual Bookworm but she re-posted the same false statements about them today (and did not correct her previous post, of course). See last paragraph below.
MARCH 24TH POST
http://poddymouth.wordpress.com/2008/03/24/self-publishing-tournament-sweet-16-game-11/
AVERAGE PUBLISHING COST
Up until this time, Poddymouth has added all the setup fee options up and divided them by the total number of packages to determine the average publishing cost. However, on this post, she changes her formula from one publisher to another.
Outskirts - Five packages priced at $999, $599, $399, $199 and another at $999 means an average fee of $639, not $549.
None of Outskirts packages include editing while some of the Virtual Bookworm packages (levels D-H) do. To compare apples to apples, services should be equal in the "average publishing cost" comparison.
ROYALTIES
Virtual Bookworm - $3.18 royalties on a $12.95 book is 24.5%.
Outskirts Press – Only three of their programs offer payment of royalties (but Poddymouth used all five programs in the average publishing costs above). And, she only uses two of those figures in the royalties section of her comment…but leaves out the lowest Outskirts royalty percentage when doing her math.
AVERAGE BOOK BREAKEVEN
The number Poddymouth used for Virtual Bookworm is their average publishing cost ($1111).
However the number used for Outskirts Press is their most expensive package ($999) instead of their average publishing cost ($639). This, too, skews the numbers.
WILDCARD
Here, Poddymouth once again claims Virtual Bookworm only has three books in their bookstore. There are numerous books in their bookstore...paperbacks, hardcovers, and ebooks alike, but she says, "…it just seems like they are… I don't know… going out of business or something."
Also, their copyright says 2008 on every page of their website but she's once again claiming it says 2007 when these errors were previously submitted to her blog.