Absolute Write Down and Out?

Not yet. But by any measure, the worth of Absolute Write is lessening. Matter of fact, it has plummeted. Traffic is at an all time low and the long drop shows no sign of slowing down. We've noted the reasons for this. We've examined the iPredator phenomenon and read testimony of the victims. We've reviewed the banners of questionable advertisers and other forms of trash advertising. We've called out major bullies and proved beyond any doubt that bad writer advice is rampant on the AW forums. We've demonstrated that the horse farm owners of Absolute Write have no qualifications for running a hands-on website for writers.

Though we think the value grossly overestimated, a website estimates Absolute Write to be worth a purchase value of just over $95,000 (make sure and click the update link). According to a poster on Michael M's blog, the site was previously worth over a million buckaroos (!!!!) at some point in 2013 or 2014. We think this number was also grossly overestimated, however, the clear fact remains: Absolute Write is going down, steadily dropping in value and in traffic, and therefore, in the ability to bully and misinform writers, particularly naive writers.

And the owners have no one to thank but themselves for this circumstance.

As soon as the AW forum website was sold to Melodi "Macallister" Sherman and Lisa Spangenberg, the future was set in Stone. Cyberbully bloodbaths and acts of ongoing misinformation reached epidemic levels. Never before had the writer community online seen such a virulent form of moderator and mob abuse. The victim count mounted. All manner of writers, presses, and agents and organizations fell under the AW ax policy of shoot first and ask no questions. The banning of long time members skyrocketed for the minor offense of daring to disagree with the new owners or their favorites. Websites, forums and blogs critical of Absolute Write began to appear on the web. The owners, and apologists like Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware fame, not only denied any form of abuse whatsoever, but actually invented the absurd story that all of the "haters" were just one person.

There is so much evidence of all the above on this blog, and so much more around the web, that only a demented fool or AW advertiser can deny the reality. All of us pray for the day when Absolute Write is once again sold, hopefully to someone good and fair, like the original owner Jenna Glatzner.

One more time... We miss you Jenna.

Down, over and out.

Beware Absolute Write Trashing of Agent Eric Ruben

Eric Ruben is a fantastic agent! He is deeply knowledgeable, personable, and extremely business-oriented. It’s a pleasure to have him as an agent and I recommend him fully.
- Anne Elizabeth, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Sourcebook’s Navy SEAL romance series and the Pulse of Power graphic novel series.

______________________

The Pop-up Sock Puppets of One Brilliance

Another gem from the axe-grinding paradise of Absolute Write.

Literary Agent Eric Ruben

We are asked to believe that four anonymous entities (who suspiciously sound like the same person) who joined Absolute Write one day after another and only for the ostensible purpose of trashing Eric Ruben are telling the unquestioned truth when "they" allege that an agent as professional as Ruben broke every rule of professionalism and behaved out of character like a foolish child, even to the point of becoming violent. We are asked to believe absurdities such as, "He spends a lot of time tweeting from Whole Foods." We are further asked to believe that "these" anonymous axe-grinders were able to initiate not one but uncounted intimate private conversations with Eric's clients who, of course, also trashed Eric to them. We are asked to believe these posters in question are all different people when they talk the same, make identical unsubstantiated allegations, weasel word the same, and even disgorge the transparently disingenuous claim that they don't wish to "badmouth" Eric before proceeding to do just that with great vigor and while pretending to be objective.

The curious thing about all this is that it eerily resembles the pop-up trashing of Curiosity Quills noted in our SAD TRUTH OF HATE post. In other words, an anonymous entity pops up from nowhere on the Absolute Write forum under the noses of the owners and mods and begins severely trashing their victim without being questioned or doubted in the least. A real pattern here. We see it everywhere on AW, and in each case, the mods, owners and members retreat from any reasonable standard of fairness while the victim is decimated. And how many times have we seen them all join in to support the bashing!

Moving on.

absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?216948-Ruben-Literary-Agency-(Eric-Ruben)&p=8655969&viewfull=1#post8655969

Look at Them

The first anonymous trasher of Eric calls herself SavvySharky, who kicks off with: "I don't want to bad mouth him..." Then proceeds to do precisely that, and remorselessly. So this Savvy Sharky (whoever she is) is disingenuous at minimum. Our trust level of this anonymous hater is sliding.

And a few unsupported claims and weasel wording:

"I finally had a few uncomfortable conversations with his clients to get a sense of what I was experiencing was the norm and it seemed it was. Other clients weren't happy with where he was subbing, or how little they knew about where he was subbing, and even raised some questions about his professionalism--which I can't speak to personally."

You can't, Sharky honey? Oh, and why not? You're speaking to everything else! And btw, what clients? It "seemed"? What does that really mean? Amazing that people she has never met will immediately open up and share their personal business with this Sharky. We find this really hard to believe. Hmmm, could it be she is quite simply lying? Can we suspect an anonymous entity who just joined the forum that very month only for the purpose of trashing Eric Ruben just might be making false and misleading allegations? Is it possible? I suppose it's good for her to hide under the blanket of Absolute Write rather than risk a lawsuit for libel.

But wait.

Only a day later another anonymous entity suddenly joins AW and with yet another pseudo-clever name: DewTheWriteThing. Among other unsubstantiated allegations, she says, "Most of us (some who have left, others who are still hanging on) have been too afraid to say anything..." So who left? Who is still hanging on? Why not tell us? And why are they living in fear? Where is Eric's rep for destroying former or current clients? His other clients said he's a really nice guy.

absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?216948-Ruben-Literary-Agency-(Eric-Ruben)&p=8680664&viewfull=1#post8680664

And finally, here comes "Brilliance" who says, "Look, guys. I'm not trying to badmouth anyone." But just before that, she said of Eric Ruben: "Things got worse when I started to actually voice my doubts. He got very defensive and volatile. Eventually, I couldn't even disagree with him without him melting down. I reached out to some fellow writers who were dealing with him, and sure enough, everyone was having problems; bad communication, unsatisfactory submissions, and more than one told me they'd found out he lied about where he'd sent their work."

Wait a minute. She sounds suspiciously like that SavvySharky person, doesn't she? And she rarely posted on AW, but appears after several years to trash Eric. Could it be... Could it be that she is also SavvySharky and DewTheWriteThing? They do sound much like, do they not? They even "reached out" to others who were "dealing with him" and "everyone was having problems." Gosh, doesn't that sound just like old Sharky? Here we go again. Who are all these writers they both keep finding? How did she contact them? Where did she find them? No details. And again, why would these people spill their guts to someone they don't know? It's just amazing how Sharky and Brilliance synch so perfectly with tactics and wording. Not out to badmouth, eh?

Overall, this trashing of Eric Ruben's rep is quite clearly the work of one vengeful, unprincipled person. It was set up and orchestrated. We couldn't be more certain, and for the record, we have no horse in this race. We've never met Eric Ruben, but when we found this unfair and vicious trashing of a reputable agent, we couldn't help but call attention to the sleazy behavior.

No fair minded writer forum would ever allow this, much less never question the parade of negative allegations. Where were the mods? The owners? Why allow this agent specifically to get trashed? And why does this pop-up trashing closely resemble other pop-up trashings of various other victims as we've seen above?

Could it be these trashers are owners or mods on Absolute Write who have an axe to grind?

Absolute Write - Beware The Advertising (Freeditorial)

Some beware analysis of the banner ads running on the top of Absolute Write, background check, and recommendations. First one "Freeditorial"? Yes, that's it, right above 48HrBooks.Com. Who would name a real publishing house, even a self-publisher, something like this? It whiffs of scam, it does, and the whole thing is almost comical. But there is nothing comical about the promises it makes to new writers:

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?299129-Freeditorial-Publishing-is-now-open-for-submissions (links open in new browser window)

As anyone can see, even a few denizens of the Absolute Write Beware lynch mob question the validity of Freeditorial, but the thread suddenly stops for no reason. Could it be because the AW owner, Macallister "Melodi" Stone, decided to accept their offer of paid advertisement back in 2014? How else to explain the usual pages of trashing and mockery aimed at the staff of new small presses, for example, but an abandonment of slaughter house approach regarding an organization of nobody that actually claims to be a valid publishing house while:

failing to show the face or bio of one single staff member or editor of the "publishing house"
failing to answer any and all legitmate questions about its operations (see links above and below)
indicating on the About Page that it is owned by a corporation called Inv and B Corp that does not even have its own website but lists itself in Business Finder as a travel and tourism business
offering as enticement the assertion that they paid an untraceable (and perhaps nonexistent) Spanish author who wrote an untraceable book $85,0000 (btw, it's not even found on the Freeditorial website much less anywhere else)
demonstrating no editorial screen whatsoever in making choices for who is "published" by Freeditorial.

Moving on to another writer forum where the Freeditorials are marketing their biz:

http://www.youngwritersonline.net/showthread.php?p=189964

And here we have several reasonable questions on Young Writers Online ignored by the anonymous spokesperson from Freeditorial:

"Is there some way I can see the bios of some of the people responsible for my book, should I submit? Who's behind acquisitions? Copyediting? Technical editing? What experience do they have? I understand that maybe there are too many people to list them all, but why not highlight a few of the heads, so that I can be sure the person responsible for editing my book isn't also splitting their time between translating public domain novels for your library?

Not answered! More as follows:

http://www.youngwritersonline.net/showpost.php?s=260f2f47cb17d3f88210a9e351b1c74b&p=189964&postcount=6

http://www.youngwritersonline.net/showpost.php?s=260f2f47cb17d3f88210a9e351b1c74b&p=189781&postcount=4

And one of their stock claims posted on several online writer forums as enticement to sign with them:

"For example on our most recent additions under Recommended Books on our homepage, there is the book titled “The record”, for which Freeditorial paid a European writer “Victor Saltero” $85,000. Another recent deal, is a short novel for which the was paid over 5,000$. You will see this novel soon under Recommended Books."

From the Wikipedia article, the only real source of anything about this so-called author (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%ADctor_Saltero):

"Victor Saltero Cárdenes is the pseudonym under which a series of novels in the Spanish publishing house published Imser century between 2006 and 2008. The publisher no longer exists. His true identity is unknown... From 2011 his writings are published by the American publisher Freeditorial."

As for the second "novel" we don't even get a name.

Is Freeditorial simply using these tactics to entice as many writers as possible to their website in order to increase readership for the purpose of selling advertising? And why is Absolute Write yet again revealing an enormous hunger for absolute hypocrisy?

_________________

Absolute Write Web Traffic Plummets and Thanks For The Continued Support in Fighting the Good Fight

Hi everyone! Hugs and kisses to you guys! We want to take the opportunity to thank all who have contributed to this blog. We are sorry we could not print all your stories about cyberbullying on Absolute Write. We do our best with the time we have. We feel we have contributed to the overall presence of valid criticism of AW, and to a limited extent, justice has been served on the owners and moderators of one of the worst adult cyberbully forums and bad advice sites on the Internet. To this day these same owners and moderators remain totally unrepentant while spreading the lie to advertisers and whoever will listen that the many dozens of critical websites pointing directly to specific incidents of abuse, bullying, and debilitating advice is all the work of one troll (see the "Haters Gonna Hate" post on Google wherein Victoria faces off with the troll in question like a true Fox News pro).

One of our successes has been to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that Absolute Write is invested monetarily in maintaining the presence of "Beware" links on Google that more often than not lead directly to instances of the cyberbullying we reveal and discuss at length on this blog. The business model of AW depends on this. They won't go back and fix the many wrongs visited on people because that will pull the plug on the cash flow. If that sounds unbelievable, examine the irrefutable evidence on this blog of their intent and their victims. Conflict = Cash. The website nurtures a predatory culture and uses it to pay the owner's mortgage in Washington State where she runs an unlicensed horse boarding facility.

Strange? Yes. In spades. Like my daddy told me, never trust a hypocrite much less someone who spends most of their life being critical of everyone but themselves.

Below is a graph of another writer website for comparison purposes over the same period.

Relevant Links

Insightful Reviews of iPredators on Absolute Write

What is An iPredator?

Definition as follows: "A person, group, or nation who, directly or indirectly, engages in exploitation, victimization, coercion, stalking, theft, or disparagement of others using Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

iPredators are driven by deviant fantasies, desires for power and control, retribution, religious fanaticism, political reprisal, psychiatric illness, perceptual distortions, peer acceptance or personal and financial gain.
iPredators can be any age or gender and are not bound by economic status, race, religion, or national heritage.
Whether the offender is a cyberbully, cyberstalker, cyber harasser, cybercriminal, online sexual predator, cyber terrorist, and internet troll or engaged in cyber deception, they fall within the scope of iPredator.

iPredator Behavior on Absolute Write

Below are a select number of intelligent and insightful reviews by writers who have run afoul of Absolute Write iPredators, or who have observed the cyberbullying of others on Absolute Write forums. Some wish to remain anonymous due to fear of their reputations and livelihoods being smeared in retaliation by Absolute Write owners, moderators, and their various followers (or whatever you wish to term them).

We encourage everyone from attorneys to social psyche researchers to take time and read these reviews carefully. The iPredator behavior patterns are apparent and predictable. The reviews represent a random sample taken from over a hundred critical reviews of Absolute Write and its culture.

All it takes is for one question to be asked, or one axe grinder to make an appearance, and the predators smell blood. A swarm of anonymous fairies and fops with ridiculous icons appear and begin fomenting themselves into leaps of logic, unfounded assumptions, and distortions of reality...

I came to see it that on the whole the Absolute Write forums are an arena of juveniles acting out their fantasies and retaliatory urges on a continuing basis while honestly trying to give each other writer advice, and all the while watched over by people who are just mean spirited and unethical...

______________________________________________

@Fiendish writer, no one is lying about Absolute Write. That place is a almost a sewer of negativity. The mods are bullies. They bash self-publishing. They are so pathetic. I don’t know why writers even bother going over there- to have themselves kept in check by a bunch of bums. That’s just my personal opinion, of course. I’ve never been in trouble there or been banned, but I saw how volatile that place was and got away quick. Nobody is lying. Everything they say about that place is true.

- "The Last of Us" (comment thread)

I'm one to lurk before joining in, and after watching the mods tear apart people for NO reason, then egging on others to bash those people, then carrying on long after they chased the person from the site...yeah I think I will pass on joining in. I've never seen anything so vile. There is a definite "clique" there. The site is great for them, but it looks like it's near impossible to become part of their "in club". Whether I could get in with them or not, I don't think I'd want to because I won't stand behind such poor behavior. This has to be the worst writing community I've ever encountered.

- The Complaints Board

It's pretty much just what you'd expect. A lot of bad-to-mediocre writers giving bad-to-mediocre advice to bad-to-mediocre wannabe writers... The mods are powertripping jerks, just as many of the other posters have said. I met a handful of nice people, but no reason to stick around. I never posted any work to be critiqued because honestly, so much of what was posted in the critique section was so bad and the advice that was given equally amateur... I just didn't feel like I'd gain anything from it that I didn't already know. And most of the advice from different critters was conflicting, anyway.

- Rachel W. - The Missing Sitejabber Reviews

Ironically these “websites / authors” are doing what they claim others are doing, taking advantage of people who are looking in good faith for facts and information, truthful information about the publishing industry. Their responses are reduced to internet babble. A mix of half truths, alleged facts and very personal un-professional remarks and behavior. They tend to be abusive, Holier then thou, and totally off the mark. ALL they have to do is PROVE what they post. Just saying they have “hundreds” of complaint isn’t going to cut it. People are fed up with that attitude. Courts are leaning heavily toward companies and individuals who are entitled to face their accusers and their alleged facts.

One poster stated that they’re “reaping what they sow” how true. All of sudden people are asking them questions about who they really are, besides mutual friends.

So why don’t they just tell the truth?

- Publishing Facts

I’ve only been a member briefly, and found this blog by searching how to leave the AWWC. It’s horrible. I thought it was an open, honest forum to exchange ideas and learn. I found myself in the middle of backbiting, condescending, bitter people (including two Mods) who were not helpful at all and hide behind screen names.

How am I supposed to take career advice seriously from someone called SuperModerator, when I can’t tell if they’ve ever published anything? I asked a specific question, and when I questioned politely but firmly the uninformed and negative advice an anonymous writer gave, she harangued and condescended like a fishwife.

On another thread, she jumped into a productive discussion and tongue lashed not only me, but every contributor! Lord, it must’ve taken her half an hour just to quote every single one of us LOL It was a ludicrous critique: she said we “had to” provide evidence for everything we said. This, immediately after telling me one of her pets doesn’t have to provide any, and I am rude for asking.

- The Cult - Absolute Write Water Cooler (comments)

I will give give "Absolute Write" credit for one thing though, they're very intelligent people. You see, they solved the mystery of my age. Using their version of commonsense and deductive reasoning, they were able to figure out that I am a withering and wilted old man. In a thread on their forum, they were talking about me. As everyone who has been following me knows, my age has not only been a bully obsession, but has baffled them for centuries. It's really all they can talk about... I will go on record and say that I am not one hundred percent positive that "Absolute Write" is a scam, I have no concrete proof of it, but when the owner of the site lies about her real name, and address, and has been sued on multiple occasions, then all of the signs point to ---> Buyer Beware!

- Carroll Bryant

The main focus of Absolute Write is the "Water Cooler", a huge forum which addresses authorship of any kind. It has begun to suffer from a typical ailment that creeps in most long-standing Internet forums: the dreaded Clique Mentality. This occurs when a relatively small set of users contributes the vast majority of posts, combined with a set of unwritten rules--which are often rather unclear to anybody else than the clique itself. Hapless outsiders who violate these clique conventions will often find a mob of old-standing users pounce upon them like a group of ravenous wolves. I'm not joking--it's not a pretty sight when it happens. I have seen posters on Absolute Write being bullied merely for disagreeing with a clique member on a fairly minor matter.

The mob will pull any trick to discredit an outsider: ridiculing, twisting words of out context, and fairly often rather nasty personal attacks. People with few to no publishing credentials will get told that their opinions are unimportant and that their writing "likely sucks." The irony is that most clique members are themselves writers of mediocre fare dwindling in the lower parts of the midlist, if that ...

- Anon : The Missing Alexa Reviews

As far as I'm concerned, if a site is run this way it has no value so I will ignore it and encourage everyone to ignore it. It is run by a bunch of lower mid-list (and that may be being generous) old biddies who have nothing better to do than to dictate their rules to others. Free speech does not exist on Absolute Write and where free speech does not exist, I will not go. They talk a good game about "respect your fellow writer" but take umbrage at things in an oversensitive way and pull that respect from you without a second thought.

- Mark Breuer : No Irish, No DGs

If you're a member of Absolute Write, I guarantee you've seen the moderators sweep into a discussion where the topic is one of their pet peeves, use the unfortunate poster as a punching bag, invite long-time members to join them, and then lock the thread and sometimes boot the member. It's never a straightforward warning about the rules, or a request for clarification. The moderators are not there to facilitate discussion, they're there to drive the discussion. If it ventures out of the bounds they like, even if the discussion is polite, it gets locked if for no other reason than "attitude."

It took me about five minutes to gather some examples. I went to a single topic and looked through the first few pages for locked threads. To be fair, two of the threads I saw were locked for legitimate (at least, what most forum admins would consider legitimate) reasons: resurrecting ancient threads. The rest were examples of moderators treating members like garbage.

- Absolute Wrong : Silencing the Lambs

So whatever the merits of the campaign against Absolute Write, or the motivations of those behind this campaign, I have to (reluctantly) say that those in charge of Absolute Write Water Cooler richly deserve it. In the short time that I had an identity on that board, I would cringe every time that I logged on, in anticipation of the latest gratuitous, public insult that the board moderators had lodged against me, along with the warning "don't you dare talk back, or it will turn out badly for you" (their exact words).

- B.Q. : Haters Gonna Hate (Comments on Victoria Strauss Troll Battle)

This morning, we found out through a few book club members that a forum known as the Absolute Write Cooler had identified us as a fake. Apparently, this is because we don't have an "existence that isn't associated with this book blog. No one reports going to lunch with her, she didn't show her pet at a local cat show, she hasn't participated in a Walk For Life, she isn't listed in a graduating class."

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. Absolute joy, that people find so many useful ways to spend their time. But one thing, was missing. Where is HapiSofi's contact information? From as far back as 2012, three characters appear in every thread together. HapiSofi, James McDonald and AliceShortCake. Then there are names like Old Hack, VeinGlory and Torgo. Again, no contact information, no social media links for most of these profiles.

- Quality Reads UK

FROM THE MISSING SITEJABBER REVIEWS:

Absolute Write... So they made a set of forums for self pub. I rolled across them a couple of months ago, and was pretty horrified by what I saw: a large number of folks claiming to be industry experts deliberately spreading misinformation about what self publishing was, how best to go about it, and whether one could actually do it successfully (outside a few “outliers”). So I stepped in and started pointing out the flaws in the logic.

- Kevin O. Mclaughlin

What frightens me as a rational person is that there are those who cannot understand why WAR and other sites are taking the time and effort to resist the kingdom of Absolute Write. What are they refusing to see? It is obvious that this is a combination protest and consciousness raising effort on the part of groups and people critical of the ongoing abuse, smears and cyberbullying. It is also a movement to curtail their behavior by any legal means necessary, as WAR says, and I agree with this.

- Lesley Cameron - The Consequence and Sad Truth of Hate (comments)

Beware. Absolute Write, in the hands of Lisa Spangenberg and her associates, is in effect a judge-jury-prosecutor platform, and one utilized on an almost daily basis to publicly humiliate, bash, defame and even scold people they have never met and do not know, as well as businesses they have never interacted with in any form whatsoever. All it takes is for one question to be asked, or one axe grinder to make an appearance, and the predators smell blood. A swarm of anonymous fairies and fops with ridiculous icons appear and begin fomenting themselves into leaps of logic, unfounded assumptions, and distortions of reality. All this would be amusing if it were not for the fact that their extensive dialogues and diatribes become public record and are ranked high in Google.

And will the average reader always understand what kind of sociopaths he or she is witnessing. Not necessarily. They appear to speak from authority quite often, give the appearance of sincerity, and there is a background history of real scams revealed by Absolute Write. Users there like Victoria Strauss, who give the appearance of legitimacy, will rush in to show support. But as we all know, the best way to maintain the momentum at Absolute Write is to mix a few grains of truth into one continuous and hydra-headed avalanche of lie. In reality, the core site is a lie on more than one level. 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 (huge 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.

Regardless, the bullies at Absolute Write, herded there by Lisa Spangenberg (as we all now know) and goaded on by her at all times with great vigor, basically function as a Salem witch trial. Accusations are often baseless, but delivered and discussed with excessive zeal. Victims are displayed for purposes of torture, and anyone who disagrees is accused of being a witch also.

One has to ask: what gives such cowardly arm-chair nerds the right to act as prosecutors, judge and jury? Nothing gives them the right. These are a bunch of losers looking for payback. I've seen it before. I've fired abnormals like this at my job because they were caught retaliating against other workers using phony online identities.

I know the type, and I sincerely hope someone is able to bring legal action against Lisa Spangenberg and her hateful crew.

- PublisherW - The Missing Sitejabber Reviews

FROM DARK MARKETS "THE CULT OF ABSOLUTE WRITE":

"ABSOLUTE power corrupts absolutely." is the phrase that really sums it up which is funny and ironic. The head admin Spangenberg that has the sock puppet Stone is on a huge power trip over having that big board that looks great, that people want to join, but it's so insidious because it looks harmless and super fun but any of the mods that are nuts like that OldHack and Spangenberg will just randomly attack people and people can't even defend themselves their either banned or have some humiliating subnic,

And I'm not talking about the small publishers and scam publishers that they bash, I'm talking about just writers trying to talk about any issue if a mod agrees with ANYTHING on ANY topic then they can insult, belittle and degrade that member to their hearts content and the member will be banned if they say one word in their defense or even if they say anything perceived as "snarky" back and they just play these nasty little mind games that they think are so clever, but anyone can see through them, it's just that people can't do anything much about them because it is a private business, but yes, the crazy power trip is ruining a magnificent concept and something that could be so good.

She really doesn't have to act so crazy and nasty to keep control of her board and it's really hypocritical to let certain mods spew misinformation and throw around insults like that Old Hack.

- Shay Richards : The Looking Glass of Caroll Bryant (comments)

Now, if there is any environment more toxic than GR, it’s the Absolute Write Water Cooler. It’s a snake pit. And not just any snake pit. We’re talking Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark kind of snake pit. Why is it so bad? Its not just because of its members. Its moderators play a big part in it, too. Keep reading and we’ll show you what we mean.

Now before we continue, we want to show you some Alexa reviews we found here. All of the five star reviews are legacy reviews, because once upon a time, when AW was fresh and new, it was a good place to be, but slowly over time, it became corrupt.

- STGRB : The Banning of Robin Sullivan

Is Absolute Write a Valuable Writer Resource or a Pretender With An Advertising Agenda?

Type "absolute write complaints" in Google and see the article, "Haters Gonna Hate" by Victoria Strauss to get the other side of this ongoing debate regarding the validity and cyberbully nature of Absolute Write. The writers associated with this blog would like to thank Victoria Strauss for battling the troll so bravely and also for advertising our blog and the many other websites calling out the owners and mods at AW for their behavior.

Publishing Experts James D. Macdonald and Debra Doyle

Does it all center around the meaning of the word "valuable"? Below is the advertising claim of Absolute Write as related by AW's foremost champion and spokesperson, Victoria Strauss--who utilizes AW as her main source of advertising for her fantasy series. This passage is taken from her "Haters Gonna Hate" post (recommend reading the comment thread to the end) on her blog:

The truth: AW is a valuable resource, one of the largest and most active writers' forums on the Internet. (As of this writing, it boasts nearly 60,000 members, over 8 million posts, and anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 users active at any given time--scroll down to the bottom of AW to see these statistics.) At AW, you can discuss every aspect of craft and genre, learn about the ins and outs of publishing and self-publishing, share your work-in-progress, get your query letter critiqued, connect with beta readers and writing buddies, commiserate about rejection and rejoice about success, and participate in discussions about culture, music, art, politics, and just about anything else you want to talk about. AW members include writers at every stage of their careers--from just thinking about publishing to multi-published--along with a wide variety of publishing industry experts and professionals: literary agents, publishers, editors, illustrators, designers, and more.

Our response to the above "truth" as follows. btw, something to consider: how does an amateur writer know whether they are receiving good advice or not? If a phony doctor puts on a lab coat and tells a naive patient to take a valueless vitamin supplement, the patient will do what he or she is told.

CONTINUED HERE

Relevant Links

Farewell to Our Friend at Absolute Wrong and Thank You For Helping Us Expose The Mac Stone Regime

Our fellow in the struggle to expose harmful advice and cyberbullying at Absolute Write Water Cooler, Fell of Absolute Wrong (a private investigator and all around nice guy who has vowed to continue to help us in our fight), has decided to retire his blog for personal reasons; however, he has generously donated his best Absolute Wrong pages to us that portray an organization not only engaged in acts of repugnant bullying but also operating illegally as a business entity, as follows:

The Real Owner of Absolute Write - Mac and Melodi Are The Same

In New York and in Washington State, it's illegal to register a business under an assumed name unless you also register your assumed name as "doing business as" (DBA). You can review the regulations at the New York's Division of Corporations and Washington's Business Licensing Services pages.

This is important because, at the time of this writing, MacAllister Stone, owner of Absolute Write, lives in Washington State and has Absolute Write registered in New York (UPDATE 1/15/2014: Scratch that; it's no longer registered and is operating illegally). However, MacAllister Stone is not a real person. Her real name, Melodi Susanne Sherman, is not registered as a DBA of MacAllister Stone in either state (UPDATE12/31/2013: It was at one time, however). That makes Absolute Write, the business entity, illegal.

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Absolute Write Owners on Shaky Legal Ground

Melodi Sherman aka MacAllister Stone appears to be on shaky legal ground concerning her use of an unregistered DBA for business purposes. Silly me, I assumed Absolute Write was properly registered. You know what they say about making assumptions?

Apparently, when Melodi purchased Absolute Write, the registration moved from New York to Washington. Absolute Write didn't come up in previous database queries because all three names were registered under the same umbrella: MacAllister Stone. If you follow the link to the Department of Revenue and check the UBI, you'll find the business license for MacAllister Stone that expired in 2009.

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Silencing the Lambs - From The Lost "Absolute Wrong"

If you're a member of Absolute Write, I guarantee you've seen the moderators sweep into a discussion where the topic is one of their pet peeves, use the unfortunate poster as a punching bag, invite long-time members to join them, and then lock the thread and sometimes boot the member.

It's never a straightforward warning about the rules, or a request for clarification. The moderators are not there to facilitate discussion, they're there to drive the discussion. If it ventures out of the bounds they like, even if the discussion is polite, it gets locked if for no other reason than "attitude."

It took me about five minutes to gather some examples. I went to a single topic and looked through the first few pages for locked threads. To be fair, two of the threads I saw were locked for legitimate (at least, what most forum admins would consider legitimate) reasons: resurrecting ancient threads. The rest were examples of moderators treating members like garbage.

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Moving Forward; or, Is There Life After Mean People?

If you're reading this blog, it's likely you fall into one of three categories:

You're a member of the AW in-crowd. You aren't likely to be an average AW member, because average AW members aren't considered good enough to know about the Sekrits (TM).
You're an active, engaged, and curious member of the broader online writing community. By now, this blog has been mentioned on several other sites dedicated to fighting "mean people" behavior.
You've been recently mistreated on AW and found your way here through referral or a search engine.

I want to address this post to all three groups, because they all have one thing in common: they've been victims of mean people at some point in their lives.

Victoria Strauss Censoring Critics on Her Blog, of Course

Strauss at BEA Talking About Self-Publishing Her Books

Update. We've heard from three W.A.R. supporters that Victoria Strauss, the most vocal marketing supporter of Absolute Write, is now censoring new posts critical of Absolute Write. The thread backfired on her and now she's holding the line just like Janet Reid in her own blog post. A few still got through before Tariq Aziz closed the gate.

In our opinion, one of the best comments towards the end of the thread:

Overall, I found their [Absolute Write] moderators to be on a wildly excessive power trip. In my case (without getting into the details), all I actually did was ask them to be a little understanding about a different member's errors in doing a post, and was basically told that I had to "beg their forgiveness" (that's more or less their exact language) or be publicly sanctioned by them in front of all my fellow indie writers on the board.

The entire experience reminded me of one of those caricatures of English boarding schools that one sees in the media from time to time.Obviously, it is a privately-owned board and they have the right to run it as they please, but the way in which they handled (polite and objective) complaints about anything and everything -- even when these complaints were delivered in confidence to them (e.g. were not posted publicly), was needlessly harsh and belittling. I would NEVER treat anyone, either in-person or indirectly as occurs on a board, in the manner that they treated me. They either don't understand, or don't care, about the difference between maintaining an orderly and polite discussion forum, and in publicly humiliating people "just because they can".

So whatever the merits of the campaign against Absolute Write, or the motivations of those behind this campaign, I have to (reluctantly) say that those in charge of Absolute Write Water Cooler richly deserve it. In the short time that I had an identity on that board, I would cringe every time that I logged on, in anticipation of the latest gratuitous, public insult that the board moderators had lodged against me, along with the warning "don't you dare talk back, or it will turn out badly for you" (their exact words).No adult, or writer, deserves to be talked down to, in this way. AW needs to be taken down a notch, and it needs new management for its discussion forums.

Examining the Truth of Absolute Write's Claim To Being a Valuable Writer Resource

Publishing Experts James D. Macdonald and Debra Doyle

The truth: AW is a valuable resource, one of the largest and most active writers' forums on the Internet. (As of this writing, it boasts nearly 60,000 members, over 8 million posts, and anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 users active at any given time--scroll down to the bottom of AW to see these statistics.) At AW, you can discuss every aspect of craft and genre, learn about the ins and outs of publishing and self-publishing, share your work-in-progress, get your query letter critiqued, connect with beta readers and writing buddies, commiserate about rejection and rejoice about success, and participate in discussions about culture, music, art, politics, and just about anything else you want to talk about. AW members include writers at every stage of their careers--from just thinking about publishing to multi-published--along with a wide variety of publishing industry experts and professionals: literary agents, publishers, editors, illustrators, designers, and more.

Our response to the above as follows.

This is a country of over 300 million people. Millions write. Absolute Write has been collecting a member list for well over a decade, and in all that time, the list has grown. It makes sense that after millions of pageviews a list of 60,000 by 2015 is not unreasonable. As a matter of fact, we would have predicted a list three times as big if the original owner, Jenna, were still running things. But she isn't, and it's all speculation, though we believe that the failure to build a much larger list has been the result of unprecedented hostility towards large numbers of writers (as noted on this blog). Regardless, we did view the users at the bottom of the page and found the count to be less than 150. We haven't tracked it day to day, but less than 150 on a weekday afternoon is far less than 3000.

But what difference does this make? AW can still be a valuable writer resource whether it has 3000 at any one time or 30. Right?

Business Pro on AW

The spokesperson Victoria says, "you can ... get your query letter critiqued," among other things. Sure, you can, we've seen the proof: dozens of unpublished and self-published whoevers giving query letter advice that varies drastically in quality from one thread to the next, from one whoever to the next. And whoever are these scores of sage professional advisers anyway? Look closely. If you can actually translate one of them into a real name, you'll immediately realize that you've never heard of this person. But of course. What real publishing house editor or literary agent is just going to be hanging around disguised in AW chat forums on a daily basis just waiting to give beginner advice to beginners? Don't they have better things to do, like their job?

Moving on to the "ins and outs of publishing and self-publishing." We find this amusing since AW and its owners have been excessively nasty towards proponents of self-publishing, so there is a huge contradiction here. For example, taken from the comments on the page regarding the banning of Robin Sullivan:

As a member of Absolute Write since January 2009, I have been extremely dismayed with the increasingly hostile attitude to anyone who displays a positive attitude towards self-publishing. As you know, I have been in many of the same threads as you, and I have witnessed first-hand the same small group of people attack you over and over again. Throughout it all, you have kept your cool, and answered them with facts. I don't know how you did it, but you did. I think your ban was 100% baseless.

The golden rule of Absolute Write is supposed to be "respect your fellow writer". I have been seeing precious little respect towards any writer who expresses an interest in self-publishing.

Absolute W Owner Who Isn't a
Writer But a Horse Farm Operator

As with the query letter, just whoever with a pail full of neophyte advice is hanging around just waiting to tell you the "ins and outs" anyway? Back to query letter mode. Here come the whoevers with loads of "advice" for you. If you're fool enough to take it, you've got a problem. Everyone is an expert on Absolute Write. Let a million thoughts contend! And as we've noted elsewhere on this blog, you can't trust the owners, they're not fiction writers. Rarely do you see a moderator with any sense intervening in these amateurish blather fests that go on constantly at AW. So where is the value?

We agree with Victoria that like any writer forum or chat board thing, Absolute Write Water Cooler is a place where you can dialogue with peers, share stuff, talk about your trip to Tasmania, and so forth. But does this make AW a stand out "valuable" writer resource?

Stacia Kane Ready for Action

Finally, we come to the claim that "publishing industry experts and professionals" are members of AW. Well, you can't refute that since we have no measure or basis to judge what Victoria means by experts, and no list of names. Whoever they are, they are rarely if ever present. The fantasy author Stacia Kane is an exception. Like Victoria, AW is the primary vehicle for marketing her books. You'll see her popping up on every popular conflict thread where a good bash fest is going on. But just casually step into the novel forum section of the Water Cooler and you will see the name of only one person there who is in any way related to the publishing business: James D. Macdonald. He hangs out because he and his wife, Doyle, make money from consults and classes they advertise on AW. We've discussed good old Congenial Sage Macdonald here on W.A.R. Are these the so-called experts and professionals Victoria is referring to?

Our ears and eyes are open, AW. Come over and comment on this thread. Feel free to set the record straight. You won't be bullied, and neither will we.

Absolute Write Hoax Continues: No Quals, Tabloid Trash, One Troll Theory, Bash Marla, Going Mad Dog, Max Ashkenazi Acts Like Garth from Wayne's World

Vision and taste mean far more than experience in the mechanics of publishing (which can be learned by anyone), but the hacks of Absolute Write won't acknowledge that. They set an arbitrary standard their victims can't meet, then the blood bath begins with editors and their staff smeared on Internet where everyone can see it.
- Anon Victim of AW

Absolute Write moderators and defenders have insisted for years that Absolute Write is a great place to get advice if you are a writer, but a bit of casual investigation on Google shows that the owners, Lisa Spangenberg (aka "Medievalist") and Melodi Sherman (aka "Macallister Stone"), have no qualifications whatsoever to operate an advice board for fiction writers and poets, much less actually give them advice. This goes a long way to explain the poor moderation and lack of adequate moderation in crucial areas of the forums where amateur writers thrive with a multitude of opinions that desperately need someone to sift through and clarify. But this doesn't happen.

Below are screenshots that demonstrate the "qualifications" of Absolute Write's owners, Lisa and Melodi. Lisa has demonstrated some skill with tech manuals and Melodi has demonstrated skill with nothing at all. She once "edited" a defunct writer magazine but we're not sure of her actual role given her background as a horse farm operator. Neither one of these people has ever worked in the literary or commercial side of publishing, and neither one has ever published a creative work in any genre; and yet, they continue, to this day, to give silly and counterproductive advice to new writers.

When asked directly what qualifies her, Melodi "Mac" Sherman states, "I own the site. It's not a public utility." And she is telling the absolute truth. Her only qualification is that she owns the site.

Below we have a screenshot of one sample of the rotating tabloid "flash trash" that circulates around on every Absolute Write Water Cooler forum page. There are literally thousands of these being flashed at new and naive young writers. We can't help but ask if the more mature writers actually wish to be associated with a website that makes a living selling trash advertisements. This lack of culture and sense demonstrates clearly that the owners of this website are simply in it for the money. It reminds you of the way an unscrupulous health care clinic poorly treats patients because it isn't about care, it's about dollars.

Trashy advertising on AW - Money made from clicking. What kind of people promote this tabloid flap?

ONE TROLL CONSPIRACY

As everyone now knows, Victoria Strauss posted a "Haters Gonna Hate, etc" post on her blog in an attempt to make AW look spotless and blame all negative activity on one single person (while never revealing the troll's identity). She fails to reference specific smears and unwarranted attacks by Absolute Write mods and owners noted here on W.A.R. and in other forums, and if you patiently read the comment thread, she dodges questions put to her that demonstrate she is clearly making misleading statements and lies of omission about Absolute Write (which is no wonder since the forum serves as the primary marketing vehicle for her self-published work) but she does make sweeping statements like this with reference to W.A.R. posts:

They're replete with sockpuppet comments (the blogs' owner likes to talk to herself) and larded with misinformation, including mistaken guesses about the identities of AW moderators (I know this because I know some of the people involved) and libellous unsourced allegations about AW members and defenders (again, I know some of the people involved). More unpleasant pastimes include attempting to doxx AW's owner, her parents, and AW admins, and to interfere with their livelihoods

The above comment, like many others by Victoria, are laced with misleading and false statements. Since she pushes the stupid conclusion that everyone online who gripes about AW is the same person, therefore, all the scores of comments at W.A.R. are the same person: LIE #1. The misleading statement that follows states that we made a mistake about the ID of AW mods, when in fact that isn't the case. The ID of only one mod, Old Hack, might still be in question, but nowhere online will she tell us who Old Hack really is. So what is her name? They still withhold while claiming we are mistaken. They cannot or will not prove we are mistaken. As far as the dox of AW's owner, that was accomplished prior to our posts by another blog unrelated to us (Absolute Wrong--and a big thank you to them). And for LIE #2, nowhere on W.A.R. do we note anything about owner Melodi Sherman's parents. As far as "AW admins" go, there is only Lisa Spangenberg. Everyone knows her, so she never needed to have her disguise ripped away. And no one wishes to interfere with livelihood, but it was discovered by another blog that Lisa and Melodi operate a horse farm in WA state. No one cares what they do, but any fallout consequential to their horse business results directly from their own behavior on AW, noted here on W.A.R. and on dozens of other websites. It is their responsibility. Also, keep in mind that AW mods have never stopped to consider the ruination of the livelihood of others as evidenced by their smears of legitimate presses, writers, agents, and organizations not on their favored list (see examples here at W.A.R.).

Aside from all above, aside from the victim hoax "conspiracy of one troll" maintained by Victoria, aside from our rebuttal to her comments, ask yourself this question and consider the logical answer:

WHY IS ABSOLUTE WRITE THE ONLY WRITER BOARD ONLINE WITH SO MANY OTHER WEBSITES, FORUMS, BLOGS, AND INDIVIDUAL WRITERS SPEAKING UP AGAINST ITS MODERATORS, OWNERS, POSTS AND POLICIES?

And if you will bother to read our Sad Truth of Hate post, you might also ask the question, WHY DID THE NEGATIVITY TOWARDS ABSOLUTE WRITE ONLY BEGIN AFTER JENNA SOLD THE SITE TO MELODI SHERMAN AND LISA SPANGENBERG?

WE CAN RUIN YOU

A Scary Note to Marla re Google Soon to Trash Her

If you click on the above you will see a bigger graphic you can read. This is a slice of a thread wherein AW regulars were dissecting and ripping at Marla Miller. The bigger point here is Theo1 making a revealing statement about the power of AW to ruin someone's reputation.

GOING MAD DOG ON THE TRAINEE

This is from a blog post from a former agent who wishes to remain anonymous due to the retaliation record of Absolute Write. This agency was driven out of business by the bullies on Absolute Write. Please read this entire post if you are still neutral on the subject:

He made the mistake of going on AW and announcing himself.

We took on another full-time agent who was also an attorney. This was a business decision. New York based literary agencies do this all the time and, of course, no one on Absolute Write’s Bewares, Recommendations, and Background Checks challenges their decision or their right to do so. If they say anything it might be a note of congratulations to the new agent. However, because we were small, not located in NYC and because they are bullies, their Head Bully believed it her duty to question our decision and thus check our ability to make a business decision. She, this head bully, asked what our new agents qualifications were to be a literary agent. Unbelievable.

In an ordinary world, who would think of doing such a thing? But this was, and still is, a bully’s paradise.

Our new agent, being a smart and gracious lady, answered the challenge by stating she Princeton graduate, finished law school, was an author, had taken courses in intellectual properties law, had handled contracts and had been a practicing trial lawyer. In typical bully fashion, all comments ceased. This usually happens when someone more powerful enters the fray. Could it be they feared reprisal if they said more? There was no doubt. It was that close.

This, however, was not the case when we took on an agent trainee. He made the bad mistake of going on AW and announcing himself. And let’s just say he was pounced upon, challenged by every howling watch dog on their Beware et al pages specially dedicated to us. When they challenged him, he tried to stand up to them—tried to explain that he just a trainee, which again was none of their business. The poor guy actually thought he was dealing with reasonable people instead of packs of slobbering, howling idiots.

From this first encounter, he was continually harassed. Before its end, it had even boiled over onto our blog. Finally, he’d had enough and resigned his agent training because he felt he had brought us harm.

MAX ASHKENAZI ACTS LIKE GARTH

We recently received the provocative letter below from one of the AW cronies attempting, like others, to goad us into a pointless email exchange. He calls himself the name above (almost like ask-a-nazi). This one seeks to somehow validate the smear forums of Mac and Lisa while invalidating the concerns and complaints with a combination of false statements and bad logic.

Our comments are in red:

Dear AW victims,

I was reading through your blog and had some questions about your allegations about AW (bad writing--sounds like Lisa Spangenberg). You have said that AW these days is essentially for mediocre writers (no, never said that-where is the link?), unless I am mistaken (yep!), but it seems like there are still some successful writers who post there (seems? why passive voice? and he forgot Stacia Kane) , i.e. Vincent Morrone (who?), Jamie Mason - known as Perks on AW, Cathy Clamp and others (okay, so the alleged presence of these people invalidate our claims or ...?). In addition, have heard that it is mainly for frustrated writers (heard from who? a case of projection?) but it seems that many regulars are in fact from other successful backgrounds and are not really wannabe writers (so they're whatever and they're authors? huh?). One of the AW regulars, for example, is a Yale Law School grad who it seems spent years as a successful attorney in NY before getting into writing [her posting name is CassandraW I believe] (tell her to leave) and there are others who were/are owner of martial arts studios, former police and other successful professions (so if cops and karate dudes are there then... ummm?). And so it seems like AW still does attract people who are successful and on top of their game in some ways (but it's never too late to learn even if filming porn is your speciality) and so it seems like it is wrong to say that it is (OMG, this writing is painfully bad!) only for failed writers who do not have a life outside AW (that is wrong, whoever said it). Am I missing something? (yes, all kinds of things).

And it does seem like now there is diversity of opinion (seem? passive again). On the AW water cooler there are posters like William Haskins, CassandraW, highttimer, rugcat, robeiae and others who do not simply echo what the Mods say all the time and in fact often fundamentally disagree with them (their banning is coming). And so it seems inaccurate to say that AW only allows for those who agree. AM I missing something here? (yes, reality, and the ability to write well)

Thanks for any response you may have.

Thanks, Garth, but you have your answer. Btw, how old are you? And a note to the Absolute Write Roundtable. You have to send better knights than this to slay the Truth Draconis.

Courtesy of Absolute Banning

Here are a few examples of AW regulars, who had posted at least 500 times, who were then banned by the owner or her admin, Lisa Spangenberg. This solidly contradicts owner Melodi Sherman's claim that writers banned from AW are "trolls and sockpuppets."

The size of the forum is unimportant. We're dealing here with the estimated percentage rate of banning at AW (35%), as compared to most other forums (2%).

The fastest way to get banned is to disagree with the mainstream.

MEMBER      POSTS     THREAD

Scarlet Peaches                       48,359                        Airlines forbid men from sitting to....
Wayne K                                   21,681                        Contract Termination
Yorkist                                         1,974                       Kelly's Soft Asylum & Home for Way...
Sarah Dalton                                  927                       Publishing Diary: First Year Sales
RJLeahy                                         568   Airlines forbid men from sitting to....
Blarg                                            2,497   Americans Don't Kill Children...
RobJ 2,682   Something I Can't Understand
Axler                                            1,052   Cryptozoica illustrated novel ebook
Billythrilly7th                               11,813 Should We Celebrate Columbus Day
Amsterdam Assassin                   1,734 Teaching Derail From BWQ
Glutton                                         1,521   Interesting Article I Found
Paul    4,508 A Place For Off Topic...
Freelancer                                       997 Derail From Book Promo...
Sarpedon    2,702 Famed Astrophysicist...
Wayne K                                     21,681 Terry Jones Death Threats
Spookywriter 9,726 William's House of Hate...
Ruv Draba 5,114 The Never Ending Religion...

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