The Newer Never-Ending PublishAmerica / America Star Books Thread

scully931

So you're suggesting what? Bigfoot?
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Oh, that is funny.

Also, never really looked at that page before. They still have an article up about someone who got a letter from Queen Elizabeth II back in April? (And probably what amounted to a form letter.)

Still, I guess if you didn't really *think* about all those articles and do some research and read between the lines, you could be misled into thinking these were great things. (And things you could only get when you "publish" with PA.)
 

Anon76

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As an added note on the topic linked to:

You'll note in the earlier comments a poster by the name of Larry. He was a staunch supporter of Publish America and made no bones about what he thought of the traditional publishing method and it's authors.

Sadly, I found an update for him:

http://reaganville.newmillguitar.com/?cat=3

This is exactly why so many people try to get the word out to writers willing to risk anything to be published. It's the same old scam...just with new desperate faces.

No matter how abrasive he got, I'm still heartbroken for this guy.
 

Anon76

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entropic island

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How many ex-PA authors does it take to shut down a business? Apparently, it's impossible. :(
 

Don Davidson

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I have exchanged a few emails with a guy who considered PublishAmerica, but then thought better of it. Now he is considering Dorrance, and wanted to know what I could tell him about them. All I could tell him is that P&E says Dorrance is a vanity publisher. Can anyone provide more info on Dorrance?
 

ResearchGuy

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I have exchanged a few emails with a guy who considered PublishAmerica, but then thought better of it. Now he is considering Dorrance, and wanted to know what I could tell him about them. All I could tell him is that P&E says Dorrance is a vanity publisher. Can anyone provide more info on Dorrance?

Dorrance, like Vantage, pretty much defines old-time vanity publishing, with costs to the author of as much as tens of thousands of dollars and a book that no reviewer or library will touch with a ten-foot pole. See my booklet on "The Pursuit of Publishing" (link below) for my overview of old style and new style vanity publishing. Dorrance is old style. PA is new style. Dorrance has a thread on AW (already pointed out), and is easily Googled.

--Ken
 
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ResearchGuy

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PA is new style vanity pubbing? Which is worse?
They are bad in different ways. But any choice, made with knowledge and understanding of purpose, alternatives, reasons, costs, and benefits, can be ok for an author. (Some people really are ok with paying many tens of thousands of dollars to be published, and some are satisfied with what they get from PA -- although they have to be getting rarer and rarer as PA descends farther and farther into madness.)

The catch is vanity publishing is by definition (the one I use, at least) made without the author's full understanding of the transaction. Deception is embedded in the transaction. See my discussion in the link below. (It is a free .pdf, and includes an annotated list of recommended resources.)

--Ken
 

Mags

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Oh, for the luvva...

Go to PA's Up in Lights page.

Click on the "read more" link on "Celebrity Author signs 2nd PA contract" and see what happens. :roll: :ROFL: :e2shrug: :e2smack:

I thought it might have been my Firefox cache or cookies or something, so I also checked in Safari. Same thing.

Attention PA Lurkers: Somebody copied and pasted the wrong link into the javascript. You might want to let your webmaster know.
 

Don Davidson

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Dorrance

Here's the thread on Dorrance. Why does your friend want to go with a vanity publisher?

Thanks. I don't know that he does want a vanity publisher, but like many of us he wants to be published. I once thought PA was a real publisher. Maybe he thought Dorrance was a real publisher.
 

entropic island

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Sounds like your friend has a horrible case of gullibility. I used to have one. Have you refered him here?
 

Don Davidson

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Sounds like your friend has a horrible case of gullibility. I used to have one. Have you refered him here?

I think each of us can be a bit gullible under the right circumstances. As the saying goes, "You can fool all of the people some of the time. . . ." I thought I was scam-proof, but I fell for PA's line--at least, until they started trying to get their hands in my pockets. That's when I got suspicious.

Anyway, I've mentioned both Absolute Write and Preditors & Editors, and given him links to both. 'Nuff said.
 

merrihiatt

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Here's PA's latest version of the "we'll send five books to..." special offer:

Dear Author:

PublishAmerica will submit your book to the NBC Today Show!

Most of you have seen authors come and go on America's most popular morning show. And you can't help but wonder, how is their book any better than mine? The answer is, it probably isn't.

PublishAmerica will submit your book to the Today Show. We will send your book to Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira's staff for their consideration, five copies, so that more than one NBC staffer gets a chance to read your work and recommend it to Matt, Meredith, Ann Curry, or Al Roker who not only hosts 'Al's Book Club', but also recently wrote his first mystery novel!

We're not waiting for the Today Show to ask for your book. We're donating it to them. And we will let your local newspaper, radio, or TV know that your book is being submitted to the NBC Today Show. So they can put the spotlight on you as a local author.

Here's how we do it:

If you want to have books on hand, order now, and we will donate five copies to the Today Show. And you receive a 50 (that's FIFTY) pct discount!

We ship NBC's copies the same day we ship your books to you. We'll even pay for NBC's shipping!


Go to www.publishamerica.net, find your book, click on it, then add to cart, indicate quantity, and use this coupon: Today50. Then click Recalculate and finish the transaction. Minimum volume is 12 copies.


In the Ordering Instructions field, just write: "Media Yes". Our PR department
will automatically contact you for names and addresses of your local news media.

Again, we will ship your books to the Today Show the same day we ship your
order to you. By using the coupon you are authorizing us to donate the books
to the NBC studio at 30 Rock in New York. You may also request that we ship
the five FREE books to you instead, or to ABC's Good Morning America.


Full-color and hardcovers excluded. Offer expires this weekend on Sunday night.


Happy New Year!
PublishAmerica Author Support Team
 

Gillhoughly

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I just got a psychic insight into PA's promotional plans! Their next targets for "send five books to ___" are:

Fox News

Larry King Live

The entire 60 Minutes news team

The judges team for this season's American Idol

The boardroom of "Jack" from Jack in the Box

The Canadian Prime Minister (for PA's Canadian customers)

The Pope

Paris Hilton -- Imagine the media buzz if she's seen with a copy of YOUR Publish America book!

The Octo-Mom -- Imagine the sales when she reads YOUR Publish America book to her kids on her new TV show!

Dog the Bounty Hunter -- The perfect place for your prison memoir or pet story!

Clearly Oprah is just too busy.


But seriously--my big question is IS PA ACTUALLY SENDING BOOKS TO THESE VENUES?

Is there ANY proof they're sending books as promised--or are they just pocketing the money?

If there's just ONE case of the latter, then that's fraud and the Maryland AG will want to know about it.

It's also a Federal case, since it would be mail fraud.
 
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underthecity

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IS PA ACTUALLY SENDING BOOKS TO THESE VENUES?

Is there ANY proof they're sending books as promised--or are they just pocketing the money?

My guess would be that PA is indeed sending books to these venues, as promised. (But so far, nobody has said who is paying shipping. Could be PA, shipping them at media mail rate and absorbing the cost.)

The powers that be at PA aren't dumb. They know the books will never reach their intended targets. They know that gatekeepers are in place who will prevent Oprah or Al Roker or even Tom Hanks from receiving those books. But they also know their authors don't know this.

Take a look at the recent letter, compare it to the rest of the pitch letters. Nowhere inside does it read: "Your shipment of books will also include an author's bio [or "media kit" as a real publisher might say] and complete contact information if/when the staff at the Today Show want to reach you to schedule an interview."

What they do say is:
We're not waiting for the Today Show to ask for your book. We're donating it to them. And we will let your local newspaper, radio, or TV know that your book is being submitted to the NBC Today Show. So they can put the spotlight on you as a local author.
They play up the vanity of the authors by informing them that the local media will be informed of this "donation" so they can put the spotlight on the local author.

Will PA actually send a press release to the local media? I would say yes, so they aren't committing any fraud. But that release will likely be simplistic, skimpy, and be ignored.
 

kaitie

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My guess would be that PA is indeed sending books to these venues, as promised. (But so far, nobody has said who is paying shipping. Could be PA, shipping them at media mail rate and absorbing the cost.)

The powers that be at PA aren't dumb. They know the books will never reach their intended targets. They know that gatekeepers are in place who will prevent Oprah or Al Roker or even Tom Hanks from receiving those books. But they also know their authors don't know this.

Take a look at the recent letter, compare it to the rest of the pitch letters. Nowhere inside does it read: "Your shipment of books will also include an author's bio [or "media kit" as a real publisher might say] and complete contact information if/when the staff at the Today Show want to reach you to schedule an interview."

What they do say is: They play up the vanity of the authors by informing them that the local media will be informed of this "donation" so they can put the spotlight on the local author.

Will PA actually send a press release to the local media? I would say yes, so they aren't committing any fraud. But that release will likely be simplistic, skimpy, and be ignored.

You're also talking about a company that seems to have an awful lot of accusations out there that they aren't paying royalties, who is clearly incredibly backed up on sending author's copies, etc. They're unreliable at best and sleazy at worst--and I think sleazy takes the cake. If it's true that they're withholding royalties or misrepresenting copies sold (which wouldn't surprise me and there's no way at all to hold them accountable), I see absolutely no reason why they wouldn't stoop so low as to have a deal like this and not send the copies. That's the thing--it's all good as long as we don't get caught (goodness I feel like I'm discussing the levels of morality here). When it comes to something like this, there appears to be no way whatsoever to determine if they actually were sent, so it's impossible to tell. I've got my money on the they're just pocketing it side, though.

I seriously wish there was a way to tell with this. I don't know what it would take, though, and I imagine it would be nearly impossible. Actually, I could think of a way that could probably work, but it would be difficult to arrange because it would have to be done offline, so to speak. I'm just waiting for the day to sit back and watch these guys burn, and I have no doubt that they will. Darn, I hate when I get a really good idea with no real clear way to implement it lol.
 

DaveKuzminski

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Of course there are ways. Demand that PA provide a copy of the receipt for sending the books to the other party. After all, PA can't claim a tax deduction on business expenses if they can't prove they actually paid those expenses. Then make sure the receipt is for the proper time and place. Don't just accept a receipt that's for anytime before the books were ordered. After all, PA isn't clairvoyant.
 

bhall87

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When I first signed with PA, they didn't send out weekly emails, maybe every two weeks and I remember for awhile it was one a month. It makes me think that things aren't going well over there. Fewer people are buying their own books because of the economy so maybe the PA coffers are a little bare.

I know that sounds odd but look at other legitimate businesses before the end comes--they act like everything is OK, they may do weird things in order to save or obtain more money, everything is on a "need-to-know" basis (which explains why InfoCenter is being more vigilant on what people post) and the head guy is bailing ship (Willem is still leaving right?).

Another explanation may be Willem, if he is still leaving, just plain wanting more money. Either reason fits PA style so it'll be interesting to see what 2010 holds for PA.
 

kaitie

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Of course there are ways. Demand that PA provide a copy of the receipt for sending the books to the other party. After all, PA can't claim a tax deduction on business expenses if they can't prove they actually paid those expenses. Then make sure the receipt is for the proper time and place. Don't just accept a receipt that's for anytime before the books were ordered. After all, PA isn't clairvoyant.

But how does this work? I mean, my dad makes receipts for people by writing them into a copyable ledger. He could in theory write whatever he wants on there and it would count as a receipt whether he did it or not. The difference in his case is that the customer knows for a fact the work was done because they are able to see and inspect it first. For me it seems like something easy enough to just write out and give to the author without the work. I think you'd need some way to prove that it was actually received at the destination (or it might be "lost in the mail"), which is what I think would be hard to find.
 

Gillhoughly

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they may do weird things in order to save or obtain more money, everything is on a "need-to-know" basis (which explains why InfoCenter is being more vigilant on what people post)

The InfoCenter has always been vigilant. It is nothing new. The AW boards have tons of posts from former PA writers complaining about their treatment there.

ANY question PA doesn't want to answer gets deleted or shuffled off to the "bad hair day" thread to make it seem trivial. The poster is often banned from the boards.

This is the person in charge of that area. She lurks here on AW, so be careful what you post. Don't put up anything you think she should not know--like clues to your ID at PA.

PA has had an (unfortunately) successful run for the last ten years, making tons of money for itself, not its victims. If PA is going out of business, I would be delighted, but so long as there is a single buck to be stripped from inexperienced writers, I think the shameful operation will continue.

You might find these posts from ex-employees to be enlightening about what goes on there.

Welcome to AW. I hope you'll keep coming back! :)
 

spike

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But how does this work? I mean, my dad makes receipts for people by writing them into a copyable ledger. He could in theory write whatever he wants on there and it would count as a receipt whether he did it or not. The difference in his case is that the customer knows for a fact the work was done because they are able to see and inspect it first. For me it seems like something easy enough to just write out and give to the author without the work. I think you'd need some way to prove that it was actually received at the destination (or it might be "lost in the mail"), which is what I think would be hard to find.

A shipping receipt from USPS or UPS or whoever would work.