Robert Stanek
Who is Robert Stanek? He is an award-winning, internationally bestselling author of over 100 books for young children and adults. His book, The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches, is a “#1 Fiction Bestseller” and a “Top 50 All Time Bestseller”. The companion novel, Keeper Martin’s Tale, was the #1 Fantasy of the Year in 2002, spent 26 weeks on Amazon’s SciFi Top 50, and was “Voted Top 10 Fantasy 2004”.
Or so he would have you believe. Actually, Robert Stanek is a self-published author. As far as I can tell, his books have never appeared on any bestseller lists, he has never won any kind of literary award, and almost all of his business comes from him creating hundreds of sockpuppet accounts on Amazon.com and elsewhere, and using these accounts to give his books glowing five-star reviews and trick people into buying them. Naturally, I don’t expect you to just take my word for it. The following pages are a rather exhaustive account of everything Stanek-related and the culmination of a great deal of time and research. I spent the time doing this for two reasons: First, what Stanek was doing disgusted me, and I thought people should know about it; and second, he’s a rather fascinating character and I thought the story would be entertaining.
I would like to keep this up-to-date as an exhaustive record of all things Stanek-related. If you are aware of any inaccuracies contained on the following pages, please do not hesitate to email me at scavokretlaw@gmail.com.
The Life and Lies of Robert Stanek
- Part One: A Bestselling Author
- Part Two: Gaming the Amazon System
- Part Three: A Professional Review
- Part Four: One Book For the Price of Many
- Part Five: The Photoshop Debacle
- Part Six: Stanek Responds to His Critics
- Part Seven: An Army of Sockpuppets
- Part Eight: A Very Stanek 2012
- Part Nine: A Sockpuppet…Bestselling Author?
- FAQs, Acknowledgements, and Further Reading
The Sporkings
In an attempt to provide definitive proof that Robert Stanek is responsible for all of the fake reviews that his books have received, here is an in-depth, page-by-page analysis of the entire series. To make it actually enjoyable to read, I mock it as well.
To Robert Stanek: Given how frequently you Google your name, I’m sure you’ll be reading this. Please do not email me posing as a lawyer, it’s not going to work. However, if you disagree with anything you find on these pages, feel free to email me. I will happily post your response, complete and unabridged, next to my own analysis. Furthermore, if you can provide evidence that any of my claims are incorrect, I will immediately take down the incorrect information, explain that I was wrong, and apologize.
[…] website. It is quite a fascinating read into this narcissistic sociopathic "author". http://conjugalfelicity.com/robert-stanek/ I was amazed at the lengths this guy goes to get some sort of recognition for his (apparently) […]
[…] worse than Paolini. His name is Robert Stanek. According to the internet, not only is his work bad, but he lies about it. Anybody here heard of this guy at all or been unfortunate enough to buy his stuff? (Probably not, […]
Check out goodreads.com. He’s giving himself 5 star reviews all up in there. What a dork.
Rather funny. Just sharing this link on Twitter got me in his sights, whereupon he confirmed pretty much everything you’d expect of someone who loves to distort, lie, and resort to personal attacks.
Dear dog, what a nightmare this man must live.
He claims to be all about God and country and teaching positive lessons to widdle kids, and every other wholesome thing you can name, if you’re a treacly preacher of Sunday-school morality. Yet when he looks in the mirror, some part of his mind must see the mendacious little fraud he really is. Such an atrocious enterprise. “I deserve to be a bestselling author, I worked really hard on my books, and if I just keep saying it’s so, long enough and loud enough, surely someday I’ll get my reward. I know, maybe I can trick some librarians into buying my stuff if I just put ‘bestselling author’ in every other sentence.”
Just the creepiness alone of his abominable “Bugville Critters” cartoons should be enough to class him as a registered child molester, in the spiritual sense. One of them actually looks like an animated dog turd.
Finding this article linked on the “Zite” aggregator on my iPad sent me off into an embarrassingly long exploration of internet Stanek lore. But for all the information that’s out there, I honestly don’t think enough attention has been paid to him as a cultural phenomenon. Your joint-by-joint flaying of the man is a great start, and probably the most systematic takedown I’ve found so far, but I’d like to see more. What does it say about the culture’s attitude to the written word that he has been able to get away with blatant fraud for so long? Yes, Amazon has finally deleted all his reviews, good and bad, but is that any kind of adequate response? Amazon seems to have acted very cowardly in all of this.
Also instructive would be a proper deconstruction of his horrifying abuse of the English language, starting with the name “Ruin Mist” as not only the utterly nonsensical title for his series but (in all earnestness!) the name of his “world”. What conceivable world would name itself with two unrelated nouns like that? It’s beyond beyond. Ahem. You might as well call your alternate universe “Flower Glare”, or like that.
And even today, although his phony message board hasn’t had an update in months (not even from the ubiquitous “Shire Hobbit”), the man seems to be unstoppable in his brazen mendacity. Check out the very latest from one of his many blogs, “Robert Stanek’s Books + Things Blog”:
http://robertstanek.blogspot.com/2012/08/new-books-new-translations-vacation.html?m=1
He’s promising the world that we’ll soon have translations of “Ruin Mist” into several major world languages: German, French, Spanish, and Italian, and maybe, if the world is very very lucky, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, and Chinese, as well. But if you go back to things he was writing ten or more years ago, you’ll see that even then he claimed he had already been translated into, oh, I don’t know, *dozens* of foreign languages. So I guess the eight languages listed above had to wait while more important markets were covered. Right, Robert? Because the German and French and Italian publishers are such slouches when it comes to cashing in on American mega-phenoms like the Ruin Mist craze. (To be fair, the first volume of his wildly popular fantasy series has apparently been rendered into some sort of Spanish, though one suspects that it might be of the Babelfish variety.)
Maybe the world has decided to look away in horrified embarrassment rather than point and laugh at this man, but I for one think that’s too kind a fate. He deserves fisking and sporking in a major venue, like Vanity Fair or The New Yorker, or at least a prominent mention in the Annals of Abnormal Psychology. In any case, I thank you for getting me started on several hours’ worth of morbidly fascinating entertainment. Just the sight of that beady-eyed, overserious, “love me, I’m a great guy” expression in his pictures makes one wish he could end up starring with his shirt off as an arrestee on “Cops”, doesn’t it? Now for a shower.
P.S. If you poke around that blog a bit, you’ll find that “Mr. Stanek” has gone from strength to strength recently. A million visitors to some site or other, 700,000 fans or readers of Ruin Mist (nice, unverifiable round numbers, aren’t they?), and guess what – there’s talk of a movie again! All that hard work is finally paying off. It’s a bit sad, then, to see that the blog itself gets at most one comment per entry (most of his maunderings get none at all), and at the end of the day, poor William Robert has to content himself with celebratory cookies in the company of Buster, the awful, frighteningly smiling, bee-like critter from Bugville. Come to think of it – “Bugville”? Hmm. Maybe your subconscious is trying to tell you something, Mr. Stank.
The man exists in a closed loop of childish delusion, self-gratification and misunderstood martyrdom. Imagine being one of his kids.
I feel so sorry for his kids. Stanek probably forces them to read his awful children’s books over and over and throws a fit whenever they try to read anything else. I can so easily picture one of his kids saying, “Hey, Daddy, can you buy or borrow Harry Potter? I want to try it,” and Stanek replying, “You don’t need to read Harry Potter. My books are much better. Why don’t you go read the Ruin Mist series again?” and the poor kid wandering away in defeat.
Robert Stanek is so full of shi*t:
http://www.imaginedlands.com/news.htm
Thanks. I was reading Amazon reviews about his book without knowing anything of this. There was couple good reviews and link to this page in comment section. This prevented me to consider buying his Pocket consultant book for Server 2012.
This guy puts a lot of effort into into his delusions of being a great author. He’s even got an “Go Indie” blog (here: http://readindies.blogspot.com/ ) hawking mostly his books and a few other self-published authors, including what appears to be a coming of age story of two brothers who find themselves in a garden of conscious plants. The “Featured Authors!” section contains probably a hundred names, including “Betty Dravis”, and “Brooklyn Hudson” (just what caught my eye, there are probably other funny ones in there).
Have you ever questioned where he gets his cover art from? Given how little effort he puts into his writing and mass publishing of the same title, I was wondering if the cover art is all pinched as well.
There’s a damn good film to be made from all this when it’s over you know. I want Leigh Francis to play Stanek 🙂
The pathetic creature now spends a bit of time on his Facebook page every day, posting cheesy images from what looks like a collection of stock photos for use in the kind of “picturesque” calendar you might get from a cheap insurance agency at Christmastime. For some reason, most of his “likes” seem to be from supposed fans in Turkey. So every day or so he posts another kitschy landscape image and gets a few comments in Turkish from readers who especially enjoy kitschy Turkish landscapes (the man does know how to pander). The info page contains his standard lies about being a bestselling author on Amazon and Audible, and the usual boilerplate wheeze about eating flour pancakes three times a day as an impoverished kid. Come to think of it, that bit rings true: malnutrition-induced feeblemindedness would explain his seemingly unconquerable, obstinate, stupid adherence to his fantasy world as well as anything else, wouldn’t it? At any rate we will all be reassured to know that he’s working on a new “Ruin Mist” story. I’m sure the Turkish translation is already in the works.
This is slander ! I happen to know Robert Stanek personnally and he is one the greatest author on Earth ! His writings are a gift to mankind, and he will go down in history as the best fantasy/SF writer the world of litterature has and will ever know ! Buy his books !
… Please, please buy’em. PLEASE.
I don’t even.
http://readindies.blogspot.de/2013/05/authors-writing-their-own-reviews.html
google…
G http://images.google.com.hk/…
Since Amazon will not let me post my review, I will do it here, at the next best place!
—-
I am glad that Amazon has had the courage to stand up to Robert Stink, sorry, STANEK – an abysmal author that represents the worst of self-published authors, and delete the hundreds of reviews on his books that were so clearly fake.
This is an honest review; a review that, hopefully, will convince you not to spend your hard-earned money on a piece of trash like Keeper Martin’s Tale, without having to resort to listing all the synonyms of the word “BAD”.
Without further ado:
1. Robert Stanek is a nasty person. He is not a good author OR character, and he seems to know it. So he resorts to the lowest possible ways of self-promotion, including:
–FAKE REVIEWS (It is no secret that Robert Stanek has either A: created hundreds of fake Amazon accounts to post positive reviews on his steaming pile of a book, or B: paid hundreds of Amazon reviewers to write positive, almost laughably glowing reviews on his steaming pile of a book. Many of these “reviews” liken Stanek to the true greats of fantasy – Tolkien, Martin, Abercrombie. The bottom line is, they are false, illegal, lowdown, cheap, and dishonest.)
–INSULTING (To his critics, and there are many (though he would not have you believe that), to criticize Stanek is to subject yourself to a torrent of personal childish and illogical abuse. But I am ready for it. Come at me Stanek, if you dare.)
–MISLEADING ADVERTISING (If you were to read Stanek’s “biography”, or any of the blurbs on his books, you would seriously get the impression that this man was a threat to Steven King and Lee Child. You’d think he was an international bestselling author, whose books have been at the top of Amazon and Audible bestselling lists, whose bestselling book The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches debuted a #1 Fiction, and Top 50 All Time Bestseller. His works are available in every major bookstore, have been translated into dozens of languages, and have been optioned for film by DreamWorks, Fox, and MGM. Well, it’s time to smell the roses. It’s all lies.
And he resorts to lower methods, such as impersonating a lawyer, sending threatening letters, borderline harassment, and actually photoshopping himself into a picture of Brian Jacques at a fantasy panel. But as with most things about Robert Stanek, it wasn’t very good – Stanek’s head and torso was added above the panel table, but his legs below were all but missing.)
–CRIMINAL LYING (Now this is where it really gets disgusting. And I mean criminally, loathesome-ly disgusting. On one of Robert Stanek’s many websites, you come across the following words: “William Robert Stanek’s distinguished accomplishments during his 11-year military career earned him 29 commendations, including the Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal, and the Humanitarian Service Medal.”
Another website reveals: “I am a Gulf War veteran and the recipient of 29 medals during my 11 years of honorable military service. I received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Humanitarian Service Medal, the Air Medal, and several other medals for my service in the Gulf War.”
OK, that seemed to me like something that could be tested. So off I went, searching through official military documents, Googling extensively, and doing research. Now, read these next words carefully: Nowhere have I found proof of Stanek winning the Distinguished Flying Cross Medal, or the Air Medal. No, I did not check all of the medals, and no, I did not call up the Pentagon to read official documents.
But I did find a list of EVERY SINGLE Distinguished Flying Cross Award recipient (contact me for link). And guess what. William Robert Stanek has NEVER WON this medal.
It appears clear that he lied. And I’m no expert, but I am pretty sure that is criminal. The only way you can convince me otherwise, Mr. Stanek, is if you send me a picture of YOU with YOUR 29 medals. Don’t photoshop this time.)
2. Keeper Martin’s Tale is terribly, terribly written. Period. End of story. Now, I hate attacking someone’s person, but books are written by people, and in this case, Robert Stanek is at fault. He possesses not one single iota of writing talent. He makes Stephanie Meyer and Christopher Paolini look like Tolstoy and Tolkien.
His descriptions are awful. His grammar and punctuation is terrible. His characters are dull, clichéd, and just plain bad. His plots are so turgid they could have come from a 12-year olds Dungeons and Dragons game. His covers are cheap and make you want to bleed from the eyes. His maps are confusing. His illustrations do nothing to complement the plot.
I really don’t have to go into much detail. I can describe the entire book (and all the 150 other books that Stanek has written) with one single word: Bee Aay Dee. BAD. Shall I enumerate? Appalling, off-putting, dull, terrible, poor, clichéd, predictable, nasty, ridiculous, unmemorable, avoidable, AWFUL. You really don’t want me to go on, but I think I should.
There is not one single page that makes one want to go on. There is not one line of dialogue that does not feel stilted, fake, forced, and as wooden as an old stick. There is not one description in this book that could be unsurpassed by a 5th-grader writing fan-fiction. Stanek steals, sorry – borrows from the greats, but forgets to put anything original in his mess of a book.
The result is not just a mediocre book such as Brisingr, but a book that is actively bad, a book whose reading experiences gives all the pleasure of a bad rash, a book so terribly poor that it should not have been published in the first place. All of this would have been easier to take, however, if there had been a better man standing behind them. Instead, we are presented a terrible, sordid, plodding, awful book written by a liar, self-promoter, and a nasty character.
Is there a more straightforward way to say: DO NOT READ THIS BOOK? Well, do not read this book, or, for that matter, anything else that Stanek has written.
If you want proof or references for anything I said above, feel free to contact me in the comments. I am an avid, veteran reader of fantasy – Tolkien, Martin, Lewis, Jordan, Erickson, Abercrombie, Rothfuss, Sanderson, Paolini, Flanagan, and Peake, so I think I know what I am talking about. Learn from the mistakes of others, and do not buy this book. Don’t even try a taste to see what everyone is talking about. Run like the wind, and do not touch with a ten-foot pole.
As for my rating, I give this book NEGATIVE five stars. 3, yes, THREE thumbs down for this trainwrecked drivel of a book.
P.S. Stanek, I don’t like to pick on you. I am sure you are a nice person at heart, but you certainly don’t act like it, or write like it. I am sure your goons and sock-puppet accounts are out there ready to dislike this review as soon as it comes out. I am ready for you. I hope that you learn how to write, and wish you good luck in the future. Learn from your mistakes.
P.P.S. If you liked this review, or if it was helpful, say so in the comments, give it a “like”, and read my other reviews. Cheers.
I bet that you’re Robert stanbek I mean look at your name it’s Rupert stanbek are you that stupid to make your fake name so close to your real name. What
A loser
Just like Tesch, what’s particularly sad about all this is that Stanek puts a lot of time and effort in his “pretend to be famous” shtick. I mean, if he put even half that amount of effort into making his books good, or even just mediocre, and did some proper marketing, maybe he could get himself a real fanbase. Probably nothing the size of Rowling’s or Pratchett’s or any other big fantasy author, but he would have something real.
Robert Stanek joins “A Forum of Fire and Ice”, answers questions regarding his awards/best-selling claims/reviews, expresses his love for the original Beauty and the Beast TV show, and explains why he doesn’t even have the time to take a piss:
http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/96396-robert-stanek-and-his-super-secret-nsa-powers/page__st__20
So have you heard about this?
http://zonalert.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/the-fiverr-report-on-melissa-foster-fake-reviews-fake-awards-fake-everything
It reminds me of this blog post from a few months ago:
http://readindies.blogspot.com/2013/05/authors-writing-their-own-reviews.html
Melissa Foster said she helped get someone with lots of sockpuppet accounts banned from Goodreads. Hmmmm….
Um… have you ever heard of satire?
Seems the guy’s promoting himself on goodreads now. What an ass.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1523699.Keeper_Martin_s_Tale
Gee, do you think there’s anything else you can attack Stanek for? All of you who’re picking on this man are a pitiful bunch of human beings. I’m disgusted!
He did not do false advertising, this is bullshit, he did not write shitty books, he did noooooooot.
Oh hi, Robert.
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,167855.0.html
Robert Stanek in a thread with Hugh Howey and Melissa Foster. This is popcorn-worthy because rumor is he’s behind the Fiverr Report.
For those who don’t know, it’s 2-3 mirror blogs fixated on an author named Melissa Foster, but also accuses the likes of Hugh Howey and Ilona Andrews (lol!) of buying fake reviews. No evidence. No comments allowed. Lots of fake-looking quotes.
http://zonalert.wordpress.com
Why is Stanek rumored to be behind the blogs? Why is he fixated on this Foster person?
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,162910.msg2338683.html#msg2338683
Robert Stanek wrote about Melissa Foster recently on one of weird blogs:
http://robert-stanek.blogspot.com/
Having read all the anonymous blogs about Foster and Hugh buying reviews, I am certain it is Robert Stanek. There are many similarities in the writing styles (and in the attack on Rothfuss several years ago which was considered by many to be the work of Stanek
http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2009/06/pathetic.html
On another blog, in a post bizarrely speaking out against “authors writing their own reviews” (really, Robert?), Robert Stanek says he personally found authors “buying reviews in bulk.”
http://readindies.blogspot.com/2013/05/authors-writing-their-own-reviews.html
He also “pasted” a bunch of “Facebook conversations” in the comments that I haven’t been able to locate in Facebook. Shocking, I know.
Those smear blogs really look like Stanek’s work. They’re so his style. Thing is, we couldn’t say for sure whether it would be the craziest thing he’s ever done.
I kinda feel sorry for him….
Hello Mr Stanek!
He is a scumbag.
Not only did has he been writing fake rave reviews for all his self published crap for years – he has lately been accusing other authors of it anonymously in various wacko blog posts.
Stanek has been posting on the Kboards for the past month. It’s always the same thing. “I’m a big shot. Everyone look at me! I have over 100 million in sales. Etc. Etc.” For such a big shot, he still has almost no reviews on Amazon. (If you look at his author page (for fiction) and sort by most reviews, the top book has three reviews. What a goober. And the really sad thing is, I’m pretty sure there’s a pill that would solve all his problems.)
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,172060.0.html
He’s claiming somewhere north of a few hundred MILLION in sales… this guy is a world class douche bag and someone with serious, serious mental issues.
The thing is, he probably has sold a lot of his technical non-fiction under his other name. However, he’s vague about how much fiction he’s sold comparatively. He just says “I’ve been successful at all.”
Maybe he feels entitled because he happened to be in the air force during a war.
Hey I’m a veteran, so I deserve to be a best selling author of beloved children’s books too! Hey – adults should also like my books so I’ll just change the cover design and title and make them adult fantasy novels! Hey – they are best selling beloved books for all ages! I served in a war and I’m famous too!
He’s also accused people who give point out he’s a fraud of being child abusers.
I just went to his Twitter and Facebook pages. He’s pretty blatantly bought Twitter followers and Facebook likes, and embarassingly, his feed is filled with stock landscape photography. Your expose is HILARIOUS. I’ve never seen such well-documented cringe before.
LOL!
You people need to get a life and stop bashing Robert Stanek. What did he do to you that you have to dump on him so much. My bet is that you would trash your own mother if you were given a chance. So take a chill pill and leave the guy alone. Respectfully, Bob Stanek
I’m Stanek’s lawyer, and I would like to inform you that that image at the head of the article is, uh, “using his image for malicious intent.” You have to take it down.
Sincerely,
TotallynotRobertStanek.
To be honest, I wonder how Stanek gets out of bed every day. I think the whole “famous authors and their relatives,” is his Protocols of the Elders of Zion. His way of justifying his behavior and his superiority complex. These famous authors are keeping him from being a bigshot, these five-star sockpuppet ratings are just to level the playing field.
Now the blog is going after David Dalglish:
[blockquote]David Dalglish – David Dalglish has the dubious distinction of quite possibly being the most hateful author alive as he regularly purchases reviews to trash other authors.[/blockquote]
http://zonalert.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/thumbs-down-author-list/
Dalglish is just laughing:
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,178451.0.html
In the past, Dalglish has dissed Robert Stanek over fake reviews in multiple kboards posts:
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,54734.msg930882.html#msg930882
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,45673.msg797941.html#msg797941
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,51943.msg891834.html#msg891834
Then there’s this:
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,167832.0.html
C’mon, Conjugal Felicity. We need a page on this!
The craziest thing about zonalert is that if you’re a doing a website about authors who fake reviews, how can you leave Robert Stanek off the list? He’s the granddaddy of sock puppets. This would be like creating a website about actors who murder hookers and accusing everyone except Ben Affleck.
Also, Dalglish tagged one of Stanek’s books as “awful.”
http://www.amazon.com/tag/awful/products/A2T71DE3IBNC8C/ref=tag_stc_cust_istp_t
Anyone have some kind of connection…a possible reason why Stanek would be pissed at Hugh Howey?
[…] Visit this link for an article about another familiar face over at Kboards Writer’s Cafe: http://conjugalfelicity.com/robert-stanek/ […]
I’m surprised the whole J.R. King thing wasn’t added. I’ve looked elsewhere reading some funny articles about this hack, and there is a new “teen writer” listed with Reagent Press. Opinions were split on whether it was really Stanek himself or not, but the writing and marketing tactic were everything expected of Stanek(crap and fraud respectively).
It was also pointed out that J.R. King is clearly a pseudonym based off popular authors. With the craze around teen authors selling well, I think Stanek sunk to a new low to sell his books; pretending to be a child.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R39DCYDN9LCWX/ref=cm_cr_pr_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1575451069#wasThisHelpful
Show the hidden comment and you’ll see Stanek being Stanek.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R39DCYDN9LCWX/ref=cm_cr_pr_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1575451069#wasThisHelpful
Show the hidden comment and you’ll see Stanek being Stanek..
LOL, a small part of me wants him to get caught, get fined and exposed (for the wider audience anyhow) as the fraud he is. A much larger part of me thanks him for the endless entertainment and hopes he continues to comb the depths of the classless tool he is.
The hidden comment is gold, thanks for sharing!
Oh fuck you Stanek! You deserve any criticism coming to you. You’re a terrible author, you’re a terrible liar, and you’re a terrible human being and a fraud. Now excuse me as I wipe my ass with your so called novels. Fucker.
What are you saying about Ben Affleck???
http://witchrants.wordpress.com
Is this another Stanek sockpuppet blog? It brings up the Fiverr Report A LOT, and mentions “successful writer” Robert Stanek more than
once. You see, he’s written 150 books over twenty years. Not like that fraud Hugh Howey and those other kboards writers. Yup, the blog
rants against them too. It even links to Conjugal Felicity. Everyone wave.
http://witchrants.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/rant-on-wannabe-authors-who-support-book-piracy/
“the honey pot attracted an interesting guest in the form of a successful writer, complaining about one of the forums bugaboo topics:
Piracy. ”
The thread: http://www.kboards.com/index.php?topic=169321.0
http://witchrants.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/writers-cafe-kboards-unethical-marketing-practices-and-authors-behaving-badly-part-2/
“Visit this link for an article about another familiar face over at Kboards Writer’s Cafe and more rumors about who wrote the Fiverr Report
– and the plot sickens: http://conjugalfelicity.com/robert-stanek/
Also, here is that author’s rebuttal to the cascade of criticism and accusations. He has written 150 books over the course of a couple of
decades, according to his blog – for sure, you can make a living with 150 books if any of them are any good, at all. I find such a success
story far more credible than a dark horse out of nowhere, with no connections and no assistance from anyone, hitting it big:
http://readindies.blogspot.com/2013/01/unethical-competitors.html“
I’m just going to post this here.
Why I think the Witch Rants blog is suspect. (Don’t worry, it has to do with Robert Stanek, so it’s on-topic.)
I know people have said to let trolls troll in a vacuum, but I can’t let this stand. Reasonable people like Jane Litte, Mike Cane, and katiebabs have linked to and discussed that blog, and I don’t want to see them conned.
Reason One: Any blog that is really about bad author behavior would not link to Conjugal Felicity’s Robert Stanek report and then dismiss it.
The Witch Rants author believes Robert Stanek’s rebuttal? That David Langford, Stephen Leigh, Jim C. Hines, Victoria Strauss, Maureen
Johnson, David Louis Edelman, Patrick Rothfuss and Tim Spalding are out to get Stanek? It doesn’t sound the least bit crazypants? Anyone who actually read Conjugal Felicity knows why Tim Spalding is on Stanek’s list. Spalding, the owner of LibraryThing, saw himself Stanek’s IP shenanigans and put a warning on Stanek’s page. But Spalding is just out to get Stanek. Just cause.
Reason Two: Any blog that is really about bad author behavior would not refer to Robert Stanek as a “successful writer.” It would refer to him as “infamous for bad author behavior.” It would have a whole post on Robert Stanek because as a commenter here
said, he’s the granddaddy of bad author behavior. His history goes back
over ten years.
Reason Three: ZonAlert. Look up “ZonAlert” “Fiverr Report” “AlertAmazon” on Twitter. You’ll find a lot of suspicion, if not outright dismissal of those blogs.
“Don’t know how much stock I’d put in ZonAlert though”
“Website shames authors who “buy reviews”, but cites no sources”
“Article seems long on allegations/short on evidence”
“Gotta hate such blatant SEO writing. Axes to grind a-plenty”
Victoria Strauss devoted a Facebook post to why she thinks it’s nothing more than a revenge hatchet job.
https://www.facebook.com/WriterBeware/posts/10151882530482458
But Witch Rants keeps running with the ZonAlert torch, bringing it up all the time, telling everyone that’s true and that Robert Stanek is totally not behind it. After supposedly reading this blog, and all the evidence posted here.
Pretty suspicious.
Actually, I have a bunch more reasons. They have to do with Witch Rants’ Hugh Howey fixation, and how Witch Rants just happens to share Robert Stanek’s (ironic) crusade against bad author behavior. However, I’d be writing way too much.
I’m not saying Witch Rants is Robert Stanek. Just that the blog is suspect. Look around for yourself, and if you see anyone talking about Witch Rants, link them here. I want them to know that Robert Stanek’s M.O. supposedly consists of sockpuppet reviews, sockpuppet comments, sockpuppet accounts and sockpuppet BLOGS.
One of his fake accounts on his forum starts randomly making yo mama-type jokes about Harry Potter, calling him ugly and fat. Harry’s ugliness is debatable, but the fat jokes don’t make any fucking sense. Immature little brat.
More sites in the sockpuppet network.
Bagged and Tagged http://freport.wix.com/bagged
Shame On You http://shame-on-you.webs.com
Kindle Readers Beware http://kindlereadersbeware.wordpress.com
http://witchrants.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/writers-cafe-kboards-unethical-marketing-practices-and-authors-behaving-badly-part-2
It has a new addendum. Don’t forget to wave back, everyone. Highlights and a reply in another post.
If the Witch Rants author wants to accuse Melissa Foster of lying, the author should just do so. Foster is the one who first pointed a finger at Stanek and started all this.
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,162910.msg2338683.html#msg2338683
I’ve got a cookie jar right here:
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,167855
Robert Stanek starts a thread titled “Where have your books appeared?” Says he and his books were mentioned in the WSJ. Melissa Foster asks him for proof (she’s in his face because of ZonAlert). He gives a link–not to the article, but his own website. The website shows an interview discussing #1 Audible bestseller Robert Stanek and his audio books. A Google search of the actual article reveals that only Reagent Press is mentioned, not Stanek or his books.
http://www.audiopub.org/linkedfiles/wsj92606.pdf
This article doesn’t look like what Stanek posted on his website. When confronted by Foster and the Kboards mod, Stanek replies:
Conjugal Felicity has a scan of that article.
https://twitter.com/scavokretlaw/status/402253397895573504
http://conjugalfelicity.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/wallstreetjournal.png
How’s that for red-handed?
Oh, and Stanek later went and ranted about Melissa Foster:
http://robert-stanek.blogspot.com/2013/11/attention-all-authors-you-must-now-have.html
Wow, that must have hit a nerve, because Amazon Alert just went full hate ahead straight at Melissa Foster.
http://zonalert.wordpress.com/2014/06/07/melissa-foster-fraud-world-literary-cafe/
He probably thinks I’m Foster just like he thought Victoria Strauss was Conjugal Felicity. No, dude. I just don’t want to see someone with an Encyclopedia Dramatica page get away with this shit.
“Angelia,” everyone.
http://readindies.blogspot.com/2013/06/haters.html?showComment=1383232382729#c903944400718115197
We’re talking about noted scam outer Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware here.
You know why it’s easy to draw a line between Robert Stanek and Amazon Alert? It’s the idea that fiction writers compete against each other. That genre fiction is some kind of dog-eat-dog industry were authors need to backstab each other to stay afloat.
Readers can buy two, three…ten books in the same genre. In the real world, writers enjoy a sense of community with each other.
In Stanek’s world, however:
It sounds so much like ZonAlert, doesn’t it? Compare it to the June 7th and June 9th posts.
The LJ account was created October 31, 2013, the same day it left a comment on Stanek’s blog. It is also the same time “Angelia” showed up here. The LJ is empty. Sock.
Pay close attention to these two sentences:
“Patrick Rothfuss likely knew when he came out swinging after his first book was published and publicly enlisted friends and family to do his dirty work.”
“The scale of the fraud suggests Hugh Howey didn’t act alone and likely enlisted his wife and others in the scheme.”
Actually, no it’s not!
He really has it out for Victoria Strauss. I don’t understand why he thinks this clumsily employed deflection technique will work. Accusing someone like Victoria Strauss of doing the stuff he does is bonkers. Just bonkers.
http://publishingperspectives.com/2013/06/ether-for-authors-how-london-beat-beas-pants-off/
(Scroll to comments)
LOLZK
Robert Stanek should join in with Dr. Orly Taitz. It would be very entertaining.
Just to let you know, two of Stanek’s books are on sale for Kindle, for 0,00 USD. I got them both, of course. I just love the trainwreck.
OH MY GOD
I just started reading the oh so originally named “The Dragon, the Wizard & the Great Door” and I see THIS:
“The great kings of old traveled between realms using gates forged of ore
minded from the deepest, darkest place in the known worlds. Two gates
each for men, elves and dwarves. One master gate for those who ruled
over them all.”
This is the opening paragraph.
Poor Tolkien’s ghost, the man has even less shame than I thought.
Because I stuck up for Melissa Foster when he went after her.
Also, because I have a lot of happy readers. This drives Robert bonkers. 🙂
What are you talking about, Hugh? For years you and Melissa Foster have done nothing but take Mr. Stanek down off bestseller lists on Amazon. What you’ve done is wrong and YOU KNOW IT. You should be ashamed of yourself, because I’m disgusted!!! Also, one more thing: I hope you get your teeth knocked out for bad mouthing such a brilliant author, father, and veteran, you dirt bag!!!!!!
Hey Robert!
Yeah, Hugh. You need to listen to Ronald. You and Foster both are immoral and used different tactics to destroy Mr. Stanek’s reputation. Luckily, everyone has seen through your tactics. Mr. Stanek has millions, maybe even billions, of readers, all of whom love his books very much. Yet, you have the audacity to even say ANYTHING wrong about Mr. Stanek. How dare you!
Why aren’t you answering, Howey boy? Afraid that your obvious lies have caught up to you, and that you can’t parade them around like trophies? You’re a bad, bad man. Also, the Ruin Mist movie premieres summer 2017, and it”s gonna ROCK! It will be a lot better than any of your nonsensical adaptations.
Billions of fans, and he’s sold over 100 million books, but he never hit a bestseller list anywhere! It’s a miracle. 🙂
Again with the lies. You never seem to stop, do you?
Funny you suppose I’m Mr. Stanek himself. But he doesn’t use alts like piles of doggy dung like you and Foster.
I’m right here, thank you very much. Seems like you’re harassing fans again. Won’t be long till Jeff Darcy joins in on the hatefest.
Wow, Rorschach! You have a site dedicated to spreading untrue, malicious rumors about me! What a great person YOU are! Kidding. You’re awful, and I hope you feel shame later on in life for spooning my books. Or was it forking? Gosh, you people are sick.
Why not just post under your name, Robert? I’d love to discuss this with you. I find you fascinating.
Hey, what if we co-wrote your life story together? I’d split the money 50/50. I promise you it would sell millions. You’d be rich and famous.
I’m not being sarcastic at all. It’s a real offer. I think people would find your story riveting. I mean, look at how many people read this website about you. And all the work CF put into this.
It’s a great story. You should consider letting someone write it. Get in touch if you’re interested.
I can’t wait to see it! Best of luck, Robert.
This is so bizarre. Do you use multiple computers to do this? Or log in and out a bunch? I’d love to have a documentary crew over there to film all this.
You know, the most important thing you’ll ever do in your life is this incredible years-long scam. It’s a masterpiece of diligent psychosis. Check out a film called EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP sometime. You could be famous like that guy. Get in touch. We’ll write the story together. I’m dead serious. You’ll make millions. All you have to do is drop the crazy act for a few minutes and team up.
I don’t hate you. I like you. I think you’re fascinating.
You’re just trying to be nice, for some weird reason, because you are one of the weirdest and meanest human beings in all of mankind. This site should be about you! Maybe you should be the made-for-TV-movie psycho.Now THAT would be hilarious.
Why would I team up with you? That’s like Superman teaming up with Batman. You’ll ruin everything with your non-abilities when it comes to writing skills.
I hate that you feel that way. This is just who I am. I don’t let the things people say about me get me down. It tells me more about them than it says about me. I have a pretty good idea of who I am.
I think you have goodness in you, Robert. I think you want to be loved and admired. I know you have people in your life who know you and love and admire you, like your wife and kids. What often happens is that we take a stance, and it gets us in a bad spot, so we dig in deeper, and next thing we know we’re in a hole. And we don’t know how to get out. We don’t know how to reset. How to just say, “I’m sorry. I was wrong. Forgive me.”
You know what would be the most transformative thing you could ever do? Just forgive yourself. Not me. Not any of the authors you’ve tussled with. None of that matters. That’s books. I’m talking about real, human choices. Imagine how liberating it would be to come out, tell your story, apologize to yourself and be forgiven by others, and let people know how hard you’ve worked, and that you just want a little recognition.
The offer will stand for as long as you like. And if you write something new, and it’s something you’re proud of, send it my way. All I have to do is Tweet and FB about a book for sale, and it usually goes into the top 100 on Amazon. I’d do that for you, if you write something wonderful.
And I’m serious about the story of your life. Dead serious. I’m dying to write that book. I could come to Washington and meet with you to discuss it if you’re interested.
You can bitch and moan about perceived slights about me all you want. It’ll never work. How about this:
Admit I’m better than you’ll ever be, and I’ll leave. All you have to do.
You are better than me in every possible way. You are taller, better looking, a better lover, a proven veteran, a great father, a loving husband, a fantastic writer. I will never be as good as you at anything I ever do.
And I’d love to be Robin to your Batman. Let’s write that book. Can I call you tomorrow to discuss? The number I have ends with 7142. Let me know.
You know, there are some things I’ve been wanting to get off my chest:
I was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome in 2010.
I don’t always know how to act right, and I don’t always know how to respond to certain situations correctly. In 2001, I was pissed about how when I wrote, I wasn’t able to properly channel human emotion through my characters. I’ve always been that way, though. I’ve always felt like an emotionless robot. I wanted people to like my books, but no one wanted them. I was angry, and made fake reviews, and everything spiraled out of control. I was drunk with madness, and it’s time for me to sober up. I’m sorry
Hey Robert, it doesn’t matter what I think, but I just want to say that I forgive you.
The important part, of course, is that you forgive yourself. And it sounds like you are on your way. If you need to talk further, feel free to email me. The address is easy to find.
The best part about telling your story? The lessons we all can learn from it. We can all be better people. I’ve done some stupid stuff in my time, and you have inspired me to write an email to someone right now to ask them to forgive me. Thanks for that.
You’re welcome. It’s about time I cleaned up my act. I’m going to my room. Maybe I need to start on a new book series, one where the hero needs to find himself again after putting himself into a world of pain. He should ask himself: What have I done?
Heheh. Sorry ’bout all that, man. I might call, I don’t really know. I will when I can.
Rorschach,
Even though you’re not exactly someone I have to own up to, I just want to say, I’m sorry. I deserve any criticism coming to me, and, to be honest, I’m glad I made you happy, even if it’s not my preferred sort of happiness.
I’d say your writing skills have already improved since coming clean! Remarkably so. I believe your next work will sell 100 million copies. Go get ’em, Tiger!
For what it’s worth, I’d kill a full herd of buffalos in your behalf if you go back to sporking Stanek’s works, instead of Dragons Lexicon. Those were the most hillarious of your sporks. The sheer nonsense, the utterly eschizophrenic writing, the glorious badness… You just can’t compare.
You don’t honestly believe this is all a big conspiracy to ruin you do you? I don’t mean to be mean but you are just not that good of an author, the prose is amateur, the characters flat, the stories boring. You know deep down that you don’t really have these legions of fans, your facebook likes are all paid for and it’s obvious to anyone who looks.I’m sorry but deep down you know this is not a conspiracy and that you just dont have many fans and the way you behave and talk to people does not help the fact is you are no Robert Jordan or J.R.R Tolkien you never were on these best seller lists and this site PROVES that the only awards you have won are ones you made up yourself.
This site debunks your lies and this makes you mad so you lash out at everyone. Get a grip man stop accusing people of harassing fans be a man you know that it isn’t true. Ask yourself what is more probable.
That there is a huge internet wide conspiracy involving thousands of people and authors(many of which are actually wealthy famous and successful) trying to sabotage a simple self published author who hardly anyone has heard of(sorry but you know deep down it’s true).
OR that you are a mediocre to bad author who’s stories are just bad and don’t attract fans your career was not ruined it was non existent to begin with the hate you get you bring on yourself with your nasty attitude and refusal to accept accountability for your own actions.
Get some help man you are mentally ill and need to get some help, and I mean that you will feel much better once you do this and just stop blaming the world for your faults. best of luck
I really doubt that this is the real Robert Stanek or HUgh Howey.
If you click on Hugh Howey, you’ll find a comment history that looks real.
That is actually Hugh Howey. I don’t have any reason to believe it’s really Stanek.
Stop being so nice to that guy! Go all Joe Konrath on him!
It isn’t illegal to lay false claims to military awards. It should be, but it isn’t. A DD214 from Mr. Stanek would show all the military awards he’s ever earned.
Have you ever tried drinking bleach? It’ll do wonders for the digestion.
Maybe I will, asshole!
Schizophrenic? I’m not Schizophrenic! You’re just some basement-dwelling- no-life- whatsoever-sad-sack-of-shit just waiting for the devil to reap you into hell…… So Fuck You! Big old’ cock sucker!
Bet you’re some Encyclopedia Dramatic a user waiting to piss me off so you can contribute to that shitty-ass article about me! Want to anger me? Well guess what, mofo, its Stanek day, and I’ll pound your fuckin’ head in with a mallet.
That felt so fucking good, you don’t even know.
I was in a gas station bathroom and took notice of the plentiful graffiti. I thought, “Wow, these half-literate delinquents have more talent than Robert Stanek.”
That’ll be a new meme. Kind of like “Still a better love story than Twilight”. Every time a toddler paints the walls with his own feces, More Talent than Robert Stanek. A weird financial offer from a Nigerian prince, More Talent than Robert Stanek. The new zero star rating on GoodReads? More Talent than Robert Stanek.
I always found Stanek just boring. Even the sporks couldn’t change this. Unlike most, I didn’t find him to be incomprehensible – just standard quasi-medieval fantasy generica in which characters perfunctorily do their paint-by-numbers, generic fantasyish things.
Oh please oh please oh please
Oh, fuck you, you troll! When you die, I’ll masturbate on your grave! Ha! How about THAT? Huh? How about that, Heywood? I’ll create memes about YOOOOOUUUUU! You don’t understand me. I will create memes about you, I’ll troll you, and I will hunt you down until I cant , until I find the courage to kick the bucket! get just have for very via BlackBerry let quit room read this so cute zero plan could if except Arnold Schwarzenegger zone that but but good point squirrel Max hivib tho Dark more xylophone BITCH!
This isn’t Robert Stanek. If this was really Stanek apologizing, then those fake-ass blogs would be gone by now. Instead, Zon Alert now claims Hugh Howey is a raging racist. Its source? A “former co-worker.”
ZonAlert claims Kindle Readers Beware put it in touch with this coworker. Yup, it still claims the blogs are totally separate. LOL. So, yeah, I’m pretty sure this co-worker isn’t real.
Okay. The herd of buffalos has been slaughtered. I’ll be sending the heads to your home address, with the name “Rohrschach” written in each one with a scapel.
yep, including the spelling error.
I cannot understand in the slightest how Robert Stanek manages to look in the mirror everyday, and rationalize all the fake reviews, sock puppets, and accusing someone of child abuse. I’m rather sure I don’t want to.
Say what you will about Tesch, but at least she has an excuse for her actions (her parents on the other hand…) which are more naive than downright malicious and manipulative. While her “books” are idiotic, she actually manages to write something that could actually be semi-good (though mediocre) if she actually took the time to sit down and try to learn. Stanek’s, on the other hand, are generic fantasy stories that lack even basic consistency and prose (not much different from Tesch’s in that regard).
Maybe my faith in humanity is misplaced, but I’d expect a grown man to be more mature than Stanek behaves.
Stanek wants to sue Amazon. It’s on the front page of the Reagent Press site.
Doesn’t say what it’s about.
Scholastic has an imprint called “The Blue Sky Press,” often shortened to “Blue Sky Press.” They do children’s picture books.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_books/books055.shtml
Stanek is now publishing books under the name “Big Blue Sky Press.”
http://www.amazon.com/Pirates-Stole-Booty-Silly-Picture-ebook/dp/B00MH75LCG/
C’mon, Conjugal Felicity. We need a page on this!
In case people missed it, there’s one now.
http://conjugalfelicity.com/all-this-zonalert-fiverr-report-nonsense/
His “competitor,” Patrick Rothfuss? 0_0
Robert Stanek January 13, 2012 at 11:27 AM
Everyone wave and say Hi to my stalker. Poor guy’s been on a tear since 2005 and will be behind bars very soon if he keeps up this nonsense.
Robert Stanek January 13, 2012 at 11:30 AM
FYI,
Patrick St. Dennis runs Pat’s Fantasy Hot List and is a friend of a competitor, Patrick Rothfuss. You’d think they’d grow up eventually, but sadly not so.
You realize Superman and Batman are actually the founders of the Justice Le- no, why do I bother? If you’re a poe, it was on purpose, if you’re Stanek, you’re too far gone.
One thing I admire about Stanek is his complete and thorough lack of shame or any kind of respect for others. It really is somewhat astonishing. If he were a burglar, he would be the kind of burglar who breaks into your house, gathers all of your valuables into a burlap sack, and then plops down on your couch and starts watching TV. When you get home, he will dismissively pack you off to the kitchen to fix him a sandwich.
Stanek never needs a reason. Stanek is not merely a man, but an agent of fate, a force of creation, the architect of all reality. He decides who lives and who dies, and who weeps and who cries.
That implies he takes responsibility for the things he does.
He often is like the guy in the whodunnits who did it, but puts on a front in order to throw people off. I don’t know why he thinks it works. It’s comically transparent.
http://readindies.blogspot.com/2013/05/authors-writing-their-own-reviews.html
“I don’t fake reviews. I am a crusader against such an awful deception.”
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,172060.msg2446278.html#msg2446278
“I heard someone attacked Hugh Howey. What an awful thing to do. You wouldn’t want to do the same thing to me, would you?”
I still shake my head at the chutzpah of that second link.
Here’s the thing though — no one believes him. In a whodunit, he would wear a comically fake mustache to commit a murder in front of dozens of witnesses. Then, as everyone is freaking out, he would peel off his mustache and try to mingle with the crowd, completely oblivious to the fact that everyone saw him and no one is fooled by his transformation. Stanek’s lies are repellent but they are also transparent that it’s hard to believe that he seriously thinks he’s fooling anyone. The fact that he really does seem to think that he is pulling off the most brilliant scheme actually makes it more shocking.
On 9/15/14, he put her on his “architects of hate” list.
http://www.donotlink.com/bx11
Stanek’s stuff is just fucking boring to me because I can’t get a grasp on the sheer stupidity of it due to having no idea what the fuck is going on in his horrible, horrible books. The Maradonia sporkings are my favorite to be honest, followed by Rah, and then the Seven Sleepers.
When Melissa Foster wrote in the kboards Fiverr Report thread “The cowardly poster has two Twitter accounts and has conversations with himself about being “ruined” and “ruining” others,” I looked and thought perhaps the @roxbasecsu could be the account she was referring to. The account is now locked, but at the time, I remember it tweeting at @alertamazon (Zonalert) stuff to that effect.
Anyway, as of October 2014, the suspected sockpuppet is also following the William Stanek Twitter account and @badauthors (Witch Rants).
https://twitter.com/roxbasescu/following
Didn’t think to look for the follow connections back then. Wish I did. The Witch Rants connection is especially LOL. It’s pretty much why I’m bothering to post this.
http://conjugalfelicity.com/robert-stanek/#comment-1392383048
Disclaimer: this is all speculation and line drawing. The only evidence I have is what I present here.
I just deleted all my reviews from Amazon and will never ever provide them with feedback again. Unfortunately I am not Robert Stankek.
ZonAlert and Witch Rants are similarly dramatic re: Hugh Howey.
Witch Rants 3/21/14: “his twisted soul”
ZonAlert 8/8/14: “Howey’s broken psyche”
https://twitter.com/ReagentPress/status/527158317940891648
@rcgrandinetti Please contact Jeannie Kim jeannie.kim@reagentpress.com
This tweet at first appears to be a reply to Amazon VP Russell Grandinetti, but there’s no other tweet. It isn’t replying to anything.
On the date of this tweet, Grandinetti’s name appeared in some articles about Amazon’s new crowdsourcing publisher, Kindle Scout. People vote for books, and Amazon selects books to publish among those that do well.
“I can see why Rothfuss doesn’t want people to read Stanek. Stanek’s a much more capable writer.” –Emily Asimov, author
This “author blurb” is part of Reagent Press’ official marketing. Holy fuck.
https://twitter.com/ReagentPress/status/529365802017763329
I did a search for this “Emily Asimov.” She has titles with Reagent Press. https://one.overdrive.com/media/1743077/when-winter-bared-our-bones (click on “publication details”)
The Amazon author page uses a stock photo as its author picture. Could it be a Stanek pen name?
http://www.amazon.com/Emily-Asimov/e/B00G7TJWKC
BRB with info on the other names–the ones with less crazy blurbs.
The other names are all with Reagent Press or one of its imprints such as Wonderful World Press, Your Reading Steps Books, and My World Books. You can find them in Reagent Press’ Overdrive catalog. https://one.overdrive.com/publishers/reagent-press?page=1
The names that have Amazon author pages all use stock photos as the author picture.
http://www.amazon.com/Mary-Osborne/e/B00AM3GILK
http://www.amazon.com/Cathy-Thompson/e/B00AM3DUT8
http://www.amazon.com/Shannon-Hale/e/B00B6RT4P8
http://www.amazon.com/Lisa-Gardner/e/B00B6S8X9U
http://www.amazon.com/Margaret-Brown/e/B00AM3FEOC
http://www.amazon.com/Julia-Cook/e/B00B6RZEYS
Stanek did not disclose in these blog posts that some of the “featured authors” are published by his own company, or perhaps his own pen names.
readindies.blogspot.com/2013/12/read-indies–book-celebration-1.html
readindies.blogspot.com/2013/12/more-great-reads-from-indie-authors.html
Many of the names are similar to known authors. Margaret Wise Brown wrote Goodnight Moon. Another Julia Cook is a prolific children’s author, not to be mixed up with the stock photo Julia Cook with one book on sea turtles.
Speaking of “Julia Cook” and that sea turtle book, I clicked on the profile of one the book’s reviewers.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/AUQ5T5A67P0DF
Check out the Stanek name drop in a review of a Kathryne Kennedy novel of all things.
I believe the word you’re looking for here is irony.
Conjugal Felicity has taken a life: http://robertstanek.blogspot.com/
In his latest blog post Stanek claims a friend of his took their own life directly because of the online hate directed toward Stanek and his books.
How dare you accusers find it so hilarious to spread malicious lies about me. I would have never done the things you say I have done, and I do not believe in lying for either self-defense or sympathy. How everyone from casual Internet users to Hugh Howey accuse me of such wrongs I do not know; but what I do know is that if I had an attorney I would sue all of you. Merry Christmas you liars.
Stanek’s delusions and personality disorder(s) are really over the top. How narcissistic is this guy? WTF!
I don’t believe any of it though. It’s just another lie from a pathological liar.
In case this isn’t a troll, or the real Robert Stanek comes by.
You see all the links? The screenshots? That’s called EVIDENCE, which this site has in spades.
The bastard blocked me on Twitter for some reason. Maybe I hit a nerve when I linked to this site, or maybe because I made a blog post in defense of his recent accusations to Hugh Howey.
Like so many of Stanek’s claims, this truly makes no sense whatsoever. I could buy an author killing themselves over such negative attention, but someone taking their life because a friend had a bad reputation on the internet? Just… why? I’m struggling to grasp the logic behind this.
Stanek really doesn’t understand how the human mind works, does he?
http://www.amazon.com/Quest-Heroes-Book-Sorcerers-Ring-ebook/product-reviews/B00AFROVQC/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
Whoops! Meant to write more than the link. I was going to say that the author of the Sorcerer’s Ring appears to have done the same in terms of fake reviews which initially propelled her book to the bestselling fantasy email blasts that Amazon does. Karma has started to catch up, but not before she cashed in on all these people paying for her book under the false pretense that it was a quality work. And then she had the gumption to make it a 13 (maybe more) book series. Take a look.
Wow… I was actually going to see what everyone was going on about before and read his book, but you’ve sort of persuaded me otherwise…
Society and / or the (lack of) law presents the opportunity, the criminal merely completes the crime. You can say anything on the internet anonymously with impunity, those that get caught or exposed are in the minority.
This is the internet, section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is still in force.
Stanek is bad, if it wasn’t Stanek it would have been someone else, and of course he’s not the only one.
My name is Mr. Snrub and I agree wholeheartedly with this Rupert Stanbek fellow.
Minded? MINDED?
So this ore from which the gates were forged were WATCHED OVER from the deepest, darkest places of the world?
Oh, yeah, this guy’s the next Rowling. Brilliant.
Hey, Billy-Bob, if that’s really you.
Here’s what you want to do if you have any hope of being taken seriously: Spork these pages.
Seriously, take this page and refute, point by point, with VERIFIABLE LINKS to RECOGNIZED SOURCES, everything CF has said against you. Post a hi-res image of the original photo with Brian Jacques. Post a photo of you holding your “Best New Voice in Fantasy” award and name the group that gave it to you, and post a link to their website. Post a photo of you holding your Distinguished Flying Cross award. And be aware that Photoshop has all sorts of “tells” that can be spotted by the most rank amateur.
Find actual reviews posted through official publications that review other authors in your field. I’m not talking about articles where you are mentioned; I mean show us a New York Times or Washington Post review. Post links that prove you were ever an Amazon or Audible best-seller. Show us proof that would stand up in court that CF is just making stuff up.
In short, do to this write-up what it did so thoroughly and so convincingly to you. If you can do that, you might change some minds. So far you have changed precisely ZERO.
Frankly, at this point, if you sued CF for defamation and I were the judge in the case, and your “evidence” was as shoddy as what you’ve offered so far, I’d be forced to find in favor of CF and would be tempted to punish you as far as the law would allow.
This was another SMH moment as he said at one point that he’s been a “professionally published author since 1995” on his site, one of the sites dedicated to his fiction, implying he’s been publishing fiction for that long. Then later he admits the first book he published was one of his computer books. He never qualifies how much of his “best-selling” work was actually his fiction. As far as I can tell, his fiction has hardly sold at all.
“Readers can buy two, three…ten books in the same genre”
This is something else I’ve wondered about; why is Stanek so convinced that other authors, or these authors’ fans, are out to destroy him because they’re threatened that he might out-sell their favorite?
For one thing, most readers don’t care about sales, and most authors who are doing well don’t care if there’s someone else doing better. If they do, it’s only to aspire to reach those sales figures themselves some day.
Could you imagine if Tad Williams had written something like “In 1990 when Robert Jordan got up on his soapbox and ranted to stir up a mob, I was a multi-published author with over 20 grand in sales to my name, translations in over 20 countries and over 5 million books sold — something Robert Jordan likely knew when he came out swinging after his first book was published and publicly enlisted friends and family to do his dirty work.” (even though EOTW wasn’t Jordan’s first; it has, however, been widely perceived as such).
He’d be a laughing stock. And he’d never do it because he would consider Jordan a colleague; a peer.
NOT a competitor.
You know, I find it extremely funny that you say no one is trying to defame me, but isn’t that what you have done in this very series of articles? Your website is a joke, and you’re nothing but a fucking troll. As I recall, I had my novels revised by the the proofreaders at Tor, and when they sent back my manuscript they told me that they
” thoroughly enjoyed your work, but as of right now we have too many manuscripts sent beyond our control. ” I published my work on my own, and my sales were doing fine, but, since no one could believe that a SELF-PUBLISHED novel was actually successful, the major fantasy authors of the time downplayed my efforts with fake, negative reviews and nasty blog posts.
And you’re just doing the same thing. How fucking original, you dork.
Yeah, right, Stanek – YOU were the one posting “fake, negative reviews” about everyone else… as for “nasty” blog posts and reviews – well, when the work under discussion WAS nasty and awful, that kind of goes with the territory…. 🙂
I sincerely doubt this is Robert Stanek. But regardless of who it is, I have a serious bone to pick with this person.
STOP MISUSING ASPERGER SYNDROME TO SERVE AS AN EXCUSE AND STOP SPREADING MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT IT, YOU JERK.
Asperger’s does not cause people to do morally wrong things. Asperger’s does not cause people to feel emotionless.
Asperger’s main trait tends to manifest in making people very logical, and since social norms and emotions aren’t always logical, people with it are generally naturally bad at understanding them. So social awkwardness and confusion results. Awkward responses do not translate to morally wrong responses. Another common trait is poor empathy, but that does NOT mean people with Asperger’s are emotionless. That means they’re bad at understanding other people’s viewpoints. Since most other people are better at understanding social and emotional stuff, that mostly increases the confusion.
How do I know this? *waves* Hi, Aspie here!
(And before anyone asks, I was diagnosed twice by two different psychiatrists with doctorates and stuff. Hours of testing. Not fun)
Obviously, there are going to be some people with Asperger’s who are jerks and/or criminals and/or morally reprehensible, but that is not due to their Asperger’s. It could be due to their reaction to people’s treatment of them stemming from their Asperger’s behaviors or something like that. But it is not directly because they have Asperger’s.
In conclusion? STOP ENCOURAGING HARMFUL STEREOTYPES, DICK.
(Also, fun fact: Asperger’s doesn’t officially exist anymore; it’s now considered high-functioning autism. But since he used the term, I’m sticking with it)
[…] Robert Stanek » Conjugal Felicity – Who is Robert Stanek? He is an award-winning, internationally bestselling author of over 100 books for young children and adults. […]
I would love to add something anno 2017: Robert Stanek has probably paid some company to fake twitter followers for him. Take a look at his Audit score, that singles out real followers (who are active on twitter) vs. bots: https://www.twitteraudit.com/robertstanek
The tweets he considers important are supposedly liked by these bots (would happen at his request), and other tweets get +- 10 likes tops.
I was trolling Hugh Howey years ago, and I’ve finally come back to see what’s happened since then. I actually have high-functioning autism, and my fourteen-year old self was channeling some of my own anger into my characterization of Stanek to seem more real.
I’m much better now, and now that I look back I feel hurt that I may have pushed negative stereotypes about autism. I’ve been going through places where I know I’ve trolled people, and some of these responses I haven’t seen before take me back to such an odd time in my life. I feel I’m being to poignant about this, and no one might read this anyway, but I feel better commenting on something I did long ago that, though it doesn’t make me feel ashamed, but rather melancholy and reflective,