# Author Pushing His Book?



## Aris Dragonborn (Oct 29, 2005)

Ok. In this thread here, *damiynn* talks about a book he's just read, called *A King's Quest*. Fairly good review, if a bit enthusiastic.

But look closer. 
1. He joined today (10/28/05)
2. His first (and only) post was to talk about this book.
3. His user name, *damiynn*, sounds a lot like the name of the main character of the book, *Damien*.
4. In his profile, he doesn't leave a name, but his birthdate is listed as August 9th, 1968.
According to this site, the author, A.V. Wedhorn, was born August 9th, 1968. 

That's a set of rather remarkable coincidences, yes?

I'm not sure if this is technically a violation of the CoC, but it does seem rather dodgy that the author of this book *might* have created an account just to push his book. 

Just wanted to bring this to your attention.


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## Jdvn1 (Oct 29, 2005)

Well, he didn't spam it all over the boards, at least. He might be a lurker.


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## Aris Dragonborn (Oct 29, 2005)

Jdvn1 said:
			
		

> Well, he didn't spam it all over the boards, at least. He might be a lurker.



Yeah, unlike that one guy and his 'Win a free ipod/xbox/ps3! No joke, this actually works!!!!11!!1!!1loleleventyone!" threads.  

Thinking about it, it's not so much that he came here to promote his novel, but the fact that he created an 'anonymous' user name, and wrote a review as if he was just another fan of the book. That sort of deception just irks me. 

If you've written a novel, and think it's good, then by all means, advertise it. Push it for all your worth. But do so as the author, not posing as some anonymous fan.


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## Pielorinho (Oct 29, 2005)

Please report problematic posts instead of opening threads about them; we'll see them much faster that way.

Thanks for the heads-up!

Daniel


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## Truth Seeker (Oct 29, 2005)

Okay, somehow, the person in question, has apologize in the Sci Fi Fantasy/TV forum.


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## BSF (Oct 29, 2005)

I have got to agree.  If you wrote the book, be proud of it!  I don't think most EN Worlders would have a problem with somebody announcing that they were published and the book might be of interest.


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## Knight Otu (Oct 29, 2005)

Well, the poster denies to be the author, and quite honestly, those coincidences don't really convince me that he is (just think how many LotR characters are being used on the board, yet none of us is JRR Tolkien; and I don't think that author is the only person being born on that day).

Jumping on the poster assuming he must be the author based on such minor things is more than premature - and, and it honestly would have been better to say "Excuse me, but [a few coincidences listed] lead me to think you might be the author of the book. If this is the case, please say so - there is no shame in that."


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## Dog Moon (Oct 30, 2005)

Is there a rule that an author cannot come onto the boards and post a message in one of the forums about his own book?  If so, I guess I could see why he'd want to hide it, but I'd think that most authors would be professional enough not to stoop that low.  [Reviewing your own books, THAT'S pretty bad, although admittedly, for my book, I'd probably rate it lower than anyone else, but I have issues like that.  ]

Is the problem with the author pushing his book or is it with HOW he's pushing his book [assuming for a moment that it truly is the author]?


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## Knight Otu (Oct 30, 2005)

It's how he does it - masquerading as an enthusiastic fan (assuming he is the author, which is certainly a possibility).


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## Ulorian - Agent of Chaos (Oct 30, 2005)

Dog_Moon2003 said:
			
		

> Is the problem with the author pushing his book or is it with HOW he's pushing his book [assuming for a moment that it truly is the author]?



It's the how.



			
				Knight Otu said:
			
		

> Well, the poster denies to be the author, and quite honestly, those coincidences don't really convince me that he is (just think how many LotR characters are being used on the board, yet none of us is JRR Tolkien; and I don't think that author is the only person being born on that day).



To be clear, it's not just the same birthday, it's the same birth year as well - that would be one hell of a coincidence. Also, in the last while, this guy has set up accounts on numerous sci-fi/fantasy/rpg boards and the first post he makes is almost verbatim the one he posted here on ENWorld. For example:

http://chud.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28370

http://www.allscifi.com/Board.asp?BoardID=2256

http://messageboards.aol.com/aol/en_us/articles.php?boardId=547332&articleId=69&func=6&channel=aol+research+and+learn&filterRead=false&filterHidden=true&filterUnhidden=false

http://www.comicscommunity.com/boards/generalforum/?noframes;read=8580

http://www.allreaders.com/Board.asp?listpage=2&BoardID=2262

http://uplink.space.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=freespace&Number=372039&page=4&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=

http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/6/2897653/2/subj_-A-Kings-Quest-Fantastic-new-Fantasy-series

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=3537491#post3537491

http://www.comicscommunity.com/boards/generalforum/?noframes;read=8580

There were more, but I'm getting tired of cutting and pasting. Either that's one hell of a one-man fan club, or he's the author. Also, in the author's bio on his homepage, he mentions that he now lives in Key West, Florida. One of the damiynn links I visited was the user info for registered members for that site and it had 'damiynn' hailing from, you guessed it, Key West, Florida. A mountain of circumstancial evidence like this is very hard to dismiss.

I'm not sure why I'm intrigued by this.. I think the sheer cheek of it enticed me into some detective work.


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## Desdichado (Oct 30, 2005)

Well, the author--excuse me, poster, has made a few more posts.

Still, if a more established member--me, for example--were to annouce that he had written a book, and sold it, would that be a violation of the rules?  I wouldn't think twice about it.  If this guy has done so, what rule is he violating?  It's concievable he could be a longtime lurker who didn't have anything to say until his book was published, if a sense of "belonging to the community" prior to announcing it is important.

I'm not sure that I see how it is, though...

Of course, pretending to be a fan of the book, and essentially cut-and-pasting the same post on a dozen or so message boards is a bit different; that's leaning towards spamming.  But, like I said, he's posted in some other threads; he posted some pertinent and on-topic stuff in a Tarzan thread, for instance.  Even if he did cross-post, and was a bit coy about his authorship, if he is indeed the author, I still don't see what's so inherently wrong about it that a Moderator would need to be alerted.  Just call him on it, and move along.


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## DaveMage (Oct 30, 2005)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> Still, if a more established member--me, for example--were to annouce that he had written a book, and sold it, would that be a violation of the rules?




If YOU wrote it?  Depends on what the subject matter is.


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## Crothian (Oct 30, 2005)

seems like spam to me especially the way he did it.


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## Dog Moon (Oct 30, 2005)

> Originally posted by *Ulorian*
> Also, in the last while, this guy has set up accounts on numerous sci-fi/fantasy/rpg boards and the first post he makes is almost verbatim the one he posted here on ENWorld. For example:




Wow, that's just crazy, though finding all those is almost as crazy.    Although it's good to have your stuff known to lots of different people, I think he's giving the guy some negative publicity [Or himself, w/e].


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## Steverooo (Oct 30, 2005)

Ulorian said:
			
		

> It's the how.




So HOW did you stumble onto all of this?


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## Ulorian - Agent of Chaos (Oct 30, 2005)

Dog_Moon2003 said:
			
		

> Wow, that's just crazy, though finding all those is almost as crazy.



 Not really.. all I did was enter his username into Google.


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## Ulorian - Agent of Chaos (Oct 30, 2005)

Steverooo said:
			
		

> So HOW did you stumble onto all of this?



What got me suspicious was that this was the guy's first post. I took a quick look at this profile, then I did a google for AV Wedhorn (i.e. the author), not yet suspecting that they were the same person. I noticed that the birthdate listed on the author's website was exactly the same as the 'superfan' who posted the review, and that's when it clicked. More googling sealed the deal.


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## Knight Otu (Oct 30, 2005)

Ulorian said:
			
		

> To be clear, it's not just the same birthday, it's the same birth year as well - that would be one hell of a coincidence.



I'm aware, that's why I said 'born on that day', and while unlikely, it is a far cry from being a lotto jackpot. But that's not the point. The point is that there are better ways to handle such a situation.

As a final note - There are two points that are much stronger evidence for me than any of the circumstances you posted - this superfan has not signed the guestbook of the series' website, for one (at least he hadn't yesterday when I checked). The other is much more subjective - the author's short autobiography has the same 'feel' from a writing perspective as the posts damiynn made.


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## Ulorian - Agent of Chaos (Oct 30, 2005)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> Of course, pretending to be a fan of the book, and essentially cut-and-pasting the same post on a dozen or so message boards is a bit different; that's leaning towards spamming.  But, like I said, he's posted in some other threads; he posted some pertinent and on-topic stuff in a Tarzan thread, for instance.  Even if he did cross-post, and was a bit coy about his authorship, if he is indeed the author, I still don't see what's so inherently wrong about it that a Moderator would need to be alerted.  Just call him on it, and move along.



The moderators were alerted (actually, they spotted the thread on their own, without the help of this thread); he only posted on the other threads you mentioned after the moderators closed his thread and warned him about pimping his own work while masquerading as a fan.

At first, I didn't think it was that big a deal and wouldn't be something with which the moderators would want to bother. After thinking about it, though, I surmised that the owners of ENWorld wouldn't want this kind of misrepresentative post on their site, which hosts reviews that its readers expect to be honest and accurate.



			
				Knight Otu said:
			
		

> I'm aware, that's why I said 'born on that day', and while unlikely, it is a far cry from being a lotto jackpot.



No one is suggesting that that evidence alone is enough to clinch it. That evidence coupled with his posting behaviour on other sites, his user name being associated with the same city of residence as the author, etc. does put this matter into the 'lotto jackpot' realm though.



			
				Knight Otu said:
			
		

> But that's not the point. The point is that there are better ways to handle such a situation.



What do you mean? The moderators were alerted and they took the actions they felt were appropriate.



			
				Knight Otu said:
			
		

> this superfan has not signed the guestbook of the series' website, for one (at least he hadn't yesterday when I checked).



Good catch!



			
				Knight Otu said:
			
		

> The other is much more subjective - the author's short autobiography has the same 'feel' from a writing perspective as the posts damiynn made.



I thought that also, but didn't mention it because, like you said, that's subjective.


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## Pielorinho (Oct 30, 2005)

Just to be clear, I closed the thread for three reasons, in increasing order of importance:

1) Pretending to be a fan when you're really the author is dishonest, and it just bothered me.  Note that this is the least important reason.
2) The thread was turning its focus on Damiynn, not on the book, and that sort of thing has a tendency to turn real ugly, real fast.
3) Most importantly, his first post consisted of recommending his own product.  That's pretty much the definition of spam (especially when you consider that he's made the same post elsewhere).

As I said, I welcome *damiynn* to the boards, and I encourage him to participate in threads on other subjects.  If he wants to mention his book occasionally, that's fine; we just don't want anyone's entire board participation to consist of tooting their own horn.

Daniel


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## Desdichado (Oct 30, 2005)

DaveMage said:
			
		

> If YOU wrote it?  Depends on what the subject matter is.



If I announced that my "Penthouse Letters" series of books were being published?  Hey, it's fantasy.  Of a sort.


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## Thornir Alekeg (Oct 31, 2005)

Interesting.  I took a look at the cited reviewer Shirley P Johnson of the Midwest Book Review.  On Amazon.com she has 642 reviews and I didn't find one book that was less than a four star review, most were 5 stars.  I found almost no "critical" review in any of the submissions.  

As for the Midwest Book Review, well, I'm not so sure that an all volunteer organization with no criteria for reviewers, other than having read a book, is probably all that well-repsected.  Perhaps they qualify as the "largest reviewer in the country" based upon sheer volume, but that does not give them credibility.  Just like Ms. Johnson's reviews, on the Midwest Book Review website, I cannot find a single critical comment any of the reviews I looked at.  Most of them sound like they are just press releases.


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## Tarrasque Wrangler (Nov 1, 2005)

Thornir Alekeg said:
			
		

> Just like Ms. Johnson's reviews, on the Midwest Book Review website, I cannot find a single critical comment any of the reviews I looked at.  Most of them sound like they are just press releases.




Sounds like this outfit's the Earl Dittman of literary critique.

http://www.efilmcritic.com/feature.php?feature=712


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