Most genre fans are, of course, familiar with Ray Faraday Nelson’s seminal short story “Eight O’Clock in the Morning”, which was adapted by John Carpenter as the equally-seminal They Live. That’s why most professionals were dismayed a few years ago when Nickolaus Pacione supposedly purchased the rights to reprint the tale in the vanity project Ethereal Gazette #12. Now, several sources claim Pacione didn’t secure the rights at all, and published the story without Nelson’s permission.
Nickolaus Pacione should be no stranger to any genre writer with an internet connection and access to Google. Over his illustrious “career”, he has stalked and threatened well over four dozen professional writers and editors, as well as their children and family members. His threats — which have included spousal rape, arson, and deadly violence — never progress beyond the safety of his quite-literal basement hidey-hole, but such behavior has earned him several visits from local law enforcement and repeated stays under institutional care. Unfortunately, his release is eventually secured, and Pacione is soon back to spreading his unique brand of love on the Internet.
Also fancying himself a publisher, Pacione has released a number of works via the Lulu.com printing service. In correlation, he often preys upon young writers, having them submit work to him for publication. Given his propensity for violent threats and stalking, this has been a concern in our community for several years, and thus, that is why you’ll find warnings like this elsewhere online. Indeed, author Kevin Lucia recently revealed (via Jason Brock’s Facebook page) that Pacione had stalked a former high school student of his. (A brief aside — this is why it boggles my mind when otherwise seemingly intelligent authors allow Pacione into their social media circles. It’s been proven time and time again that he then mines the friend and follower lists for targets).
But I digress. Pacione has used the publication of Nelson’s story in an effort to further entice other authors to submit works to him. But several sources now allege that Pacione published the story without permission. This wouldn’t be the first time Pacione has been guilty of this. After Jane Timm Baxter discovered that he had published one of her stories without permission in a book called Tabloid Purposes IV, Baxter successfully lobbied Lulu.com to remove the book from sale. Author Jeani Rector has also been a victim of copyright violation at Pacione’s hands.
Further anecdotal evidence was discovered at Wikipedia, where editor Naaman Brown states that Pacione published the Nelson story without permission. Indeed, a check of the revision history on Nelson’s Wikipedia page verifies that Pacione himself made repeated edits to the page in an attempt to self-promote the offending publication (see image below).
It also appears that rather than receiving a copy of the story directly from Nelson or his representatives, that Pacione simply copied it from a website and pasted it into his publication, including all of the errors found in the website’s version.
Mr. Pacione did not respond to repeated requests to offer proof of contracts or emails verifying he had permission to publish the story, but he did post two messages regarding the controversy on one of his many Blogs. You can read his statements in their entirety here and here. It is telling that in the second post, Pacione states “asking for permission actually came as an afterthought” and in regards to producing a contract or other proof “My records with the short story were with my old e-mail address on AOL”.
This is why, regardless of whether you are a beginning writer or a seasoned professional, you should spend ten minutes researching when working with an editor or publisher with whom you’ve had no prior dealings. And why you should always, always, ALWAYS get a contract, even if you aren’t being paid. And why, if you’re allowing Mr. Pacione to follow or friend you on Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere, you’re allowing him to potentially victimize others in your social circle.
More on this story as it develops.
UPDATE: I now understand this has been confirmed, and printer Lulu.com will be contacted regarding the copyright breach.
*Thanks to the staff of The Rusty Nail who helped research this article.
