Lulu Hell (I mean, you couldn't make this up: or, So. Not. My. Book!)

[dianeduane]

Okay, now I'm rolling my eyes really hard. Not yet completely freaked...until this happens twice.

Via the excellent kerithwyn:

Unfortunately, I need to report an "oops" regarding the lulu.com printing of Raetian Tales 1: A Wind from the South. I ordered it and received the shipment very quickly...only to find that while the cover was correct, the interior text was that of another book entirely, some sort of evangelical text: http://www.lulu.com/content/387049

And goodness, just look at the blurb on this:

Written from a completely Christian perspective, Steve Aiken has just released his fourth book: There Will Be No Rescue. As a former police officer, bodyguard, D.C. lobbyist, and radio talk show host, Steve tells the story of his fascinating life with a self-help approach that will certainly encourage the reader. From the pinnacle of success to absolute ruin and public scorn; from breaking his neck to coming back years later and winning a state racquetball championship; From running one of the most heated congressional campaigns in the country to losing almost everything in his life again, Steve holds nothing back in sharing the life lessons he has learned.

Um, well, neither do I. Is it too much to hope that Lulu will reverse the compliment and publish the contents of A Wind from the South inside that guy's covers?

...Oh, well, okay, I guess it is. Never mind. But back to --

Life Lessons DD Has Learned and Holds Nothing Back in Sharing:

*Never tug on Syndrome's cape.

*Never play cards with a woman called Doc.

*Never get into a land war in Chryse Planitia.

*And the best of the rest of them are here.

Comments

Confusing book screwups

[robotech-master.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of an interesting little mix-up that happened a few months ago, when Mercedes Lackey noticed a book listed on Amazon under her name that she did not write. I did some looking into it for her, and wrote a fairly long journal essay about it, combining the incident with the infamous Lori Jareo Star Wars fanfic novel for some observations on Amazon.

Oddly enough, when I looked up the ISBN of the ersatz Lackey book in Books In Print, it turned out to belong to a Moscow publisher who only had one book listed with BIP. I ended up ordering the thing, and it turned out to be a romance novel of similar title to what was given on Amazon, with the ISBN on a sticker applied over the real ISBN on the cover. As near as I could make out, apparently the Soviet publisher sold all the ISBNs it didn't need to an remaindered-book distributor, so they could use it in lieu of the "real" ISBN so the book didn't get mixed up with the unremaindered version of itself.

I have to admit, yours is so much better, though. :)

Here's my first journal entry on the matter (http://www.terrania.us/journal/2006/04/now-at-amazoncom-bad-fanfic-and-books.html), and a follow-up (http://www.terrania.us/journal/2006/07/books-whose-author-did-not-write-them.html) that I posted to explain how it all came out.

[buran.livejournal.com]

If we're going by flag-plantings, the U.S. got there first with Viking 1.

Catalog Page for PIA03164 (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03164)

Lander 1 Site (http://www.solarviews.com/cap/mars/vlpan11.htm)

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

Now THAT's a screw up.

[lord-maahes.livejournal.com]

That mission statement is quite an inspiration!

[tabbyclaw.livejournal.com]

Iunno. Tugging on Syndrome's cape seemed to work well for The Hungry Little Jet Engine.

[kelvix.livejournal.com]

I find your mission statement inspiring.

I want the enthusiasm to embrace it fully: at the moment I almost feel like a poster for despair.com under the tagline "jaded" If there isn't a poster up there with that message on, then there should be.

[kerithwyn.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to give you this breaking update on the "oops" situation: Lulu.com finally sent me a replacement book, all text correctly in place, so all is well.

I look forward to seeing "The Big Meow" published in this format. :)