Sunday, October 23, 2011

Hephaestus Books

Remember Alphascript? Betascript? Books LLC? They're all the same German company, and their books, which are flooding Amazon and other retailers, are Print on Demand collections of wikipedia reprints, sometimes collecting material so tenuously linked that no human seems to have been involved in their production at any point.

Amazon is now flooded with thousands more wikipedia books by Hephaestus Books. I don't know if it's the same company again, but the modus operandi is the same. As of today there are 187 Hephaestus books that mention Star Trek in the title. Here's partial titles from a few of their books (the titles are too long for Amazon to give in full):
  • Fictional Ensigns, including: Tom Paris, Hoshi Sato, Wesley Crusher, Amuro Ray, Ezri Dax, Nog, Travis Mayweather, Lalah Sune, Kira Yamato, Demora...

  • Fictional Heads Of State, including: Worf, Martok, Doctor Doom, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Gowron, Rom (star Trek), Judge Hershey, Highfather, Gaius Baltar...

  • Lorentzian Manifolds, including: Faster-than-light, Alcubierre Drive, Warp Drive (star Trek), Exotic Matter, Negative Mass, Breakthrough Propulsion...

  • Star Trek Novels, including: Star Trek: Vanguard, Harbinger (star Trek Novel), Summon The Thunder, Reap The Whirlwind (star Trek Novel)...
Shop carefully. Don't buy this stuff. With half an hour's work, if you really wanted paperback wikistuff, you could whip up a pdf and print it through lulu.com much less expensively.

posted by Steve @ 3:43 PM   3 comments

3 Comments:

At 9:19 AM, Blogger Paul Markham said...

These books are a new form of spam scam and, as you mention, they are probably all prepared by data mining programs. It is immensely frustrating to have to troll through hundreds of these 'books' whenever you search for anything. It also indicates that companies like Amazon et al undertake virtually no due dilligence before they allow these dubious publishers space on their website. It's a poor showing really and undermines their own credibility as book providers.

 
At 7:46 PM, Anonymous John Shuster said...

I agree with you totally, but what can we do to convince Amazon?
I, for one, will rethink any possible future purchases. Multiply my one by 100,000 of you, and maybe Amazon, et al, will ban such dubious "product" from its huge selection. Amazon does not need Hephaestus, but Hephaestus needs Amazon. I need neither!
It does seem time to go back to my local bookstore, where for few bucks more, I can see people smile and say Thank You :)
-- John Shuster

 
At 9:15 PM, Anonymous John Shustet said...

I agree with you totally, Paul and Steve, but exactly what can we do to convince Amazon?
I, for one, will rethink any possible future purchases using Amazon and let them know this. Multiply my one U by 100,000 of Us, and maybe Amazon, et al, will ban such dubious "product" from its huge selection. Amazon does not need Hephaestus Books, but Hephaestus needs Amazon. I/We need neither!
It does seem time to go back to our local bookstores, where for few bucks more, we can see people smile and say Thank You :)

 

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