Atlanta Nights: The Best Worst Novel Ever Written (On Purpose)

Does everyone out there know the story of one of the greatest hoaxes of the publishing industry?  In a nutshell, it was an attempt to reveal the fraudulent practices of one of the top Vanity Press publishers.  A group of mostly sf writers wanted to show that this particular publisher, which claimed to be very discriminating, would in fact publish absolute rubbish.  So, they set our to write the worst novel that could possibly be written.  The result: Atlanta Nights by Travis Tea (you'd think they'd been suspicious with the author's name).  I became aware of it because Allen Steele, one of my favorite writers, was invovled with its Frankensteinesque creation.  The complete history can be found here.

If you haven't read it, do yourself a favor.  Do it.  It's bad.  Very bad.  And very funny.  The team goes out of their way to break every convention of writing. 

Well, the big news is that Atlanta Nights may become a film?  Is this a hoax?  Don't know, because the place I read about it was over at Writer Beware, which is a site dedicated to helping new writers not be scammed by so-called legitimate publishers.  If it's for real, I'm not sure it will work.  Part of the novel's charm is the horrendous writing, and that could not be translated to film.  On the other hand, it can't be any worse than a lot of stuff pouring out of Hollywood these days.

Anyway, read it.  I'm sure you can find a copy online somewhere, but I urge you to purchase it.  The paperback is available through Amazon and Lulu has it for download.  Every dime received from this glorious wretchedness goes to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Emergency Medical Fund.