The New Never-Ending PublishAmerica Thread (NEPAT)

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BudJay

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janetbellinger said:
Well, let me see, what could I use that $1. for? We are running low on toilet paper.

how bout a 20 minute phone call?
wink.gif
 

Word Addict

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My PA-Related Website

I have started a new website that I hope will prove enlightening to authors without resorting to rhetoric of any kind. The premise of my site is simple - I will allow my correspondences with PA to speak for themselves. I will simply reproduce our correspondences without embellishment or comments. In this way I hope to show the unbiased truth as it unfolds, whatever that may be.
The site is still new, but I hope people will drop by and see what's there so far. I haven't made a way for people to post comments on the site, but I'd welcome comments on this AW thread.

Here's the site: www.freewebs.com/meet_real_pa .
 

Christine N.

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Well, WA, I think it's an admirable thing you are doing. Just to show what PA says, I believe, will allow them to hang themselves.

First of all, much of their response to you was a lie. Ok, not all of it, of course, your books are available on B&T and through Ingram, etc... But the discount is NOT 40% to them. We've seen that time and again. Ingram gives a 5% discount to bookstores on PA books listed as returnable. What PA fails to tell you is that there is also a 10% restocking fee for books returned, so any bookstore that purchases them will only make 5% (a profit which gets eaten with the shipping costs) and LOSES 5% if they return the book, PLUS the shipping charge.

Not worth is. Ordering directly through PA may prove to give a bigger discount, but then the books are NOT returnable. Again, not worth it for a bookstore. Plus there is the issue of the books even showing UP on time for your event, should a bookstore happen to order through PA. This is NOT rhetoric, these are proven facts. Call Ingram and ask them yourself.

Ingrams also does NOT set the discount. Call them and ask. Don't trust PA to give you honest answers, don't trust us either - go to the horses' mouth. I mean, why would Ingrams only give a 5% discount on a PA book, and the standard 40% discount on books from other 'traditional' publishers??? Makes no sense.

Just for comparison... I have had several booksignings, mostly at Borders' stores. I have not set one of the dates myself - the publisher did that for me, nor have I had any trouble with the books being in the store when I arrived (although I did call ahead to make sure). Merely making your books available for purchase is NOT the only thing that a real commercial publisher does. It's the bare minimum - and that's what PA is really good at, the bare minimum.

They (real commercial publishers) are in the business to sell books to bookstores, not to authors. PA sells mostly to authors. Proven fact, even admitted by one of the three owners of PA.

I would track things down from that response, point by point, and come back to PA with the answers and ask them why they aren't straight with you. See if you don't get a letter that tells you how stupid and ridiculous you are, and not to take that tone with them. You certainly wouldn't be the first.

Then I would ask them why your cover price is so high. Tell them you've compared your book (length, genre, whatever) to others and tell them the average difference in price. I'll almost bet money that they'll hand you the line about how PA books are "priced with what the market will bear" - which is a load of crap. They're priced with what the author will pay.

Welcome to the cooler.
 
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Alan Yee

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Basically, if I sold my first book to a major publisher, I would, on average, receive a $5,000 advance against royalties. If I had instead given up and gone with PA, I would have received the princely sum of $1. PA does not have faith in their authors. A $1 advance means that over your entire career, PA's expectation is that you will earn $1 in royalties for this book. If you had instead went with the major publisher, the expectation is that you would have earned 5,000 times more money in royalties, on average. Sadly, some people still don't believe that the major publishers release books from first-time authors all the time.

What are they at now? Either 17,000 or 20,000 "very happy" authors. Funny, you don't see any "happy" authors hanging around here or Rainbow, do you? Liars!

--Alan
 

Word Addict

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Added to site

I just added a new e-mail to my "Meet the Real PA" site. I sent it to PA today, but of course today is Sunday so no one will see it until tomorrow at the earliest.

Word Addict said:
I have started a new website that I hope will prove enlightening to authors without resorting to rhetoric of any kind. The premise of my site is simple - I will allow my correspondences with PA to speak for themselves. I will simply reproduce our correspondences without embellishment or comments. In this way I hope to show the unbiased truth as it unfolds, whatever that may be.
The site is still new, but I hope people will drop by and see what's there so far. I haven't made a way for people to post comments on the site, but I'd welcome comments on this AW thread.

Here's the site: www.freewebs.com/meet_real_pa .
 

Jennifer Robins

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jenrob

Hello all,
I am Jennifer Robins a PA Author who is very disappointed to say the least. I have read most of your posts and I am joining in here as one of you. I am in the process of having a manuscript looked at by another publisher. If I do get it published, I will be looking for a release from PA for the two novels I have with them. No matter how it turns out, I will want that release some time soon. Iwould like very much to be of any help in putting this scam PA company out of business.
I am sure there are among you, many like myself who had high hopes of their hard work being out there for the world to see and reap some benefits from it.
Unfortunately, that will never happen with PublishAmerica. They sucked us in with some sweet talk and then after we bought our own books, they just laughed at us and never did a thing to help sell our books.
I'm happy to be here with you.

Jennifer Robins
 
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Sassenach

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Alan Yee said:
If you had instead went with the major publisher, the expectation is that you would have earned 5,000 times more money in royalties, on average. Sadly, some people still don't believe that the major publishers release books from first-time authors all the time.

It's not as if people were trying to made a decision between PA and Random House. PA preys on the naive, and publishes slush. The overwhelming majority of PA titles would never be published anywhere but PA.

The sad thing is that within that giant mountain of PA slush, there's undoubtedly some genuinely good books.
 

icerose

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Jennifer Robins said:
Hello all,
I am Jennifer Robins a PA Author who is very disappointed to say the least. I have read most of your posts and I am joining in here as one of you. I am in the process of having a manuscript looked at by another publisher. If I do get it published, I will be looking for a release from PA for the two novels I have with them. No matter how it turns out, I will want that release some time soon. I would like very much to be of any help in putting this scam PA company out of business.
I am sure there are among you, many like myself who had high hopes of their hard work being out there for the world to see and reap some benefits from it.
Unfortunately, that will never happen with PublishAmerica. They sucked us in with some sweet talk and then after we bought our own books, they just laughed at us and never did a thing to help sell our books.
I'm happy to be here with you.

Jennifer Robins

Welcome Jennifer and pull up a chair. Huge congrats on getting you book read by another publisher. Let us know what happens.

Sara (A very happy EX-pa author)
 

Word Addict

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I hope that people will give PA authors the benefit of the doubt, at least enough to check out our writing before dismissing us. It's certainly true that many PA-published authors are very poor writers, but each of us should be judged on our own merits. I hope people will at least drop by my book's website and accept or reject my writing according to what they see there, not according to the name of my publisher.

Sassenach said:
The sad thing is that within that giant mountain of PA slush, there's undoubtedly some genuinely good books.
 

janetbellinger

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I don't like to call anybody a poor writer. I think most PA writers could have spent much more time revising their PA published novels, myself included. I don't like to write anybody off, as a writer. I think practise and knowledge and a passion for one's subject matter makes the difference.
 

Glenda

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BudJay said:
i had no idea where to look for this, i'm still new to the forum, so if i'm wrong just transfer this to where ever it belongs...

i wanna get out of my PA contract. I f'd up, i admit it. i was young, so lets just put that aside. i want out. what's the best way to go about doing so quickly and painlessly?

Bud I signed up with PA Sep. 1 2005. I recieved my contract release, March 15th.

Dear Publish America,
I regret to inform you that I would like for you to cancel my contract on ‘Jared’s Bride: An Everlasting Bride’ ISBN 1-4241-2017-9. This should not be a problem since nothing has been done to it as of yet.

The reasons for my decision are as listed.

After reading your web site when I was looking for a publisher I decided to go with Publish America, because of what I read on your web site at the time. I know you have changed it since, but this is one of the things I read on your site when looking.

We announce your book to the industry, listing it with Bowker's Books-In-Print and with wolesalers like Baker & Taylor, Brodart Co., and Ingram, and we make it available through the PublishAmerica website and online bookstores such as Amazon.com, Borders.com, BN.com, Chapters.com, and 15,000 bricks and martar stores. Your book will be available through all of these channels within six weeks from the time you receive your complimentary author copies.

This gave me the impression that you put the books you sell not only on the internet, but in brick and martar stores. You also advertised you were a traditional, royalty, paying publishing company. I feel like you show a miss-presentation of what Publish America does for the author and the sales of the book. I know it is too late for Quinn’s Destiny', but you have not even started with 'Jared’s Bride'. I will return the dollar you sent, since I still have it. I have also found out with 'Quinn’s Destiny'' that you do not put out quality work, since I pointed out three major mistakes in the 2 books you sent me and emailed the errors in to be corrected and you sent back a template stating why my request could not be, which showed me you didn’t even check it out or you would have seen they are not minor mistakes as stated. I also requested, since it was a romance novel to put a man and woman embracing imprint on the cover, and you refused. The cover does not reflect a romance novel. I’m not happy with the way you have handled my book, 'Quinn’s Destiny'. It is to large for the number of pages and over priced about 12 dollars. Yes the contract mentions the 51/2 by 81/2 book, but it also states, or any other size that the market demands. The market does not demand a large, over priced, thin book. It’s a paperback for Pete’s sakes. I’m sorry this has happened, but I feel like you have not carried out your part by, being my publisher. I will not be pushing Quinn’s Destiny, since you refused to correct the errors, which is a reflection on you as a publisher and I have found trying to push my book, I get feedback that PA puts out very bad quality books. I can not defend this when you refuse to correct mistakes that is pointed out to you. I’m an unknown author and I’m finding being published with you, nobody wants to give me a chance, not even for a review and with the high price nobody wants to pay that much on an unknown author. I’m knock out of the water before I can get my feet wet.
I requested author support to let me know if my book was selling and instead I get an email, of reminding me the contract, which states we get that every 6 months. That is not encouraging authors on how their book is doing. I thought author support was there to support the authors. I feel like with the technology we have in these days, we should be able to look up our account with PA to see how well our book is doing. How many books is being sold, ect. As big as you are there is nothing, just keeping us in the dark on how many of our books are really sold
Reading about the royalty checks shows that nobody gets much money for their efforts in 6 months of pushing their books. I refuse to purchase my own books for sale. That is not why I wanted a publisher. If I wanted to do that, I could have been self-published, even though I have had that threw at me letting PA be my publisher.

Since Jared’s Bride is not doing anything, but setting there in your building, you have not lost any money on it. Please let me out of my contract. I will be sending a copy of this letter through the mail if I do not get a response.
Sincerely, Glenda Wilson

Like so many if you let them know you will not be bying your book or requesting that family and friends buy your book, you will have a better chance of getting your contract back. Good luck on your request. Glenda
 

janetbellinger

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Good for you, Glenda. I'm glad to see you here. I just emailed PA again today, telling them I will not be buying any more of my own books, but I will email again, saying that I will recommend to my friends and family that they not buy them, either.
 

Glenda

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janetbellinger said:
Well, let me see, what could I use that $1. for? We are running low on toilet paper.

Janet, you can buy a roll of toilet paper for a dollar? Not where I live. That $1 won't even buy me toilet paper. :rant: :e2thud:
 

Glenda

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janetbellinger said:
Good for you, Glenda. I'm glad to see you here. I just emailed PA again today, telling them I will not be buying any more of my own books, but I will email again, saying that I will recommend to my friends and family that they not buy them, either.

Yes Janet, you go girl, you tell them you refuse to push their low quality, over priced paper back book off on anybody.
 

MadScientistMatt

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Jennifer Robins said:
Hello all,
I am Jennifer Robins a PA Author who is very disappointed to say the least. I have read most of your posts and I am joining in here as one of you. I am in the process of having a manuscript looked at by another publisher. If I do get it published, I will be looking for a release from PA for the two novels I have with them. No matter how it turns out, I will want that release some time soon. I would like very much to be of any help in putting this scam PA company out of business.
I am sure there are among you, many like myself who had high hopes of their hard work being out there for the world to see and reap some benefits from it.
Unfortunately, that will never happen with PublishAmerica. They sucked us in with some sweet talk and then after we bought our own books, they just laughed at us and never did a thing to help sell our books.
I'm happy to be here with you.

Jennifer Robins

Welcome, Jennifer. I wish you the best of luck in your search for a new publisher.

If there is one thing that is almost certain to get a book released from PA, it's if there is a real demand from bookstores. PA is poorly set up to handle such orders, and it appears that this may give them enough of a headache that they would rather release a book than rake in the money.

And if your next book hits bookstores, it has a very good chance of building demand for your previous works. PA has dropped books under such circumstances before.

Good luck, and welcome to the forum.
 
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Ilovepensandpaper

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I've been away for a minute. I guess I had to get 'rebalanced'.
Is there one place to go to get the info on the arbitration fund? I have read the posts, but it is easier on the eyes to see everything in one place...
I see there are new people to the forum. Welcome to you all, and sorry PA got you! :-( Here is the place you need to be to deal with the devil.
Ugh, the nonsense with PA still makes my eyes bleed.
The PAMB question about advancement of royalties is a riot.
I need my $1.00 advancement too for my weekly pack of bubble gum.
 

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Jennifer Robins said:
Hello all,
I am Jennifer Robins a PA Author who is very disappointed to say the least. I have read most of your posts and I am joining in here as one of you. I am in the process of having a manuscript looked at by another publisher. If I do get it published, I will be looking for a release from PA for the two novels I have with them. No matter how it turns out, I will want that release some time soon. I would like very much to be of any help in putting this scam PA company out of business.
I am sure there are among you, many like myself who had high hopes of their hard work being out there for the world to see and reap some benefits from it.
Unfortunately, that will never happen with PublishAmerica. They sucked us in with some sweet talk and then after we bought our own books, they just laughed at us and never did a thing to help sell our books.
I'm happy to be here with you.

Jennifer Robins

Congratulations Jennifer, I wish you the best of luck on your new novel and getting your other ones back.
 

Glenda

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Christine N. said:
Glenda, I think Janet was talking about using the DOLLAR as toilet paper.

Hey, don't waste a dollar... you can get less than a half a gallon of gas for that now. :p

:e2smack: Christine, I do believe your right now that I have read again. :ROFL:What can I say, it must be the blonde hair again. :D
 

Glenda

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WordAddic, I just visited your site and I am very impressed. Let me know when you want others to share and I will add mine if it will help. :e2fairy: Glenda
 

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buying the books ourselves

When I first signed on with PA I was always too broke to buy more than 10 or 20 copies of my book at a time. I only bought that amount just before a book signing.

I was just curious to know if there were a lot of people who invested money on books, but found that they no longer had venues to sell them. I mean, right now I have about 8 copies left over from my last book sale, but if they aren't sold, I will probably use them as gifts. I will not really be out a lot of money. I could see some people buying 50 or more copies of their book, then going to a book signing where only 3 copies sold. If you live in a rural area, there aren't a lot of places to sell your books. What a horror story!
 
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