Everybody first search my books on B&N, and if you find Hephaestus Books with omnibuses of my work, go to customer service at B&N’s corporate site and write them explaining these are ripoffs and not real books. Be nice, but be firm that these are ripoff collections of Wiki articles purporting to be a book by me and that these have been tossed off Amazon and are now victimizing customers of B&N and cluttering up the search list under my name. This is the e-mail form: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/help/customer_service/morehelp.asp
Arrgh.
And the koi pond sprung a leak or something weird happened with its waterfall exit this morning. We’re down about 1500 gallons, it’s cold out there, and we don’t know why.
There ARE no calm days around here…
The email form: the original post never allows links conveniently. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/help/customer_service/morehelp.asp
Done. The nerve of some people….
Done, as a signed in member. When I checked just now, Hephaestus & Source/Surs Wikipedia books were the last entries in the list as opposed to being on the first page, where they had been before.
Thieves, thieves, and more thieves. I’ll do this, and I’ve retweeted it.
Wayne
Done! There was another company doing the same thing a while back – LLC, I think was the name. Ridiculous.
Done. They came up first on the list – I’m not a member so I wasn’t signed in.
Happily reported. This kind of thing just makes my blood burn…
I’m just too mean. The Parliament of Canada is debating a new copyright bill, one which they know that I’m not in favor of (I know some politicians). I just sent a copy of your Tweet to the Prime Minister of Canada via email, along with an explanation of how this sort of scam hurts both writers and readers, and pointed out that this should be more of a priority than the brain dead DMCA imitation that they are trying to implement.
I also cc’d copies to the lawyers representing the Recording Industry Association of America’s daughter organization in Canada, since they are the ones behind the new copyright bill.
Wayne
Just checked Amazon. Hephaestus Books is there too. Here’s one of your books but there’s a lot of others.
Crap, I wonder if I can complain from my vendor account, and if that will make a difference?
Wayne
Raise ‘ell, pardon me.
I added a caveat emptor warning to this one. I see that some else did, too.
Just fired off a complaint to B&N. Keep us posted.
I emailed customer service. I also posted a couple of quick reviews pointing out that these couldn’t possibly be your actual novels since one was running just 40 pages in length, another was a little over 100 pages. (There already was one review calling it a “rip-off”; I thought it worthwhile to say the publications were not your novels, in an effort to make it clear to potential buyers that you’re not behind what’s being posted there.)
Maybe there needs to be a stock paragraph we can post as a “review” for the books, so that potential purchasers know what they’re getting. Or not getting.
try this: this is not a book by CJ Cherryh. It is a collection of Wiki articles made by a person trying to scam the public and the e-book system by using authors’ names attached to what is not the authors’ work.
I just complained to B & N. I spiced it a tad with words like copyright infringement & consumer fraud. I took a shot at the FTC & the atty gen’l, but obviously the user friendliness of their complaint processes is a primary tool for managing the volume.
Carolyn,
I did some more research, and ended up with an article, Corporate Copyright Scofflaws 0011 – Hephaestus Books.
I suggest that everyone read this, and pass the link along. My research is solid, but I expect people to go into self protection mode, and start disappearing the evidence, which is why I took screen shots. Look at the number of books that Hephaestus Books has published on Barnes and Noble and Amazon. While I was looking I found evidence that others are doing the same thing.
My apologies about not dropping by earlier to pass you my regards about Ysabel’s passing. I hope the little one settles in. It can be rough on them.
Wayne
PS: I’m going to try and get this published a few other places as well. I’ve meet a few other people on the net who are likely to be interested.
pleased to say I got nothing but the real thing in my search .. 😀
hope your pond is under control now too …..
Found the Hephaestus books lurking at the bottom of the list at Amazon. The description offered with the books is sort of open to interpretation, if you read it carefully — so I suppose they could squeak out of actual accusations of fraud. But the books certainly are presented as if they really contain the novels. I wrote to both Amazon and Barnes and Noble, much more politely than I felt, registering protest.
I hope you get the pond problem figured out! Of course it has a problem when it’s so cold!
And I sent a note to Barnes and Noble.
This sort of thing just makes me angry. Many of us are struggling to sell legitimate, new work to pay bills, feed cats and maybe buy another heater before winter. Despite some new releases, my sales have dropped to nothing. It’s going to be a long winter at this rate!
But, of course, I’m not giving up. I just have to ‘find’ my readers. And besides, what could be better than writing?
Zette – Like the Mad Hatter, I saw your post on Captain and Lime, I think, with cover art for Kat Among the Pigeons, and had to buy and read it — and loved it, and came back for more. Your work is a delight, and only needs to be seen by more potential readers. Keep going — please!!
The pond problem…smiting forehead with extreme chagrin…
I did two things yesterday: I filled the pond to the extreme—
then I disconnected the hose because of the cold.
Basic physics. Rising water had submerged the high end of the hose, which was full of water when I shut it down and disconnected the hose, leaving it to drain.
Si-phon. It siphoned the pond down 1500 gallons.
Jane discovered this when I turned the water back on—and it submerged the hose again.
You can see the blush as a faint glow in the west. Except those of you for whom Spokane is east.
Lazette,
You’ve found one reader here. I saw your post here about Kat among the Pigeons, bought the ebook, and loved it. It’s a fun read, and I think if you hang in you’ll pick up a lot of fans.
Wayne
send B&N a customer service thingy.
Good to hear the pomd is ok, we has a leak in ours this summer. Easy to fix buy really hard to find.
I just complained to B&N too.