The Old Neverending PublishAmerica Thread (Publish America)

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robeiae

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underthecity said:
Secondly, I had posted a link to T42's page (Memory's Tea for Two book) on amazon, and tonight I noticed the amazon slammer is back. And this one is WEIRD.
Check it out here.
Actually, it's even weirder:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/AF5BEX29E2CPO/ref=cm_cr_auth/104-2196391-5750352?%5Fencoding=UTF8

This gives you all the reviews by this "person." They are on mainstream books, as well, with identical reviews for each (more or less). Since this subject was broached here today (Memory's reviews), it's safe to say that this is where the idea came from, though the "why" of it I can't fathom. Thoughts??

Rob
 

tarra74

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NicoleJLeBoeuf said:
I'm interested, though--last time someone came through saying they were happy with PA because all they really wanted was a vanity publisher, I wanted to know why they chose PA over LuLu.com or the others. I never got an answer then. Tarra, would you like to address that subject? I'm all ears!)

It had a lot to do with my financial situation. At the time I was just going to publish my book through an independent ebook publisher I I published a collection of my poems through this ebook publisher back in 2001. It is free, but you have to supply your own cover art.

I was online looking for someone who might be able to do my cover art without a high fee attached when someone published with Publish America contacted me. They told me that Publish America would not only publish my book for free, but design my cover art as well. I am happy with my cover art. It turned out perfect.
 

robeiae

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tarra74 said:
It turned out perfect.

Tarra,

If you know what you're getting into and it works for you, most people would say that's fine; it's your stuff, after all. This is true when you sign on with any POD/Subsidy/Vanity press. The only thing I'd say is that PA is not being particulary straight forward with it's potential authors. Again, that may not conflict with your views and needs, but by using them, you are unfortunately helping them (indirectly!!, don't be offended) lure others in who might be less clear on what they are doing. While you are just a single individual, it can add up. I hate arguments through analogy because they are generally invalid and weak but...it's really like voting, no matter what anyone says, your vote really does count!

I'm very sorry to hear about your health issues and I do hope your book brings you and your loved ones great joy.

Rob
 

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victoriastrauss said:
...So I think a new definition of "vanity publisher" is in order: A vanity publisher is any publisher whose main source of income is its own authors, whether or not it charges an upfront fee.

- Victoria
SUPERB. That should be the dictionary definition, in my humble opinion. Precisely captures the essence.

--Ken
 

Ed Williams

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Found! The world's first internet fossil!

Jamie Farr taking PA to Hollywood Squares!http://www.publishamerica.com/testimonials.htm#Farrhttp://www.publishamerica.com/testimonials.htm#Farrhttp://www.publishamerica.com/testimonials.htm#Farr
"Got the books this morning and they look fabulous. The cover will really show up wonderfully when the tv camera photographs it from my square with me holding it up...
Thank you again." - Jamie


We're into Thursday now, and still no disavowal of last weekend's disgrace by PA management....
 

Patricia

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Ed Williams said:
Jamie Farr taking PA to Hollywood Squares!http://www.publishamerica.com/testimonials.htm#Farrhttp://www.publishamerica.com/testimonials.htm#Farrhttp://www.publishamerica.com/testimonials.htm#Farr
"Got the books this morning and they look fabulous. The cover will really show up wonderfully when the tv camera photographs it from my square with me holding it up...
Thank you again." - Jamie


We're into Thursday now, and still no disavowal of last weekend's disgrace by PA management....

YOU go Ed! :Clap:
 

AnneMarble

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underthecity said:
Secondly, I had posted a link to T42's page (Memory's Tea for Two book) on amazon, and tonight I noticed the amazon slammer is back. And this one is WEIRD.

What was it? Have they already pulled it? I only see the ones praising the book and criticizing PA.

Edited to add
OK, I see it on other books. It looks like Amazon's review screening process is sucking worse than usual. Well that one will be marked Not Helpful quite often :wag:
 
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James D. Macdonald

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Ann said:
But and it is a big but, there was not enough readily available until recently regarding the earmarks of frauds.

That's documented right in this thread. Half a year ago, someone googling on "PublishAmerica" found PA's own pages followed by page after page of glowing reports from happy authors before coming to the first warnings -- and some of those warnings didn't sound very credible.

Now, it's different. Tide's turned, wind has shifted, all the cliches.
 

NicoleJLeBoeuf

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victoriastrauss said:
Ah, but this sort of vanity is becoming more and more typical, as authors get wise to the vanity stigma (same thing happened with the reading fee, which used to be the commonest form of agent scam and now is rare). When authors start to get wise, the scammers sidestep. What the vanities are doing nowadays...
Victoria, I'd be last to butt heads with you, but I fear your post unfairly conflates "vanity publisher" with "scammer". I don't know if you meant it to. I've quoted the part of your post that gave me that impression, and bolded the bit where the impression is strongest.

I'm sure you know this, but just to reiterate for those playing along at home: Many vanity publishers are scammers, but some vanity publishers are honest (e.g. LuLu). Vanity publishing, like professional editing, is a legitimate service which meets some people's needs. But this service model is easily abused by scammers.

Perhaps one of the recognizable marks of a scam vanity press (or a scam professional editor) is the exaggerated hype which claims that their service will meet everybody's needs, that those who claim not to need their service are either misinformed or must be part of the great big publishing conspiracy that keeps new writers down. Also claims to help you shortcut your way to success, or to revolutionize the publishing industry--those are suspect. Lulu doesn't hype itself as a panacea. CafePress doesn't aspire to burying Tor and Bantam. But PA... oh, the claims PA makes! The pirate ships, the sneers, the smugness!

(Just for fun, y'all can read what P. Barry Jones has to say in his defense of brand-new display site Zirdland. Hear! his much-put-upon appeal that naysayers must either be "better-than-thou ... millionaire author" or "overly-rejected (ie: poorly marketed) writer"! See! him scoff at the industry's current status as "a literary lottery"! Marvel! as he dismisses out-of-hand and schemes to revolutionize "the query-letter shuffle" that predates his birth--or at least his experience--by millenia! Ah, the superiority! The appearance of selfless martyrdom! The utter wrongheadedness of it all!)
 
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Galoot

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victoriastrauss said:
A vanity publisher is any publisher whose main source of income is its own authors, whether or not it charges an upfront fee.

Beautiful Victoria. (Oops, I dropped a comma.) Beautiful, Victoria.

May I ask if there exist non-vanity publishers who make middling or minor incomes from their own authors? I'm not being a wise guy, I'm curious if I'm missing something. Why would I ever send any money to a non-vanity publisher?
 

mdin

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I suspect a great many of the micropresses out there, despite their good intentions, make more money than they want to admit from their own authors buying books.
 

KellyS.

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James D. Macdonald said:
Y'know what, though ... all this HB This and HB That. It's nothing but a sideshow. A diversion. You can't take it to court like their deceptive business practices, you can't point it out to prospective authors like their lack of bookstore shelving -- it's a soap opera. Can you imagine calling the IRS or the FTC and telling them about the HB saga? What would you say?

We had a saying back in the military: Two weeks after you're dead no one remembers your name. That's what you're going to see here. In two weeks we'll say "HB faked his death!" and people will say "Who?"

===================

The real story is Larry, Miranda, Willem, and their little vanity press. Stay on task, people.

I can't wait until someone mentions the Stooges and people ask, "Who?"
 

reph

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Two unrelated questions

Do those who know a lot more than I do believe HB was the original Amazon Slammer?

Do people who use Macs need spyware/virus protection?
 

KellyS.

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James D. Macdonald said:
I'm going to go a bit off-topic myself now. The talk of spyware up above reminded me.

If anyone here doesn't have anti-spyware, anti-virus, and firewall software installed, do it now. Even without PA there are enough jerks on the 'Net to make it dangerous to ride bareback.

And never, ever, open an attachment in email that you don't expect, even if it seems to be from someone you know.

Spyware Blaster

AVG Antivirus

Zone Alert

Wanted to add:

Ad-Aware Personal SE

http://www.lavasoft.com/

freeware: You are only a few clicks away from your free (for non-commercial use only) copy of the new Ad-Aware® SE Personal Edition.
Ad-Aware is designed to provide advanced protection from known Data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components. With the release of Ad-Aware SE Personal edition, Lavasoft takes the fight against Spyware to the next level.
 

KellyS.

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So, if PA started in '99, then no one has completely gotten through a contract with them yet. Do you think they thought they would be around to see the very first contract expire? I wonder who the very first author (not meiners or clopper) was and if they have managed to get out or are still with them.
 

lindylou45

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MMo said:
--

Have you been scammed, swindled, gypped, or ripped-off? Jimmy Kimmel, Consumer Advocate, wants to help you! Tell Jimmy "What's Your Problem?"

http://abc.go.com/primetime/jimmykimmel/consumer.html

May be worth a comment. It's a fill-in-the-blank page

Mo

I just filled in my info and then copied and pasted my letter and submitted it. I hope the rest of you will send something in as well. If anyone can shame PA into submission it's Jimmy Kimmel. :partyguy: Who knows, he might even sic Uncle Frank on them! :snoopy:
 

mdin

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reph said:
Do those who know a lot more than I do believe HB was the original Amazon Slammer?

Do people who use Macs need spyware/virus protection?

I don't think I know more than you do but

Yes.

Not really, but you probably should install Virex or some other Mac antiviral software anyway. As far as I know, there hasn't yet been a major spyware infiltration for us Mac users yet (I'm a part-time Mac user.) I don't even know of any anti-spyware programs that work for the Mac. Viruses have been unleashed on Mac systems, but they rarely spread because there's a trillion PCs for every Mac out there.
 

Alphabeter

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NancyMehl said:
Except for Kevin. We only keep him around because we love his purple pony.
Kevin gave the pony to Christine N so why again do we keep him around.

Oh right. The Ed Williams thing.



Nancy (One of the only PA authors ever released because she sold too many books.)

Gee, all I had to do was never sell any and not have it published.

PA-the only publisher to change their excuse form letters by the hour.
 

KimJo

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I have to admit, though I've never published with the house of horrors, I've become addicted to this thread. I think it's terrible that so many of you have been put through this by this company, and I'm grateful that I found this information before I fell victim to the scam. Best wishes to all of you for a speedy recovery!
 

Alphabeter

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Kim

While we're not thrilled about your addiction, I personally am glad you were able to avoid the snare of PA. People like you are one of the reasons I share my story.
 

T42

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underthecity said:
Secondly, I had posted a link to T42's page (Memory's Tea for Two book) on amazon, and tonight I noticed the amazon slammer is back. And this one is WEIRD.

Check it out here.

Sorry, Memory. But you might get a kick out of it, anyway. :Wha:

underthecity
Wow, no problem underthecity. Someone is really going to town with that one. It is kind of weird. I wouldn't put my B&N letter on someones book unless they gave me permmission but oh well. I'm still not awake so I didn't even notice if it was HB's book or someone else? I hope whoever did it is not slamming the author or book. That is not who we are after...It's probably someone from PA doing it...I'm gonna have to go back and look again when I wake up....
 

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Four items....

1. Kelly, my guess is that when the first PA authors' contracts expire that PA will just keep right on printing books, should any orders come in. Seven years out on a PA book would probably make that somewhat doubtful, though.

2. Maybe on the vanity press thing, it's best to say that the vanity press business model lends itself quite easily to nefarious publishing situations. (Man, I must have "big word-itis" this morning, I get that way after I read some of Kev's posts...).

3. Re things over in the Great and Mighty Land of Poz, if it was any quieter it'd resemble midnight at a funeral home. I get an almost an eerie feeling when I read their boards...

4. For those of you who haven't seen it yet, the email referenced yesterday from Shemp explaining his "demise" has been posted up on the "Death" thread on the "Take It Outside Boards." I don't know how long Jenna's gonna leave it up, but y'all might want to take a look while you can, if anyone here is versed in psychology it will prove to be an interesting read....

"Shemp = Scams"
 
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