The Old Neverending PublishAmerica Thread (Publish America)

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Sarashay

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Question . . .

I've ordered a copy of Ten Percent of Nothing and it should be arriving in my mailbox soon. I have a question for those on the board who are veteran scam-busters:

How long were the Deerings in business before it all came crashing down?

How long have PA been in business?

Merely curious.
 

astonwest

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Sparhawk said:
I have it on good authority that SHEMP, too, has been banned! THere is atleast that small consolation.
Darn...what that usually means is he ends up taking his fight to the other message boards in desperation...completely with vileness and profanity...
*begins to rub temples*
reph said:
Some posters point out how maintaining the author boards is a strategy for PA. Is it a good strategy?
As long as they can keep new authors from figuring out this strategy until they can sell around 75 copies, it seems like it...
DreamWeaver said:
Referencing result #5: Is Atlanta Nights really in its fourth edition?
Hot Diggity! Travis should be proud, selling out three editions... :)
lindylou45 said:
If anyone here would like to have the story of how you were banned from the PAMB...
Which time? :ROFL:
 

arrowqueen

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Yep, Ed. Remember the good old days when you were still involved with sex and dead dogs?
Ahh, nostalgia!
 

James D. Macdonald

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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,

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.


Routinely? I suppose so. They went to the one in 2002 also.


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?
 
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reph

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James D. Macdonald said:
"This week PublishAmerica is making a big splash in the middle of the North Atlantic."
Didn't something like that happen to the Titanic? Oh, no, I guess it went down slowly.
 

James D. Macdonald

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astonwest said:
And what's really amusing (and maybe I just missed it) is that the response doesn't have anything to do with the original request, as to why the "bashers" are saying all these things about PA...

100% correct, Big Daddy!

This letter didn't answer the question!
 

writerjenn

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WOW!

Go away for a week and look what happens! Welcome to all the new faces, and some not so new (yeah Rita!).
I'm still here (but kinda offline with computer troubles) until Monday. Nobody move until I get back.

Jenn
 

reph

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Top Ten Reasons PA Wants to Make a Big Splash in the Middle of the North Atlantic

10. The principals need a bath.

9. POD really stands for Prance or Drown.

8. Free lessons in Icelandic!

7. They plan to cut costs even further by outsourcing the editing to whales.

6. Somebody's confusing "The Perfect Storm" with "The Perfect Scam."

5. They need support for that "sea to shining sea" claim.

4. The IRS has more liberal rules for fishermen than for publishers.

3. It's looking like mutiny on the author boards, anyway.

2. They want to find out whether Shemp really can walk on water.

AND THE NUMBER ONE REASON:

1. They think they can escape the law by doing business outside the three-mile limit.
 

mdmkay

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I HAVE HAD IT!!!! It was bad enough that I was "stipid" enough to go with PA but apparently now I'm to "stipid" to know what to do about it!!! I made 13 damn long distance phone calls and was told that reporting them to the atty general was what I was supposed to do. IF ANYONE WANTS TO DRAW THE DIMWIT A MAP ON WHAT THE HELL I'M SUPPOSED TO DO THEN DO IT. I've played nasy email with PA until I'm heartily sick of it. I even got them on the phone once after about 40 calls in 3 months (why was I surprised when I got some idiot who was more stipid then I was) DOES IT SOUND LIKE I'M FRUSTRATED HERE????? If you tell me what to do I'll do it but I'm tired of hearing complaints and put downs of PA with no practical advice on what the hell to do
 

MMo

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eighter said:
Somebody tell me what to do. I received this tonight at 11:30.....It doesn't appear to have anything to do with the book, but that's the only association I ever had with Amazon.

Dear Amazon customer,

We recently reviewed your account, and suspect that your Amazon account may have been stolen.

http://pgtc.com/~barbmc1/exec/obidos/flex-sign-in/ref=ya_hp_pay_1/102-7651544-8302514/
(FRAUDULENT INFORMATION SNIPPED)

Please do not reply to this e-mail. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered.


spacer.gif

Oh, don't click on that link. This is a "phishing" expedition. The link doesn't really lead to Amazon but to a scammer's site where they will attempt to harvest your personal information.

These come in purportedly from E-bay, Amazon, Paypal, your bank, your credit card.

Hold your mouse over the link and you will see that it doesn't go where the text says it does.

Mo
 

James D. Macdonald

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mdmkay, we're all doing the best we can.

Ann has her "Phase II" thing going, I have my own minor plan in operation, but we're learning as we go.

Your letters weren't wasted.

We're writers. So we write. Write to everyone you can think of. Your local newspaper. Your congressman. You own state's Attorney General. The President of the United States. Go hard-copy. Be calm. Be reasonable. Tell your story, the Joe-Friday-facts, dates, times, places, and exact quotes.

The day will come when this house of cards in Maryland will fall. Yours may be the letter that knocks it over.

Willem is betting that he'll wear you down. That he'll outlast you. That you'll get tired, or discouraged, or bored. That you'll go away. He wants you to feel small, to feel powerless, to feel stupid. That's his game.

Show him he's wrong.

Take heart. You're not alone.

Hundreds or thousands of PA authors and others are beside you. Good will triumph over evil, truth over lies.
 

MMo

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mdmkay said:
I HAVE HAD IT!!!! It was bad enough that I was "stipid" enough to go with PA but apparently now I'm to "stipid" to know what to do about it!!! I made 13 damn long distance phone calls . . .
(SNIPPED)

I feel your frustration. It's late, and it may be a while before someone gets around with some practical information, but let me at least offer you empathy. I've not been a PA author, but some of what you're going through reminds me of a particularly nasty experience I had with a credit card company that used strong arm tactics and never posted payments on time -- in fact never posted them until after the interest rate went up and the collection enforcer called. It got so bad that I would instigate the call every month, and even then I wound up in tears of frustration and anger. (The company got sued by an AG and was subject to several class action suits for their tactics.)

Bullies of all stripes want us to feel stipid. They want us confused and frustrated and lashing out. That way we lose focus. What they don't realize is that their tactics can backfire on them -- IF instead of losing focus, we develop contacts with other folks who refuse to be victimized.

I in no way want to denigrate your feelings, far from it. It's because this scammer can reduce us to these feelings that I'm here. Please take heart. You are not alone. And you will not be alone when justice is finally done.

Mo
(PS -- my share of the huge fine that credit card company paid was $.67, paid in two installments. I photocopied the checks, but I cashed them. Oh, yes, you bet I did.)
 
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astonwest

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eighter said:
We recently reviewed your account, and suspect that your Amazon account may have been stolen. In the last 2 weeks several atempts to buy expensive Audio Equipment. Since the orders where over 5000 USD we decided to hold the order. If you have orderd the Audio Equipment please inform Amazon staff to remove your account restriction. If not please follow the linke below and complete the necesary steps to regain accees to your account.

Similar type "phishing" expeditions come from credit card companies and banks...the spelling and grammar problems are usually the first dead giveaway...
Never ever click the link...
 

NancyMehl

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Huh?

Ed Williams said:
...Then, I told 'em they should all join us over here at AW - I obviously told them about the literary benefits of doing so, but I also added in that they would get to hang and bang with Jenna, Uncle Jim, Dave, Sweet Victoria, Naughty Nancy, and some notable others, but, most of all, if they were really lucky that they might get some unusual recognition from ZaZ. If that doesn't encourage 'em to join us, nothing will.

First of all, way to go with your show! You're da bomb! (Not sure what that means, but the teenage nephew of a friend called me that once. I think it's a good thing...)

Secondly....how did I get to be "Naughty Nancy?" I think I behave myself rather well.... I don't spit, curse, chew anyone out.....

I'm so confused.

I've think I've been knocked several rungs down the echelon ladder.

Somehow this is Dawno's fault. :mad:

Nancy
 

whitewolfzty

I It is amazing, finding so many with such hatred for one entity. I am not yet weaned from my Publisher, albeit I am not sure of anything, now. I must admit a great deal of what I read makes some semblance of sense. I am just not ready to jump on the Bashing wagon, as of now. I knew what I was doing when I was banned, it was intentional and I have no regrets. It was, likely, more out of desperation than escape, I haven't written anything on my sequel in weeks for having spent so much time on their MB. Now, I find, I am typing away on another MB. Is this confusing or what?
I think I need a drink; a line of Tequila shooters comes to mind, along with a shaker of sea salt and fresh limes. That's the ticket, now maybe I can clear some of these blasted cobwebs.
Thanks for listening,
and, yes, I will be back,
Whitewolfzty
 

lindylou45

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mdmkay said:
DOES IT SOUND LIKE I'M FRUSTRATED HERE????? If you tell me what to do I'll do it but I'm tired of hearing complaints and put downs of PA with no practical advice on what the hell to do

Only you can determine if your book is worth this fight or not. Frustration is a major complication of trying to get your book back from PublishAmerica.

Willem Meiners, Larry Clopper, and Miranda Prather are trying to make your situation as frustrating as they possibly can. They're betting you will give up long before you get your rights back. Are you going to take that bet?

I've been at this for almost a year now. Has it been frustrating -- YES! I've chosen to continue to take these crooks on, not so much for those that have already signed, but for those that are looking for a publisher and are contemplating PA.

That doesn't mean I'm not concerned about how other PA authors are doing and thier frustration levels. The people here are wonderful in that they will allow you to vent and rant, and then you pick up your weapon of choice and start all over again.

There are many things you can do. Most of them involve writing letters -- that's going to mean no immediate results -- but if you look at the PAMB and the actions of the New Three Stooges and the POD Squad, you can see something is happening. I've heard a lot of rumors about things in the works -- some I believe and some I don't -- but I have to believe they won't be around forever. I've got this little website that makes me feel much better, it may not make much of a difference in the long run, but it makes me feel that I'm doing something to help.

Another thing to do is start writing your next book. Don't get so caught up in this that it makes you sick -- I've done it and it's not fun -- take some time away from it every once in a while.

There is no rhyme or reason as to why PA is giving certain people their rights back and holding on to others. I've sold 10 copies of my first book and zero of the second. They refuse to give me my rights back. I think it's spite myself, but who really knows.

You're at the beginning of your fight, trust me you have a long way to go. Frustration will become something you'll have to deal with on a daily basis. We're doing what we can, you need to do the same.

Good luck to you.
 

Dawno

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I'm trying to do my bit by posting something on my blog every day that relates to the efforts here and elsewhere to bring some fair treatment and honest dealings to PA authors.

Tonite I'm talking about our Atlanta Nights Cover Competition and Memphis Ed's radio show. Feel free to wander on over and leave a comment if you'd like to. I'm operating under the impression (delusion?) this might actually help in some small way. This isn't a shameless plug for my blog, btw; I just wanted to let you know that there's one more voice out there that's on your side.
 
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