Second half of letter to terminate PublishAMerica
Second half of the letter to terminate Brian Hill's and
Dee Power's contact with PublishAMerica and their responses.
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Our bullet point
The retail price you put on the book, $21.95 is at last 25%
above market price for trade paperback books, which was another
barrier for us to overcome in trying to market Overtime. We
told you several times that it would be impossible to sell the
book at any price above $19.95 but we were ignored.
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PublishAmerica’s response
- On price: Your question may be answered in this detailed
discussion of this issue, and the info below:
www.publishamerica.com/cg...n/6842.htm
Contrary to what you may have been told, bookstores will
generally carry a book that they think will sell, regardless
of price, whether it is returnable or not, and whether it is
printed on digital or offset presses. You may have found a
number of books that are less expensive than yours will be,
but we have found a large number of similar books that are
more expensive.
We know that our pricing is not deterring sales. We have
found that pricing is simply not nearly the significant issue
that some may think it is. Remember too, that we are just as
eager to sell books as you are, and would do things
differently if we thought it appropriate.
In the past two years we have sold more than a quarter of a
million books, which stands in contrast to any allegation
that our books are not competitively priced and/or supplied.
All of our books are so-called "trade paperbacks", with most
of them 6 inches by 9 inches in size. Trade paperbacks are
what you find in your local bookstore. There is another type
of book called "mass paperback". The size of these is
considerably smaller, their paper quality is much cheaper,
and they are mostly available in supermarkets and convenience
stores.
They are often priced in the $6 to $9 range, and are mostly
the books to which you are comparing yours. In our industry,
comparing trade paperbacks with mass paperbacks is like
comparing apples and oranges. The cheaper mass paperbacks
sell significantly less, statistically, than the more expensive
trade paperbacks. In fact, the rate of unsold copies that go
back to the publisher for destruction is three times higher
than the rate for the higher priced trade paperbacks.
#############################################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
The link below was deleted by PublishAmerica and no longer works
www.publishamerica.com/cg...n/6842.htm
In the first part of their response they say they are close to
selling their millionth book, here they say they have sold
250,000 copies in the last two years. That’s a huge
difference.
PA says: “Contrary to what you may have been told, bookstores
will generally carry a book that they think will sell,
regardless of price, whether it is returnable or not, and
whether it is printed on digital or offset presses.”
######################################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
The bookstores are the ones who told us they won’t carry a
book that’s overpriced or non returnable.
PA says: “You may have found a number of books that are less
expensive than yours will be, but we have found a large
number of similar books that are more expensive.”
Notice PA says “will be” the book under discussion has already
been published.
PA says: “All of our books are so-called "trade paperbacks",
with most of them 6 inches by 9 inches in size. Trade paperbacks
are what you find in your local bookstore. There is another type
of book called "mass paperback". The size of these is
considerably smaller, their paper quality is much cheaper,
and they are mostly available in supermarkets and convenience
stores.”
Obviously PA hasn’t been inside a bookstore lately. Mass market
books far outnumber trade paperbacks. And of course the paper
is cheaper the price is around $7.00 to $8.00. Trade paperback
is not the favored format for fiction, mass market is.
PA says: “They are often priced in the $6 to $9 range, and are
mostly the books to which you are comparing yours.
In our discussions with PA we specifically said trade paperback.
PA says: In our industry, comparing trade paperbacks with mass
paperbacks is like comparing apples and oranges. The cheaper mass
paperbacks sell significantly less, statistically, than the more
expensive trade paperbacks. In fact, the rate of unsold copies
that go back to the publisher for destruction is three times
higher than the rate for the higher priced trade paperbacks.”
I don’t know where they get the statistics that mass paperbacks
sell significantly less than trade paperback I can’t find it
anywhere. I believe it’s the opposite, there are quite a few
more mass market books printed than trade. I also have no idea
where the three times higher statement comes from. However it
may just be a factor that so many more titles are published in
mass market format
than trade.
##########################################
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Our bullet point
To be effective, a media/PR campaign for a book release must
begin at least 6 months before the book is available. We
repeatedly asked what the release date was, and were never
given a firm date.
PublishAmerica’s response
THEY NEVER ADDRESSED OUR POINT.
- Media/PR campaign:
As for marketing, virtually no day goes by without
PublishAmerica being in the news. Among the celebrities that
have recently been congratulating PublishAmerica an its
authors are First Lady Laura Bush and Second Lady
Lynne Cheney. An increasing number of our authors have
recently been or will soon be on national TV, including
celebrity actor Jamie Farr who will promote his new book
on the Hollywood Squares show next month.
########################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
Jamie Farr’s book has been out for over a year.
########################
A year or so ago, Writer's Digest did a detailed study of
a publishing contract that was almost identical to ours,
and gave it a clean bill of health. Our contract terms are
very much standard for the publishing industry.
PublishAmerica is operating under the watchful eyes of
highly credible industry authorities such as the National
Writers Union, an AFL/CIO affiliate who states that ours
"is not at all a bad contract", and Christian author
advocate Sally Stuart who recently told a writer, "you
should be OK working with this company." Such verdicts,
plus the sheer numbers of our results, speak for themselves.
#########################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
Publish America has a very nonstandard contract
##########################
PublishAmerica continues to grow faster than any other
traditional publisher, and today we are apparently the most
popular publisher among new authors. More than 50 new authors
contact us every day, hoping to join you as a PublishAmerica
author. That's more than 12,000 hopefuls per year. At
least 80 percent of them never make it to the "published
author" status, because they don't pass our acquisitions
process, but that does not seem to discourage anyone from
submitting their work to us in ever growing, and frankly
astonishing, numbers. We read every single submission before
we accept or refuse.
########################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
PublishAmerica is NOT a traditional publisher. And how do they
measure growth, it’s certainly not in total sales. It can only
be in number of titles.
#######################
Our operations are expanding. Last month we opened a third
office, we are hiring more staff, and we are sending out
an average 10-15 press releases about our new titles and
authors every day.
Many of our titles receive more marketing attention than
their counterparts published by the largest publishing houses.
###########################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
This is a lie. PublishAmerica only marketing effort is to send
out a shoddy looking flyer to a list of the author’s friends
and family. The flyer doesn’t even have the cover of the book
on it.
And notice they didn’t say they provide more marketing than
the largest houses but that many of their titles receive more
marketing attention. That attention is from the authors
themselves not by PublishAmerica.
##################################
Over 1000 PublishAmerica authors each year ask us to accept
their 2nd, 3rd, or 4th manuscripts. By any standard, this
is an amazingly high number of return authors, unseen in
the rest of the industry. Our marketing efforts are partially
responsible for this.
For celebrity endorsements and other media attention, see:
www.publishamerica.com/upinlights.htm
PublishAmerica sends marketing information for each title to
RR. Bowker's Books In Print, Ingram, Baker & Taylor, The
Brodart Company, Barnes & Noble.com, Barnes & Noble, and
Amazon.com. This marketing information is distributed to each
and every book retailer and library across the country,
and is typically made available to review editors of most
major newspapers and magazines.
#######################################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
This is not marketing information, it’s the book’s description
for Bowker’s books in print. PA phrases this to sound like they
send out press releases for their books to review editors.
They don’t. It also sounds like they distribute the “marketing
information” to book retailers and libraries. They don’t.
##########################
In addition, PublishAmerica creates and sends a direct mail
letter with book and news release marketing information, which
is sent to individuals and businesses across the US, including
magazines and newspapers. These efforts have helped to generate
hundreds and hundreds of feature articles and/or reviews about
our authors and their books, some of which are posted on our
web site.
###############################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
PA sends out one press release when the author signs the
contract to one newspaper in the author’s home city. Any
other promotional efforts are from the authors.
###############################
Also, PublishAmerica sends thousands of complete books,
gratis, for review to magazines, newspapers, television, and
radio programs
##################################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
PA sends out two, count them, two review copies, any other
copies are provided by the author.
##################################
PublishAmerica routinely attends industry events with book
copies, professional cover displays, company literature, and
real time book ordering opportunities from the web. We also
conduct workshops, lectures, and discussion groups at these
events.
####################################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
They do NOT attend BookExpo America. And if you look on the
website the last trade show they attended was in 2002. They
put on a PA authors convention twice a year.
################################
Also, PublishAmerica is growing internationally. Several
PublishAmerica titles are under contract by publishers as far
way as Korea and China. These works have been translated into
those languages and are for sale in those countries. Imagine
having two versions of your book on your coffee table:
English and Chinese!
As part of PublishAmerica's recent alliance with the British
branch of Ingram, in the United Kingdom, PublishAmerica's
books are now available from the best European distribution
channels; through all major European bookstores, to more
than 200 million European readers in the following
countries:
England, Spain, Scotland, Ireland, Norway
Germany, Holland, Finland, Denmark, Belgium,
Sweden
And finally, in the expansion department, we are happy to
announce the birth of two new daughter publishing companies
in Europe. PUBLISHBRITANNICA will serve new authors in
Britain, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, while PUBLISHICELANDICA
will open its doors shortly for Icelandic authors, with
an eye towards possible further expansion into Scandinavia.
Later this year we are taking the majority of our staff, and
some of our authors, to Iceland to celebrate!
#######################################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
None of this promotes their books, all of it is to generate
new author inquiries. Traditional publishers have all the
submissions they can handle, when they advertise, they advertise
their titles.
#######################################
We promote each book to virtually every vendor from sea to
shining sea, and go to great lengths, and expense, to ensure
that everyone in the industry knows about it. Consequently,
your book is available through each and every bookstore in
the country, and all those bookstores have all pertinent
information at their fingertips.
##################################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
They don’t promote any of their books. The information the
bookstores have is in the computer databases of Ingram.
Bookstores, chains and independents order books through the
publisher’s catalog and through visits by the publisher’s
sales reps. PublishAmerica has no catalog and no sales reps.
The chains have buyers at the corporate headquarters
and they make the decision which books to order, the local
manager can order a book for a customer, but any other orders
have to be approved by the buyers.
Notice also how they say, “your book is available through each
and every bookstore in the country.” What they mean is your book
could be ordered in the bookstore, not that it is stocked. Some
bookstores won’t even order a PA book.
#####################################
We are also nominating our best books for awards, including
the Pulitzer prize, and we have negotiated a special promotion
deal with all Barnes & Noble bookstores. Barnes & Noble could
select your title to be added to their InPrint section,
virtually guaranteeing it 48-hour availability in all of their
stores.
###################################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
Pulitzer prize? That’s a joke. And notice how it’s Barnes and
Noble *could* select your title. No guarantees there virtual
or otherwise.
###################################
We have launched a showcase website for all of our authors,
called PublishedAuthors.net. It gives individual web pages to
each and every author, highlighting them and their books.
The content of these pages are edited by the author
individually, and password protected. Not only that,
but it will also gives every author their own e-mail address,
@publishedauthors.net. This innovative new service will be
free, of course, as you have come to expect from
PublishAmerica.
Thousands, each and every month, of PublishAmerica books are
sold in bookstores across the nation. Bookstores buy books
from us each and every day. Barnes and Noble has quadrupled
the number of books they order from PublishAmerica during
the past year, as can be seen by all the stories and
reports from authors whose books are stocked. The
PublishAmerica message board is overflowing with
testimonials from our authors about their books being
stocked in bookstores. Hundreds of bookstores across the
nation stock our books.
PublishAmerica is stronger than ever. Some time ago, we
partnered with Ingram, the world's largest book distributor,
and, separately, with Barnes & Noble, the nation's prime
bookstore chain. This means that your book will not only be
available through all American bookstores, but through
bookstores in a dozen European countries as well.
PublishAmerica is a traditional, advance and royalty paying
publisher, sharing printing facilities with Random House,
Simon and Schuster, McGraw-Hill, etc.
Over 1000 PublishAmerica authors each year ask us to accept
their 2nd, 3rd, or 4th manuscripts. By any standard, this
is an amazingly high number of return authors, unseen in
the rest of the industry.
#########################################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
This is just propaganda, half truths, and sleaze weasel words.
I was going to delete it but thought it might be of interest.
Also notice how a good 50% of their response to our demand to
terminate the contract was a canned format about how wonderful
PA is.
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For those of you interested in the ongoing saga. Our attorney contacted them shortly after we received this letter. And we are not very patiently waiting for the battle to begin.
Oh – it’s not our nightmare – it’s PublishAmerica’s
Dee Power
www.BrianHillAndDeePower.com
