Absolute Write Net Worth Plummets to Less Than 25K

Current WOWeb Estimate of Absolute Write Revenue

Following up on our previous post about the huge traffic plummet, we thought to check out the good old WOWeb that analyzes net worth and revenue potential of commercial websites and discovered that Absolute Write is diving ever closer to rock bottom. After our previous favorite and much-missed AW ower, Jenna, sold Absolute Write to Melodi Sherman (aka Macallister Stone) and Lisa Spangenberg, AW temporarily expanded in worth to well over $100K, propelled in part by a growing reputation for bullying and harshness that created lots of news on the Internet; but that soon backfired on them as more and more writers began to bravely speak out against their tyrannical excesses, bullying mods, and philistine owners. After a few years, the voices became a roaring torrent, and finally, gradually, Absolute Write and its Water Cooler forum began to feel the pinch.

You just can't keep trashing people for year after year without conscience or consequence. The lack of the former feeds the severity of the latter. As we've said elsewhere on this site:

YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW

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Private messages sent to the owner and other disagreements with the owner may be publicly posted and everyone invited to trash them. They play favorites ridiculously, and also get way too overinvolved, shutting down threads etc. for nothing. All this mess, while constantly telling everyone else that the number one rule is "Respect Your Fellow Writer!"

- Sitejabber Reviews

The Absolute Write Water Cooler is active enough, but has more than their fair share of condescending know-it-alls. If you’ve ever been there for any length of time, it’s like being back in high school. I didn’t like high school the first time around.

- Ripley King

That Absolute Write thread is bewildering. What in God's name is wrong with these people? And where do they find the time for all that arguing?

- Lexireveliian Blog

I realize being banned from AW is the norm, but for the following message. Wow! That crowd has gone totally nuts.

- Where Writers Meet

Look at this quite simply. You have a freewheeling chat board packed with anonymous and amateur posters, as well as poorly credentialed moderators and holier-than-thou owners. Now, add to that a hostile cultural tone feeding on ignorance and prepared to compete with itself, and what do you have?

Answer: the Absolute Write Water Cooler.

- Jane Friedman

People outside this mess just don't understand what the real victims of this website are talking about. It's like driving down the highway to work one morning and seeing that someone has overnight built a billboard on the highway with your face and name, and beside it are images of a bunch of other people you've never seen and don't know calling you a loser and a fraud and a crook and an idiot and whatever other insult they can think of. You can't get the billboard taken down because a new law prevents anyone from having to take responsibility for it even if they know the whole thing is a lie ..., and you can't sue the people on it because you've found out they are all fake, and every day you have to answer for these insults and hope that sane people will see this kangaroo trial by billboard for what it is and also hope you will not be fired from your job as a result.

- Poster on W.A.R. Blog

The owner and her sock puppets and assorted gang not only shred people all day for amusement and publicity (as someone pointed out, the mediocre writers get publicity for their poorly written books each time they post) and monetary gain (substantial revenue from advertisements), the site itself purports to offer good advice to writers when in fact it does no such thing. Advice is amateurish and quite often just plain wrong.

- Publisher W.

How people like Melodi can sleep at night is beyond me. As far as I am concerned, she is nothing but a criminal. But you know, that's just my educated opinion.

- Carroll Bryant

All writers should definitely stay away from this site. There are several moderators on this site who will start a fight with you and then kick you out for responding back. In addition, the advice that one receives on the forums is pedestrian and the kind of advice that any beginning writer would give...are you kidding me with this?

- Complaints and Review Board

Correct me if I am wrong, but my book blog should be about books and what I want to include. If you do not see what you want to see, that doesn't make me fake. Then came the next disturbing element of this unfolding drama. So we've been certified as fake. The forum moderator HapiSofi bashed the book club in more than one thread. She was applauded for her 'detective' work.

- UK Quality Reads BC

I’ve lost count of the number of “gang bangs” I’ve witnessed and it keeps getting worse. So many good writers have been banned or alienated there’s hardly anyone left worth reading, bad and misleading advice abounds and trolls seem to use it as a gathering place to discuss their next campaign. The site owner believes herself accountable to no one, so the mods range around the site like a gang of outlaws in Dodge City picking fights with anyone they don’t like the look of. I must admit it is a fascinating study in groupthink but hardly a congenial atmosphere for serious discussion.

- Lexireveliian Blog

IMPORTANT : "ADVICE" CIRCULATING ABSOLUTE WRITE COOLER FORUMS IS PROVIDED BY RANK AMATEURS, ANONYMOUS CREATURES, AND PUBLICATION BOTTOM-LISTERS, AS WELL AS VARIOUS FRAUDULENT IDENTITIES PRETENDING TO BE AN EDITOR FROM A MAJOR PUBLISHING HOUSE. THE AW FORUM OWNERS, MELODI SHERMAN AND LISA SPANGENBERG, HAVE NEVER WRITTEN FICTION, NOR HAVE THEY EVER EDITED FICTION IN ANY PROFESSIONAL OR ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY. DO YOUR RESEARCH CAREFULLY AND DO NOT TAKE AT FACE VALUE ANYTHING YOU "LEARN" ON AW CONCERNING THE MARKET OR ANY ASPECT OF FICTION WRITING.

The mission of W.A.R. is to expose the incompetents and bullies of Absolute Write for who they really are and to provide a verifiable record for anyone to examine; and to gather information and colleagues necessary to engage in legal proceedings against the owner and her cronies engaged in acts of libel against writers and legitimate businesses.

In the days before "Macallister Stone" (aka Melodi Sherman) took over, Absolute Write was useful and more fair. However, that time has passed. They have become a lynch mob who daily engage in smear tactics of the worst kind against people who just don't deserve it.

The time has come to fight back and make it as difficult as possible for the bullies to win. Let's take the fight to them.

- WAR Admin