Fool Me Once, Shame On You, Fool Me Twice, Shame On Me…
Thursday, January 17, 2008Posted in: Venus Press is alive, which authors are dumb enough to trust them this time r
Didn’t the owners of Venus Press shaft their authors by just upping sticks, closing down the site, and running away last April?
Well, seemingly, they are open again, and by the looks of it, they have some of their old authors too.
Now, what kind of business shuts down without saying a word to anyone, then opens again, like nothing ever happened?
Also, do all the authors know that they’re apparently in business again?
And more to the point, why would these authors trust the owners to look after their interests this time round? What are they? Stupid? Don’t they remember the flurry of people jumping ship, just before they shut down, and the bad smell that always seemed to follow Venus Press everywhere??
There isn’t even an explanation, as far as I can see, as to where they’ve been, why they shut down, and what they’ve been up to, since closing.
My advice to authors? Keep the hell away.
It’ll end in tears again. Mark my words.
Updated to add:
Apparently some of the books at VP are already being sold by other publishers. What are the implications for the authors, if this is true?
Also, apparently, the purchasing function isn’t working, so I wonder why they’ve relaunched the website? Curiouser and curiouser…
Thanks to you-know-who-you-are for the tip-off.
Angela James
January 19
3:12 pm
It doesn’t look as though you can actually purchase the books though. Clicking on a link to buy gets you an error page.
Karen Scott
January 19
3:21 pm
I wonder why the website is up again then?
sybil
January 19
4:30 pm
very much oddness
I would email this author if I were you 🙂
Kayleigh Jamison
January 19
7:33 pm
As far as I can tell, from various emails flying about, none of the authors whose works are being displayed on the new old VP site gave permission for it, were told of it, etc etc. The site disappeared a year ago, and now reappeared exactly the same.
It’s like it emerged from the Bermuda Triangle, to quote Stella Price.
It could be a server blip or something, though I don’t see how. There have been rumors circulating over the past year, ever since Venus closed, that the owner was looking to start another pub and get back into the game. Perhaps she thought this the easiest way? Who knows. She still owes people money from her last failure.
Very, very strange…
Keira Ramsay
January 20
1:21 am
This IS strange…at least three of those books have been contracted by Liquid Silver and are in various stages of the editing process…
Anonymous
January 20
5:55 am
This is the very reason many publishers have stopped contracting previously published books. You never know what some of these morons (scam artists) are going to do with that material.
Jade James
January 21
3:01 pm
That is completely strange and me thinks that the owner may be trying to run another scam. I also advise authors DO NOT SUBMIT YOUR WORK WITH VENUS PRESS.
I got out pretty quickly when I could and that’s because Tracy was marvelous when processing all of the requirements to get out of my contracts.
Miriam van Veen
January 22
12:28 am
I honestly can’t believe the owner decided to renew the domain and try again. But there it is. Her author pages are down and have been for a while. Maybe she can’t find anyone to publish her books, so she needs to restart Venus. ‘Cause it seemed it was a vanity press for herself.
But that is just an observation…
Miriam van Veen
January 22
9:08 pm
Update: The site is now disabled.