Duped.

Whoa, been away for way too long.

Finally have the time to get things working again.

Okay, basically, life's a little too short to allow yourself to get duped.

Recently, as some sort of karma I guess would have it, a buddy of mine who is an avid writer wanted to get one of his works published. He's a pretty good guy but unfortunately, we both agree that he's not exactly the brightest bulb on the rack. He's not bad for a small town author-wannabe so I really didn't want something terrible to happen to his career right off the bat. There is this publishing company, which I'm not going to name because they have a nasty habit of suing the fuck out of people, that's a total Vanity Publisher. Not only did would they make their authors work for something they've already worked for like a donkey, but they'd add a good 800 pounds to the mix.

So, I managed to get some research done before it was too late and go figure I find absolute tons of negative things about this single publisher. They not only screwed you over pretty good by making you keep a contract with them for more than seven years, of those seven years, they got the royalties to your book. The whole time you with them, you never see a dime. I've always thought of myself as the one with the most common sense among my friends, so as soon as I start finding these articles and posts about the single publishing house naturally I started to spazz a little.

I know a lot of Authors, so it scares me a little that my friends could be so easily fooled with words on a website (a very padded website claiming to donate to organizations that I've never even heard of nor can find any reference of) that are mostly hot air. This publishing house was nothing but a fraud. Low and behold though, my friend had sent off one of his manuscripts for review. I'm an editor by default so I know how horrible the word editing program in Microsoft Word can be when it comes to grammatical errors and spelling, it's like the national software of the typofest nation. Primitive software, especially the versions that are older than 2000. (Damn you to hell Clippy!)

Anyway, as I was saying. I'm pretty sure that these jokers are going to try and talk my friend into signing one of their soul contracts. I told him to pull his manuscript and have them destroy the copy they sent him, he said he wants them to dare publishing his work so he can sue their fucking asses off. Granted, I'd find that as good justice as I'm always in for stirring up a hornet's nest when it comes to defrauding authors. Even better, this publishing house tends to fine people for posting ANY kind of negative reviews as I've mentioned earlier. I kind of don't have 5 grand to pay up to money grubbers and their probably way too expensive lawyers. It's an immediate violation of basic rights for this company to even exist within the borders of the united states.

I'd be satisfied if they moved to Mexico and got their building shot up. At least then they'd have more legitimacy being from Mexico, or even Canada, than being from the East Coast. I feel that some joke about New Jersey should be applied here, but even I don't want to offend people from Jersey, that's how horrid this situation is.