*Snork*

[patgund]

Vanity press "PublishAmerica", (even though they claim they aren't), posts a nasty diatribe against SF/F writers, saying that: "A second caveat is that science-fiction and fantasy writers have it easier. It's unfair, but such is life. As a rule of thumb, the quality bar for sci-fi and fantasy is a lot lower than for all other fiction. Therefore, beware of published authors who are self-crowned writing experts. When they tell you what to do and not to do in getting your book published, always first ask them what genre they write. If it's sci-fi or fantasy, run. They have no clue about what it is to write real-life stories, and how to find them a home. Unless you are a sci-fi or fantasy author yourself.."

So a batch of 30 SF/F writers all sit down and, over the course of a weekend, hammer out a chapter each of the worst tripe they can. They then add typos and an entire chapter of computer-generated nonsense, and send the results, a mess called "Atlanta Nights" off to "PublishAmerica"

Which then sends them a publishing contract

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/1/prweb202277.htm

To make it even funnier, when the writers then publically announced the hoax, PublishAmerica then withdrew said offer. *chuckle*

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/006041.html
http://coldground.typepad.com/cold_ground/2005/01/atlanta_nights_.html
http://www.sfwa.org/beware/general.html#PA
http://www.sfwa.org/news/atlantanights.htm