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Atlanta Nights is a collaborative novel created by a group of science fiction and fantasy authors, with the express purpose of producing an unpublishably bad piece of work and testing whether publishing firm PublishAmerica would still accept it, which they did.[1] A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ...
Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ...
Fantasy is a genre of art that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. ...
PublishAmerica is a Maryland-based book publisher founded in 1999 by Lawrence Alvin Larry Clopper III and Willem Meiners. ...
The primary purpose of the exercise was to test PublishAmerica's claims to be a "traditional publisher" which would only accept high-quality manuscripts. Critics have long claimed that PublishAmerica is actually a vanity press which pays no special attention to the sales potential of the books they publish since most of their revenue comes from the authors rather than book buyers. PublishAmerica had previously made some highly derogatory public remarks about science fiction and fantasy writers, perhaps because many of their critics came from those communities; those derogatory remarks may have influenced the decision to make such a public test of PublishAmerica's claims. A vanity press or vanity publisher is a book printer which, while claiming to be a publisher, charges writers a fee in return for publishing their books or otherwise makes most of its money from the author rather than from the public. ...
Background
PublishAmerica describes itself as a "traditional publisher" and claims only to accept high-quality manuscripts for publication. Its website further claims that the company receives over 70 manuscripts a day and rejects most of them. A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ...
At one point, PublishAmerica's AuthorsMarket website posted an article claiming that, among other things: A website (or Web site) is a collection of web pages, typically common to a particular domain name or subdomain on the World Wide Web on the Internet. ...
- "As a rule of thumb, the quality bar for sci-fi and fantasy is a lot lower than for all other fiction... [science fiction authors] have no clue about what it is to write real-life stories, and how to find them a home... [science fiction] writers who erroneously believe that SciFi, because it is set in a distant future, does not require believable storylines, or that Fantasy, because it is set in conditions that have never existed, does not need believable every-day characters."[2]
Preparation In retaliation, a group of science fiction and fantasy authors under the direction of James D. Macdonald collaborated on a deliberately low-quality work, complete with obvious grammatical errors, nonsensical passages, and a complete lack of a coherent plot. The effort appears to have been partly inspired by another collaborative "hoax" work, Naked Came the Stranger: the working title of Atlanta Nights was Naked Came the Badfic. James D. Macdonald (1954- ) is an American critic and author working in multiple related genres, including science fiction, fantasy, and mystery. ...
The book Naked Came the Stranger was a literary hoax perpetrated by several well-known writers and critics in 1969. ...
The distinctive flaws of Atlanta Nights include nonidentical chapters written by two different authors from the same segment of outline (13 and 15), a missing chapter (21), two chapters that are word-for-word identical to each other (4 and 17), two different chapters with the same chapter number (12), and a chapter "written" by a computer program that generated random text based on patterns found in the previous chapters (34). Characters change gender and race; they die and reappear without explanation. Spelling and grammar are nonstandard. The initials of characters who were named in the book spelled out the phrase "PublishAmerica is a vanity press."[3]
The finale was also crafted to be deliberately bad; not only are all the previous events of the plot revealed to have been a dream (long condemned as a "cheat" ending), but even after this revelation, the book continues for several more chapters, regardless. This particular fillip was the work of James D. Macdonald, who contrived the entire plot. James D. Macdonald (1954- ) is an American critic and author working in multiple related genres, including science fiction, fantasy, and mystery. ...
Submission, acceptance and then repudiation The completed manuscript was offered to PublishAmerica by an unrevealed person not usually associated with fiction. The manuscript was accepted for publication on 7 December 2004 without comment, despite the claim made by PublishAmerica that "We read every single submission before we accept or refuse." December 7 is the 341st day (342nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The contract was reviewed with legal counsel, and the decision was made not to carry the hoax to actually publishing the book.
On 23 January 2005, the hoax was publicly revealed by the authors. On 24 January 2005, PublishAmerica retracted its acceptance. PublishAmerica claimed that the novel failed to meet their standards after "further editing". January 23 is the 23rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
January 24 is the 24th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Current status The authors subsequently published the book through print on demand publisher Lulu.com (ISBN 1-4116-2298-7) under the punnish pseudonym Travis Tea, with all profits designated to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Emergency Medical Fund. Lulu.com's description of the novel continues the joke in its description of the novel, "Atlanta Nights is a book that could only have been produced by an author well-versed in believable storylines, set in conditions that exist today, with believable every-day characters. Accepted by a Traditional Publisher, it is certain to resonate with an audience." Or as Teresa Nielsen Hayden's review said, "The world is full of bad books written by amateurs. But why settle for the merely regrettable? Atlanta Nights is a bad book written by experts." Print on demand or publish on demand (POD) is a publishing methodology in which a copy is not created until after an order is received. ...
Lulu. ...
It has been suggested that dajare be merged into this article or section. ...
A pseudonym (Greek pseudo + -onym: false name) is an artificial, fictitious name, also known as an alias, used by an individual as an alternative to a persons true name. ...
Science Fiction Writers of America, or SFWA (pronounced siff-wah or seff-wah), was founded in 1965 by Damon Knight. ...
Teresa Nielsen Hayden (born March 21, 1956) is an American science fiction editor, fanzine writer, and essayist. ...
Authors The authors of the chapters of this book include: Sherwood Smith writes fantasy and science fiction for young adult as well as adults. ...
James D. Macdonald (1954- ) is an American critic and author working in multiple related genres, including science fiction, fantasy, and mystery. ...
Sheila Finch is a science fiction author. ...
Charles Coleman Finlay is an American science fiction and fantasy author. ...
Adam-Troy Castro is a science fiction writer living in Florida. ...
Allen Mulherin Steele, Jr. ...
Alan Rodgers (born 1959) is a science fiction and horror writer, editor, and poet. ...
Andrew Burt is a British actor born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire on 23 May 1945. ...
Victoria Strauss is a fantasy author. ...
Teresa Nielsen Hayden (born March 21, 1956) is an American science fiction editor, fanzine writer, and essayist. ...
Signed from Rotherham United early in the 1964-65 season, Ken Houghton was a stylish midfielder who linked brilliantly between Citys stalwart defence and the legendary attacking force of the mid to late sixties - Wagstaff, Chilton and Butler. ...
Charles Coleman Finlay is an American science fiction and fantasy author. ...
...has been selling words since he graduated from Yale in 1972. ...
Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden (born 1952) is a fantasy author who has written several books using the pseudonym Megan Lindholm. ...
At the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, August 2005 Robin Hobb is the pen name of Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden (born 1952 in California). ...
C. Michael Armstrong is a former CEO of Hughes Electronics, Comcast Corporation & AT&T. Worked for IBM from 1961 to 1992. ...
Pierce Askegren, of the Louisiana Askegrens, is an American author best known for his work in adaptations of licensed properties and is a lifelong comic book fan. ...
Peter J. Heck is a science fiction and mystery author. ...
Brenda W. Clough is a science fiction and fantasy writer. ...
References - ^ PublishAmerica accepts Atlanta Nights manuscript. University of Denver. Retrieved on 2007-01-26.
- ^ Science Fiction Authors Hoax Vanity Publisher. PRWeb Press Release Newswire. Retrieved on 2006-03-05.
- ^ http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1032467&postcount=44
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
January 26 is the 26th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ...
March 5 is the 64th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (65th in leap years). ...
External links - Contract offered by PublishAmerica
- Acceptance letter
- Atlanta Nights author listing
- Science Fiction Authors Hoax Vanity Publisher (press release)
- Atlanta Nights at Embiid Publishing (free e-book editions)
- The Official Travis Tea Website
- Explanation by the author of Chapter 11 and the program that generated Chapter 34
- ITConversations podcast interview with James D. "Travis Tea" Macdonald, Co-Author of Atlanta Nights
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