This topic is important to me, so here's an update on my personal struggle to buy a particular book.
(Links to part 1 and pics in comment - to avoid auto-deletion by subreddit-rules)
It's an old lesson that blacklisting and publicly banning books is counter-productive, and often leads to stronger sales long-term.
So what's a better way?
To quietly "Capture & Kill". This method requires a fake publisher, who acquires the rights and then simply refuses to sell the book.
As far as I can tell, that is exactly what has happened to this German best-seller: Journalists for hire: How the cia buys the news.
It was published in Germany in September 2014, and that same month a new publisher popped up in Oakland, California:
www.tayenlane.com (incorporated Sept 2 2014).
Tayen Lane promptly bought the US rights to the book, and proceeded to not sell it to this day. I know this for a fact because I've tried to buy the book repeatedly since it was "published" on May 15 2017. I'm not the only one either, other would-be buyers have reported the same experience (see link in comments).
That's where I was when I posted last time. Two things have happened since then:
1) A german-speaking redditor contacted Kopp Verlag (original publisher in Germany) and got a response right away (big contrast to the stonewalling by Tayen Lane). Here's the exchange:
Redditor: "Do you know why Tayen Lane won't sell the book?"
Kopp Verlag: "Unfortunately, after signing the contract we have not heard from Tayen Lane, our letters and emails have gone unsanswered."
Original: "Leider haben wir nach Vertragsabschluss nichts mehr gehört von Tayen Lane, unsere Brief und E-Mails blieben unbeantwortet."
It seems the publisher stonewalls everyone equally. It's like they just want to hide and not be seen or heard by anyone.
2) Oakland isn't too far from my home, so a week ago I stopped by their office. It was no surprise their office doesn't actually exist. There's no trace of Tayen Lane anywhere at the address they give. See posted pics. The person answering for 'management' said: "Tayen Lane? There's no one here by that name. Sorry. You must have the wrong address."
Conclusion: A fake publisher has quietly "captured and killed" a German best-seller. How many other books are disappeared in a similar way? No one knows, except the ones doing the censoring. As a believer in freedom of the press and expression, this troubles me greatly, which is why I post.
PS. I'd also like to comment on the many "nothing to see here"-comments that suddenly flooded my 1st post.
Without providing sources, their claims all amounted to the same thing: "Nothing weird here. Move along folks. And don't forget to forget this book ever existed."
Claim #1: Author's sudden death in January 2017 voided the contract and made publishing impossible.
The book was officially published on may 15 2017, some 4 months after the author died, so this claim is obviously false. If anything, the author's sudden death, at age 56, while awaiting US publications, would only make his book seem more relevant. I sincerely hope his heart attack had nothing to do with his offices being raided by the secret police.
Claim #2 (my favorite): Cost considerations. Publisher didn't think the book would turn a profit, so decided not to sell.
So first they paid for the rights to a best-seller, plus the translation, THEN decided not to sell pre-ordered soft copies because of cost-considerations? This claim fails on its own silliness.
Claim #3: Publisheer is too busy to sell.
lol. Tayen Lane does nothing. They do about 1 blog post per year, and leave all their amateur authors to self-promote. No other signs of activity. Please check their generic stock photo-filled website.
Claim #4: Author is shit - so let us ignore this book
Author worked as a journalist for 17 years, including as editor of a major German newspaper, and he held a PhD in the same field, and he outed himself as one of the "bought journalists" who fronted as legitimate authors for CIA-produced material.
Claim #5: Publisher is shit - so let us ignore this book
Most publishers cater to fringe groups as well as mainstream. Kopp Verlag has been around for 30 years, and their roster includes names like Zbigniew Brzezinski and Ron Paul. Pretty serious sources, by most standards.
What made it extra weird was that even obviously false claims were being upvoted by big margins. Very strange.
TLDR: Someone has made a deliberate effort to prevent a best-seller from reaching the US market. A fake publisher was set up to buy the rights and then not sell the book.
It's a sneaky deceptive method, and I would hate if any of my tax dollars were spent to keep an important book away from me.
Edit:
Between 2am and 6am pacific time (5-9am eastern) on a sunday morning this thread did a near complete 180 degree flip. Pretty much all comments that arrived in this window are stridently negative, and also massively upvoted, taking over all the top spots.
An amazing development. I guess pro-censorship Australians took over this thread while the US slept? Or maybe not.
A lot of the "2-6am" comments recycled old accusations, especially #4 and #5, but they added some new ones as well:
Claim #6: The book really really really wasn't a bestseller.
Wrong, no matter how many 'really's you put before the lie. The book made it onto Der Spiegel's bestseller list (note the name) and stayed there for 18 weeks after publication, selling over 100 000 copies in that period. After Prof Ulfkotte outed himself and other "journalists" as paid cia-plants his old career was ruined, and his book became his main source of income in his last living years. That's a best-seller by most standards. Even today, 4 years after publication, it still enjoys these remarkably high rankings (from amazon.de yesterday)
Nr. 4 in Bücher > Fachbücher > Medienwissenschaft > Publizistik > Journalismus
Nr. 45 in Bücher > Biografien & Erinnerungen > Weitere Berufe & Themen
Nr. 111 in Bücher > Biografien & Erinnerungen > Politik
Claim #7: You didn't give us the book's title, which must mean you're trying to hide something, you sneak.
Wrong. I gave the title in the 6th sentence: Journalists for hire: How the cia buys the news. Hmm, weird that demonstrably false claims like this still get lots of karma.
Claim #8: The book has only a handful of reviews on amazon.de. It must mean it's not a best-seller.
Wrong, it has 300+ reviews. Please stop confusing amazon dot COM (US) with amazon dot DE (Germany), and look up 'gekaufte journalisten' as I have pointed out before.
Claim #9: you are a deceptive trickster who's part of a viral marketing scheme.
Awesome strategy to push something that's impossible to buy, eh?
I have zero to gain from this book, except learning about media manipulation, and if the people at Tayen Lane were willing to pull such a slimy marketing scheme, wouldn't they have cynically capitalized on the author's death in 2017? That would've been the ideal setting for a viral marketing campaign, complete with raids by the secret people and mysterious death. But no, Tayen Lane let the passing of Prof Ulfkotte pass in complete silence, while continuing to not sell his book.
Claim #10: That letter from Kopp Verlag doesn't look German. It's a fake written by an American.
Just silly. I posted a screenshot of the original. It's real. If you don't believe me go ahead and email Kopp yourself. Their response time will impress you too.
Claim #11: The ugliest. Prof Ulfkotte was a neo-nazi, of all insane things, so ignore him.
Publishing anything remotely nazi is a very criminal thing in Germany. Kopp Verlag would not have stayed in business for 30 years if they did this.
Prof Ulfkotte paid a heavy price for exposing the truth. This thread gives us a glimpse into the hateful, ugly discrediting-campaign his exposed opponents mounted as revenge during his last living years. Poor guy.
There are many more wild-eyed claims than I have time to deal with, but I hope you get the gist of it.
Ziehier Yoeri Albrecht, die door een jonge journalist van het mediakanaal Left Laser betrapt werd tijdens een privé-onderonsje met twee ...
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