Author Pushing His Book?

[Aris Dragonborn]

Ok. In this thread here, damiynn talks about a book he's just read, called A King's Quest. Fairly good review, if a bit enthusiastic.

But look closer.
1. He joined today (10/28/05)
2. His first (and only) post was to talk about this book.
3. His user name, damiynn, sounds a lot like the name of the main character of the book, Damien.
4. In his profile, he doesn't leave a name, but his birthdate is listed as August 9th, 1968.
According to this site, the author, A.V. Wedhorn, was born August 9th, 1968.

That's a set of rather remarkable coincidences, yes?

I'm not sure if this is technically a violation of the CoC, but it does seem rather dodgy that the author of this book *might* have created an account just to push his book.

Just wanted to bring this to your attention.

 

[Jdvn1]

Well, he didn't spam it all over the boards, at least. He might be a lurker.

 

[Aris Dragonborn]

Well, he didn't spam it all over the boards, at least. He might be a lurker.

Yeah, unlike that one guy and his 'Win a free ipod/xbox/ps3! No joke, this actually works!!!!11!!1!!1loleleventyone!" threads.

Thinking about it, it's not so much that he came here to promote his novel, but the fact that he created an 'anonymous' user name, and wrote a review as if he was just another fan of the book. That sort of deception just irks me.

If you've written a novel, and think it's good, then by all means, advertise it. Push it for all your worth. But do so as the author, not posing as some anonymous fan.

 

[Pielorinho]

Please report problematic posts instead of opening threads about them; we'll see them much faster that way.

Thanks for the heads-up!

Daniel

 

[Truth Seeker]

Okay, somehow, the person in question, has apologize in the Sci Fi Fantasy/TV forum.

 

[BSF]

I have got to agree. If you wrote the book, be proud of it! I don't think most EN Worlders would have a problem with somebody announcing that they were published and the book might be of interest.

 

[Knight Otu]

Well, the poster denies to be the author, and quite honestly, those coincidences don't really convince me that he is (just think how many LotR characters are being used on the board, yet none of us is JRR Tolkien; and I don't think that author is the only person being born on that day).

Jumping on the poster assuming he must be the author based on such minor things is more than premature - and, and it honestly would have been better to say "Excuse me, but [a few coincidences listed] lead me to think you might be the author of the book. If this is the case, please say so - there is no shame in that."

 

[Dog Moon]

Is there a rule that an author cannot come onto the boards and post a message in one of the forums about his own book? If so, I guess I could see why he'd want to hide it, but I'd think that most authors would be professional enough not to stoop that low. [Reviewing your own books, THAT'S pretty bad, although admittedly, for my book, I'd probably rate it lower than anyone else, but I have issues like that. ]

Is the problem with the author pushing his book or is it with HOW he's pushing his book [assuming for a moment that it truly is the author]?

 

[Knight Otu]

It's how he does it - masquerading as an enthusiastic fan (assuming he is the author, which is certainly a possibility).

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Is the problem with the author pushing his book or is it with HOW he's pushing his book [assuming for a moment that it truly is the author]?

It's the how.

Well, the poster denies to be the author, and quite honestly, those coincidences don't really convince me that he is (just think how many LotR characters are being used on the board, yet none of us is JRR Tolkien; and I don't think that author is the only person being born on that day).

To be clear, it's not just the same birthday, it's the same birth year as well - that would be one hell of a coincidence. Also, in the last while, this guy has set up accounts on numerous sci-fi/fantasy/rpg boards and the first post he makes is almost verbatim the one he posted here on ENWorld. For example:

http://chud.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28370

http://www.allscifi.com/Board.asp?BoardID=2256

http://messageboards.aol.com/aol/en_us/articles.php?boardId=547332&articleId=69&func=6&channel=aol+research+and+learn&filterRead=false&filterHidden=true&filterUnhidden=false

http://www.comicscommunity.com/boards/generalforum/?noframes;read=8580

http://www.allreaders.com/Board.asp?listpage=2&BoardID=2262

http://uplink.space.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=freespace&Number=372039&page=4&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=

http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/6/2897653/2/subj_-A-Kings-Quest-Fantastic-new-Fantasy-series

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=3537491#post3537491

http://www.comicscommunity.com/boards/generalforum/?noframes;read=8580

There were more, but I'm getting tired of cutting and pasting. Either that's one hell of a one-man fan club, or he's the author. Also, in the author's bio on his homepage, he mentions that he now lives in Key West, Florida. One of the damiynn links I visited was the user info for registered members for that site and it had 'damiynn' hailing from, you guessed it, Key West, Florida. A mountain of circumstancial evidence like this is very hard to dismiss.

I'm not sure why I'm intrigued by this.. I think the sheer cheek of it enticed me into some detective work.