The New Never-Ending PublishAmerica Thread (NEPAT)

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brianm

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And what's 10,000? The number of books they'll put the ad in?

Excellent question. They could be holding one auction for ad placement in 10,000 books or 10,000 different auctions. If it's the latter and PA authors pull out their credit cards, PA could make a whole mess of money off their vanity published customers.
 

brianm

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I just got an Email from PA. Well I guess all of their hapy authors did. It was about an auction to advertise your book in the back of the better selling books. 10,000 so they say.
I answered with the offer of 1.00 symbolic dollar. Do you think I'll win?

Shadowman, would you be so kind as to post a copy of the email?

Additionally, did any other AW members who still receive emails from PA get this email? Rose?
 

BenPanced

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I just got an Email from PA. Well I guess all of their hapy authors did. It was about an auction to advertise your book in the back of the better selling books. 10,000 so they say.
I answered with the offer of 1.00 symbolic dollar. Do you think I'll win?

Pardon me while I search for my jaw. It dropped to the floor and rolled away.
Owch. Dash mind.
 

Christine N.

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Just want to point out that my publisher puts ads for some of their other YA titles into the backs of my books. Along with excerpts and titles of my other books with that publisher.

And my excerpts and titles (otherwise known as ads) go into the back of other author's books. I don't pay for it. It just happens. (well, the editors do it...you know what I mean)
 

Marian Perera

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I've been keeping an eye on the PAMB for anything about this auction, but that board's pretty dead; the authors still posting there seem properly cowed and most new threads only praise God or PA now. There's a new post on the Author Society board asking anyone who received such an email to confirm it.
 

smsarber

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Wouldn't it be a great twist of fate for a nice fat ol' meteor to crash right into Miranda's office. Or into their printing presses. Or a large viral bug worming its way through their computer's main frame??
Just doing some wishful prayin', lol!!!:D
 

Mystic

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the authors still posting there seem properly cowed and most new threads only praise God or PA now.

Are they allowed to praise God? I got a post deleted once for quoting a scripture. Later the Info. guy mentioned that the spiritual thread could only be used to discuss spiritual writing.

I guess that means that you are only allowed to praise PA.
 

Shadowman

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Heres the Email everybody.


Dear Author,

Now auctioning: Your book advertised in someone else's book!

After running tests in the past few weeks, PublishAmerica is now including advertising space in the back of selected titles, typically the last page of the book.

Our full-page ads include pictures of the book cover and the author, a brief cover text, and an author bio. To see samples, go here: www.publishamerica.com/bookads. Watch a discussion about this advertising here: http://bb.publishamerica.com/viewtopic.php?t=27858.

You may now bid on being the next author whose book will be advertised in 10,000 other books that will be seen by readers all over the country. Titles are selected based on immediate demand and may include all genres.

How much do you want to spend on securing a full page in ten thousand books? Please respond to this email with the dollar amount of your bid, together with your book title. You may also call us at 301 695 1707.

Bidding ends this Thursday morning at noon EST, Sept 18. The highest bid wins.

Books will begin printing and shipping in the week of September 22. Ad will appear in books printed inhouse by PublishAmerica only. All bidders will be contacted.

Enjoy the auction!
PublishAmerica Author Support Team
 

Marian Perera

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Thanks very much for posting this, Shadowman.

PA said:
Watch a discussion about this advertising here: http://bb.publishamerica.com/viewtopic.php?t=27858.

The discussion says nothing about the auction, and the two authors who seem at all positive about this are just happy that there will be advertising for their book(s). I wonder how they feel, knowing they'll have to bid for it.

But at least they didn't pay to be published.
 

Shadowman

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Unfortunely after telling you all what my response was and showing this Email. They now know who Shadowman is. Hello, PA.
 

brianm

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Heres the Email everybody.


Dear Author,

Now auctioning: Your book advertised in someone else's book!

After running tests in the past few weeks, PublishAmerica is now including advertising space in the back of selected titles, typically the last page of the book.

Our full-page ads include pictures of the book cover and the author, a brief cover text, and an author bio. To see samples, go here: www.publishamerica.com/bookads. Watch a discussion about this advertising here: http://bb.publishamerica.com/viewtopic.php?t=27858.

You may now bid on being the next author whose book will be advertised in 10,000 other books that will be seen by readers all over the country. Titles are selected based on immediate demand and may include all genres.

How much do you want to spend on securing a full page in ten thousand books? Please respond to this email with the dollar amount of your bid, together with your book title. You may also call us at 301 695 1707.

Bidding ends this Thursday morning at noon EST, Sept 18. The highest bid wins.

Books will begin printing and shipping in the week of September 22. Ad will appear in books printed inhouse by PublishAmerica only. All bidders will be contacted.

Enjoy the auction!
PublishAmerica Author Support Team


Gobsmacked.


(Thank you for posting the email, Shadowman. :))
 

triceretops

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From the time of the auction bids to the time of printed ads = seven days? Am I reading that right? "All bidders will be contacted", which means multiple authors/ads. How many? Five selected authors? Three? PA's own printer is being used for this. Conceivably, it could be a weekly thing if they run it tight and fast, since they always have dozens of books going out the door. Two hundred bucks (high bids) times three authors, times 52 weeks......could they actually be attempting something like this?

Dear Lawd. Scum, trash, pigs.

Gots to keep an eye on this one.

Tri
 

triceretops

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You may now bid on being the next author whose book will be advertised in 10,000 other books that will be seen by readers all over the country. Titles are selected based on immediate demand and may include all genres.

Wait a minute. How in the hell does this not make sense. How can they print ads in 10,000 books within a week's time? Is that the amount of books that PA regulary sells to all of its authors per week?

Tri
 

Marian Perera

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None of it makes sense, tri.

PA Author Advertisement Auction (the other PAAAA) said:
Now auctioning: Your book advertised in someone else's book!

Maybe even Porn Guy's. I'm sure that's a great seller.

After running tests in the past few weeks

What tests and how were they conducted? Did PA employees take down a few books from bookstore shelves, flip to the back and note whether or not these contained blurbs for other books?

PublishAmerica is now including advertising space in the back of selected titles, typically the last page of the book.

Why selected titles? If these books are POD, surely any title that's ordered can be printed up with advertisements in the back.

Our full-page ads include pictures of the book cover and the author, a brief cover text, and an author bio.

The example shows a paperback book of 259 pages that's priced at $27.95. These ads are going to do nothing for the people who pay to have them included (assuming anyone is that gullible and/or desperate).

You may now bid on being the next author whose book will be advertised in 10,000 other books that will be seen by readers all over the country.

How are these books going to be seen by readers all over the country? Will the Hellocopter scatter copies, like a lunatic version of a Skittles commercial?

Titles are selected based on immediate demand...

So the books which will contain the ads are the ones with "immediate demand", meaning the author will have ordered a case or two?

How much do you want to spend on securing a full page in ten thousand books?

How can the lucky bidder ensure that this ad really does run in ten thousand books?

The highest bid wins... All bidders will be contacted.

Personally, I think every PA author should send in emailed bids of $0.01. At least that will give the Author Advertisement Auction Team something to do as they contact every bidder.
 

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I'm having nasty flashbacks to the debacle the office manager at the nightmare of a temp job I had last summer made out of a "simple" sealed-bid auction for four used company trucks. Talk about how not to run an auction. To do it right you have one method and one method only for submitting bids - email, snail mail, homing pigeon, whatever. You make darn sure that in the case of written bids, you time and date-stamp everything, keep a custody log of who had possession of that envelope from the moment it was handed off to a manager until it was given to the appropriate person for safekeeping and you specify at exactly what time on what date and by who those bids will be unsealed, and who will act as a witness to the unsealing....

If you don't want to find yourself in the hot seat about an alleged rigged bid to snag yourself the only truck that actually still ran, that is....

ETA - Sorry I got a little off-topic there. But I'd be asking some serious questions about who's going to be running this auction and how...
 
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Christine N.

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This is absolutely blatant vanity-ism. Dick had the good sense to tell people that it's common practice in paperback books. For other publishers.

PA authors -this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I HAVE paid for advertising - but I'll tell you that it was with a group of other genre authors for a 2 page full color spread in a glossy genre magazine. It was fairly inexpensive, and will be viewed by thousands of people likely to like and/or purchase my book.

What PA is proposing is done FOR FREE by most other publishers. As I indicated previously, my publisher already does this, and I DON'T PAY FOR IT. Why? Because those publishers want readers to buy other books from them. Think, for a moment, why PA is asking you for MONEY to do what other publishers do FOR FREE???? How many people will POSSIBLY see the ad? Considering how many copies the average PA book sells, way fewer than my genre mag ad. Ask yourself how much you think that space at the back of the book is worth, in a PA book that very few people will read. They may PRINT the ad in 10,000 books, but I would like to know how many of that 10,000 actually find their way into reader's hands.

Save your money, get together with other PA authors, and buy an ad in a magazine, if you really want print advertising. You'll reach more people that you don't know.
 
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James D. Macdonald

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Titles are selected based on immediate demand and may include all genres.

In real publishing, titles that are advertised in the back of other books are selected by genre -- if you like this book, you'll like this other book.

It doesn't make much sense advertising a romance in the back of a western.

Not that anyone is going to buy your book based on the ad anyway. Is this book with your ad going to be sold to your Aunt Jenny? Why is someone else's Aunt Sue going to plunk down $30 bucks to read your 200-page novel?

This is astounding.

Hey, PA authors! You can bid on a chance to have me write the name of your book on a sidewalk near my house with chalk!
 

Christine N.

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Well, yeah, sure. Samhain doesn't advertise erotic romances in the back of my YA fantasy. That'd be kind of a tough sell, parents might get mad. Or not, who knows :D?

Likewise, I don't think my YA fantasy is advertised in the back of a gay/lesbian romance either. They kind of stick to the same genre.

This whole thing in completely insane, and I think PA has just jumped right over to the vanity side and they're not even trying to hide it anymore.
 

roncouch

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I'm hurt - deeply. :) PA has not contacted me about the auction or whatever it is. Perhaps they will not contact a "published author" who have been banned. Did they hire a manic marketing director?
Ron
 

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Now that PA has claimed to have been testing this idea for weeks, they can't blame the idea on me. By the way, PA, wait until all the gotchas start to emerge. You think you have problems now, you should remember that an auction may be regulated by state or federal laws. Hope you checked those out carefully.
 
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