The botched first edition (A Walk in Ancient Rome, iBooks, released through Simon & Schuster, 2005) was published without my informed consent. I only mention this because of the complaints I have received about it, aimed at me, when in fact I not only had nothing to do with it, but was the victim of a publishing horror story. In being a victim of iBooks (now defunct, then a distributed imprint of Simon & Schuster), I have good company. Many other authors' careers have been affected, for years, by the incompetence and worse, of that company. BACK
I was approached in 2003 about providing a print text they sought to publish, in the marketing prop wash they anticipated would accompany the 2005 release of the BBC-HBO Series Rome. At the beginning, as with many other things that only sank in over time, the publisher attempted to steal all rights to my book by slipping me, instead of a standard contract, a work for hire contract, which would have meant signing it all over to him—and he attempted to do this without even adding any money to the contract. I refused to sign. Had I signed, I would have simply been handing all my work and the entire book to that "publisher" for free. Luckily, I was familiar with the rudiments of publishing contracts. From there, it went in the same terribly disappointing spiral of lies and false promises. BACK
Why is the first edition riddled with errors? Why is there only one high-level, useless map, with at least 13 typos? Why are there footnotes pointing to appendices that don't exist? Why is there at least one blank appendix? Why are there no useful images? Because the project was hijacked by an incompetent crew of people, who had not a single professional editor in house. There were no schedules, no time tables, no plan—only 'faster! faster!" I sent them a rough draft in late summer 2004, simply as a sanity check. Without my knowledge or consent, they rushed this into print. In January 2005, I found a galley in my mailbox, with instructions to glance through it but that it was too late for any changes. The very first sentence of the galley lacked a predicate, and it went downhill from there. During a bogus conference call, in January 2005, aimed at assembling witnesses that I agreed to this botch, I was lied to and assured that the terribly defective first edition would immediately be replaced by an edited, corrected copy. BACK
Like all else, that never happened, and there was no reason for that. Having refused to sign the bogus work for hire contract, I was never put under contract. I was never paid by Byron Preiss, the book packager running this circus. He died in a car crash in July 2005, just as the botched first edition went into distribution. I was able to receive written confirmation, that I retained all rights, from the acting president who replaced him, during the interval before the company went into Chapter 7 bankruptcy. BACK TOP
Unfortunately, the inventory was bought out of Chapter 7 in early 2007. Despite the confirmation of my ownership of all rights, and despite the lack of a binding contract, an incompetent or corrupt New York probate judge assigned all inventory to this new distributor. This distributor has, over a period of five years, refused my pleas to withdraw the defective first edition from sale because it is a disservice to readers, and damaging to my career. The first edition is still for sale in many bookstores, and I can only hope his inventory falls apart from handling and returns. The returns are, understandably, over 50% by irate readers. Many readers actually have liked the book, because its merits are so powerful that they shine through even the grimy, greedy little people who have ignored all morality and decency while grubbing over a few bucks at the expense of readers, not to mention the author. BACK TOP
On the bright side, A Walk in Ancient Rome is destined for a long, glorious run as an unparalleled reference work, and an entertaining virtual tour guide that goes where no interested reader has gone before: to the heart of Imperial Rome, block by block, street by street, through all fourteen Augustan districts in the year 150 CE. BACK TOP