A Frank Frazetta painting of “Countess Krak” from Mission Earth
Back in the 80’s, Author Services Inc was created as L. Ron Hubbard’s “Literary Agency.” The actual function of ASI, then headed by David Miscavige as “Chairman of the Board”, Norman Starkey as “Trustee of L. Ron Hubbard’s Estate” and Terri Gamboa as Executive Director, was twofold.
- To shield Hubbard from legal liability that flowed through association with the church. This gave him a control vehicle that was a profit-making, non-church entity, but through the command structure of the Sea Org, was able to direct scientology without overt evidence of doing so. A lot could be said about this, but this post is focusing on the second function.
- Making money for Hubbard.
Author Services was not going to generate enough income for Hubbard simply from his collecting royalties on his book sales each week. Despite everything claimed about the tens of millions of books sold, the vast majority of those consist of Way to Happiness booklets. ASI had to get creative. They were the instigators of getting Dianetics into public bookstores and the massive Dianetics campaigns. They sold Hubbard’s “film scripts” and “treatments” to scientology for millions. They forced all orgs to order enormous numbers of books to be “fully stocked” with basements full of books they would never sell. Royalties were paid to ASI because the ORGS were forced to buy them from Bridge and New Era publications, even though they sat unsold in storage until they were pulped when “new editions” came out and they were forced to buy “minimum stocks” all over again.
And they created an artificial market in “L. Ron Hubbard collectibles.”
These included “special limited leatherbound editions” of Hubbard fiction and non-fiction books that sold for hundreds or thousands of dollars each. They sold special “L. Ron Hubbard signed editions” — that were not actually signed by Hubbard for thousand or tens of thousands, and they sold “Limited edition art prints” (almost exclusively for his fiction books) for ridiculous sums.
People who paid for these things were told it was for a great cause. The whales were given special briefings on how their money was being used to “preserve the tech for eternity” and that they were “investing in the future” as the value of these prints would continue to increase as they were all “limited editions” (though the number of limited editions continued to grow until there were dozens and dozens of them).
These days, there are thousands of these useless “limited edition” books and art prints floating around, most gathering dust in people’s garages buried under their old cassette binders of Briefing Course lectures and Mark VII E-Meters, CCHR propaganda videos and unopened editions of Source, Advance and Impact magazines. So, I was surprised to see Author Services (now going by the name of Galaxy Press) hawking the same old “limited edition Frazetta prints.” They must really be desperate.
If you look on their website, they sell these framed prints for $1,049. (A far cry from what they sold them for in years gone by).
Just for shits and giggles, I searched Frazetta prints on EBay. This popped up immediately.
Author Services never recovered to it’s former glory after the Battlefield Earth movie dumpster fire. They seems to hang around as a vehicle to try to keep Hubbard’s fiction works alive in some fashion. But the glory days of ASI sitting at the pinnacle of the scientology empire are long gone.
Formost says
July 1, 2020 at 5:55 pmI bought 2 Franzattas for $700 back in the day. I threw them out once I realized they were next to worthless. It never occurred to me that the Church of Scientology would ever scam me. Boy was I wrong.
Albert says
July 1, 2020 at 5:03 pmThere was another interesting part of the LRH signed books scam.
The regges sometimes sold me an incredibly rare LRH signed first edition, but they advised me to let them keep it in temperature controlled storage back at HQ. They got their commission and the book could sound amazing, as it quite possibly didn’t even exist.
Later they would get me to trade it in for a better sounding signed book (more commission for them), or else say they had found a buyer and get me to use my new found wealth for normal Scientology books (more commissions).
Funny old world.
Balletlady says
July 1, 2020 at 2:01 pmSADLY….there is ALOT of this kind of now worthless crap out there……
Baseball cards….no value unless it’s a Mickey Mantle…. etc.
Collectible Plates….no matter what theme…no value anymore
Hess Truck…….No value anymore unless 30+ years or more old
Prints:…….of almost every kind….no value anymore
China:………Grandma’s Rosenthal or Lenox or other high quality china…not wanted
Even so called “Antique Store” don’t want any of this stuff……
Needless to say…any type of COS crap…….NOT WANTED
Roger Larsson says
July 1, 2020 at 7:52 amSearchers for dump on dumpyards don’t go free with their findings. The searching for life goes on.
otherles says
July 1, 2020 at 6:48 amI’d rather be a dummer for Spinal Tap than watch a movie based on a work written by LRH.
Wait I’d already said that.
(How many people in the bubble know the Spinal Tap reference?)
grisianfarce says
July 1, 2020 at 10:06 amI got it 🙂
I knew the film was bad, and still went to see it. It was bad. Luckily the film ends before the sharks arrive in the book.
WhatAreYourCrimes says
June 30, 2020 at 10:36 pmSomeone should start a mock museum of scientology collectibles and scientology “must-have” items wherein each piece of schlock has been purchased from ebay or yard sales for a mere pittance.
Each exhibit could have a little card showing the scientology original price tag from the “official” source compared to the actual pennies paid second hand.
Or something like this could be compiled on a website for our mirth and mock. Someone please do this, with a paypal donation link and a GoFundMe.
I’d do it, but nah. Willing to donate however!
The Moose says
June 30, 2020 at 10:46 pmGood idea.
PeaceMaker says
June 30, 2020 at 10:22 pmA few of the prints are worth some money if they’re something like signed artists’ proofs, and of general sci-fi scenes not obviously tied to Hubbard work like Battlefield Earth – in the ballpark of $1,000 if I recall at least one sale I’ve seen, still probably a fifth or less of what ASI sold them for. I’ve seen others sell for about the value of the frame and matting.
Sadly there always seem to be quite a few way overpriced prints and books listed on eBay, by people who probably paid way more than they could afford, and and are unfortunately still being unrealistic to expect to recover even a fraction of their loss. There are also big if not huge hordes of books and DVDs listed, though those often seem to sell eventually at steep discounts but not absolute fire sale prices, I’m guessing because some current members who need them have figured out it’s still at lot cheaper than paying list price at the bookstore.
Clearly not Clear says
June 30, 2020 at 9:07 pmIt’s amazing how many different ways the church has managed to wrest money from people.
Just when you think you’ve read about all the different alphabet soup acronyms of front group rip offs through the church, like WISE, Way To Happiness, Narconon, CCHR, etc, and all the rest of the illegitimate front groups, you see something like this.
It’s never ending. Just wow.
Kronomex says
June 30, 2020 at 8:38 pmThey are still trying to flog off Frazetta prints at Galaxy Press. The costs as follows from the site –
https://galaxypress.com/product/the-countess-print/
https://galaxypress.com/product/man-endangered-species-print/
https://galaxypress.com/product/the-lieutenant-print/
They just can’t seem to get rid of them. $7.99 with free postage sounds much better.
Then I saw the following and nearly choked on my coffee laughing –
“Post-Apocalyptic Book
Battlefield Earth
The New York Times bestseller Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 is a science fiction saga of adventure, daring and courage, when man is an endangered species and the future survival of what’s left of the human race is at stake.
Experience one of the best post-apocalyptic books, one that changed the shape of science fiction forever.”
It certainly did change the shape of SF forever; took it backwards to the worst of the pulp crap published in the early years of “scientifiction.”
Kronomex says
June 30, 2020 at 8:32 pmThey are still trying to flog off Frazetta prints at Galaxy Press. The costs as follows from the site –
https://galaxypress.com/product/the-countess-print/
https://galaxypress.com/product/man-endangered-species-print/
https://galaxypress.com/product/the-lieutenant-print/
They just can’t seem to get rid of them. $7.99 with free postage sounds much better.
Sactown says
June 30, 2020 at 5:32 pmWhere is Carol Baskin when you need her?
Loosing my Religion says
June 30, 2020 at 4:12 pmPeople more informed than me can say and give more specifics about it.
What I personally see is the usual : Push! Push!!! Stat push it !!!!!!
Mary Kahn says
June 30, 2020 at 2:56 pmI have another story: I know someone who, after being told there was someone else that would buy them from him, bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of these Frazettas. Of course, this other buyer bailed and Author Services did not buy them back (which they also told him) and he ended up holding them in a storage unit for years.
Years later, after not paying his taxes for a while, the IRS came after him with a huge tax bill. When he couldn’t pay that, the IRS confiscated his Frazettas and held an auction to sell them for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Not one person bought one. NOT ONE THIN DIME for these works of arts.
Linear13 says
June 30, 2020 at 6:57 pmI’m going to turn on my ‘psychic’ eye and see what went down in THAT reg session. The ASI reg tells this poor person something to effect of ‘If you buy these paintings there’s a Frazetta fan I know just waiting to pay you quadruple for them…I’ll connect you two and you will 4X your money’. So the person buys a ton of these useless paintings never wondering IF there really was a fan out there just waiting to spend tons of money on these paintings then why isn’t ASI selling them DIRECTLY to this fan. That’s where I think people put on blinders where they actually think ‘My Church cares so much about ME that they want me to 4X my money’. Never once wondering why, if there’s this big Frazetta fan out there dying to have these paintings, isn’t the fan buying them direct from ASI just like you are.
Karen de la Carriere says
June 30, 2020 at 2:53 pmLaughter of the day ~~
I did a video on Author Services…some of its yukky side. The fraudulent “Battlefield Earth limited edition paper prints” they sold for an amount between $500 to $5000 which were in recent times dumped on Ebay for $20 with no one buying it even at the dumped price.
For some reason, I got the *HIGHEST* amount of Dislikes to date(Thumbs down) for this video. 42 dislikes !
So I went into Video Manager which gives complete breakdown of each country these LIKES and DISLIKES come from.
Guess where these 42 Dislikes came from ? (all in 48 hours then no more)
Khazikstan
Bangla Desh
Rumania
Bulgaria
Slovakia.
I am sure people in these countries care very much about Scientology and Author Services.
LMAO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Objim2gIlbY
Mike Rinder says
June 30, 2020 at 2:55 pmThanks Karen. There is a huge market for Hubbard junk collectibles in Bulgaria I hear. Surprised nobody from the Philippines weighed in. That’s another hotbed of scientology activity….
David Bates says
June 30, 2020 at 8:55 pmMike. If am now living in the Philippines and believe me people are going crazy over the pieces. Literally crazy!!!! The insane asilums are over flowing—–NOT IN ANY WAY DO WE WANT ANY OF THEM!!!
Linear13 says
June 30, 2020 at 6:39 pmNothing like knowing that parishioners hard earned money is going to pay for clickfarms…I wish those still in could open their eyes and SEE this.
jim rowles says
June 30, 2020 at 1:29 pmCountess Litho:
Hubbard would have never survived a whip wielding dominatrix.
Briget says
June 30, 2020 at 5:48 pmAre you kidding?? From what we’ve learned about him, I figure he’d have been crawling around after her with his tongue hanging out so far he’d have to tie it his belt buckle. That’s why he invented her out of the slimy depths of his nasty mind.
George White says
June 30, 2020 at 12:52 pmThese prints of Art are a total waste of time and money. Hubbard was the Zoroastrian demon of evil. He had nothing to do with space ships and galaxies. The prints do not sell because they do not tell the truth.
The truth is that as the Zoroastrain demon of evil his entire job on earth was to create a confederacy of Demons [The Sea Org] . This is in the Zend Avesta – the sacred Zoroastrian texts. Hubbard portrayed himself as the God Ahura Mazda, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Hubbard was Mainyu sort of like Satan and Lucifer in Western culture. Miscavige is then really a created demon and no one will disagree with that.
Kronomex says
June 30, 2020 at 8:46 pmWrapping paper for presents?
George White says
July 1, 2020 at 1:59 amMore like fish wraps.
Peggy L says
June 30, 2020 at 12:36 pmWell that’s giving it the old razzamtaz, bling, razzle dazzle, look at all the pretty colors effort! They better hope no one checked EBay first.
Chris Shugart says
June 30, 2020 at 12:25 pm“Battlefield Earth movie dumpster fire”
Mike, you do sometimes turn a colorful phrase that stands out. I may steal it and use it sometime.
Zee Moo says
June 30, 2020 at 11:50 amHey, that poor lion tamer woman has no nipples??? What’s with that, did Frank forget what nipples are? Well, I want one of those prints. I’ll display next to my Elvis on Black Velvet ‘painting’.
Selling Lron’s glittered up crap must a terrible job, but then Author Services has to pay at least minimum wage. So jobs there must be highly sought after.
grisianfarce says
June 30, 2020 at 4:45 pmFrank definitely didn’t forget the nipples. I suspect the email Mike has shared with us used a slightly bowdlerised version. Your favorite not-safe-for-work search engine will keep you abreast of the details.
jim rowles says
June 30, 2020 at 11:02 pmgris,
I see what you did there. 🙂 🙂 Cheeky eh!
Aquamarine says
July 1, 2020 at 12:32 amFacepalm & groan 🙂
little i says
July 1, 2020 at 4:52 pmI’m probably gonna regret telling you this, but zoom in, you’ll see them. At first I thought she was wearing a bikini top until I zoomed in. As a woman, I can tell you, even in a close up, something is very off about those things. I thought maybe pervert Hubbard gave her a bad boob job, or something.
John Doe says
June 30, 2020 at 11:33 amI remember when these limited edition prints first came out sometime in the ‘80s, a scientologist named Robin Elkins opened a gallery right on Fountain Avenue across from the Big Blue Scientology building.
In his gallery there were nothing but these prints on the walls, with expensive focused halogen lighting making each one a glowIng rectangle in the darkened room, and my first impression was, “Nice presentation, but like everything in Scientology, vastly overpriced.“
This thought, while I was still solidly in the church at the time!
Robin swooped over and immediately started in on the hard-sell, as I was the only customer in the place. Robin would speak with this quietly measured, breathy voice, but I could hear the desperation squeaking through. He probably had upwards of 50K of framed expensive posters hanging on the walls, and they weren’t moving.
The gaping holes in the logic of Robin’s business plan were obvious to me and I later surmised he was likely over-regged at ASI with the offer of Exclusive Distribution Rights Near the Complex, or some such.
Indeed, the gallery was only open for a couple of months. Poor guy, he was one of those salesmen type of guys that was always jumping from one “next biggest thing” to another.
Wynski says
June 30, 2020 at 10:35 amYes, once Hubtard went off to Target 2 (the incinerator) and Davie got the IAS to plunder scamologists, Author Services became an annoying 5th wheel.
otherles says
June 30, 2020 at 10:35 amMy (lack of) God, what a surprise!
As a Randian I’m appalled by this nonsense.
grisianfarce says
June 30, 2020 at 10:25 amWhat every Scientology parent needs to buy for their straight hormonal teenage boys – a fantasy painting of Countess Krak.
Personally I prefer the art of Boris Vallejo. Frazetta’s proportions and perspectives seem a bit off.
Belynda says
June 30, 2020 at 10:14 amGarbaage, no matter How you pronounce it, is Garbage – no matter how it’s Priced!
Aquamarine says
June 30, 2020 at 6:15 pmAgree. Simply awful. In the cult, UTR in the cult, out of the cult; collector’s items or not, I simply couldn’t.
BKmole says
June 30, 2020 at 10:02 amPrints went for $5,000 back then. The word was, when Scientology takes over the world those limited addition prints will appreciate to six figures. Let’s take one in to be on Antique Road Show. That would be fun. Talk about depreciation. In Scientology there is a sucker born every second.
Aquamarine says
June 30, 2020 at 6:35 pmI could see a 14 or 15 year old boy putting this sort of thing up on his bedroom wall, maybe. Some kid into comic book type art. But what do I know about what teenage boys of today like? Maybe they’d laugh and consider them just as hideous as I always have.
BKmole says
July 1, 2020 at 12:01 amAt the time it was about everyone helping donate to authors services. It was just one more scam to get money. Hubbard was never a great writer. The old saying is, “you can’t polish a turd”. We were delusional. Hubbard, the wizard of fake.
Joe Pendleton says
July 1, 2020 at 12:01 amBut on Ebay, twelve bucks PLUS shipping … OUTRAGEOUS!!!!!
I was thinking five bucks, tops.
Eh=Eh says
June 30, 2020 at 10:01 amAfter reading the horrible Battlefield Earth and numerous Red on White Bulletins, I have been unable to force myself to read any more of Hubbard’s fiction….
Joe Pendleton says
June 30, 2020 at 9:54 amEven “discounted” … A thousand bucks for a poster so hideous , that you are almost guaranteed to get nauseous if you look at it for longer than 10 seconds …
Religion and money … a toxic mixture that NEVER ends well …
Tsu Dho Nimh says
June 30, 2020 at 6:37 pmI remember ASI used to hawk LRH-signed e-meters for a LOT of money as well. Were those also forged signatures or did Hubbard actually sign those?
Joe Pendleton says
June 30, 2020 at 11:59 pmThe answer to your question is … Yes, his signatures on the meters are just as genuine as the ones on all those SO#1 letters …
Mike Rinder says
July 1, 2020 at 8:49 amIn fact, he DID sign the faceplates for a number of Mark VI Emeters. 100 I think it was. I was with him when he signed them. Anything other than those are fake.