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The Alleviate Awards 2011

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  • 25-08-2011 3:50pm
    #1
    Fnergg
    Registered Users Posts: 270 ✭✭


    I came across an ad for these in a local paper:

    http://www.alleviatebooks.com/

    I must say I was surprised. This is the first competition I've seen where "almost all submissions will be included in the worldwide anthology to be launched in Ireland, the UK, America, and Canada".

    Surely some kind of quality control is necessary? Given the 80/20 rule it's a safe bet that at least 80% of all submissions will be rubbish. With poetry that rises to 99.5% :-)

    And they're going to publish all submissions? I can't see such a publication flying off the shelves but maybe they're betting on sales only being made to the people who submitted work in the first place. In other words, it's a form of vanity publishing.

    So, who are Alleviate Publications?

    They do not give an address or telephone number which is very odd for a publisher.

    I can find no record of anything ever being published by them.

    The domain name "Alleviate Publications" is not registered.

    When I checked who "Alleviatebooks.com" was registered to the other day on www.godaddy.com I found the registrant to be a Draya Mooney with an address in a housing estate in Galway. Interestingly, today the details have been changed and the regisitrant is now "Alleviate Publications" and the address is "New York". No specific address and no telephone number.

    Draya Mooney has a website - www.drayamooney.com - and she appears to be a New Age author offering a free download of her book "Universal Love". It states that the book is available in paperback at retailers nationwide. However, despite the Amazon and Barnes & Noble logos appearing underneath it neither company has a listing for it.

    I find the whole situation extremely curious.

    Does anyone have more information?

    Regards,

    Fnergg


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    #2
    kfish2oo2
    Registered Users Posts: 274 ✭✭kfish2oo2


    This line of the submissions agreement is ringing bells, because the retained ownership clause in the second line is not worded in way I've ever seen on a license agreement before. Typically these kinds of notices are much more specific.
    Alleviate Publications wrote:
    By submitting your material to the Alleviate Awards you are granting Alleviate Publications the non-exclusive, royalty-free, international copyright of your material. This means you continue to own the copyright of your material but you grant Alleviate Publications the right to publish your material in our anthology and to use it for promotional purposes for the Alleviate Awards.

    Then there's the age of the website - purchased on the 29 July. For an international competition, one month for submissions with what appears to be very little (local) advertising is mad. Also 5 pages of Google searching shows absolutely nothing about Alleviate Books/Publishing on anything other than GoDaddy and the website itself.

    I have a feeling that the website will disappear as soon as submissions are over, no one will hear from Alleviate again and the submitted work will start showing up in places like iStockPhoto and so on.


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    #3
    Fnergg
    Registered Users Posts: 270 ✭✭Fnergg


    There's a very interesting thread on an American forum - Absolute Write - about Alleviate Publications:

    http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=222506


    Has anyone here submitted photos to them?


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    #4
    Mjollnir
    Registered Users Posts: 888 ✭✭✭Mjollnir


    Fnergg wrote: »
    There's a very interesting thread on an American forum - Absolute Write - about Alleviate Publications:

    http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=222506


    Has anyone here submitted photos to them?

    Wow. That woman is a complete doorknob. Nothing that was said was 'slander' (by definition, it couldn't be) and nothing that was stated was libelous.


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    #5
    sineadw
    Registered Users Posts: 3,319 ✭✭✭sineadw


    Mjollnir wrote: »

    Wow. That woman is a complete doorknob. Nothing that was said was 'slander' (by definition, it couldn't be) and nothing that was stated was libelous.

    The hilarious thing is there isn't even tort of libel or slander in Irish law anymore - just tort of defamation.

    Sad to see posts being edited here for no apparent reason though..


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