The Old Neverending PublishAmerica Thread (Publish America)

Brilliant, PVish. Thanks for saving Carl's post. Very clever piece. Wonder if any suspicious PAer saved it too and decides to repost it? Maybe as a crit piece.

JohnJStephens said:

Sweet Willem (called Wim by this brother) appears frequently, together with his pride and joy.

Judging by the state of Willem, you have to admire the lifting power of that piece of kit.

Willem appears with a woman, Sigurveig, who seems to be his wife or girlfriend. Sigurveig is an Icelandic name, which may explain how PA got involved with this country.

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Ah, yes, I can imagine how Wim loves his little toy. However, eventually, it won't be capable of lifting him. Do you suppose he'll tell the pilot not to take that tone with him?

Sigurveig can't be Willem's wife. If I recall correctly, he married the woman who owned Erica House which evolved to become PublishAmerica. Oooh, if she's a girlfriend, can an episode of CSI Maryland be far away? Hope not. That ought to get prime ratings.

From PA Board

The only way to have a book priced lower is to pay to publish, and then you know you will never be considered a published author, you will never taken seriously, and you forever endure the stigma of having had to pay to be published.

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Interesting observation.

PVish said:

Yes, Carl IS White Raven! If what he wrote isn't the "satire" he says it is, looks like he's flown from the PA nest—or, more likely, they kicked him out.
One poster complained about what he'd written; another figured he was making a joke; then he posted that what he'd written was "satire." PA, however, doesn't take kindly to kidding around. . . .

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Thanks PVish!! Obviously I missed seeing his name I was taking a break from my final edit coupled w/ laughing...skipped the name between tears.

White Raven=Carl Baxter=Liz James

A brilliant piece

"I win an Ipod in about one out of every three spam emails and I have no clue what it is? Can you enlighten me?"

This PA post says a lot, I think, about the level of awareness of the world among many PA authors. Reminds me that when you poll the public, there is a certain number of people who can't tell you the name of the President.

Sigurveig can't be Willem's wife. If I recall correctly, he married the woman who owned Erica House which evolved to become PublishAmerica. Erica Feberwee

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Yes Dave, I think you're right. The name Erica Feberwee (another Dutch name) turns up in Google as spouse of The Rotund One.

Oooh, if she's a girlfriend, can an episode of CSI Maryland be far away?

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Good point. I'm trying to work out from their body language (see the photo 'Wim & Sigurveig, in afwachting van ook hun pannenkoeken' which means 'Wim & Sigurveig, waiting for their pancakes') whether they are 'doing it' or not. Of course the PA offices are only 300 yards away, so maybe they are simply colleagues? Neverthess, Erica, maybe you should take a look? (although it beats me why any woman would like to be humped by a hippopotamus like Willem)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, PA continues to engage in criminal activities. They lie, steal and cheat from new, aspiring authors w/ no regard for the law or wannabee/would be authors. Their sole purpose for existence is to line their collective pockets w/ hard earned money from the unenlightened.

A cheerleader on the pamb answers the poor woman who submitted 2 novels @ the same time w/ a ridulous, supportive lie. The woman in question clearly told PA the 2nd novel was a sequel and they printed the 2nd one 1st. The cheerleader approves of PA's slick maneuver and says the woman must be patient as PA knows what they're doing. Huh? Yeah, they're ripping her off, and yes, they are aware. And no, they don't care. Sure, go ahead and twist the truth to fit your agenda-no conscience.

Yikes, Wim even looks like Curly from the Three Stooges.


As to Carl's/Liz's post - was the satire against PA or us? Also, I would really like to know why so many find child abuse/sexual abuse to be funny and worthy of mockery? Are cancer victims and accident survivors also good for a chuckle? Sorry but I find it incredibly insensitive.

Hi, guys, I'm back. Did you miss me?

I have some reading to do....

To keep this kinda on-topic....

White Raven missed a step:

James D. Macdonald said:

Hi, guys, I'm back. Did you miss me?

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Very much so! Hope you had a good and fruitful time, and missed us too (well, just a LITTLE....)

Yes, I did Jim.


And, I'd like to get some updated info on the PA-PB lawsuit and hearing from last Friday. Anyone heard anything other than the 12,500 settlement?

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, Jim's back safe and sound Did you have to swim home??? Hope not. Did you bring us any souvenirs??

Last I heard on the settlement was same as you Ken

So, John. Tell us where you're finding all this interesting stuff.

***

Once again it's been two weeks with no new new releases. I really hope the remedy that soon, because my weekly game of match the covers is the highlight of my Mondays.

Rose colored glasses said:

Also, I would really like to know why so many find child abuse/sexual abuse to be funny and worthy of mockery? Are cancer victims and accident survivors also good for a chuckle? Sorry but I find it incredibly insensitive.

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An awful lot of PA books appear to be abuse memoirs. I was molested myself as it happens, and I would agree that writing everything down can definitely be of use to help people work on their problems, but that doesn't mean that anyone would want to pay money for a huge tome of someone else's self-analysis. Someone else's therapy diary doesn't necessarily make good or helpful reading, and no matter how painful and unique your story is to you, to the rest of the world it's just another dirty-uncle story.

Rose colored glasses said:

Also, I would really like to know why so many find child abuse/sexual abuse to be funny and worthy of mockery? Are cancer victims and accident survivors also good for a chuckle? Sorry but I find it incredibly insensitive.

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No more so than making fun of fat people, who seem to be the only politically correct subject left for ridicule. Denigrate crooks for being crooks, but can't we leave their looks out of it? I daresay there are more than a few overweight writers around here - of which I'm one - who cringe every time someone gets slammed for being fat, as though that had something to do with the reason for being crooked.

Okay, okay... I'll get off the soap box and back on topic now!

OFG, my comment about Wim looking like Curly was because of his bald head and facial features. I just thought it was funny because people here call PA owners "the three stooges", and he actually looks like one.

Treppany, you are stereotyping. I realize - from reading a few- that your description is correct for some of the PA books, but that doesn't mean every single memoir is a "therapy diary", or that it's badly written, or devoid of anything that might help someone.

I realize that the mission here is to expose PA, but I have at times felt unwelcome and even ashamed - to the point that I took my book info off my profile - because of the snide comments about "abuse writers". Dave Pelzer has been on the NY Times best seller list and has I-forgot-how-many books out about his childhood abuse, so I think it's unfair to dismiss an entire genre of books as unworthy of reading.

It's one thing to point out obvious fallacies or enormous problems with grammar and spelling, but sometimes I think that anything done by a PA author is not good enough, and is target for mockery. Ok, so we made a mistake by signing with PA. I don't think I should have to walk around, embarrassed, with a scarlet PA on my chest. I also don't think I should have to feel ashamed about the book I wrote.

Also, I would really like to know why so many find child abuse/sexual abuse to be funny and worthy of mockery?

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Is that the case? I've come across that myself on only one or two previous occasions, and the rarity of the events mean that they remain etched on my brain. If you are referring to Carl's post, I do not think that it was in any way mocking of child abuse victims. It is difficult to imagine a more sensitive subject, however.

An awful lot of PA books appear to be abuse memoirs.

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I've noticed that. It is very striking.

No more so than making fun of fat people, who seem to be the only politically correct subject left for ridicule. Denigrate crooks for being crooks, but can't we leave their looks out of it?

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I do not agree. Making fun of a fat person can be very unkind. Making fun of a child abuse victim is one of the cruellest things in the world. But my view is that Carl was not guilty of this.

Well I am certainly guilty about ridiculing Willem for being the size of a small Alp. And if I understand your point correctly, by ridiculing him in public, all fat people feel less good about themselves, and this makes ridiculing Willem (concerning his obesity) wrong. It is a good point, and I will certainly think hard about it.

Rose, I think Trepanny is looking at this subject from the other end of the telescope. Let me explain, if I may:

To paraphrase Duke Ellington, there are two kinds of books; good ones and the other kind. From what I understand, a fairly large subset of "the other kind" are written by people as a sort of therapy--good for them, but not necessarily interesting to anyone else. I offer in support of this understanding TNH's Slushkiller, noting particularly number eight on the list.

Now, and this is the key, even supposing that observation is true, that doesn't mean all books about abuse or what-have-you are bad. Remember there's still only two kinds of books: good ones and the other kind, and if yours is a good book, it's still good. What it does mean is that there are an awful lot of abuse memoirs that are "the other kind" of book.

As an analogy, I think the same thing is true of fan fiction. There's still only two kinds of stories: good ones and the other kind. But an embarassingly large percentage of fan fiction is of the other kind. That doesn't make the good ones any less good, but it does mean that there's a farly recognizable subset of not-good stories that are fan fiction.

Make sense?

OFG, my comment about Wim looking like Curly was because of his bald head and facial features. I just thought it was funny because people here call PA owners "the three stooges", and he actually looks like one

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It is the same guy, just in case you had not realized this (I am not sure of this from your posts). Willem's brother Lars refers to Willem by the shortened form Wim (common in Dutch) = One of the Three Stooges.

JohnJStephens said:

Willem's brother Lars refers to Willem by the shortened form Wim (common in Dutch) = One of the Three Stooges.

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In Dutch, Wim is the name for one of the Three Stooges of Hollywood fame?

In Dutch, Wim is the name for one of the Three Stooges of Hollywood fame?

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Aha. Now I understand. I have been thinking of the Three Stooges of Publishamericasucks fame! I am definitely spending too much time on this forum.

As a PAMB poster dips his toe in the PA quicksand...this should be gone before you can say"Yikes!"



Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 3:37 pm Post subject: Has anyone's contract been terminated by PA? This is just out of curiosity... but a standard PA contract lasts for 7 years. But say the demand for your book tailed off - I mean really tailed off - for whatever reason (e.g. you stopped marketing your book). Would PA terminate your contract?

Has anyone's contract been terminated by PA before the 7 year contract expiry date?
_________________

Writing As Therapy

When I was writing my Memoir on Homelessness, recording the events of the day - I felt like a World War Two journalist, trapped in a foxhole. Writing was not therapy. It was my hope that the general public would have embraced my work as a historical memoir, concerning my experiences during the Recession of 2002-2003 in New York City.

If my Memoir - Computer-End Program - was circulated nationwide at the time it was printed in June/ 2004, the evacuee's of Katrina / Rita who became homeless - would have had a some knowledge of what to expect when they placed their lives in the hands of their State Governments, FEMA, and the Federal Government.

It was my hope that the politicians would have read my book - and instituted changes that would have made life less chaotic for the presently homeless individuals in every State, and the future newly homeless which were the result of natural disasters.

PublishAmerica negated my efforts to educate the population of the United States on the horrors of Homelessness, and the battles which I fought to end my homeless plight.

My memoir could have had individuals talking about the homeless problem, long before the hurricanes displaced thousands of individuals to the mean streets of our cities.

Oh, well. Life goes on...

Argile Stox

Rose colored glasses said:

OFG, my comment about Wim looking like Curly was because of his bald head and facial features. I just thought it was funny because people here call PA owners "the three stooges", and he actually looks like one.

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Someone else made a remark along the lines of 'why would any woman want to be humped by that hippo'. I was agreeing with your comment regarding the insensitivity of making fun of cancer/abuse survivors. Sorry for the confusion. I should have quoted the other comment as well as yours.

I don't think I should have to walk around, embarrassed, with a scarlet PA on my chest. I also don't think I should have to feel ashamed about the book I wrote.

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I agree with you here, too. I'm proud of the book I wrote. It's a *good* book according to people who don't even know me. I *am* embarrassed, however, about the price and the reputation of the publisher, even though I had no control over either after signing... or before, come to think of it, even if I'd known.

At any rate, I can only hope that the more of us ex-PAtriates there are, the more we can spread the word about our experiences; and, sooner or later, we'll make an even bigger difference than we make already.

I appreciate everyone's comments. Like Argile, homelessness was one of my experiences as well. There's a lot more to my book than abuse, but people are unlikely to know that because they won't read it, because the PA books they read in the past on the subject might not have been written well or because they hate PA, or because they don't even know it exists.


And this is probably what stinks the most about signing with PA. You get lumped in with any other PA books people have read in the past that sucked, so they assume your book must suck, too. Then you get an unpleasant label stuck to you and no way to break free from it.

I'm not whining about my book per se; I've given up on it for the most part. I'm just stating for everyone here who is not with PA, that prejudice on top of all the other obsctacles we have is one more kick in the head which we don't need.