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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

About Trestle Press

This morning I woke to  a firestorm controversy involving Trestle Press. For those of us concerned, we pretty much know most of the story, so I will not rehash it.

It's tough because there are alot of good authors who have jumped the Trestle ship and I enjoyed being in their company. But, what are you going to do?

As of right now, for me, I am staying. I am willing to accept the fact that if mistakes were made, those who have made them are vigilantly seeking to remedy the said transgressions.

What I am really here to say is that so far my relationship with Trestle Press has been great. Giovanni has done right by me and I understand what he is trying to do in that he is wanting to build a stable of in house writers of pulp, inspirational, etc. and get as much product out on the market as possible. I am happy to assist him in that task.

I know some have complained that he doesn't do a good job of editing the work he puts out there. I have not had a problem with this. I have, instead, gotten alot better at self editing. The upside to that, is that he gives the author alot of control over what goes into their novel. Essentially, the story you are reading is the director's cut.

Well, I don't what else to say about this. I expect Trestle will make some changes in the future. I see this as a growing time for an upstart company. All the best to Giovanni and the remaining authors at Trestle Press Publishing.

14 comments:

  1. The problem I had, and that many have had, is that he apparently lied about having a staff of editors. If he had said up front that my ms would not receive editing, I could have dealt with that. But to continually push out the pub date because the book was "in editing" and then to not have sent me said (and promised) edits with only two days to go to the pub date: this is not only bad business but fraud.

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    1. Edith I can't speak on your experience. He has always been good to me and sent me edits. He has also released my stuff in record time.

      Have you thought of submitting things to Untreed Reads? It sounds you and Jay Hartman the editor of Untreed would work well together. He is a stickler for detail.

      Stay in touch. Would love to hear about what you write.

      Whit

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  2. The reason it's record time is because he does nothing with them except scrawl over other people's images. There's zero editing goes on.

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    1. Hmm... was that your experience? I did get a PDF back on all three of my stories with proofreading edits. Thanks for the post.

      Whit

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  3. All I got was one that was ran through spellcheck. Which made my piece worse, because spellcheck isn't perfect, most writer's know that.

    Looks like B. R. Stateham has also left. You seem to be the only one who is in support of trestlepress.

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    1. Iverawrites,

      yes I am aware that Br has left. One of my favorite Bible stories is where the angry mob is chasing the adulterous woman and ready to stone her death. Fortunately she runs into Jesus. After sizing up the situation he stoops down and draws on the ground and then looks up and says "He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone."

      I truly believe mistakes were made and that Giovanni is taking steps to correct them.

      I also spent alot of time in Hollywood so I guess I am used to Filmmakers and actors and screenwriter's doing what they have to do to make their voices heard in the wilderness.

      So, maybe we can all go our own way, and as Jesus also said "Go and sin no more."

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    2. I use to work as a graphic artist and something like that would have gotten me fired. I had to painstakingly create all types of images and pay for stock. That's what a graphic artist does.

      I think it's fine that some people still trust him, but they need to also realize he's done nothing but cut a piece of your profit for nothing. You can have done what he did, better I'm sure, and still be better off.

      He knows what images he's stolen so why doesn't he change all of them then have me and others point each one out to him.

      "Go and sin no more, Giovanni."

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    3. Pretty sure it also says in the Bible,

      Thou shalt not steal.

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  4. Peer pressure from other authors acting unprofessionally does not constitute proof. I am not arguing Trestle's position or defending their/his actions. I am hugely disappointed in the behavior of the authors that abandoned someone with which they had an agreement, albeit verbal. I am staying with Trestle. I've read the other posts. I have not experienced any of those other alleged behaviors. When the question of cover art arose, I requested that any of mine that were questionable be changed. Guess what? They are in the process of being changed, some for the better. Is Marvel really going to take Gio to court over a few dollars? No, they will send him a letter to take down the content, but that is already done. These authors are as equally complicit in any wrong-doing over the past year. Amazon made the most money on those $0.99 books, why are we not all boycotting them or reporting them for copyright infringement? The whole thing is still not going to amount to anything, especially now that the covers are changed. Too many people handled it the wrong way. Being an author is about patience and perseverance, not knee-jerk, mob reactions.

    Sam Lang

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    1. Peer pressure? I doubt it. It's fear and embarrassment. That's how I felt when I found it he was going to use a stolen picture for my book cover and why should I company make me feel that way?

      Many are good writer's and they are better off without Gio anyways.

      If you still trust him, well that's between you and him. Good luck. All I want is for him to change all the covers or pay those that deserve it. He knows which ones he's stolen, probably all of them, so why do we have to keep pointing them out for him.

      And unprofessionally? How would have you dealt with it? I didn't react till I had proof and actual artist. Then I simply let everyone know. The choice to leave is theirs and yours.

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  5. Sam, that's utter rubbish and you're putting the blame squarely on the wrong parties here. Writing is about hard work and perseverance, sure ... but it isn't about being "patient" while you wait for your publisher to gain a rudimentary understanding of how copyright ownership works.

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  6. If it was a genuine mistake then someone with apparently no clue that, say, a movie poster image of Ghost Rider might be copyrighted (or indeed any one of dozens of others, some professional, some amateur) really shouldn't be dealing with authors' rights in any way, because apparently they've been living under a rock and basic-level rights law and responsible practice has passed them by.

    "Amazon made the most money on those $0.99 books, why are we not all boycotting them or reporting them for copyright infringement?"

    That's intensely silly. It wasn't Amazon who designed the covers - pretty much every cover looked at so far - using images they had no rights to use. It was Trestle. When you submit something for sale to Amazon you have to confirm you have the right to do so. In the case of (confirmed) several and (probable) most of its books, Trestle didn't with regards to the cover art.

    Incidentally, if you've asked him to review any of yours that were "questionable", probably best ensure the 'Severed' ones are in there if no express permission was given; this is the zombie hand on both covers: http://cghub.com/images/view/110878/

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    1. And this is the real artist who did the "Good Smoke and Whiskey" http://libudas.deviantart.com/

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  7. Sam, You're talking crap. People did have an agreement, yes. But that's like saying that because you had a ticket to Titanic, you had to stay on board and drown.


    TP are con artists pure and simple. Making money out of people's dreams. GG was taken off amazon reviews for reviewing his own work.

    If you're happy to stay with a crook so he can have the little percentage of your family and all the other TP writers that buy your stories, then feel free.

    Im sure the Skype radio will get your some sales. It's pretty cool.

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