I've been a good boy, I have, and as a result Santa brought my Christmas present early!
From the
To the Bashers That Lurk Here thread:
A PA author posts:
I recently sent a email to PA about the bashing and why they are saying such things,
This is their responce,
And that means it's time for a line-by-line on some Acquisitions Supervisor foolishness! (Is this PODette Michele Omran herself, I wonder?)
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.
In other words, they buy an ISBN. $1.20 is the going rate.
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.
That is, it's listed in Books In Print.
In addition? Wait up! You haven't done anything yet!
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.
Created with a mailmerge program. "[Name of author]'s book will quickly resonate with an audience." Sent when the contract is signed rather than a month before release, and not accompanied by a copy of the book, this is worthless.
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.
Hundreds and hundreds (from thousands and thousands of books), and printedi mostly in small-town newspapers under "Local Man Writes Book" headlines. This is pathetic.
Also, PublishAmerica sends thousands of complete books, gratis, for review to magazines, newspapers, television, and radio programs.
Up to three per author! Only after the book is already out, and only if the reviewer requests the book. We hear over and over again of reviewers who request books that arrive months later, or never get sent at all. Again: Pathetic, and useless. This is just window dressing -- part of the effort to sell authors on sending their manuscripts to PA, rather than PA trying to sell books to the public.
Want proof that it doesn't work? Look at PA's sales figures.
PublishAmerica routinely attends industry events with book copies, professional cover displays, company literature, and real time book ordering opportunities from the web.
Really? Name one.
No, don't bother ... I found it. From 2003:
PublishAmerica Presents Strong Presence At Random House Book Fair
The Annual Random House Book Fair in Westminister Maryland took place Saturday, November 9, 2003. PublishAmerica presented a bold presence as three company representatives and six authors were on hand.
The Random House Book Fair at Carroll Community College in Westminister, Maryland was a success. The event benefits charities and included events such as meet the local author, book signings, book sales, children's events, and a silent auction.
On hand at the event, were Miranda N. Prather, Editorial Director, and Rebecca Embree, Acquisitions editor of PublishAmerica. In addition, the company boasted one other representative and six local authors. Authors in attendence were: C.C. Colee, Anne K. Edwards, TJ Perkins, Linda Alexander, and DL Bolk. The event was successful for all the authors and the company.
We also conduct workshops, lectures, and discussion groups at these events.
Ah, yes. Poor Michele Omran went to the Wrangling With Writing workshop earlier this year. Her presentation, "Crafting and Publishing with PublishAmerica" was scheduled on Saturday, opposite the Keynote Panel with the guest of honor. "Michele will discuss what PublishAmerica looks for in its books," the description says. What did she tell them, I wonder? "We want three hundred pages, at least thirty of which should be different"?
They also had presentations of various sorts at their 2004 Convention in Maryland. There wasn't a 2005 PA convention. Wonder why.
Also, PublishAmerica is growing internationally.
Web-based booksellers overseas also list our ISBNs!
Several PublishAmerica titles are under contract by publishers as far away as Korea and China.
Specifically: Sixteen books, in 2002.
These works have been translated into those languages and are for sale in those countries.
How're they selling?
Imagine having two versions of your book on your coffee table: English and Chinese!
And "imagine" is all you'll be able to do, since no new ones have been sold to Korea in the last three years. Another program, like the "Independence Books" imprint, that seems to have been forgotten.
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
Ingram set up their own Lightning Source International printing plant in England. Big whoop. "Available" isn't the same as "stocked," and far, far different from "sold." Have I mentioned recently that
Atlanata Nights is "available" in the same stores, in the same way?
And finally, in the expansion department, we are happy to announce the birth of two new daughter publishing companies in Europe.
Woo! In fact, those "two news daughter publishing companies in Europe" are just a pair of websites, hosted in the USA. PublishBritannica has zero books listed at
http://www.amazon.co.uk/ . When you go to their website, you find they supposedly have 54 books, but when you search for those books at Amazon UK you discover the publisher's name is "PublishAmerica." Similar story for PublishIcelandica: No books from "PublishIcelandica" listed at Amazon UK or Amazon Germany. Sixteen books listed on their web page, but those all turn out to be listed as published by "PublishAmerica."
As well they should be. Look at their ISBNs: See the first digit, "1"?
That indicates that those are American books. The prefix for an Icelandic publisher is "9979."
PUBLISHBRITANNICA will serve new authors in Britain, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, while PUBLISHICELANDICA opened its doors last October for Icelandic authors, with an eye towards possible further expansion into Scandinavia.
Last October? How old is this letter? Publish Icelandica opened its doors in October, 2003, and PublishBritannica in early '04. There was even an Icelandic section of the PA message board for a while (you can still find it at archive.org), which was shut down after they discovered that none of the PA monitors spoke Icelandic.
Last year we took the majority of our staff, and some of our authors, to Iceland to celebrate!
They must be talking about October, 2003, trip to Iceland. This letter is over a year old.
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.
They pay the extra promotion fee to Lightning Source? Wowsers! That's an extra twelve bucks!
Let's see: Promotions expenses. $1.20 for ISBN. $12.00 for Lighning's service that sends the book description and cover picture to the on-line booksellers. $1.60 for postage to send the press releases (assuming they do it hard-copy). $16.00 to send the order forms to friends and family. $12.65 for the review copies that they may send out, plus another $3.00 in postage there. Add half an hour's time by a minimum wage employee and we've got it. "Great ... expense" is fifty clams.
Shorter version: That last sentence of theirs was a lie.
Consequently, your book is available through each and every bookstore in the country, and all those bookstores have all pertinent information at their fingertips.
"Available." Heh heh heh. She said "available." So's bleedin'
Atlanta Nights.
We are also nominating our best books for awards, including the Pulitzer prize,
No PublishAmerica book has
ever been nominated for the Pulitzer prize. If they're claiming that they've
submitted some of their books -- talk is cheap. I wonder if they could back that up under oath in court?
When Diana Hignutt's
Moonsword was nominated for a Spectrum Award, the awards committee asked PublishAmeirca for review copies. PublishAmerica turned them down.
and we have negotiated a special promotion deal with all Barnes & Noble bookstores.
I wonder what that "special promotion" is? It's Barnes & Noble's company policy not to stock PA books. We have that direct from B&N's corporate headquarters.
Barnes & Noble could select your title to be added to their InPrint section, virtually guaranteeing it 48-hour availability in all of their stores.
Barnes & Noble ended its InPrint program in summer of '03.
Best Regards,
Acquisitions Supervisor
PublishAmerica
I don't suppose it was signed with a human name, do you?
It looks to me like this letter was written sometime in early 2004, when Michele Omran was still in college, though possibly with parts from earlier letters -- the thing about InPrint, for example.
Wouldn't it be special if PA had answered the question about "the bashing and why they are saying such things"?
Oh -- great moments in
press release writing:
"This week PublishAmerica is making a big splash in the middle of the North Atlantic."
What, they were planning to push Willem Meiners out of the airplane at 20,000 feet?