The New Never-Ending PublishAmerica Thread (NEPAT)

triceretops said:

PA is in trouble. That's clear. Between the economy and more and more people wising up about their devious tactics, they've given new meaning to the word "desperation." They're hemorrhaging money at an alarming rate. What's also amazing is the discontent found on new boards popping up that are populated by the PA oldtimers.

At no time in their history has PA thrown so much crap at their authors, in just this past year.

Do we see/smell a major collapse?

Or how could it possibly get any worse than this?

Tri

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I am so with you on this one. I feel almost evil at the thought of their demise at their own hands. This recession has been ruff on a lot of good people I know, but for once, I am glad for it if it means the demise of Publish America! What a great last minute Christmas gift this would be!

I wonder if they'll end up here:

http://www.cirobe.com/

PA started running themselves over when they increased already inflated book prices. Then the constant, "buy your own books" emails offering bigger discounts with inflated shipping prices. Many PA authors have seen right through the "deals" and haven't purchased. I image that others who might have taken the offers and purchased books, haven't had the money to spend on anything other than what is necessary to survive. Others are saving whatever they have extra in case the entire bottom falls out of the economy. Business is down everywhere, not just for PA. Between lawsuits, and the economy they are hurting for money. That's obvious from all of the recent sales pitches. Now they are making an offer to let authors return books with a restock fee, and calling it a trial and error thing. Getting desperate PA?

merrihiatt said:

Then they could charge for creating covers.

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Some authors like to supply their own cover art, either what they've drawn or designed themselves or photographs. PA could request that all authors provide this, perhaps framing it in a positive way as in "Author controls all aspects of the cover. We'll feature YOUR ART, not something generic painted by someone else like other publishers do!" And if the author can't supply this, then they could pay a small cover art fee.

That might cover the costs of subscription or registration with a stock images site.

I wonder how many of the "returnable" books will be "lost" or "damaged" in shipment back to PA? Or if the checks will be "lost in the mail." Or maybe the authors won't get actual checks*, just a credit for future shipments? Will PA hire an extra person to be in charge of the returns? After all, rumor has it that sometimes the record keeping for royalties are . . . well, you know.

Disclaimer: I have no basis for assuming that any or all of the above conditions might happen. I was just wondering.

*Did PA actually make clear that they would issue checks for the books returned? Or did they just say they'll "accept" returns?

Gosh, if PA accepts the returns, will those then be put into a warehouse as inventory? Should be interesting to see PA do that and then have to pay taxes on the inventory because of the ruling from Thor Power Tools vs. IRS.

Hmmm, maybe PA intends to build a recycling plant so they can recover and reuse the pulp from those books? I wonder how many sales they'll need to make that happen?

merrihiatt said:

Of course, if that happens, they'll have to delete the wording on their website that states they don't charge their authors a penny.

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PA: We don't charge authors a penny!

Author: What's this $10 fee, then?

PA: That isn't a penny, that's 1,000 pennies!

Restocking? They're going to toss those books into a Dumpster in Frederick.

Author buys 30 books at $24.95, 50% discount. PA's income: $374.25 PA's cost: $90

Shipping costs are paid by author, and may be a profit center to PA, since shipping actually costs less than they charge. But let's just say (to keep the example simple), that their shipping charges are honest (Ha!). Cost to PA: $0

So far, PA has a profit of $284.25.

Time passes. Author manages to sell 10 copies, and returns 20. Author pays shipping; cost to PA, $0. PA refunds $249.50 but charges "restocking fee" of $49.90. Profit to PA $84.65, but note that they get to keep the entire $284.25 in their bank account, earning interest for them, for up to six months (assuming that their record keeping is up to tracking the payments owed to the authors, and assuming that they don't decide to end the "experiment" in August, two weeks before royalties are figured, so Sorry, Charlie, No Refunds After All).

The returned books get send to the Frederick Landfill (if anyone orders a copy of that title later on, they'll just print up a new one and charge full price).

In effect, PA has sold 10 books that they wouldn't otherwise have sold, and gotten a substantial chunk of change to earn interest (or cover the February royalties--we've gotten used to PA pulling some bizarre fund-raising scheme just before royalties are supposed to be posted).

PA is betting that few of their authors will be able to part with their "babies," anyway.

PVish said:

I wonder how many of the "returnable" books will be "lost" or "damaged" in shipment back to PA? Or if the checks will be "lost in the mail." Or maybe the authors won't get actual checks*, just a credit for future shipments? Will PA hire an extra person to be in charge of the returns? After all, rumor has it that sometimes the record keeping for royalties are . . . well, you know.

Disclaimer: I have no basis for assuming that any or all of the above conditions might happen. I was just wondering.

*Did PA actually make clear that they would issue checks for the books returned? Or did they just say they'll "accept" returns?

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I think they said they'd put it in the royalties checks. =/

Has anyone considered the toxic waste runoff that would be produced by a PA books landfill? Sounds like a job for Erin Brokovich.

Afinerosesheis said:

I think they said they'd put it in the royalties checks. =/

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So, if an author isn't entitled to a royalty check, or PA forgets to send one. . . ?

We are pretty much screwed! You know they will find some fault with the books we try to send back, so they have us there. We can’t see in the mail what happens to the books and neither can they, however… They have done nothing but lie cheat and steal so far, so I would be very interested to hear from someone who actually got the full amount back to them in march. They will figure out some bull***t story as to why they can not accept them, then when the author tells them they were delivered to him all curled up and the binding coming off, they will get nasty with said author. I can almost see it already.
Once a scammer always a scammer. As for this “trial run”, whatever.

cynrad22 said:

We are pretty much screwed! You know they will find some fault with the books we try to send back, so they have us there.

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You mean something like the covers curling?

The pages falling out?

Yeah, everyone of mine have curled up. I am not the only one that has had this problem. Some of the glue is comming off of the binding as well. Pretty crappy work if you want my opinion.

The books I got in 06' were actually fairly good quality, both the author copies and the ones I bought. The covers still do not curl. So that tells me they may have started out on the right foot as far as book construction, but sounds like it's different now.

PA Collapse? I'll believe it when I see it.

triceretops said:

PA is in trouble. That's clear. Between the economy and more and more people wising up about their devious tactics, they've given new meaning to the word "desperation." They're hemorrhaging money at an alarming rate. What's also amazing is the discontent found on new boards popping up that are populated by the PA oldtimers.

At no time in their history has PA thrown so much crap at their authors, in just this past year.

Do we see/smell a major collapse?

Or how could it possibly get any worse than this?

Tri

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How I wish this were true, but I'm skeptical. PA is clearly trying to pump up sales--and maybe sales are lagging--but I don't know that it means they are in trouble. Are they laying off any workers? Or cutting back on expenses? Still, I would be delighted if PA went under, since it might mean I would get the rights to my book back.

Don Davidson said:

How I wish this were true, but I'm skeptical. PA is clearly trying to pump up sales--and maybe sales are lagging--but I don't know that it means they are in trouble. Are they laying off any workers? Or cutting back on expenses? Still, I would be delighted if PA went under, since it might mean I would get the rights to my book back.

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It would be nice to see PA finally get a good spanking, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon. There are too many writers out there who are totally uneducated about the publishing industry (as I once was), and who have fresh hopes and dreams of which PA can feed off of.

Don Davidson said:

How I wish this were true, but I'm skeptical. PA is clearly trying to pump up sales--and maybe sales are lagging--but I don't know that it means they are in trouble. Are they laying off any workers? Or cutting back on expenses? Still, I would be delighted if PA went under, since it might mean I would get the rights to my book back.

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Is there a reversion clause in the contract that will return your rights in that event?

Afinerosesheis said:

It would be nice to see PA finally get a good spanking, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon. There are too many writers out there who are totally uneducated about the publishing industry (as I once was), and who have fresh hopes and dreams of which PA can feed off of.

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Still, with things being a little unsure right now with the economy I'm sure those new authors still aren't going to be buying bulk like PA authors once did. People seem to be taking more care about what they spend and where they spend it. Yeah, you make still get those who'll throw a lot of money buying their own books, but I think the people not buying is starting to outweigh those that are. Those few that do buy isn't going to do much if the majority aren't. And we all know the expensive tastes of the Stooges. Eventually things are going to start getting repo'd.

Regarding the unsure state of the economy, one of the PAMB regulars posts a long article, a Drudge report about the state of publishing, to which Frenchie replies:

So to answer your question [name redacted], you will find that most businesses who have survived the storm, whether it is the publishing or Aflacks or any other kinds, are the ones like P.A. who from the beguining had good business acumen and judgement .
And now it would behoove the newbies here who are whining about the cut back at P.A. to think about that and pray our Publisher will survive -- for all of our benefits!

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Cut back at PA? Anyone know the details about that?

Meanwhile, the mind boggles.

Way to win friends and influence people there.

PVish said:

Regarding the unsure state of the economy, one of the PAMB regulars posts a long article, a Drudge report about the state of publishing, to which Frenchie replies:

Cut back at PA? Anyone know the details about that?

Meanwhile, the mind boggles.

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I have heard a rumor from a reliable source that PA did layoff some employees just before Christmas.

I heard they let some people go in December. I don't know how many.

PVish said:

Regarding the unsure state of the economy, one of the PAMB regulars posts a long article, a Drudge report about the state of publishing, to which Frenchie replies:

Cut back at PA? Anyone know the details about that?

Meanwhile, the mind boggles.

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Those two, Frenchie and the OP are two of the meanest, sneakiest souls on the PAMB. They gang up on noobs and as you see in this post, smack them down quickly for saying anything even remotely anti-PA. I had run-ins with them and there came my final banning. Guess I owe them a thank you?

Apparently Rudy isn't concerned about posting a copyrighted article without permission. That ought to make PA look real good to writers who want their own written work protected.