Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/At the Threshold of Liquid Geology

This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record.
The result of the debate was delete (pending; block-compress error). Mindspillage (spill yours?) 18:53, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

At the Threshold of Liquid Geology

• Delete, Advertising and Spam, Vanity Page, Non-Notable author. The book, "At the Threshold of Liquid Geology" is published by iUniverse.com, where anyone can get there book published, yet this does not require the need for mention in an encyclopedia article since the book is already being sold online. Wikipedia is being used to promote this book, see the policy on advertising and spam. The author, Eric W.Bragg has 719 google hits, his website surrealcoconut pulls in a lot of internet traffic due to the use of meta-filters and mirrors along with aggressive internet promotion. Note that the website is a free do-it-yourself site. Keep in mind that this book is a commercial product written by an unknown and non-notable author, and this is an encyclopedia. Please keep that fact in mind when voting.Classicjupiter2 23:26, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
• Delete books published by vanity presses. —Korath (Talk) 23:59, Apr 11, 2005 (UTC)
• Delete. Non-notable vanity-press book. Amazon lists this book as being published by "Writers Advantage," which does indeed look to be a vanity press associated with (or an imprint of) iUniverse. Amazon sales rank: 628,953. android↔talk 00:01, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)
• Delete as advert, spam, and not notable. I tend to be pretty liberal when it comes to including published authors and their works, even obscure ones. However, I don't feel that this extends to the vanity press, who will publish pretty much anything (for a fee, of course). Wikipedia is NOT for the promotion of vanity-press books. Andrew Lenahan - Starblind 00:02, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)
• Query. How do you qualify a "real" author? Is an author who sells, say, 1000 books out of a major publisher given preference over one who sells twelve hundred out of a P.O.D. house, even though the non-mainstream author's sales would say he's more popular? How many books does an outsider author have to sell to warrant wikification? Iconoclast 23:35, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
  • I can't quite speak for every wikipedian, but the general consensus is that vanity-press books don't count as published books, since as I mentioned they will publish (almost) anything for money. For works with actual literary merit, there's plenty of publishers out there, from mainstream to local to tiny indies, and anything remotely decent WILL get published if the author tries hard enough. I hate to make harsh statements like "no real author would use a vanity press", but that's basically the truth. Just ask any writer or anyone in publishing what their opinion of the vanity press is. And I also don't support any arbitrary sales figure for notability of authors or books, 1000, 1200, 2000 copies, etc. Andrew Lenahan - Starblind 12:41, Apr 15, 2005 (UTC)
• Delete, vanity. Agree with android. --bainer 12:58, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Delete Vanity Dsmdgold 19:10, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)

• Delete Adds nothing knowledgeable, seems to be just a promotion, Vanity Bakudai

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.