PARC is Out of Print


Robert Campbell

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Bill,

Brant's joking.

PARC probably had a run of 3 or 4 thousand (maybe 5 at the outside). What's left from that will be what's left.

Michael

According to a website that calls itself, "Preditors and Editors, A Guide to publishers and publishing services for serious writers" (www.Anotherealm.com/preditors/), in their survey of publishers, they have the following: "Durban House Publishing: poor contract. strongly not recommended. A small publisher located in Dallas, Tx. Research indicates this to be a vanity press." (emphasis in original).

Personally, I don't consider the appellation, "vanity press," to necessarily be a bad thing, although tnat epithet is often used as a way to condemn a book without discussing its contents. Many writers started-out with a vanity publisher, and then their book subsequently "took off," and the author was then picked up by a commercial publisher. I suppose that is the exception, however.

In the case of Durban House (the publisher of PARC), their brief description on the above-listed website implies that there are other problems with it. PARC can be ordered from the Durban House website, but there is no indication whether it is still in print. I guess that you only find that out after the order is placed!

What, if anything, could or should be done about PARC? Personally, I hope it will simply fade into obscurity, but I doubt that its backers will allow it to stay out of print, as it has become a religious artifact :wacko: to them (note the adulatory, worshipful tones present in some of the readers' comments in its listing on Amazon.com).

Perhaps the collection of critical analyses that have appeared on OL by Neil Parille, Robert Campbell, MSK, Roger Bissell, (and many, many others who have also contributed excellent commentaries) could be published as an online (i.e., "Google book") document where it could be easily accessed. Of course, it is all available now on OL for anyone to find, but it may still be useful to have these documents in a single collection, "all by themselves." Just an idea. :unsure:

Edited by Jerry Biggers
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Jerry,

Durban House got a bad reputation for a variety of reasons, not just because it was alleged to be a subsidy publisher.

Durban was dropped from Writer's Market in 2006.

You should realize that the website you found is a façade with nothing behind it. Durban House has been out of business, probably since 2007. Several of us strongly suspect that the current Durban House site is maintained by Jim and Holly Valliant, so it won't look as though PARC's publisher has gone belly-up. Holly Valliant sent out a new press release for PARC in early 2009.

For sure the present site is not run by Durban's one-time proprietors, Bob Middlemiss and John Lewis. Try calling the Dallas, Texas phone number that's still listed on it. The number's been disconnected.

It would be interesting to see if your attempt to order any book other than PARC (lots of others are displayed on the site as though they are still available) gets a response.

Robert Campbell

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I wrote about this once before somewhere. Durban House was, for a time, being hosted on a free Apple site. (Sort of like setting up the corporate site on a Blogger Blog or on Facebook.)

I just looked and apparently it is now on a shared server (meaning it's own account, but an economy size--the IP resolves to Network Solutions--see here, then here).

John Lewis still is listed as the owner of the domain "durbanhouse.com" in a Whois lookup. But then he is on record as owner of about 848 other domains (see here).

The present site (durbanhouse.com) has no traffic, page rank or anything else to speak of Google-wise. On a Google search, over half the pages indexed go to error pages like 404 pages. Those pages will leave Google's index soon and, at this moment, that leaves about 11 pages indexed. In other words, this has the characteristics of an abandoned site, or a new one being set up over an old one--moved around and so forth.

Michael

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Michael,

Interesting.

Several of the pages, including the home page, look identical to their counterparts on the previous, Apple-hosted site.

However, there are no longer any forthcoming titles listed. The back list page now has fewer book covers pictured on it, so maybe some of the excess inventory has been disposed of? The deletions are particularly noticeable on the fiction back list, where the remaining book covers haven't been properly rearranged, leaving blank spaces where other covers used to be displayed.

There are two Dallas-area phone numbers on the Submission Guidelines page (used to be just one). Anybody want to try them? I'll bet they are both disconnected.

Robert Campbell

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Bill,

Brant's joking.

PARC probably had a run of 3 or 4 thousand (maybe 5 at the outside). What's left from that will be what's left.

Michael

That was my impression also, but I was hoping to get it on record. It would be good to get the actual total sales count (or print run) on record.

Bill P

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[it would be good to get the actual total sales count (or print run) on record.

Bill P

Bill,

We can roughly estimate the total sales, but unless Jim Valliant tells us the sales figures and the total press run, we can't know for sure.

Over at SOLOP, Mr. Valliant has been asked on a number of occasions. He has always refused to answer.

Robert Campbell

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[it would be good to get the actual total sales count (or print run) on record.

Bill P

Bill,

We can roughly estimate the total sales, but unless Jim Valliant tells us the sales figures and the total press run, we can't know for sure.

Over at SOLOP, Mr. Valliant has been asked on a number of occasions. He has always refused to answer.

Robert Campbell

I think if the figures were impressive Valliant would be shouting them from the roof tops.

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For people who like to mess with Amazon information and comparisons, here is one hell of a fantastic tool: TitleZ.

Signing up is free (for the Beta stage, which is still active). I just now learned about this and signed up. I looked up different books. Wow! What a way to blow hype out of the water or even research the popularity of books, topics and trends. I have yet to explore all the possibilities of this tool. (I hope I don't become addicted to it.)

Unfortunately, Kindle titles are no longer available for tracking. But since I just started using this, that was no loss to me.

PARC obviously does not fare too well...

:)

Michael

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For people who like to mess with Amazon information and comparisons, here is one hell of a fantastic tool: TitleZ.

Signing up is free (for the Beta stage, which is still active). I just now learned about this and signed up. I looked up different books. Wow! What a way to blow hype out of the water or even research the popularity of books, topics and trends. I have yet to explore all the possibilities of this tool. (I hope I don't become addicted to it.)

Unfortunately, Kindle titles are no longer available for tracking. But since I just started using this, that was no loss to me.

PARC obviously does not fare too well...

:)

Michael

Thanks Michael:

Interesting that the Communist Manifesto is ranked #9 in sales in the last 30 days - damn those Beckian's!

Adam

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For people who like to mess with Amazon information and comparisons, here is one hell of a fantastic tool: TitleZ.

Signing up is free (for the Beta stage, which is still active). I just now learned about this and signed up. I looked up different books. Wow! What a way to blow hype out of the water or even research the popularity of books, topics and trends. I have yet to explore all the possibilities of this tool. (I hope I don't become addicted to it.)

Unfortunately, Kindle titles are no longer available for tracking. But since I just started using this, that was no loss to me.

PARC obviously does not fare too well...

:)

Michael

Michael; Thanks for the tip. I agree it could become addictive.

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Michael,

Thanks for the pointer to TitleZ. The site is still a work in progress but what it offers is most useful.

Looking for books published by Durban House, I found that TitleZ thinks there are 123, though I couldn't get more than 80 to display, and some of those had been out of print for years (a price of $0.00 does not suggest recent sales of the item in question).

I noticed that a few Durban House books have apparently been published since 2006. On the list at TitleZ are books with 2007, 2008, 2009 publication dates—even a January 2010. Some of these titles are familiar from Durban's current zombie website.

So who put these out? Who runs what's left of Durban now?

Robert Campbell

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, my curiosity got the better of me, so I attempted to order PARC from the spookily quiet Durban House website.

5 days later I got an email from "Karen L." in Customer Service.

I'm sorry to say that we are no longer selling the hardcover edition of THE PASSION OF AYN RAND'S CRITICS. We will be coming out with a trade paper version in the near future.

She suggested I contact the Ayn Rand Bookstore to get a copy of the hardback.

So who is running Durban House—and when will that trade paperback make its appearance?

Robert Campbell

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I wonder if the ARI Bookstore would be happy with the idea of trade paperback of PARC Hardcovers cost more than paperbacks so the bookstore might be stuck with a good number of hardcovers.

I am also wondering if "Karen L" could be a pseudonym for Holly Vallaint.

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Chris,

The Ayn Rand Bookstore has been selling the hardcover at a discount, so the price difference may not be so large.

"Karen L." might be Karen Lewis.

Who knows?

Robert Campbell

I didn't think the the Ayn Rand Bookstore sold anything at a discount. Forgive my ignorance but Karen Lewis is not familiar to me.

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Chris G,

The AR Book Store has been taking $6 off the cover price for PARC.

Now that it's unavailable elsewhere, maybe they'll reconsider?

Karen Lewis is the wife of John Lewis, who was originally the owner or co-owner of Durban House. The domain name is still registered to him, for what that's worth.

During the vanity or subsidy press controversy, back in 2004-2006, her name came up because her literary agency allegedly steered clients to Durban House, and some were asked to sign contracts absolving her of reponsibility for any conflict of interest.

Here's the old Michael Prescott entry on the subject:

http://michaelprescott.typepad.com/michael_prescotts_blog/2005/06/vanity_thy_name.html

Holly Valliant, in her role as literary agent, also steered some of her clients to Durban House. Whether she ever had a role in the company is still not known.

Robert Campbell

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I wonder if Valliant will come out with a paperback edition with a new introduction discussing the Heller and Burns bios.

In the criticism of the new bios by ARI types such as Cline and Binswanger there has been no mention of PARC.

-Neil

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  • 1 month later...

Jim Valliant has made one of his sudden reappearances at SOLOP.

Of the July 2002 "Durban House" review of The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand, still visible here

http://www.amazon.com/review/RZ8A48QLOKRH3/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Mr. Valliant now declares

http://www.solopassion.com/node/7293#comment-86216

I'd really like to say "me" and take all the credit, of course, and it's clearly a PARC-inspired sentiment. I just cannot recall writing that and there are reasons why I doubt that it could have been me. But PARC had begun appearing on the web in March of 2002 and my relationship with Durban also began about then, too.

Well, that July 2002 review from "Durban House" appears to be the work of Holly Valliant, not James.

But there's another review of the same book from April 2002, under James Valliant's own name:

http://www.amazon.com/review/ROEXPU960P7VH/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Robert Campbell

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There are a few people who have been impressed with Valliant's work. Have they read this stuff. Peikoff has been a lost cause for years but I'd love to here what someone like Bill Perry says.

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Valliant is the most perfect randroid in the world. A honest man will admit his error when he's shown to be wrong. But has Valliant ever ever ever ever ever admitted that he had been wrong on some point? Of course not! When confronted with irrefutable evidence of him being wrong, he'll always evade, sidestep, try to muddle the question by switching to some irrelevant detail, making a counterattack, claiming that he's answered the accusation already, or take some other evasive maneuver, but the very last thing he'll say is "yup, I goofed there". How can anyone take such a person seriously? The comical reaction of his admirers is now saying that such issues "are not important". No, perhaps they aren't really. But now the million dollar question: who has made them so important after all?

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