The New Never-Ending PublishAmerica Thread (NEPAT)

Jersey Chick said:

Where's Eliot Ness when you need him?

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Where's Al Capone when you need him?

Actually, wasn't it Charles Martin Smith who played the accountant in the movie The Untouchables? He's the guy we need!

Ya know, what PublishAmerica really needs is a documentary. A writer gets a book "published" with them, then sets out on a road trip with some random friend(s) to visit every bookstore in America to get them to stock his/her book. They try everything: beg for signings, hide books on shelves, make lollipop trees, etc. It would be like Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.

Yeah, that's what we need. Who has 10,000 random words of writing, or should we all contribute poems?

kullervo said:

Ya know, what PublishAmerica really needs is a documentary. A writer gets a book "published" with them, then sets out on a road trip with some random friend(s) to visit every bookstore in America to get them to stock his/her book. They try everything: beg for signings, hide books on shelves, make lollipop trees, etc. It would be like Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.

Yeah, that's what we need. Who has 10,000 random words of writing, or should we all contribute poems?

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Yeah, the documentary would be called "How to Upset A Goliath Book Biz...By Showing Up In Bookstores."


As for writing or poems, we can submit the poems to poetry.com and get a "Special Coffee Table Edition for just 69.95!"


On another note, I wonder if any of PA's employees have submitted books for publication.

I can actually visualize that road trip and waiting for someone to suggest such on the marketing thread.

kullervo said:

Ya know, what PublishAmerica really needs is a documentary. A writer gets a book "published" with them, then sets out on a road trip with some random friend(s) to visit every bookstore in America to get them to stock his/her book. They try everything. . . .Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.

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How about The Canter-Booky Tales?A group of PA authors, figuring there is strength in numbers, pool their remaining money and hire an old bus (the back of which they fill with boxes of books) and set off in search of a bookstore that will give them shelf space and a signing). Along the way (while constructing the lollipop trees and making bookmarks), each tells a tale of woe concerning his/her publishing experience. They do roadside signings whenever the bus breaks down (the bus breaking down is a metaphor for PA's promises) which is frequent. Each author secretly writes the story of the pilgrimage and bookstore rejections, and upon finally hitching rides home, all submit their stories to PA on the same day.

Or something.

That'd be like a somewhat warped version of The Partridge Family

callalily61 said:

Hello, world, there's a book that we're writing:
C'mon get published!

And of course, I can't remember any more of the Partridge Family theme song...

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Oh...the horror! You made me drop my POPCORN with that one!It will be okay....
It will be okay....

Find a happy place, Jimmy. Find a happy place

Jersey Chick said:

Find a happy place, Jimmy. Find a happy place

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Yes...must find a happy place. A field of POPCORN a hundred miles wide and long...ahhhhhh! I found my happy place.

Good Morning to the never ending thread that saved my sanity.... Brief intro: I am published author, no wait thats a lie- what I am is a victim of my own ego. If you go to buy.com I am a bestseller! 'THE PRICE FOR PARADISE' by: Naneva..... Yet my first royalty check was for four, count them four books! I can account for three times that with just my immediate family who have been reading my stories since I was a child and all wonder what the hell happened to my grammer? The printed book is several pages longer than the original manuscript and there were errors added to a very wordy book that needed editing horribly. I have been humbled by this experience but I am far from beaten. I wrote on this storyline for 17 years- several thousand words and a total of four books, 3 novels and a book of short stories. It is a book about weather and the destruction of our world and at this point- it's coming true before the worlds' eyes.
Do I hold a grudge against Publish America? Oh you bet I do and as a Registered Nurse I spend my private moments imagining the horrific things we could test them all for. Do you suppose there is a physical reason behind their limitless need to screw over everyone they encounter? I am sure there are some probes, painful probes to test for this. I am considering legal action, I am considering having another good cry. I am not a child but yet I feel I have been invited to a playground grudge match. Truth is in short supply at Publish America and I for one would not want the amount of bad energy I am feeling heading my way... just try and guess where I am sending all my not so good wishes? Gotta get that route down pat so my attorney will have no trouble finding the backside of these crooks.
Ok I have vented and I managed to do it without crying. It is really admirable considering how I feel inside. I am sooooo glad I don't live in Maryland, I do not trust myself right now to be nice and I will need some time to be able to be professional in dealing with these people. I would like nothing more than to black a couple of eyes.... ok several eyes.
I could go through the whole morbid tale but I have read the PA thread and my story is not a new one. I have read it over and over again now. I am comforted to find this forum and I hope to win the custody battle I am beginning today to get the custody of my child back. Soooooo should my first e-mail to PA be nice or nasty?
I never bought into the message board on PA, always felt I was too busy but I have managed to catch some disgruntled authors before their posts were deleted; I so hoped I was wrong about the things.
Everything happens for a reason and perhaps playing with me will be a turning point for the souless rats at PA. I am done now and stone cold in my intentions.
I bet the folks at PA pray daily to live forever.... answering for their sins would guarantee a seat inside the pit don't you think?

I was thinking my next book for PA to publish should be about the journey to their door and the rape that followed... I bet if the first couple of pages were 'nice' they would publish it too. No one reads anything there and their editors are non-existant- totally.

All of your correspondence to them should be polite, and keep copies of any you send and their responses.

Marie

Yeah, instead of saying outright that they suck, just point out they put gravity to shame.

Greetings, SkyeSurfer! Welcome to a safer place than ever PA shall be. You are with friends.

Now, while we plan chest tubes and spinal taps and dislocation reductions for the principals over at PA, you need to think about getting your book out of there. Many folks here have accomplished this, and what you need to do is speak PA's language: $.

Write to them in a calm and businesslike manner (this might take a bit of Ativan or at least a couple of drinks). Tell them you have ceased all marketing of your book, told your friends and family not to buy them, and will buy no more books yourself. Then say you want all your rights returned to you.

If you get mad, they get snotty and refuse. Make it purely about $$$ and they might give your book back.

Failing that, start posting here and elsewhere with your real name. Tell people what PA is really about. Spread the word. They have been known to drop people at that point PDQ.

We all hope you'll stick around. It sounds like you have a great book that could be rewritten and resubmitted to good agents and publishers. This is a detour in the road, yes, but it doesn't have to be a roadblock.

kullervo said:

. . . what you need to do is speak PA's language: $. . . .

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That is every business's language.

Be that as it may, much as folks here hate to hear this, one way to get the contract terminated with a minimum of delay or angst is to write a businesslike letter offering payment in exchange for termination. Calculations suggest that PA banks on an average net of a few hundred dollars per title, so an offer in that range should be adequate, and I have seen a case where it was adequate and resulted in prompt, cordial end of the contract.

No need to offer the usual denunciations of what I'm describing. I'm merely making a factual statement.

--Ken

Hello SkyeSurfer, and welcome to AW!This is a wonderful place to grow and learn as a writer. Please check it out and see what it has to offer. And remember that if you ever need POPCORN I am the one to come see! Have a fresh bag on me from the secret stash that I have hidden around here. Here you go.Enjoy!

ResearchGuy said:

That is every business's language.

Be that as it may, much as folks here hate to hear this, one way to get the contract terminated with a minimum of delay or angst is to write a businesslike letter offering payment in exchange for termination. Calculations suggest that PA banks on an average net of a few hundred dollars per title, so an offer in that range should be adequate, and I have seen a case where it was adequate and resulted in prompt, cordial end of the contract.

No need to offer the usual denunciations of what I'm describing. I'm merely making a factual statement.

--Ken

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PA tried this tactic once before. I sincerely believe this is the wrong path to take because it would only encourage PA to never release any author's manuscript unless they're paid to do so. This is not how you deal with businesses that fail to operate according to the spirit of their contracts. You do not reward them.

On top of this, Ken, many of these authors are poor as you should already know or suspect. Why else would many of them be attracted to a publisher that doesn't charge? Encouraging payoffs is wrong, wrong, wrong.

This applies to Kullervo as well. It's wrong to suggest paying off PA or any other publisher that behaves poorly.

I Love you guys all ready. Thank You. I wrote PA this, maybe not as nice as I should have been but all I could muster sober:

I received my first royalty check and believe that the demand for my book was very over estimated by me. I am sure glad I saw this before submitting the other three books in the Paradise series! According to the count of my family- your count is wrong, but hey what do they know they are just relatives right?
You guys said you thought my book was good and I wonder if any one actually read it?
My local mall has attempted to purchase books three times and cannot get them.
My mother-in-law which has read the printed book only because I mailed her one, has yet to receive the book that she purchased by check, in August of 2007.
I had to call you about two other orders- which oddly enough were 4 books.
The book is full of errors and many had been painstakingly corrected by me- I have the files still in my computer. The printed book does not reflect most of these changes.
I am done with you Publish America and I hope you are done with me- give me my manuscript back and I will walk away OR I will gladly join the ranks of many who quite publicly trash your name and are finding legal counsel to continue to do so.
I am not young and I do not have good health- you have made several hundred dollars off of me and my stupidity, give my manuscript back and I will allow all to end with that. Make me go further in this and I will do just that- even if my children have to continue the fight after I die. I would not wish my daughter the marine, on anyone except perhaps people like you that feed and prosper on the backs of other peoples' dreams.


Naneva W. Craun-Wuest RN

That is my real legal name, and I have never done much in my life quietly. I want custody of my kid back here- bottom line. I didn't tell them I also have an editor that I paid to edit my manuscript that has files of what should have been printed. They printed the initial submission.... GAWD
At fifty I am way past the play nice thing- these people need to be stopped. How many lives have they trashed financially? We caught on fast and it still cost a bunch. My husband is awesome but my daughter is calling in favors as I write- she is really mad. Gotta love the girl she believes in Mom's book and knows well the whacky brain that birthed it....
With editing it could be a good book, I know this. If my ego had not been so big perhaps I would have seen it more quickly! Geez..... there I said it THE WHOLE THING IS MY EGO'S FAULT!!!!!

SkyeSurfer said:

. . . has yet to receive the book that she purchased by check, in August of 2007. . . .

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I know of two instances locally of orders by check that were never filled. I have to guess that PA does not want to bother with checks. Credit card orders, fine, but those paid with check appear to go into the trash, judging from the examples I've heard about.

--Ken

No Checks just credit cards and cash please

Funny thing about checks though- big difference between ignoring checks and cashing and ignoring. Canceled checks are legal documents right?

Does the check go into the trash as well? Is it returned? Cashed? Hmm....

Litigation?

Cashed check = legal document.
Anyone know anything about the guy in marion Fl taking PA to litigation? I sure could use a good attorney and happen to also be in Florida..... after a certain point it is about ethics and I am there.