Not exactly a meme - spamming by Penknife Press

[ffutures]

I'm being persistently spammed by Penknife Press, which appears to be a vanity press operation with a lot of people very angry about their spamming. I think that they're finding addresses on fanfic sites, on the assumption that people who post fanfic are likely to fall for their crap.

It's evident, on reading posts others have made about them, that they do not respond to complaints etc., so I've decided to try another approach; they're selling their stuff through various outlets including Amazon, so from now on, every time they spam me, I'm contacting one or another of these outlets and making a complaint. Hit Amazon today, and they ought to know how much money I've spent with them over the years - if enough of their regular customers follow suit they may actually start to pay some attention, or even (dare I say it) ask Penknife Press to stop being arseholes.

What I would appreciate is for anyone else who gets spammed by these bozos to do as I have done; post a complaint to one or another of their outlets, and mention this on your livejournal. If enough people do it we may get a result.

Comments

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

I got one this morning, a teaser story from a named book. So I found the book on Amazon and reviewed it.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Interesting approach - can you give a link?

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

Here's the book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0974194948/qid=1130973598/sr=1-10/ref=sr_1_10_10/202-5610086-5418221

Amazon says customer reviews can take a while (up to about 5 days) to appear.

The first paragraph of the teaser story went:

The war god of Babylon, everyone had said it was just a myth. They all
claimed he insulted the field of archeology with his, "self-appointed
quest." Ninurta was a gorgeous solid gold creature before him. Jonathan
brushed the ancient sand delicately from the priceless relic. The ruby eyes
were masterfully set in the angry face.

I suspect I get different spam, are they approaching you as a writer? They have me down as a potential purchaser. Gaah.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I didn't get far enough into it to learn exactly what they wanted, I tend to delete spam pretty quickly, but it looked like they were trying to sell me the book.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

That was the obvious intention in my case; unfortunately, they blew it by quoting the first chapter.

Even after all the shite people sent Critical Wave in the hope we'd suddenly start publishing fiction (the one where Dr Who lands in a nudist colony was a killer) or poetry (in one case, a book-length work, possibly his only copy), I never fail to be astounded at some of these wannabees' reserves of self-delusion.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

Did you notice the synopsis on that page? "Over twenty short stories and two novellas await the hapless reader inside Timeslips and Terrors."

Aside from the fact that it should open with "More than..", the word "hapless" is hardly a confidence booster to the potential purchaser. If this was supplied by Penknife, rather than a particularly honest Amazon employee, the staff "editing" these books appear to be as illiterate as their clients.

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

That is the "official" puff paragraph, and I did mention it in my review. There are no editors. The authors provide everything as it is to be published, including the cover artwork.

Look at the author contract on their website if you want a good laugh.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

No wonder the material they "accept" is no dire. Books which are not intended for the "mass market", according to the front page, that presumably being defined as anyone outside your family or circle of friends.

I also saw the note that their mailing list is strictly opt-in. Har har.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

If you're using Gmail, why not just set up a filter than automatically dumps their message to spam? Tah Dah! You're done!

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

It's on my NTLworld account - I've got mailwasher marking it for deletion automatically, but they are now about the only repeat spammer I've got pestering me, it would be nice to do them a little harm...

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

I'm being persistently spammed by Penknife Press

Me too, as discussed here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/stevegreen/2928.html). Can't just be fanfic sites, though; I'd guess they're probably also trawling PNN and similar forums.

I probably made a tactical error by hitting "unsubscribe", but if so, Yahoo's usually pretty good at blocking reported spam. That said, there's a lot to be said for your suggestion, and I'll certainly consider taking it up if they bother me again.