Exam Cram Publisher Goes Under
4/3/2002 -- Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Coriolis LLC, publisher of the Exam Cram certification study guides as well as other IT books, was dissolved last week by its majority owner, Haights Cross.
All but three of Coriolis' 50 employees were let go Thursday, and the company is looking to sell all Coriolis "assets and intelectual property," a spokesperson for Haights Cross told CertCities.com.
The closure is due to poor financials, the spokesperson said, and the decision was made after an extended search for a buyer failed.
As of press time, neither of the company's Web sites -- Coriolis.com or ExamCram.com -- make any mention of the shut down, although the Coriolis home page is currently promoting a "Spring Sale," in which all of its products are 75 percent off through most of April.
The closure came as a blow to many of the publisher's writers. One author, Barry Shilmover, told CertCities.com that despite having written seven books for the company, he still hasn't had any formal contact from Coriolis about the shut-down or the status of his royalty payments or copyrights. "I found out through a friend," he said. "It's very frustrating...but I'm not as bad off as some other authors."
Although Shilmover has not yet been contacted, it appears that other authors have. Through sources, CertCities.com obtained a copy of an author release that was sent to at least one Coriolis writer. In it, the company agreed to pay 20 percent of what the author is owed in exchange for release of liability, a promise not to sue and other conditions.
Shilmover told CertCities.com that there's a lot of confusion out there among Coriolis writers, tech editors and other freelancers: "What's happpened is that a lot of people are hearing a lot of different things, or are being told different things...."
In fact, Shilmover said that several authors who are owed money and/or would like the copyrights to their books so they can publish them elsewhere have come together in a loose coalition to share information and ideas. "What we really need to do is get the story straight," he said."If we can get more authors, maybe we can better figure out what's going on." Shilmover said that anyone interested in participating in the group's mailing list can e-mail him at .
For more information about Coriolis, visit www.coriolis.com or www.examcram.com. - B.N.
|
There are 72  user Comments for “Exam Cram Publisher Goes Under”
|
|
Page 3 of 8
|
| 4/4/02: tech supervisor from CA says: |
I agree with oz. And the the exam crams (brain dumps)hurt the value of certification. We had to make our own written test for applicants because we were getting so many people that had certs but no skills. Most of those people needed to back to their warehouse job. |
| 4/5/02: Morphine from St. Louis says: |
Exam Cram books are helpful, informative and easy to understand. They can also be very useful as quick reference if you need to look something up. I disagree that they are part of the problem. If I wanted to pass a test without knowing anything about the material, Troy Tech or mcsebraindumps would be the way to go. And as far as the industry being clogged with incompetent paper cert holders, that's not something that should worry us. With the current state of the economy, none of those ppl will get jobs. They'll all be working at fast food joints. And the rapidly increasing numbers of poorly-trained techies can be directly linked to the irresponsible schools and testing centers that keep churning out students while promising them a fortune right out of the gate. I can't wait for the class-action suits to start. I really think you're all being paranoid. I got laid off back in Feb. and of the jobs I've interviewed for since, I've been competing with talented pros w/ a good 2-3 years experience or more. And from what I've heard, the paper MCSEs can't even get the help desk jobs. I plan to keep using the Exam Cram books to upgrade my MCSE to 2000 and for the CCA and Solaris exams. BTW, if you buy the books from the publisher, you're morons. I've found just about every one I would ever want to read at half.com for $7 plus about $2 for shipping. |
| 4/5/02: formeremployee from phoenix says: |
Part of my job at Coriolis was to read contracts and enter royalty terms into the royalty system so I am familiar with the authors. Mr. Shilmover did write several books and received cover credit. However, Coriolis' contract is with his employer and it's his employer who will be contacted, not Mr. Shilmover. Coriolis is in the process of contacting all authors with contracts. Since there are hundreds of contracts and only a handful of employees to make contact with authors, I can only ask that authors be patient. To Terry the Fox: Grow up! Several employees have been called back to help ship the books being sold on the website. 100+ hard working Coriolis employees are unemployed. I don't think any of us will be basking in the Caribbean anytime soon! |
| 4/5/02: Paxton from NY says: |
Bugger-off OZ! Not all of us have the knowledge of the universe like you. The Exam Cram books were NOT brain dumps. Very well organized study material. I want to see you just "use the product" and pass certs without any study. Nobody can possibly be exposed to all aspects of a product thru work experience alone. A sad day indeed. |
| 4/5/02: Paxton from NY says: |
"I don't think any of us will be basking in the Caribbean anytime soon! " I'm sure the big bosses got the big bonus just before they closed the doors. Just like Enron! |
| 4/5/02: sc0rp10n from CramSession says: |
Just a thought, guys....there ARE other places to write for... |
| 4/5/02: Anonymous from Atlanta says: |
Sad day. I liked the books and got great results from them (MCSE NT4&W2K). Anybody who really read them knows that they were correct and very helpful each step of the certification way. |
| 4/6/02: Joe from Philly says: |
I am surprised and disappointed. I've used their study materials for all of my 6 tests. I will miss their products. |
| 4/6/02: Anonymous from Seattle area says: |
Actually I use Exam Crams for two purposes. 1) As a quick intro guide, when picking up a product for the first time, to get a non-MS point of view in a handful of pages. I want to know about the things MS hides about product capabilities (or lack thereof), up front! Could I read info on-line from other sources instead? Yes. Can I do that on a bus? Can I do that on paper without wasting my printer resources? Please don't tell me Windows magazine or Minasi is the answer... Windows magazine doesn't have the detail, and Minasi is inconvenient to carry around + doesn't tend to provide bite-size information as well as the EC's. 2) To catch trivia important to the exams but not to my daily use of the products, for those products I had used for months at work before taking the exams. Frankly, IMHO they're NOT a good source for the computing newbie to learn from. Those who are REALLY just looking to learn enough to pass use Cheet-Sheets or whatever, which are targeted exclusively to the exams. As other users point out, Exam Cram's do tend to contain errors (hurried publication schedule plus minimal author compensation equals minimal time spent on editing equals errors; a similar situation to short deadlines plus too little $ spent on quality assurance equals buggy software ... unless the market demands it, higher quality won't happen). To a savvy user, finding errors becomes a game that proves to yourself how well you know (or are learning, from multiple sources) the material. And there actually was compensation, at least when I actively did this a couple years ago -- not as good as Knuth's monetary rewards, but I have my share of red t-shirts and mugs for numerous errata. Are they a short-cut to extra points on the exams? Yes, I freely admit that I've found them to be in almost all cases. Does saving a test candidate time learning material make them inherently "wrong" from a "my certification is more EARNED than your certification" point of view? I'd say not. I've learned things from Exam Cram that I've later used on the job. In fact I've bought Exam Crams that came out AFTER I'd taken and passed beta exams, because they're an easy read and I generally gain at least a few pieces of useful trivia out of them. I, too, hope someone picks up the series. |
| 4/8/02: CertAuthor from PA says: |
This truly has been a terrible thing that has happened at Coriolis. I have written several cert books for this publisher. I did received a personal phone call from one of the few remaining employees, who was very helpful in helping me understand what happened. I was told that the company is a corporation that has 2 stockholders, apparently the majority holder has been covering the recent losses with millions out of their own pocket. They decided enough was enough and closed the doors. They are trying extremely hard to sell the Examcram brand and I was asked if I would support a new publisher carrying the brand forward. The company has millions in debt also, so the creditors will be getting all the proceeds that come in from the sale of the brand. Everyone should understand that the laws that apply here mean the stockholder/owner get nothing. |
First Page Previous Page Next Page Last Page
|
|
|
|
