Question:
How much does it cost me to have ComStar Media publish my work?
Answer:
That’s a very good question, and probably one that many people will immediately think of when they are deciding whether or not to publish through ComStar Media, LLC. The answer is simply $0.00. We charge $0.00 in start up fees. We ask that you pay $0.00 for editing and because layout is a tricky thing, we expect you to pay $0.00.
In all seriousness, ComStar Media is not like some publishers that ask you to pay a dollar amount per book printed. We are not a Vanity Publisher. We do not expect you to pay for editing or layout. We do not ask or accept money from our authors to publish their books. Our job is to make our authors money and pay them. All we expect our authors to do is give us their masterpiece for publication.
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Question:
How many books have you published?
Answer:
A fair question. Currently we are in the first stages of producing our first two anthologies and we have other anthologies that we are currently collecting stories for. We also have a few writers who have signed to publish full-length novels with ComStar Media, LLC. But currently we have no books “on the shelves” as it were. But we are very dedicated to seeing that happen and are hard at work coming up with printing and distributing solutions that will maximize your exposure and our overall success.
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Question:
Why do you publish anthologies?
Answer:
A very wise person once told me that everyone has a book…idea. Essentially what this means is that while there are a lot of people out that who fancy themselves the next Stephen King or J.R.R. Tolkien, many of them have yet to write or finish an entire book. Also, I have found, that while someone might be an excellent writer, they might not be very good at deadlines or constructive criticism that is essential for editing to be successful. Anthologies give us a way to “try out” an author as well as giving a new author a way to “try out” ComStar Media. The requirement of one short story is much less taxing on the writer and through this they can see the kinds of results ComStar can bring them. Likewise, we will be able to see the depth of their talent and commitment to their writing.
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Question:
How much do you pay your authors?
Answer:
This question has a two-part answer. Not to be difficult, but currently we are set up to put out two products, anthologies and novels, and we pay them slightly different. Let’s start with anthologies.
We allocate 15% of our revenue to go to the authors of the anthologies. If there are five authors, then that 15% is split up between five people. The way it is divided is based upon the final word count of each story. What that means is that if one of those five people write a 5,000 word story and another writes a 15,000 words story, the author of the larger story gets a larger piece of the pie.
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Question:
Why does ComStar Media ‘recruit’ writers from various fan-fiction web lists when I’ve never heard of another publishing company doing that before?
Answer:
ComStar Media is not like other publishing companies. ComStar Media was an incredible opportunity that the owners are proud to have jumped on when they had the chance. One of the owners of ComStar Media has had very close ties with some parts of the fan-fiction community and wished to give something back to it. ComStar Media is fulfilling that goal by opening up anthologies and allowing those people who write stories upon stories using other people’s characters when they could be writing about their own a chance to write their own stories. We are also a company that was built around the idea of discovering unpublished but highly talented authors. It just so happens that the fan-fiction community has plenty of those types of writers. We are committed to opening the eyes of the writers and showing them that not only do they have what it takes to be a published author, but we have what it takes to publish them. The very roots of ComStar Media grow through the forest of fan-fiction and we don’t intend on forgetting where we were planted.
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Question:
So what exactly will ComStar Media do for an author?
Answer:
Specifically, ComStar Media intends to do whatever it takes to make that writer feel as if they are home with ComStar Media. We reward loyalty with loyalty and the author that comes to us with one book deal will be remembered when the second book is written and ready for publication. We intend to make the goals of our authors our goals to the extent that we would be able to. We have a great team of editors, a professional layout team, and contacts that gives us to give our books great international exposure. Our website will feature each of our new products and we anticipate web pages, Internet chats, and possibly even book signing tours in the future. As I started out saying, ComStar Media will do whatever it takes to make you the author you knew you could be and to see your masterpiece on many book shelves.
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Question:
If I have a story idea, how can I pitch it to you?
Answer:
Well that depends on the kind of story you want to write. If it’s a short story, we have a questionnaire on this website. Go to the Downloads section of the website and download your copy of the anthology questionnaire. Fill it out as completely as you can and follow the instructions for turning it in.
For novel length stories, please download a copy of the novel questionnaire and fill it out and follow the instructions for submitting it and all of the needed material. Please remember that what you are doing is telling ComStar a shortened version of the story, not a teaser. Don’t worry about spoiling the ending. We’d rather you spoil it and let us know what kind of story you’re pitching, then to get an incomplete story.
You can submit those questionnaires, through email to
JenniferLee@ComStar-Media.com.
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Question:
What if I’m only 16 years old?
Answer:
Well, if you were sixteen years old, seventeen years old, or even twelve years old and you want to submit a story to ComStar Media, we would still love to look at and evaluate your story. If it is a story we want to publish, we will need to get the permission of your parents or legal guardian. ComStar Media does not sign contracts with minors, but parents or legal guardians may sign on behalf of their under aged writer.
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Question:
My friend had a bad experience with a small press publisher once. Is there anything you can say to ease my fear that the same thing will happen to me?
Answer:
Well, to best answer this question, I would need more specifics than just having a “bad experience”. But, I can say that we are not like other publishing. We are a small company and a small press publisher, but our strengths lie in our contacts, our flexibility, and our strength of character.
I’m not here to say that other publishing companies with different ways of doing things are wrong. But they are different. ComStar Media is a company that cares about new authors. We’re a company that strives to bring the attention to bright new talent. Cruising around the Internet it would not be hard to find young talent out there writing story after story for nothing more than personal gratification. These people are often times encouraged to try to be published. They soon find out that being published is harder than it might seem. In some cases, publishing houses focus on more than just your writing and many very talented people are turned away, despite their abilities. We at ComStar Media felt that the personal touch a small publishing business could give these authors, the one-on-one feeling they can have with their publishers would foster more confidence and less stress in an already turbulent time in their careers. At ComStar Media, we care about the authors and do everything in our power to see that their talent does not go to waste.
ComStar Media does have the resources to be your publishing company and we definitely have the passion necessary to make sure that each and every project you work on becomes a work of art. Remember that because ComStar Media asks you for no money, ever, the only way we make money is by making you money.
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Question:
Do you publish regular novels?
Answer:
By regular novels, I assume you mean other than anthologies. The answer is yes. We have signed on a few authors and we are in negotiations to sign on even more. While the focus of our books seems to be on the anthologies, we are hoping that will change once ComStar Media becomes a more widely recognized name in the publishing industry. Anthologies help us to get our name out there as well as to get the names of new authors out there. They help us to explore new talent as well as open the doors to that talent for writing something larger than a short story. Anthologies might be easier to put together now, but we anticipate a time when our novels will outnumber our anthologies.
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Question:
What rights would I be giving up by selling you my story?
Answer:
Unlike at other publishing companies, the only thing you’re ‘selling’ to ComStar is the right to publish your work. We don’t ask for ownership of your characters, concepts, or ideas. You get to keep all of those.
Most publishing companies will make you sell them the rights to everything within the story. This includes characters, names of your fantasy or science fiction worlds and concepts, as well as unique mythologies and theologies that you create for your stories. ComStar is not interested in taking the rights away from the authors. Our requests are simple. We ask that we be allowed to publish the story and pay you for it. We ask that you give us the right of first refusal on any sequels you have. That’s pretty much it. If, for any reason, ComStar Media takes your book out of print or it reaches an out of print status, you’re free to take the manuscript to another publisher.
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Question:
What exactly are a dedication page and a professional acknowledgment page?
Answer:
When you are accepted as a writer for ComStar, we ask for three things from you to supplement your book. One is a black and white photograph of yourself to put on the back cover of the novel, the other two things are a dedication page and a professional acknowledgment page.
A professional acknowledgment would include anyone who has helped or inspired you to be where you are today. Teachers that have challenged you to be the best writers you can be would be appropriate. A teacher or a person who interested you in reading would be appropriate. You can take this time to thank your agent if you have one. Your editor if you know them and have a good relationship with them would likely appreciate the mention. You can include a parent or another family member that has inspired you to keep going. These are the kinds of things you can put on this page. It doesn’t have to be a large list of acknowledgments, but this gives you a chance to say thanks.
A dedication page could be a small as a sentence or as big as a few paragraphs. This is where you simply dedicate your story to another person whom you wish to honor in that way. “This story is dedicated to my best friend, Ginger,” would be an appropriate dedication—provided you had a best friend named Ginger that you wished to dedicate your story too, obviously.
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Question:
Why do you only ask for a “rough draft” of a short story?
Answer:
This question stems from an author who had written a short story for one of our anthologies and was accepted. She then wanted to know if we wanted a second draft or if we were just interested in publishing the first draft. She was not as happy with the first draft as she was the second draft.
The answer to this is that we want the draft that you are happiest with. Our goal is to showcase your story as close to perfect as you can imagine it. When ComStar receives a rough draft, it is read over for clarity and completeness. It is in this stage that it is decided whether or not the story merits being added to the anthology. Sometimes, though, it has a few problems or is not as clear or complete as we think it could be. In those cases, the author is contacted and asked to revise the story. At this time they are accepted and the ball is in their court. If they wish to make these changes and sign a contract with us, then they are able to have their story published in the anthology they were accepted for. Sometimes, though, when we look over the stories they look clear and complete and no changes are asked for. But second drafts are always welcome, as we understand that authors often revise and refine their stories, even if we don’t specifically ask for them.
But this is not the only process by which a story might be changed. Next the stories go to editing. These edits can change parts of the story and cause the story to become even more clear and complete. Only after editing can a final draft be created.
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Question:
Do you accept self-published authors?
Answer:
Absolutely. If the book belongs to you and is copyrighted by you, and you have the full rights to the work, you can submit it to ComStar Media, LLC for consideration. We absolutely are interested in helping self-published authors get their book out and into the hands of the public. The fact that your book has been published before and already has a bit of a following is in your favor—not to your detriment. So, if you are a self-published author and you’re interested in having a publisher do all the work, then get a questionnaire and send away!
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Question:
Do you send your manuscripts to reviewers?
Answer:
Yes. Our novels go through an extensive pre-publishing review so that each and every book can be published with praise right on the cover. This also gives us an idea of how popular the book might become, and therefore whether we’d like to see a sequel to this book.
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Question:
Can a manuscript have some errors when sent to you?
Answer:
I hesitate to answer this one because I don’t want to open up a floodgate of badness for our editors, but here goes. Yes. Yes, your manuscript can have some errors. BUT, you should make every effort to get all the errors out of your manuscript BEFORE sending it to us.
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When you send a manuscript to us, or any publisher, you are trying to entice us to spend our money to publish this book. Any money we spend on your book is money we are choosing to spend on your book instead of another book. So to make sure that your book is the one that is chosen, you should do the very best that you possibly could to submit a book that has been proofread for errors. There’s no reason that I can think of why you’d not want to put your best foot forward, and when you’re trying to impress someone with your writing talent, giving them a manuscript full of easily seen errors will not do it. Most of the people who have a computer today have some sort of spell-checking ability. If a manuscript comes through and it doesn’t look like it’s even been through spell-check, then our impression of that manuscript and that writer will be that no care was put into the creation of that story. If the author doesn’t care about his or her own work, why should we?
Obviously, if you send in a manuscript and there are some errors in it, we’re not going to send it back rejected because you used there instead of their or anything like that. Mistakes happen and we’re all only human. As long as the manuscript is clear about the message it’s conveying and the errors aren’t too plentiful, you should be fine.
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Question:
Do you give advances to your authors?
Answer:
No, we don’t. Although it is the norm to receive an advance on your royalties, ComStar Media, LLC has decided against doing that. While it might seem as if you are receiving more money when you get a chunk of the money up front, that money will be taken out of your royalties and so you actually make exactly the same. Instead of giving advances, ComStar Media, LLC decided instead to pay each author a higher royalty percentage.
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Question:
I’ve self-published the book that I’d like to submit to you. After I sign the contract, can I still sell the copies of the book that I have in stock?
Answer:
Unfortunately, no. After the contracts are signed the manuscript is gone over by an editor. Changes could possibly be made to the book, changes that wouldn’t be reflected in the older versions of the book. Also, those people who are buying the older version of the book may not be interested in repurchasing the newer version of the book. Also, even if you have an ISBN number for your book, a new ISBN number will need to be purchased. If your book will be made into a series, you would want your new version of your book to advertise for you and for ComStar—the more successful we are, the more successful you and your book will be.
So, the short answer: sorry, no.
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Question:
Well now that I’ve done self-publishing I have all this experience in selling my own books. What can I do about that?
Answer:
Listen up! This is for all of you self-published people or anyone who wants to market themselves to some extent. You can sell copies of the new book, as published by ComStar Media. I know I said in the question above that you couldn’t sell your books—but those are the OLD stock. The new books, complete with the new ISBN and the advertisements for your future books and so on, are fair game, though! How does that work? I’ll tell you!
Each author contracted by ComStar gets a 50% discount on his or her books. You can purchase them directly from ComStar. When you get the books you are free to sell them at conventions, on eBay, on Amazon.com if you have an account there, or at your website. You are free to sell them in any way or means you wish to. Whatever you make on the book is yours to keep. So, for instance, if a book is $8 retail, you can buy them from us at $4. You can put them up on Amazon.com for $6 and make $2 while giving the reader a discount (which might entice them to buy if you are a new author). If you do this with ten books you spend $40 and receive $60 for a $20 profit. If you decide to sell them for retail, you’d make a $40 profit (selling them at $8 rather than $6).
So this is a great way for all you authors who want to do your own sales. Do you have to do this? Absolutely not. ComStar is more than happy to take care of all of the distribution of your books. If you’re content to let us, we’re up to the task, but if you’re used to doing your own sales and you want to continue that part of your writing career, go for it and more power to you!
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Question:
Can you publish Non-Fiction?
Answer:
Yes. We can publish non-fiction, young adult stories, children stories, or a variety of other things. Pitch the book to us in the same way that you’d pitch anything else and indicate what kind of book you’re pitching.
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Question:
When you say “book tour,” what exactly do you mean? What does a book tour entail?
Answer:
Good question. A book tour is basically where the author sets some time aside to go to as many of the local bookstores that is willing to host a reading of his or her book as possible. The bookstores are given the opportunity to purchase a shipment of books so that they have books to sell and people are invited to come listen to an excerpt of the book being read by the author. Ideally, afterwards, everyone buys a book and magic is made.
Here’s a run down of what is done: A few months before the release date of the book the author supplies ComStar with a list of their local bookstores (with phone numbers and addresses) as well as any bookstores near family members that they might travel to. Please note that you need more than chain stores (Barnes and Nobles and the like). They are very hard to get into, especially for first time authors. The author also supplies us with a block of time they are free to tour (such as a weekend or a few weekends). The authors are responsible for getting to the bookstores at the time scheduled and for representing themselves and their books in a responsible manner. ComStar and the author will decide on the excerpt to be read. It’ll be about a half hour long and will not be the end of the book. Not many people want to hear the end first!
Book touring isn’t easy, especially for first time authors. But it’s worth it if you can get your story into the hands of just one more person. You never know who they will tell about your book and how many sales will be generated off of one book. I have been known to send books that I have fallen in love with as Christmas presents, enticing the person to read the book, since it’s free for them, and getting them hooked. When the sequel comes out, they rush to buy a book they might not have read had it not been for me. I’m sure that I’m not the only book-giver around Christmas time or other times of the year, so even one person can make a difference!
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Question:
How can I help promote my book?
Answer:
This kind of question has come to me from a few of our self-published authors. Again, no one is required to get involved in their own promotion or marketing, but we certainly don’t want to turn away anxious authors who have the time and inclination to promote their books. Here are a few things you can do if you are an author who is getting their books or short stories published and you want to do some promotion:
· Track down websites or Internet groups who would be interested in doing an Internet Chat about you and your story.
· Go to local bookstores with a galley and talk about readings. Many bookstores have a place for local talent.
· Go to libraries and other reading venues and talk about readings there.
· Check out different websites that might be willing to put a advertisement banner on their site. ComStar can make the graphics and send them to the websites willing to promote you!
· Brainstorm some truly unique ideas that are realistic and focused but also “out of the box.” We’re willing to entertain any idea that might work.
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Question:
Do you send out an ARC for review?
Answer:
First of all, ARC stands for Advance Reading Copy. It’s also called a galley. And yes, we do send those out for review. This is how we get those nifty little praises that will be put on the cover of the book.
If you’re an author who has some ideas about where to send an ARC you are free to contact us and send us a list of people/places with phone numbers and other relevant contact information. ComStar would then contact these reviewers to see if they’re interested in reviewing the book and set up the whole process. This is another thing that authors can do for themselves, if they wish. But, before anyone decides to send off copies of their manuscript (which is not the same as a galley) they should know that this costs money. We don’t want you sending off galleys or manuscripts. What I mean by saying that this is something an author can do, I mean calling reviewers. If you’re an author who is interested in promoting their books to reviewers and setting up people willing to review the book, then contact ComStar and we’ll set it up.
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Question:
I’m thinking of writing a young adult novel. What’s the average word count for a story like that?
Answer:
Depends on the kind of story you’re writing. If you’re the next J. K. Rowling, your book might be anywhere from 60,000 to 80,000 words. But for an average young adult novel that’s more in line with Sweet Valley High or something like that, 30,000 to 40,000 words will do fine.
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Question:
What about a children’s book?
Answer:
Also depends. But our Early Reader books are typically no longer than 20,000 words. A young child’s book can be anywhere from 10 to 5,000 words. Show us what you’re working on and we’ll let you know if it’s not long enough or too long!
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Question:
What is the difference between blue line and red line editing?
Answer:
Blue line editing is proofreading. When blue line editing is being done, grammar and spelling errors are found and corrected but the content of the story is not evaluated or even touched.
Red line editing is far more involved. This is where the editor goes through the manuscript paragraph by paragraph, sentence-by-sentence, word-by-word to make sure that the readability is optimized, the story makes sense, and the characters are smooth and realistic people. This obviously takes a lot more time and is also what is primarily being done when “preliminary edits” are being done.
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Question:
What channels of distribution do you use? Many chain stores won’t sell books unless they are distributed by Ingram!
Answer:
Well, luckily, we use Ingram as our wholesaler. Even still, it’s hard to get into chain stores. If you go to a chain store look at the books they are selling. It’s primarily the same people that they’ve always sold. Nora Roberts, Stephen King, Terry Goodkind, Danielle Steele, and so on are the kinds of authors you’ll see. But don’t fret. Even they had to start from somewhere and look at them now. But, to get back on track—we do use Ingram. If your bookstore can get Ingram books, then they can get our books. But we also use other wholesalers and distributors, like Baker and Taylor. We are able to distribute internationally as well.
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Question:
How long does it take to receive a response once a novel questionnaire has been given to you? How long after the novel has been sent in?
Answer:
Although we at ComStar all wish we could answer authors without making them wait, we unfortunately do have a bit of a waiting period sometimes. Usually you can expect six to eight weeks before a good read-through of your submissions is done. Now, sometimes it doesn’t take that long at all, but we want to make readers aware that sometimes it’ll take a bit before an answer comes to them. Feel free to do a check up on your book if eight weeks have passed with no word from us, but please limit your check up to one. If you inundate our Inboxes we are not going to be more likely to get to your submissions but less likely to have the time!
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Question:
What method does ComStar use for word count?
Answer:
Usually we use the Word Count feature that Microsoft Word comes equipped with. If you don’t have MS Word, then perhaps the program you use also does word counts. I believe Lotus does as well as other well known programs. You could go through and do an actual count, but wow, that would be difficult. If you have no other way, I would count one page and then multiply it by your pages and let me know that it’s an approximate number. I can get an actual number myself.
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Question:
What are the word count guidelines for ComStar Media?
Answer:
Good question. It really is relative as ComStar can decide what is classified as a short story, novella, or novel. Here’s the break down:
· Short Story: Up to 20,000 words
· Novella: 20,001 to 50,000 words
· Novel: Anything over 50,000 words and up to around 150,000-200,000 words is considered a novel.
Does this mean if you send me a 49,999 word count story that it won’t be marketed as a novel. Probably not. As I said before, it’s all relative. ComStar decides all of that; these are merely guidelines for you all.
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Question:
Are you a POD publisher?
Answer:
In the beginning we started out with an off-set printing model, but we’ve recently moved to start utilizing POD printing technology. I know, POD is practically a four letter word to some people, but believe it or not, the quality is just as good (provided you are with a quality POD printing service) and the flexibility of printing your books as they are needed makes the printing process cheaper, meaning more money is made and more money is given to the authors per book.
Because of the concern of being labeled a “POD Publisher” and having to take on all the baggage that goes along with that, ComStar is researching various ways that we can warehouse our books, which shortens the time it takes for books to be shipped places. We can offer returns, so this helps the book stores want to stock us, and we’re also looking into wholesaling and distribution techniques that will assist us in dodging the stigma of being a “POD Publisher”. What we actually are is a Small Press Publisher that uses POD technology. Because we believe in the technology of POD publishing and because we believe that it can only go up from here, we are proud to be using it. Nowadays even the larger publishers with off-set publishing capabilities are starting to utilize the flexibility and budget effective way of printing books. We believe in the route we’re going and we are sure that it’ll pay off for us and for our authors.
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Question:
Are you a Vanity Press?
Answer:
Heavens no. Please don’t misunderstand, Vanity Presses have their place in publishing, but they are not the way to go for an author looking to seriously break into the publishing industry.
A Vanity Press, for those who don’t know, is a company that you pay and they publish your story. It doesn’t matter if the story is good, bad, raw, unedited, perfect, or unreadable. As long as you pay them to print it, they will. This is not being published, it’s being printed. That isn’t the same thing.
You will never have to pay us to publish your work. If we’re interested in publishing it, we’ll pay you. We are selective about what we choose to publish. We will publish pretty much any genre, but the stories must be compelling and interesting. We’re looking for unique twists on old themes, or even completely unique stories. If you have what we’re looking for, and are accepted, then you’ll be published and paid. It’s the way it should be.
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