World’s Greatest Nobble.
Ashley Cole is about to become a published author. Jodie Marsh IS a published author. Jordan is a published author. All I can say is that, at least, they are getting the primates amongst us to read. If, however, you have ever thought about writing; here’s a challenge for you.
There are some decent authors who are being conned by Mr. Shepherd and I just can’t let him get away with that. For your story; pick something like Ken Barlow finding a portal to another dimension in the toilet of the Rovers but make sure that you use the names of soap stars or b-movie actors for your characters. It may get selected.
Ok; here’s the thing. I submitted two stories to the above website and both were selected. One was pretty good; the other was an abomination to literature. I logged onto the forum and encountered a few people who were giving themselves great reviews and I challenged them on this. The administrator - obviously taking a leaf out of Adolph Eichmman’s book - deleted every post that alluded to any kind of unprofessional behaviour. I further challenged Mr. Shepherd on this and got myself banned. I didn’t even tell him to go fuck himself. I didn’t point out what a cheap fucking wanker I thought he was. In fact; I used no profanity at all. I simply asked pertinent questions about his rather fascist forum policies. After being banned, I requested that both my works be removed from the site. After asking me to reconsider my position and being told that I was not going to change it, Mr. Shepherd and his crew of miscreants promptly removed my work. After seeing what a total farce the site was, another author - Rochelle Moore - posted her own request to have her work removed. Her reasons for doing this were more righteous than my own. The unfavourable criticism of her work had been removed and she was furious that this had happened as she wanted an even balance to the forum. Rochelle’s post was promptly deleted but not before I got a screen print of it.
Rochelle - unlike me - is a talented and respected published author. So what’s the problem then? I hear you ask. Well there really wouldn’t have been a problem had I not checked the forum after my work had been removed. You see, Rochelle and I have been accused of cheating. Mr. Shepherd did not state that we asked for our work to be removed because we felt that his unprofessional behaviour made a mockery of every submission on his site. He told the forum that we had been kicked off the site for self promoting our work. This is a lie and I have saved his emails and the screen shots from the forum to prove it.
Now I’ve never met Mr. Shepherd but, from his petulant responses to my emails, I’m guessing he’s in his forties but with the mentality of a ten year old. I imagine he is bald, fat and pock-marked from adult acne and his idea of foreplay is about six months of begging. None of these things make him a bad person. What makes him a bad person is his insistence on taking out his short-comings, (probably premature ones too), on the people who contributed to his site. It’s one thing to control the content of a free forum but it’s quite another to lie about genuine people who removed their work because they didn’t want to be associated with an unprofessional and possibly fraudulent website. I know I’m using this forum to have a go at the idiot but, since he refuses to answer my emails, I feel I have little choice. I have reported him to four different internet watchdogs and his site’s FTP is now being closely monitored but I’d like as many of you to experience this site for yourselves as possible.
Here’s an interesting thing. Years ago the workers in a cruelly run factory staged a protest by throwing their clogs - which were called sabot - into the machinery, thus breaking the mechanism. That is why we now have the word, sabotage. Don’t ask me why I brought that up when I’m encouraging you all to post your stories on this site because I really don’t know. I guess I just wanted to share that little nugget with you. Should you get it into your head that I am encouraging you to do anything underhanded, I assure you I was only pointing this out as it sprang to mind and I just love sharing things like that with people.
What Mr. Shepherd is doing is tantamount to book-burning. We all know what fascism does to any society and I think that it is important that any such idiots are exposed for the Nazis they are. Mr. Shepherd asks for your entry to be 1000 words long. He aims to create the world’s greatest novel - which, presumably, will stand the test of time for a thousand years. Sort of a thousand word, thousand year Reich, if you will. The comparisons are too close to the bone to be anything but the truth. The proof is there if he needs it. I know that others wanted proof and I have passed this proof onto them. Cap’n P is nothing if not a solid citizen after all. We have allies in his camp too. I have been personally contacted by seven selected authors and I have encouraged them to keep their work in. This is advice given to me by a wonderful lady who has had fourteen shady literary agents put behind bars. She is very very interested in the goings on of Richard Shepherd, Claire Boyd and Bob Harris. They are also claiming to have over three and a half thousand hits a day. This is a statistic they give to any potential bidder for advertising space. With that many hits, you’d think they’d have more than forty two registered users. Actually it’s less than forty two because quite a few people logged on with multiple identities. A more realistic - if somewhat generous - figure would be twenty four. I think we all agree that there are too many fuckers on the internet trying to bleed a few quid at the expense of honest people. It is my opinion that this site is aiming to do just that.
In closing, I would like to offer my sincerest thanks and respect to Rochelle Moore. She is honest, she is talented and she stood up to the wanker that is Richard Shepherd when he removed posts that were less than complimentary about her work. I love her writing and she, unlike Richard Shithead, know that ignoring negative criticism leads to a provincial view of one’s work. You cannot progress in anything in life if your mistakes are not pointed out to you. There was not one offensive comment left on that website but Dick Shithead didn’t like it when people pointed out that the failings in the works involved were actually the failings of his so-called editor. Rochelle is an excellent writer and, as such, is better off distancing herself from idiots like Dick and his scams. My continued involvement in exposing Mr. Shepherd ends when he prints an apology to Rochelle Moore. I don’t even expect him to apologize to me.
The opinions expressed in this blog are my own. They are shared by others but I speak only for myself. My comments are borne of my bad experience on a badly run website and the physical evidence that I have. Anybody who wishes to share their views on this are entitled to do so in the comments section. I neither encourage nor tempt anyone to jump on my bandwagon. I speak for myself and - in that spirit - hey Dick; you’re a fucking twat who has dangerously underestimated the power of others to use your medium against you. This is just the beginning.
I too was a registered member of worldsgreatestnovel and I was sickened by what went on there. I saw yours and Rochelle’s posts before they were deleted and I felt proud that I had kind of conversed with both of you. The funny thing is that between both of you, you had two of the best works on the site. I have spread the word on this scam myself. I don’t think you’ll ever get your apology. You should demand one for your self too because I saw your honest post. I called my friend to look at it but when I went back in, it was gone. You and Rochelle are inspirations.
Comment by Rivka — September 5, 2006 @ 1:40 am
Fuckin’ Elvis on a tricycle. My memory must be failing me. The last I thought I remembered was you and Debra engaged in a protracted and petty dispute with Woods and Jameson over Rochelle’s work. You and Debra accused them and Dubarra of being one and the same person. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Rochelle was all three and you were Cap’n P, Marvin Android and Chief. All of a sudden, Rochelle is your best buddy? Give me a fucking break.
Cap’n P is an upstanding guy? Then why didn’t you come right out and say in your blog that YOU and ROCHELLE are the ones that were registered under multiple users to promote your own works, and in your case, to trash other works, as well? Upstanding guy, huh? Then why didn’t you tell your readers which two submitted works were your own? The obvious reason is that some might have seen the pathetic self-promotion you gave your own works, under several names.
You have no idea how pathetic you, Debra, Woods, etc. sounded, bickering back and forth like high school girls. I wonder who is guilty of being unprofessional.
It was obvious quite a while ago, to any simpleton, that there is no way the site was going to work, so why didn’t you express it on the site, instead of arguing petty shit like a gossiping old lady?
Regardless of what transpired in e-mails between you and Richard, the bottom line is that you and Rochelle were banned from the site for the same transgressions that you accused others of.
There is a lot more I could say, but I am sure that you will not even respond to what I have already said. I defy you to respond to this, but it is my experience that people like you become suddenly aflicted with acute constipation of the mouth when they are confronted with a rational argument.
Good day!!!
Comment by Seymour Glass — September 5, 2006 @ 5:06 am
You’re the greatest, Cap’n P!
Comment by Joe Mauer — September 5, 2006 @ 5:12 am
I have read your excellent take on this scam by THE WORLDS GREATEST NOVEL. Both of our submissions were head-to-head and the forum was rather heated at times. This was brought to my attention by two members who took their own time to track me down and inform me of this fiasco. I wrote to Mr Shepherd requesting that my work be deleted from this unprofessional site for a few reasons:
1. This site is run by unprofessionals who I personally believe are hosting a large scam.
2. Two members emailed to inform me that their comments had been deleted from the forum - very undemocratic and possibly illegal.
3. One of the members can no longer gain entry onto this site and has been blackballed. All because he felt it unfair that the admin on the site deemed it necessary to intervent and delete members reviews. As an author all feedback is welcome; positive and negative.
4. I then read that works had been submitted for auction of EBAY which is a complete disgrace. This site had not informed anyone who submitted their work that such a step would be taken. Disgraceful.
5. My work was removed from the site upon my request however the “powers that be” at the WORLDS GREATEST NOVEL have also barred me from entering the site. I wonder why? I have written to them and no reply. Once again, what are they hiding?
6. I am overwhelmed by the actions of the members who contacted me and would like to forward my special thanks to Captain Purplehead - as he withdrew his work in protest of my treatment. I feel that is it necessary as an author with a fanbase to ensure that my work is not exploited by sites such as the WORLDS GREATEST NOVEL.
My sincere thanks for your support and to the other members who contacted me. Looking forward to the outcome of THE WORLDS GREATEST NOVEL….looks like anyone who submits is accepted and if the Demi-God who runs the site decides he does not like criticism…he deletes it. What power eh?
Kind regards
ROCHELLE MOORE
AUTHOR
This is my own personal opinion on the site THE WROLDS GREATEST NOVEL based on my own encounters with my story submission. Also based on the lack of interest by the site admin to reply to my enquries and blackballing me from the forum because “they can’t take criticism and are not bothered to reply to enquiries”. Sure why would they? All they have to do is delete people’s reviews and anything else they dont want the public to read.
Once again, my sincere thank you to all who drew my attention to this site - I am so grateful that I managed to remove my work based on your information and disassociate myself completely from what I consider a large scam.
Comment by rochelle moore — September 5, 2006 @ 9:50 am
Ah Seymour. I will obviously respond to your rather hasty comment as I am not a Nazi who only allows certain responses to be seen. I will, however point out that this is a comment section and not a forum. By the way “good day”? What are you; Emily Bronte? Anyway, I admitted on the forum that I had logged on as both Cap’n P and Marvin. I also explained that I did this becasue of my discovery that other authors were doing this so that they could promote their own work and slag others’ off. If you remember correctly - and you no longer have the aid of my posts since they were deleted - I only slagged one work and that was because of the obvious bias on that author’s own forum. Yes I promoted my own but I also admitted this on the forum days before my work was removed. I openly asked for those posts involving my work to be deleted so that we could work on a level playing field. This post was deleted so that Rasbull was free to post his lies. I never doubted that this work would not succeed but I saw it, at the time, as an excellent opportunity for unpublished authors to have their work viewed. This, I freely admit was an oversight and a little naive. I never slagged off Rochelle’s work but I did criticise the editing of it. On many occassions, both myself and Debra, did comment on the fact that the site was an obvious scam. Of course you can’t possibly know this since these posts were also deleted. I understand that you can only go on what you can see but you have not seen the half of it. Most of our posts were deleted. As for Rochelle; I know that she is and excellent author because I have read her work. You have only seen what Rasbull has allowed you to see. I recommend that you email him. I hope that this response meets with your approval but I suspect that you have been a little naive yourself.
Comment by Administrator — September 5, 2006 @ 10:21 am
Who the fuck is Seymour Glass? He should see more posts on that sham of a website. I have just been in contact with the bbc as they carried an article from Richard Shepherd concerning the site and they are livid. They are conducting their own investigation as Richard said it was a non-profit site, which is obviously not the case. Mr Glass obviously has no fucking idea what he is talking about. I saw your post before they deleted it and I was impressed with it. I have screen prints of it too. I missed Rochelle’s but I am watching his site closely in case I “seymour” irregularities. Keep up the good work Cap’n P. You have more allies than you think.
Comment by Abby — September 5, 2006 @ 2:30 pm
Cap’n, I respect the fact that this is not meant as a forum and this is the last comment I will post. I request that I be granted this one rebuttal. If either of us is inclinded to discuss the subject further, I suggest maybe we can discuss it through e-mail.
I also respect the fact that you allowed me the opportunity to express my opinion and took the time to respond.
I was naive in the beginning, but it did not take me long to recognize quite a few inconsistencies and to do the math: 100 authors, 50 submissions for each round of voting, that would take how long - maybe a thousand years? No matter how you do the math, it is obvious that the goal is for Richard and company to prolong it as long as possible, then bail out.
That being said, my problem is that you jumped to an unfair conclusion with absolutely no proof and trashed a person’s work repeatedly. Even now, you insist on holding onto that faulty assumptioin, although the author has been completely vindicated. Now that IP addresses have been checked, it is clear that William Jacoby was one of the few writers who was registered only once, so it is obvious that he wasn’t luvtoread. The only bias on his forum was that luvtoread liked his work better than the others and stated it maybe a bit too bluntly. So are you saying that whenever someone posts reviews that clearly favor one author over another, it is biased and that author should have his work trashed?
Look, we all make hasty assumptions, it is human nature. I am simply objecting to the fact that you still insist on sticking to your assumptions, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
Seymour
Comment by Seymour Glass — September 5, 2006 @ 2:36 pm
Seymour; if I was wrong about William Jacoby, I will apologise but the only evidence I have of this is Richard Shepherd’s word and, frankly, I have peeled dog shit from the soles of my shoes that is worth more than Dick’s word. I have no evidence that he wasn’t a multi user. I was not thrown off the site for having more than one user name. I was thrown off the site for disagreeing with the shoddy editorial process and tackling people who were thrashing people’s work. My work was removed at my own request. Look at luv2read’s comments on everyone else’s work, she tore the shit out of them in an unconstructive manner. There are still people on that site with multiple usernames - including Rasbullshit - and I will not recant on William Jacoby/luv2gripe until I have physical evidence to the contrary. I will approve any comment on this site because I believe that everyone is entitled to their opinion. Richard Shepherd, Bob Harris and Claire Boyd have continually lied on their forum but I am willing to listen to any point they wish to make as long as they remove the lie that is STILL on their website and apologise to Rochelle. They owe me an apology too but I don’t particularly care about that. You, on the other hand, have shown the maturity in your last response that is sadly lacking on the world’s greatest knobhead website.
Comment by Administrator — September 5, 2006 @ 3:27 pm
Cap’n P, forgive me for indulging in one more comment, but there is a question that I am compelled to ask: Since when is a person guilty until proven innocent? Whatever happened to giving a person the benefit of the doubt?
I sent William a PM a while back and he assured me that he was not luvtoread and had nothing to do with any of her posts. Isn’t a person’s word worth anything? Aren’t you asking me to accept your word that your version of things is correct?
I have already granted that luvtoread’s comments were a bit harsh, but how were her comments any different than Debra’s comments on Rochelle’s work? Debra’s comments were just as unconstructive and scathing, but you defended her right to express her views.
Thanks for hearing me out.
Seymour
Comment by Seymour Glass — September 5, 2006 @ 3:47 pm
Seymour, if you have been in contact with William and he has stated that he was not logged on on multiple names, I will take your word for it and apologise to William. I still think his post is too risky for multiple authors to tackle but that’s not going to happen anyway. If you are in contact with him, I strongly urge you to encourage him to remove his work so that he can work on it himself. It’s going nowhere on that site. I’m not still in accusatory mode but I would like to know how you know l2r is female. I maintain my apology to William but I hope he understands my reasons for doing what I did. I do know of two other users who haven’t been banned that have two or more usernames. By the way, I wasn’t chief.
Comment by Administrator — September 5, 2006 @ 4:59 pm
Cap’n P, I contacted luvtoread back when I contacted William. I wanted to get to the bottom of it and was curious to see how they would both respond to my suspicions. They both responded quickly. She was amused by the suggestion that she was William and informed me that she is female. After communcating with both of them, I was satisfied and I haven’t had any further contact with either of them. I understand where you are coming from and now see why you had your suspicions. I don’t expect to have any further direct contact with William, but if I get the urge to post my own thoughts on WGN, I will try to find a way to include the points that you have made. And I believe you were not Chief.
Seymour
Comment by Seymour Glass — September 5, 2006 @ 6:55 pm
Thank you Seymour. I unresveredly apologise to William Jacoby for accusing him in error. Good ol’ Dickie Knobsocket has recanted his lie about Rochelle but has not apologised. I have stated and still maintain that, though I am owed an apology, I do not require one from that idiot. I do however demand a recant of his accusation. I requested that my work be removed and WAS asked to “reconsider.” Thank you for your comments Seymour and I now understand your reasons for your first comment. Take care.
Comment by Administrator — September 5, 2006 @ 7:13 pm
As I have been mentioned here I feel I have a duty to respond, also to point out some things that may not be evident to others.
As for my comments on Rochelle’s work - That, I thought, was what the forum on WGN was for. I will not go into what the exact text of my original comment on RM’s work was but would be pleased to pass them on to Rochelle if she wished.
My comments were on her piece as it appeared on the WGN website, and I still think those comments were valid. I did not at any time make any derogatory statement about Rochelle or her other work, of which I am aware and hold in high esteem.
Now … The WGN website and forum … I discovered some days ago that the opening 1000 words had be on e-bay at a starting price of £50. (Richard Shepherd has stated since in the WGN forums that the auction was withdrawn) I passed this on to others and also tackled Richard Shepherd with this in the WGN forums. However, what worried me was the fact that it is stated on one website that he had said that the £50 starting bid was to deter those who could not write as he could not risk a poor writer winning the bid.
Yet … on the WGN forums he states that the editing of work is done to create a “fair playing field” so that schoolchildren and dyslexics amongst others are not excluded from submitting a starter piece. This is contradictory and still has not been addressed fully in the WGN forums or on the WGN website.
I would like to point out also that it was me who had the courage to mention in the forums that there were users who had multiple accounts and that admin could see the IP addresses. It was some days before this was addressed by admin, possibly because Richard Shepherd had to figure out how to compare IP addresses in the admin Control Panel of the forum. This post has since been deleted!
Now for some simple facts:
1/ It stands to reason that, apart from member number one, rasbull (Richard Shepherd) who has to be admin, if a member of a forum registers on the very day that the forum is created, then that member has to be a friend or family member of the forum creator, or someone with a prior interest in the site. OK, follow me so far?
Member number two is Denise and member number three is ‘getareaction’ who is in fact Charlie Fish.
2/ The WGN forums were created on the 22nd July 2006 and apart from rasbull (admin), denise and getareaction (Charlie Fish) who all registered on the 22nd July 2006, no-one else joined the forums until 5 days later. Read on…
3/ Charlie Fish’s work is the first piece to have been accepted as a short-listed piece. The date shown on the WGN website is 20th July 2006 … two days before Richard Shepherd created the WGN forums. What do you make of that?
4/ It clearly states/stated on the WGN website that no pre-published work was allowed, yet last Saturday morning when I put posts on the WGN forums with links pointing to the pre-published work, these posts were deleted and I received a PM (private message) from Richard Shepherd asking me not to post links to work that was not on the WGN site, I have screen-prints if anyone would care to see them. He also said that he had deleted a lot of “junk” posting, that’s when most of the posts on the RM forum disappeared.
Richard Shepherd has since changed the site policy to say that work published on the internet was within the rules of the competition.
I won’t go into site hits and amount of submissions etc. only to say that on the WGN website it states that almost 600 submissions have been received, yet I know that Richard Shepherd is frantically e-mailing writer’s groups begging for their members to submit starter entries.
I would like to take up on Captain Purplehead’s comment that Richard Shepherd is 40ish and balding. I have no idea at all whether RS is balding or not. However, I believe that he is 25 or 26 years of age and has an older partner with the name of Denise. Figure it out yet?
Debra
Comment by Debra — September 5, 2006 @ 8:18 pm
Debra, your comments are yet again spot on. I apologize for not asking your permission to use your name before approving Seymour’s initial comment.
Comment by Administrator — September 5, 2006 @ 8:47 pm
Cap’n P, I strongly suspect our friend Richard is monitoring your website. Shortly after clarifying that Rochelle had requested that her work be withdrawn, he posted an apology to her, and shortly after that, he posted an apology to you.
I also apologize to Debra. It was wrong for me to mention her name and I also shouldn’t have put Cap’n in that situation.
Extremely astute observations by Debra.
Seymour
Comment by Seymour Glass — September 6, 2006 @ 12:28 am
Seymour; the use of Debra’s name is my fault. I have aplogised to her. I am glad Mr Shepherd is monitoring this site because he needs to. Any further transgressions will appear here. Your concerns are noted and appreciated. This site is based on personal observations. My opinions do not always reflect reality but, in this case, I had to make a stand. Your comments are as relevant as anyone elses and I wouldn’t dream of witholding them. I will have to be more vigilant in hiding the names of people who are mentioned as I am not the only contributor to this site but I will not edit the sentiment. Everybody is entitled to their opinion but I stop short at fascism. Thank you to everyone who has commented on this blog.
Comment by Administrator — September 6, 2006 @ 1:05 am
I just stopped by to see what is going on at the worlds greatst novel fiasco. First, let me state clearly that I was NOT one of the multisers and I did receive an apology from richard even thought it was dragged out by a rope attached to an elephant. I find this entire experience degrading to authors (published or unpublished) and it should be stopped immediately. If I had have known that my work was going on ebay for $50 starting poing for auction I would have sued this site for misrepresentation.
I have met a few people whom I must congratulate from this site. Captain Purplehead you are upstanding and have morals which I greatly appreciate. Debra, I read the posts you placed on the site and I think that you are a very fair person who also believes this site to be a farce.
Let me finally point out that prior to placing my work on this site I never met anyone there; I have no idea who Woods or Jameson are nor did I ever meet captain purplehead nor debra. It is unfortunate that I did not have the opportunity to read ALL the replies to my work as “the powers that be” namely Richard (who runs this site) deleted them. It was due to this factor that two people contacted me and believe me, I am not that easy to find. I truly admire their honesty and their information which led me to withdraw my work from this scam.
These are my opions based on my own experiences with the worlds greatest novel site. I think it would be a wonderful idea if someone like captain purplehead or debra start off their own worlds greatest novel as I can assure you I would give them my work. They have principles.
Well done to anyone who is bringing this site into its true light and hopefully it will stop other authors wasting their time.
Rochelle Moore
Comment by rochelle moore — September 11, 2006 @ 11:36 am
YOU HAVE ROCHELLE MOORE WRITING ON YOUR BLOG
I LOVE HER
SHE IS SUCH A WONDERFUL PERSON
WOW
Comment by Mrs R Donnay — October 30, 2006 @ 7:37 pm
Yep, Rochelle is a gem and so is Debra.
Comment by Administrator — November 1, 2006 @ 11:36 am
Hi,
Interesting to read all the comments re: worldsgreatestnovel.com.
I tried to access the site today as I too submitted a piece, it seems like years ago, but I’m sure it was only last year some time.
The search engine keeps telling me that the site cannot be found!
Have you forced them off the web, or are they hiding behind another name these days?
I would be interested to know if anyone else has managed to access the website lately.
Cheers,
Jill
Comment by Jill Guest — March 12, 2007 @ 11:23 am
The scam that was WGN is now gone, Jill. You’re work is no longer associated with this site. If you still want to submit your work, why not submit it to online scribblers. It’s on the links section of this site and I can vouch for the high quality and integrity of the site.
Comment by Administrator — March 12, 2007 @ 11:45 am
Thanks for that. I’ll take a look at the site you mentioned.
Cheers and all the best.
Jill
Comment by Jill Guest — March 13, 2007 @ 3:06 pm
hi purplehead,
long time. Just got a book publishing contract for latest non fiction book called WITCH (how apt eh?) anyway how is your book coming alone?
rochelle moore
Comment by rochelle moore — June 11, 2008 @ 3:23 pm