"how low can an author go to sell a book" Topic

I think we're gonna need a bigger Teacup.

Paddy

I'd tranny up if there was a chance of flogging the movie rights, an'all.

Nothing sexual, you understand, but some 'Mrs. Doubtfire'-style merry larks and capers.

Legs like this? Shame not to.

Nothing sexual Norman? that's a pity. Mrs O'Dawes has always had a thing for you and all.

Paddy

Paddy,

I am bound to point out not only that Rats do not fly and therefore would never be caught in even the strongest of webs. Based on length of body to prey calculation the only spider remotely capable of consuming a rat would be the Goliath Bird Eating Spider which does not spin a web but lives in a burrow and its prey is not birds, or rats but principally other invertebrates. Also Wolf Spiders do not eat wolves.

Katie Price? I would. Any STD would be a bloody good birthday present for somebody my age.

Whoops! I think I opened the wrong thread! Just go back to what you were doing, I didn't see anything.

Jeez, what a hissy fit over something so relatively trivial.
The words from the first post-"Unbelievable..disgrace..how low the man will go..pathetcially..fob off..hatchet job..gross.. disgraceful..desparate"- a tad over much in relation to what it's actually refering to I reckons. Sounds like some second rate lawyer trying to get some interest in a low level court case in a place no ones ever heard of. :-)
Anyway, Norman, please do write a book yourself. I'll have a copy & a ticket to the baboon fight. Ta. :-)

is there you tube footage of Katie Price swimming around Barrymore's pool with a baboon?

or did I misread something again?

Good one, OFM. I wonder if anyone else caught the reference.

Yes.

How lame.

Vanity Review. Did you come up with that on you own, or did your mother come down in the basement and suggest it?

Surely we all got the reference….

probably not everyone….

(facepalm)

No, I mean…

…SURELY we all got the reference?

depends which reference we are using,….is it a five star one?

Ok. This has been funny, but I promise to behave and give up now. Anyone with half a brain will be able to read these threads and other inrelated threads and be able to see what is going on. And it is very rude of me to take the mick out of people with Mike Hotel issues, so I shall depart from the Nap Book board and never write again. Have loved some of the comments on here. Classic comedy, you really couldn't make it up.!

I have so enjoyed this thread! Just fab!

"I have so enjoyed this thread! Just fab!"

Yep! The ongoing Kiley/Hollins feud is very similar to soap operas and professional wrestling; it's all conflict and no resolution, so the story line goes on and on and on. It's the gift that keeps on giving. Sometimes it's even entertaining.

I love the nickname, Gribby!!!!

Crow Bait

A review of their own work by an author, such as a Vanity Review, is frowned upon in the publishing world, which is why Amazon removed it and rightly so. They should be applauded for doing so because they were taking away a 5 star review. For authors it is a definite No-No. Good authors know that, that's why they would never stoop so low. Mr.Hollins is well aware of that, but sadly, it didn't stop him doing it.

Gribby, It is not a feud as that assumes some kind of equality. It has just been ten years of one idiot Yank trying to shout down anything, which shows his precious sacred texts are wrong by writing malicious nonsense on amazon and the fora. It gets rather tiresome. He then progressed to writing a couple of books himself – this has been helpful in one way as it has shown that he clearly does not have any idea about the subject, having to resort to secondary claims, which do not reflect the original texts, (which he has not read) and making things up. I suspect that most people now have his measure, albeit that just makes his hate-filled "reviews" more demented. Fortunately, with his reliability and credibility gone, he just needs to be reminded of his own inadequacies.

It is not a feud – he would need to some original material and good sources to engage in that. I knew teddy would come flying out of the pram when he was faced with the facts, but will just give one example:

p. 62 of his artillery book includes this quote: "Proper handling [of artillery] such as the provisional battery formed by Lieutenant Smola at Neerwinden, positioned forward to support the line with canister, were excptional and caused much comment"(8) followed by: Smola was the exception, not the rule, in the artilelry officer ranks and his aggressive tactics were not copied.

The quote (fn8) comes from Rothenberg, Great Adversary, but it is odd really as in the back of Dolleczek, there is a list of many Austrian gunners, who won the Maria Theresa Order and an outline of what for. I summarised these men in my chapter of the Armies book to help Kevin as he clearly failed to read this, despite listing Dolleczek in both his footnotes and bibliography.

Still, what do you expect from someone, who makes up the contents of the vital 1762 report? I think that summarises his ability to comment on anything really.

Cue Gazzola with another review and a couple of rants. How low can some people go with their infantile need to attack people to boost their own inadequacies?

@ Dave: Whether you think it is a feud or not, it is certainly seen as a feud from outside. You think you're in the right, and so does he just as strongly. But feuds are not about who is in the right, anyway – they are all about continuing an argument ad inifinitum.

Spot on there, Arteis!

It's a vicious cycle: a maelstrom of petty jealousy, contempt, and denial which only serves to sling crap on Napoleonic wargaming. What the usual suspects in this endless poo flinging fest fail to realize is that their repulsive antics dissuade many from taking up the period. Why the hell would anyone want to be associated with such misery?

People who keep bleating on about their desire for more detailed books about Napoleonic armies should consider this: if you keep turning people off of the period with your constant whinging and personal attacks you'll never see the books you want as there won't be an audience, and therefore no incentive for authors to write them in the first place!

OK, enough! I want to hear how XV Brigada got on with Katie Price & the baboon in the swimming pool at Barrymores. I hope he didn't get the two mixed up…….

I think you all take yourselves far too seriously..

I smell moth balls.

TW.

YouTube link

There's nothing wrong with enjoying your own writings – some of the stuff I've had published is pretty good (EIIDSSM). Some of the stuff was really bad though (although never below 2*s ! IMVHO).

I am a bit worried about Mr Landings though, and his self admiration of his pins.

Etranger,

I'm not confused. It was a female baboon.

Problem?

Bill

Mr. Hollins' pathetic excuses as to why I wrote a negative review is as bad and as his low and his pathetic Vanity Review, which was rightly removed. And still no apologies.

The book could have been so much better. It should have covered only 5 armies at the most, which would give each other around 50 pages each. If the Austrians were included that would have give Mr. Hollins 9 extra pages. Imagine the extra lists he could include then.

But 3 authors have taken up almost 50% of the title, which did not leave much for the authors of the other 7 armies to work with. That is the problem. The authors have done some really good work, considering the limitations but imagine what they could have done with an equal amount of space. If they included only 5 armies in volume 1, I'm sure there would have been a market for a volume 2 with the other 5 armies.

Mr. Hollins is trying to cover the faults up with personal attacks against myself and Kevin Kiley here and on the comments section of Amazon. He should move on and do what good authors do, let the book itself do the selling. If it is good enough it will sell.

Maybe you should move on, too, Gazzola! Let the book do its own failing. If it is as bad as you say, then it won't sell.

I'm starting to wonder if you're a sock puppet of the publisher. I've never seen so many repetitive comments about one book* that can only lead to more knowledge and interest in the book concerned.

(* and that is saying something when you're on the same forum as the Hollins/Kiley wars)

Gaz, nobody but you actually appears to give a damn about Mr Hollins' evil ways.

If you insist on repeatedly posting until he apologises, I fear TMP may tip, like the proverbial Dwarf and Fat Girl on the Seesaw in Bruges. Because you KNOW he won't

Why don't we stop it here?

I profoundly apologise, on Dave Hollins Behalf, for everything he has ever done. I apologise for every sin of Commission and Omission. I apologise for what he did to the Maoris, the American Indians and the Picts. I wholeheartedly apologise for his role in the Holocaust, and for his funny-looking face.

Now will you let it go? Please?

Pat

Props to Sane Max for the reference to In Bruges, a movie which contains some of the finest swearing known to man.

If you haven't seen it, you can get a flavour of it here: YouTube link

But don't click on this link if cussing upsets you. Because you will be very upset.

Cursed are the peace makers Max, for they shall burgle our fun.

I love Gazzola and would happily buy him a pint even if he is a vile, pathetic little nutter. Of course I'd never say an unkind word about him though.

Arteis, you are rather forgetting the background to this. Would you like – for ten years – to go on the net to find a few flat earthers slagging off yhour work, not because they knwo anything about the subject, but because they do not want others to hear it? No, you wouldn't, so what would do about it? Calling this a feud merely legitimises this book burning behaviour, which has resurfaced yet again on the Armoes book.

Gribby is right about putting people off and disincentivision authors and publishers – that is what the flat earthers want to do, so their sacred texts still stand.

30 years after Quarrie etc., we stand in a very different place from then where 1809 is a popular campaign, viewed as a fairly even struggle. It did not happen by accident and we had all the nay-saying.

I never hear from anyone about what I should do. Do I allow the falt earthers to shout me down, damage sales of my output and let their third hand claims go unchallenged. If it is okay to make things up, ignore inconvenient material and copy things out of secondary material, fine, I won't bother to check the originals. You can carry on in a world, which never existed.

I can see how newer people might see this as some feud – but if we are going to discuss any topic on here, then we need to look at the evidence and discuss that. By declaring this is a matter of differing opinions between two people of equal standing is siomply to ignore what has gone on. It is not me, who has written rubbishing reviews every time (even managing to slate another book in the process of the most recent one), not just of my work, but anythinng else deemed heretical. It is not me, who runs from the questions on the subject. It is not me, who makes things up and fabricates a bibliography to give a false impression of the work I have done.

I have gone back to the original material and talked to very many people. I can have a debate with Stephen Summerfield, von Winterfeldt or Bernhard Voykowitsch. In the end, our opinions may differ, but we have gone thropugh the material and thrown new bits in. It does not make my view right, but at least I have advanced the evidence I have found and answered questions about it, so that we can move the debate on – and those questions do have to come from researchers like the guys above, but from any sensible enthusiast.

All I am asking for is a fair assessment of what has gone on, not to be placed in the same spot as the flat earthers. As Gribby says, authors will be put off by their antics, whether they are answerted or not, but it is the subject, which will be all the poorer for it.

I think we should take note of the guy wrote 'Mein Kampf'.

A six-year, rolling worldwide publicity campaign, with massive audience participation events.

Admittedly, Health & Safety was an issue, but the fireworks were fantastic.

Wasn't a fan, meself. That said, I would, obviously, buy him a pint if I met him in the pub.

But would you have shown him a finely turned ankle ?

Etranger,

I'm not confused. It was a female baboon.

Problem?

Bill

No, result! 8-D

Norm – save your money, the bounder was a teetotaller.

Norman would have noshed off Genghis Khan for central position on one of those 'Point Of Sale' tables by the front door of Waterstones – so showing one of his 'understandings' to that nice Mister Hitler would be no problem for him at all.

But I thought we had already settled that point.

Pat

I just wanted to give him a chance to clearly show the world what kind of man he really is.

You think you know somebody……and then it turns out he has a fetish about displaying what he's got beneath his socks to fascist dictators.

Just goes to show, you never know…..and you have to watch the quiet ones !

The dislike of authors who praise their own works in reviews is not new, as can be seen in an interesting article from 2002:

type in the following:

Authors who write their own five-star reviews – Telelgraph

It states clearly why they did so

OMFG… didn't the Mongols used to smear themselves in animal fat and then sew their clothes shut for the entire winter?!

God, the foul gagging waft of rancid yak-fat, six-months worth of steaming crotch-rot, all thoroughly saturated in hot, frothy horse-sweat, when those britches opened!

You'd have to scoop out the smegma with a trowel!

Still and all… those 'Point of Sale' tables pretty much dictate what's going to be on the best-seller lists, don't they?

Remind me not to go to print in early spring….

And here's a counter opinion piece from The Guardian explaining why it doesn't matter a jot :

link

I've just bought my own pint. the lot of you

I met a ninja that looked just like you…

My name is legion Norm…

I see your Katie Price and raise you Kerry Katona.

Norman – no, that was people from Doncaster, not the Mongols.

Pat

and what sort of name is Legion Norm?

Someone here is a bit of a complete and utter nonsense talker if you know what I mean.

@Peterborough WGC

You're raising Kerry Katona? You do know she's off the diet and back on the pies? You'll put your back out.

and what sort of name is Legion Norm?

A bloody silly one. I blame my parents.

@SJD. Not above the horizontal