The New Never-Ending PublishAmerica Thread (NEPAT)

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BenPanced

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Gill, you're either being accosted or the one doing the accosting at Barnes & Noble.

You might want to try Borders, too. Expand your market potential.
 

indiriverflow

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Well, looking at this thread makes me think about my own close call with PA. There wasn't a contract or even a query, but there was a deep, dark night of the soul where I looked at their crappy deal, understanding more or less what it was (but not nearly how bad) and wondered if I shouldn't just give in and be done with it.

It didn't last long. I stumbled upon the archives here, and other relevant spots, and abandoned the madness before it began.

No success story either; wound up with a self-generated web PDF run for $5, and sold, um...enough to pay the hosting and internet bill. Had a good run on MySpace, and for a while it was daily sales, but it wasn't worth my time.

In the end though, it was my failure. The book is mine. I have nothing but sympathy for those of you who got taken.

For me, the draw wasn't royalties, or recognition, or any of that noise. I just wanted copies. I wanted to hold them in my hand. I wanted to let people read a real book. And yes, I fancied guerrilla marketing (I still believe it would have worked if I could have found a cheaper price).

Learning about the realities facing even these meager ambitions with a PA book prevented mine from becoming one. I had brochure from all the marginal PODs. I had a little bread to invest, and would have gone with any half-way decent deal.

I didn't really write that book for money, although there was a part of me that felt readers would spontaneously catch the vibe that was driving me. Another part hoped some important person would find it and insist it be published. A few Google-positive names showed up in my paypal, but I never heard back from any.

I think that some people just want to impress family and friends. Others just want to be done with the maddening query process and get back to the safe place where we write.

Thank you for maintaining this archive, it is heroic.

And for the victims of PA, my heart goes out. Seriously.

Now we're in a better place.
 
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quixote100104

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I looked his book up on Amazon and PA. Retail price $34.95, extra-fer-special PA price $29.95.

His max bestest-fer-special price during a buy-one-get-one would be $11.75 ($34.95/2 - one free, plus $2.99 shipping/handling.) His best price for an order of 40 books is around $410.00.

That is the reason his royalty checks are anemic and always will be. The inflated price is my numero uno problem with PA, it is the death song of books that might be good. My apologies to the author, but I wouldn't choose his book when there are dozens of urban-apoc-dark thriller type books out there for $7.99 - $9.99.

Actually, it's an auto-biography, fictionalized (to what extent depends heavily on who you talk to ;-) ) by an author afraid of being sued by people he defamed. I should know: I'm one of them, he's a member of my family and formerly a freind. The latter not, as might be expected, as a result of the 'defaming' (I don't know a single person who believes his allegations) but rather because my attempts to show him what people were saying about PA and maybe sell a few copies of his book via the web were interpreted as akin to stalking. I might possibly be the person who "conspicuously left" the original blog site for him. I don't recall doing so, nor attempting "to discredit (his)meagre literary accomplishments" but then I don't recall doing a lot of things he accuses me of. I guess as long as he does, that's all that matters.

Of course we don't know it's auto-biographical because of the wonderful back blurb PA provided. Do they always just yank a few paragraphs of text out of the book and slap them on the back?

Anyway, just before we parted ways, he told me his last royalty chack from PA was "in the low three digits". I assume he means three digits to the left of the decimel point, but one can never be sure. This was in mid-January, so it's likely an older one (the most recent ones would have been issued in February, right?).

I responded that, from what I had heard, that was a very good showing for a PA book and inquired how many books he'd sold and in what markets. That, apparantly, was a very inappropriate intrusion into his privacy and things went downhill from there.

I won't post it here, since that seems to be against the thread's etiquette, but if anyone out there wants to try and help him, drop me a line and I'll give you his website address. It's a public site and comes up first on Google searches by his title, so there's no privacy violation there.
 
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Don Davidson

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I AM STUNNED!!!! I have not bought a single book from PA, and I have not given PA the names or addresses of anyone. But I received a royalty check from PA this week for $2.78!!! They actually sold two copies of my book. (And I probably never would have known about those sales if I had not received the royalty check.)

By the way, this was after PA emailed me a royalty statement for the same period of time, stating that they had sold zero copies of my book. So for those of you who believe PA is dishonest when it comes to paying royalties--maybe they are just incompetent.
 

everythinginblak

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LMAO


Uh, I think you should let the PA peeps smoke a couple of joints and snort some coke...and then they might write a check like that.



It's not gonna happen while they're sober.

:D
 

tlblack

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De lurking for a moment:

Oh, you did it now. Nonsensical three to four paragraph message coming your way about how many emails they get during royalty time and that it may take them a while to get back to you. Somewhere either in that pre-scripted response or in a follow up email will be: "Some have 90 days to pay up, so when we get paid, so will you." Then they sit back for the next six months and hope you'll forget about it.

Lurk mode reactivated...
 

DeadlyAccurate

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I still can't help but wonder if they simply use a generator to assign check amounts completely at random. And once they use up all the money they intend to give out, everyone else gets $0.00.
 

Don Davidson

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I still can't help but wonder if they simply use a generator to assign check amounts completely at random. And once they use up all the money they intend to give out, everyone else gets $0.00.

That might explain how I got a royalty check, because I have no idea who bought my book. Most of my friends and family members don't even know about it. (I don't like to widely publicize the fact that I got scammed.) And I'm still trying to figure out why PA sent me a royalty check after sending me a royalty statement a week or two earlier stating that they had sold zero copies of my book. Does the left hand not know what the right hand is doing?
 

JulieB

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That might explain how I got a royalty check, because I have no idea who bought my book. Most of my friends and family members don't even know about it. (I don't like to widely publicize the fact that I got scammed.) And I'm still trying to figure out why PA sent me a royalty check after sending me a royalty statement a week or two earlier stating that they had sold zero copies of my book. Does the left hand not know what the right hand is doing?

I wonder if those sold in the last 90 days of the previous royalty period?
 

circlexranch

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Here's something I hadn't heard before . . .

"They want me to order 50 copies of my book before they can make any changes."

She was referring to little things like:

spelling her name wrong, spelling the title of the book wrong, changing words in poems, etc.

Just order 50 copies of the wrong book and we'll let you make changes! Those first editions will become priceless collectibles! Sigh . . .

Here's a link to her entire 'ripoff report' on her experience with PA.
 

Don Davidson

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I wonder if those sold in the last 90 days of the previous royalty period?

Well, so far I have received three royalty statements, covering a year-and-a-half period of time, and each statement says PA sold zero books. Then I got a royalty check for $2.78 about a week after the 3rd statement.

By the way, there is an abbrevation on the check stub, "GBP." (The check stub is posted on the PublishAmerica page of my web site, if you need to see it.) Does anyone know what that abbreviation means?
 

JulieB

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Well, so far I have received three royalty statements, covering a year-and-a-half period of time, and each statement says PA sold zero books. Then I got a royalty check for $2.78 about a week after the 3rd statement.

By the way, there is an abbrevation on the check stub, "GBP." (The check stub is posted on the PublishAmerica page of my web site, if you need to see it.) Does anyone know what that abbreviation means?

Those sales are quite possibly from the UK. GBP is the standard abbreviation for UK Pounds. Your statement shows a sales price of $17.35, and at the current exchange rate 12.50 GBP=17.64 USD. As to why they didn't show up on any other statements, who knows? Just don't spend it all in one place. ;-)
 

merrihiatt

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(bolding mine)
Here's something I hadn't heard before . . .

"They want me to order 50 copies of my book before they can make any changes."

She was referring to little things like:

spelling her name wrong, spelling the title of the book wrong, changing words in poems, etc.

Just order 50 copies of the wrong book and we'll let you make changes! Those first editions will become priceless collectibles! Sigh . . .

Here's a link to her entire 'ripoff report' on her experience with PA.


Wow! Another new low for PA.

PA lurkers, that complaint was in January, 2009. This year!! The negative comments you hear about PA are not from four years ago. They are happening this very minute.
 

Don Davidson

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News flash: PA actually sells 2 copies of my book to the public!

Those sales are quite possibly from the UK. GBP is the standard abbreviation for UK Pounds. Your statement shows a sales price of $17.35, and at the current exchange rate 12.50 GBP=17.64 USD. As to why they didn't show up on any other statements, who knows? Just don't spend it all in one place. ;-)

Thanks. That makes sense, except that I don't know anyone in the UK. So apparently a total stranger bought two copies of my book (or two total strangers each bought one copy). That is even more amazing. Imagine what PublishAmerica might be able to do if they priced their books reasonably and actually did a little marketing. Why, they might even become a "traditional publisher," that makes money from the public instead of by fleecing their own authors!

Oh, and for any PA lurkers: As merrihiatt said, the PA rip-offs are not ancient history, they are current events. PA will tell you anything--as they tried to do with me--to convince you that they are legit and that all those disgruntled PA authors are simply lying. That is why I posted the actual documents on my web site, so you can read them for yourself--including PA's responses to my inquiries and to my BBB complaint. Read it in their own words! They will not market or promote your book, whatever song and dance they may give you. They just want to sell books to you, the author. If that's what you really want to sign up for, go for it. You have been warned.
 
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merrihiatt

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(bolding, underlining and font color change mine)

Dear Author,

Open for auction again: Your book advertised in someone else's book!

PublishAmerica is including advertising space in the back of selected titles, typically the last page of the book. We have already printed ads for our authors in more than 100,000 books.

Our full-page ads include pictures of the book cover and the author, a brief cover text, and an author bio. To see samples, go here: www.publishamerica.com/bookads.

You may now bid on being the next author whose book will be advertised in 10,000 other books that will be seen by readers all over the country. All PublishAmerica titles may carry such advertising for books of any genre.
How much do you want to spend on securing a full page in ten thousand books? Please respond to this email with the dollar amount of your bid, together with your book title. You may also call us at 301 695 1707.

Bidding ends next Wednesday morning at noon EST, March 18. The highest bid wins.

Books will begin printing and shipping in the week of March 23. Ad will appear in books printed inhouse by PublishAmerica only. All bidders will be contacted.

Enjoy the auction!
PublishAmerica Author Support Team

Am I the only one who finds this incredibly revolting? Wouldn't it be good practice, as a publisher, to put similar genre ads in the back of a book. Further, wouldn't it be wise to include ads in the back of a book in all published books as a way of marketing other authors?

Repeat after me:
PA is not a publisher, they are a printer.
PA is not a publisher, they are a printer.
PA is not a publisher, they are a printer.
 
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