i want out of my contract

Following a snide format email from "Support1" . . . that some of you have probably received at some point giving the 'ole "what an unusual request . . . " line. I received a email from "Darcy". <scratching head wondering if PA hire people with last names>


Excerpt from "Darcy's email: 5 May 09

If your request was granted, PublishAmerica would be denied, prematurely,
any hope of recovering its expenses. This is why we would prefer to finish
production of your book, keeping the contract in place until its expiration
date.

Therefore, if you were to persist on wishing to relinquish your status as a
published author, we can only grant your request upon a purchase of 50
copies of your book, by either you or a third party, at a deep 60 pct
discount, which will help to offset some of our losses. Please let us know
if you want to proceed with termination on these terms. If not, we will both
understand and applaud your decision. As said, we prefer to keep the book
under contract.

Thank you,
Darcy
Public Relations/Web
[email protected]

All I can say without disclosing my next plan of action is interesting. Now would that be 60% off of the whopping $24.95 price tag they've attached to a 160 page papercack? Amazing!

What, they didn't demand 300.00 from the get-go?

Unfortunately, a contract IS a contract. The PA writer is often stuck with it unless they are stubborn and continue to politely press for release.

Until PA puts the book into print--which they won't for a POD unless someone orders one--their costs are minimal.

A minimum wage college kid ran the book through a spell check. There's a few seconds on the time clock.

Another minimum wage kid picked out a stock photo cover (perhaps) based on the book title, framed it up with lettering and saved the file.

No more than an hour for that one.

Just to be generous, add in an extra hour to cover the emails they sent.

Two hours at 6.55 per hour is their current investment in that book.

Once it goes through the POD machine, they're down 3.00 for paper, electricity, and ink. They get it back by charging the writer 12-15 bucks + postage.

Their production costs are not going to increase if they "finish production." My bet is the book is still in a file somewhere waiting for a PA drone to run it through the system.

How about PRIVATELY slipping Darcy ten bucks to forget about things?

Ooooh, scary. She's threatening to take away your vanity published author status.

That email is the biggest load of BS. So they say they don't ask their authors for money, unless you come to the realization sending your book to them is like throwing your baby into a bottomless black hole, THEN they want your money.

I just think it is disgusting. They never offered me an out like that, probably since I already had purchased 50 copies. Hmm, I wonder if I sent them another formal email stating since I already paid them $457, that should have offset their costs and to please set me free.

Jp:

I received an identical email from Darcy. I was very tempted to take Darcy up on her offer regarding the 60% discount. I finally offered to pay $7.99 per book (my book is $29.95 retail), including postage which would have amounted to $400 for 50 books. They accepted my offer, but I don't trust anything they have to say, so I don't deal with them anymore.

Hmmm, I guess they wanted your money more than your book?

Remember, when you're dealing with PA employees, that all of their email is secretly copied to Miranda.

The PA Author Insult Team doesn't use last names in order to disguise the fast employee turnover.

If your request was granted, PublishAmerica would be denied, prematurely,
any hope of recovering its expenses. This is why we would prefer to finish
production of your book, keeping the contract in place until its expiration
date.

Click to expand...

Let me put it to you like this, Darcy. If you persist in putting my book into print, I won't buy a single copy. That means that not only will you have lost any expenses you've racked up so far, minimal as they might be, you'll lose all the expenses you'll accrue in the future, with no hope of recovering them. Unless you go out and sell some books yourself. But we know that won't happen, don't we?

Therefore, if you were to persist on wishing to relinquish your status as a
published author, we can only grant your request upon a purchase of 50
copies of your book, by either you or a third party, at a deep 60 pct
discount, which will help to offset some of our losses.

Click to expand...

We don't want your book, we want your money, eh? But let's be honest here. My status as "published author" is only by the most generous possible interpretation of the terms, isn't it? Thanks, but, like being hanged, I'd rather skip the honor entirely.

Please let us know
if you want to proceed with termination on these terms. If not, we will both
understand and applaud your decision. As said, we prefer to keep the book
under contract.

Click to expand...

Thanks, but no thanks. Keep it for the full seven years, with all the expenses (to you) that you'll rack up during that time -- the bookkeeping, the database, the disk space -- with no hope of income. And let this serve as your notice that I do not wish to renew the contract seven years from now, okay?

Best of luck with your new job after Miranda fires you when you come up for a raise.

Thank you,
Darcy
Public Relations/Web

Click to expand...

You're welcome.

Welcome, dksyooper!

I signed a contract with Publish America in 2001, so the 7 yr rule did not apply. I have written then numerous times to get out of the contract with the answer being no. I am very frustrated. Seven years have past. There are major spelling mistakes and the price of the book is way to high. I also didn't register a copy right for the book at the time. My mother was suppose to do that and she didnt. I told publish america this and they wrote me this:

Generally speaking, registration is not required in order to publish a
book. In general, registration is voluntary. Copyright exists from the
moment the work is created. You will have to register, however, if you
wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work. See Circular 1,
Copyright Basics, section *Copyright Registration* at
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf

Registration is recommended for a number of reasons. Many choose to
register their works because they wish to have the facts of their
copyright on the public record and have a certificate of registration.
Registered works may be eligible for statutory damages and attorney's
fees in successful litigation. Finally, if registration occurs within 5
years of publication, it is considered prima facie evidence in a court
of law. See Circular 1, Copyright Basics, section *Copyright
Registration* and Circular 38b, Highlights of Copyright Amendments
Contained in the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), on non-U.S. works
at http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ38b.pdf

Also, please keep in mind that Copyright protection lasts for the life
of the author plus 70 years. For further information, please see our
Circular 15a: Duration of Copyright Provisions of the Law Dealing with
the Length of Copyright Protection at
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ15a.pdf
lg

is this true? please email me at [email protected]

Yes, and you can also sue for infringement without registering, you just can't sue in federal court. That is an error in their first paragraph. In general, you are more protected than you imagine. But do remember that you can only protect the specific expression of your idea (the specific arrangement of words) and not the underlying idea. Copyright cannot protect that.

Your biggest problem, of course, is that with PA there is little chance that anyone will ever see your book. I'd write to them and see if they will release you based on their current 7-year limit. Then I would rewrite the heck out of that idea, make it into an entirely new book, and try to find a real publisher.

Gillhoughly said:

Once it goes through the POD machine, they're down 3.00 for paper, electricity, and ink.

Click to expand...

Total setup and materials costs more than that, though it's immaterial if no copies get printed. Nevertheless, your point still stands. There's no way that PA's editorial and production costs are equal to their profits on 50 copies of a title. They're just gouging the authors -- in effect, demanding that they pay to ransom their own books.

Something to keep in mind is that PA's profits are going to be higher on those 50 copies than they would be on 50 copies ordered piecemeal over the course of eighteen months or so. POD books have a high per-unit cost for printing and binding, and little one- and two-copy orders spaced weeks apart would get filled via POD technology. However, the ransom order is for 50 copies at once. That's up in the range where short-run printing operations make sense, so PA's going to have a lower cost and higher profit per unit.

Welcome Jade80!

I would suggest that you read the section of your contract regarding how long PA holds the rights to your work. If it states seven years and then it will renew for another seven years unless you contact them, contact them!!! Send them a certified letter letting them know that you do not want to renew for another seven years.

Regarding the copyright, you can still register your work (if you choose to) with the copyright office. I register my works online. If I remember correctly (oh, I can use that acronym now!!! IIRC), the cost is $35.

Merri, you're so cute with the acronym thing

Hee Hee I was quite excited to use it, now that I know what it means!!!

merrihiatt said:

Welcome Jade80!

I would suggest that you read the section of your contract regarding how long PA holds the rights to your work. If it states seven years and then it will renew for another seven years unless you contact them, contact them!!! Send them a certified letter letting them know that you do not want to renew for another seven years.

Regarding the copyright, you can still register your work (if you choose to) with the copyright office. I register my works online. If I remember correctly (oh, I can use that acronym now!!! IIRC), the cost is $35.

Click to expand...

Merri, I have the same contract as Jade80, (Should be the same; my contract signed in '01 too.) That particular clause holds the publishing rights for the length of copyright. Life plus 70 or 75 years. I don't think I'd make it to be that old.

Yes, and you can also sue for infringement without registering, you just can't sue in federal court.

Click to expand...

I need to correct that. Copyright litigation, registered or not, must occur in federal court. Federal court has exclusive jurisdiction over copyright. You cannot sue for copyright infringement in state court.

Unregistered works can only receive injunctive relief (stop them from copying) and lost profits.

Registered works can sue for the moon, including attorney fees and statuory damages (the legal equivalent of a grand slam).

tlblack said:

Merri, I have the same contract as Jade80, (Should be the same; my contract signed in '01 too.) That particular clause holds the publishing rights for the length of copyright. Life plus 70 or 75 years. I don't think I'd make it to be that old.

Click to expand...

Well, drat!

After PA's FINAL SALE FOR AUTHOR ORDERS in April and the numerous that have followed, I called to order 15 copies of my book last week. It was their "double your order" promotion. The rep then gave me the shipping total, which was more than $100! I laughed and asked her how they came up with that shipping total, to which she replied that there is a $3.99-per-book shipping charge. I looked up my last author order, a 66-book order for which I paid less than $50 in shipping. I told her forget it and started writing my contract termination request.

I sent the termination request letter last week and received the form-letter reply today. Here is the reply I just sent:



Darcy,

Thanks for the form letter. I've already read it many times, as I've spent considerable time reading other authors' horror stories among the 103,000-plus posts in PublishAmerica's own special section of the Bewares and Background Check section of the Absolute Write Water Cooler discussion board.

I will buy my way out of the contract in the near future, but first I need some clarification. Am I purchasing 50 books in a bulk order while paying an additional $3.99 shipping per book (though it cost me less than $50 in shipping when I ordered 66 books in 2004)? Or can I let readers (third parties) know PublishAmerica is running a 60% off special on my book, hope some of them buy copies, and then I purchase the difference to total 50 copies sold?

Termination of this contract will not cause me to relinquish my status as a published author (AS SHE STATED IN HER RESPONSE TO MY CONTRACT TERMINATION REQUEST), as I have published three books since and am giving serious consideration to putting my current work on hold to write another about those who prey on the ambitions of others that you may find interesting.

Please reply with clarification to the shipping and sales questions in Paragraph 2 so that I can buy my way out of our relationship.


Matt Murphy

Matt, welcome to AW!

I'm sorry to hear about your situation with PA, but know all too well about their business practices. ** heavy sigh **

I hope you are able to get your rights returned. Be aware that folks from PA do read this message board. Sometimes I think they deliberately won't give me my rights back because I am so vocal about my displeasure with them. I can wait out the six and a half more years I am under contract with them if I have to, but I would rather get my rights back and put this whole experience behind me.

I wish you luck.

You pointed out one of the most heinous things PA does -- charging $3.99 for each individual book, rather than packing up the box of books and getting a total weight and figuring out the shipping cost. It's outrageous!!!

Welcome fellow matt!

Good luck on the contract. Many people were able to get out without spending a dime. I would look around and read some success stories. With enough determination, and a couple dozen letters to PA, you may be able to get the rights back. I did for two of my novels, and then self published both of them and now they are doing great!!

Welcome to water cooler!

Shane-

Welcome Matt,

You are definitely in good company here. Many of us have been in your shoes. I wish you luck with having your rights returned. I was able to do it. Hope you hang out here, there is terrific information to assist you in your writing moving forward.

The immediate thing to do is start writing new, different, better books, and selling them to real publishers.

You can easily be seven novels down the road by the time the PA contract expires, and as long as you don't buy any yourself there won't be much harm done.

Tell PA you'll go the Phil Dolan route if they won't release you.

You may not know what that means, but they will.

Anyway, as Jim said. Write a new better book, and let your PA book take up PA hard drive space.

You've got better work inside you.

dksyooper said:

I was recently scammed by PA too.

After a month of deceptive emails from PA, they finally agreed to my proposal to terminate the contract if I purchased 50 books for $400 (including shipping & handling). Their glitch was that I had to order by last Friday at 5pm, so I called them at 4:30pm. Nobody picked up the phone, so I left a voice mail. Surprise, suprise, nobody has returned my phone call, probably because they never intended to follow through on my proposal.

I've contacted the Attorney General and the Better Business Bureau, but both were useless.

Has anyone ever been able to terminate their PA contract without paying them off hundreds of dollars? I haven't purchased my book and never will. Fortunately, I never sent them my family and friends' email addresses, so they won't be spammed to death.

Click to expand...

This is an even bigger scam than the original offense.

PA will make more money in one lump sum from you than they would selling your book one volume at a time.

Your contract with PA is considered a business-to-business arrangement and not a business-to-consumer fraud.
Too bad, but there it is.

Kick and scream all you want, but don't send them a penny. Ever.

Write a new book instead.