The Old Neverending PublishAmerica Thread (Publish America)

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Kevin Yarbrough

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Jenna, the ads at the top of the page are interesting. One page back there was an ad for PublishAmerica books at Ebay. Just thought you would want to know so people don't think we are supporting them.
 

T42

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ResearchGuy said:
I am thinking, they meant "family" as in the phrase "the family of Man" -- i.e., everyone on the planet.

--Ken
No, I don't think so....they mean aunts, uncles, moms, dads, kids, pets.....
 

ResearchGuy

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Metaphor?

News today (Reuters): "A Czech tractor driver died under eight tons of manure in a bizarre accident that has baffled his employers, local media reported."

Makes me wonder whether that was an ironic reference to his having signed a contract with PublishCzechRepublic.
 

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Kevin Yarbrough said:
Jenna, the ads at the top of the page are interesting. One page back there was an ad for PublishAmerica books at Ebay. Just thought you would want to know so people don't think we are supporting them.

I stopped looking at those ads after a half a dozen Whitmore Publishing ads. Sheesh. A Respectable writers forum and the top ad is nothing but scam artists like PA and Whit.
 

robeiae

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JennaGlatzer said:
In the event that a third party requires the cancellation of this Agreement as a condition for separately publishing the work, the Author may request the termination of this Agreement, and the Publisher shall agree to start the terminating process, provided that the third party shall be a legitimate publishing company, and that the Author shall furnish evidence of the third party's offer to publish the said literary work along with evidence of that offer's cancellation contingency, and that the Publisher shall at that time issue a confidentiality covenant that the Author and the Publisher shall mutually sign,

Can an illegitmate publishing company mandate that it will only do business with a legitimate one?

Forgetting all the other problems with the agreement for a second, this clause makes it virtually impossible for an author to even change over to another "legitimate" POD/Subsidy press (which may be a "bad thing" anyway, but has to be better than the current situation). Why? The decent POD's out there all have the author grant non-exclusive rights to the publisher that can be retracted with proper notice. Thus, none of them ever require a cencellation of another agreemnt granting non-exclusive rights. For the author, this means that the only way to exercise this clause would be if a "traditional" publisher actually was prepared to enter into contract negotiations with an author who had this agreement hanging over their heads (HA!), or if the author was prepared to go with a POD/Subsidy press that demanded non-exclusive rights (back to the same boat).

Not good...

Rob
 

Sher2

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T42 said:
Sheri, I had to get off the dang computer so my hubby could use the phone. (I sent him to a pay phone with some quarters) Hope I didn't miss the "deadline". Julianne I can't see how they could possibly make us sign a contract that involves the family. (we would all have to sign) Idiots!
Mem, either get a shotgun or make him buy a cell.

Contracts. Family. Penalties. Offers you can't refuse. Anybody wondering if there's a godfather lurking around the townhouse?
 

T42

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My Response From PA

I posted my letter to Pa yesterday that I had sent them. I just got this email.
From :

Author Support Team <[email protected]>

Sent :

Monday, March 28, 2005 5:14 PM

To :



Subject :

Memory McDermott : non-exclusive contract


Dear Ms. McDermott:

You are free to refuse your freedom. We have gone ahead and mailed the extra
copy anyway, just in case you change your mind. (has hell frozen over?)

If you prefer to stay within your current, exclusive, contract, that will be
fine with us. One correction, though: book rights are sold while being under
contract all the time, every day. Those who tell you the opposite don't know
the first thing about the publishing industry. (oh contraire!)

Either way, it is important to register that we have offered you to take
your book anywhere you want. Under the proposed amendment, you are free as a
bird. (with clipped wings) You may elect to self-publish the book, or turn it into an e-book, or
find yourself any other publisher of your choice, and if that publisher
prefers to secure the exclusive rights to your book, we will terminate the
contract within a matter of months, well before your new publisher would be
ready to produce and release the book. In other words, we are offering you
the best of all worlds. (The hell you say!)

Again, we are offering you freedom, and you are refusing it. (Damn Right!)You don't like
our no-return policy that was disclosed to you before you signed the
contract? Fine, the amended contract allows you to find yourself another
publisher who will make your book returnable. You don't like our pricing,
though there were approximately 8,000 book prices on our website for you to
see before you signed the contract? That's alright, we are offering you to
find yourself a new publisher who has different pricing schedules. We are
offering you total freedom. You don't like us, period? (the only truthful thing you've said so far)No problem, we are
holding the door wide open for you. (Well, don't let it hit you in the a**)

The only thing we will not do is cancel your contract altogether at this
time. It carries your own signature, so it remains in full force. This does
not restrict you in any way if you were to agree to making it non-exclusive.
Until you do, it remains an exclusive contract, which is perfectly fine with
us as well.

Thank you,
Author Support Team
[email protected]
 
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Sher2

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T42 said:
You are free to refuse your freedom.
Oh, wow -- you are free to refuse your freedom. What simple, unfettered eloquence. What purity of thought. Wonder which one of the cuties they brought in to work today from the lap dancing joint down the street thought that one up?
 

robeiae

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T42 said:
We are offering you total freedom. You don't like us, period? No problem, we are
holding the door wide open for you.

The only thing we will not do is cancel your contract altogether at this
time. It carries your own signature, so it remains in full force. This does
not restrict you in any way if you were to agree to making it non-exclusive.
Until you do, it remains an exclusive contract, which is perfectly fine with
us as well.

Thank you,
Author Support Team

We are offering you total freedom, if you define freedom as being chained to our townhouse! (but at least you get out in the sun!)

Heinous...heinous...heinous!

You would think that after having been in business for a while, company spokespersons would know how to act like proffesionals.

Rob
 

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T42 said:
I posted my letter to Pa yesterday that I had sent them. I just got this email.
From :

Author Support Team <[email protected]>

Sent :

Monday, March 28, 2005 5:14 PM

To :



Subject :

Memory McDermott : non-exclusive contract


Dear Ms. McDermott:

You are free to refuse your freedom. We have gone ahead and mailed the extra
copy anyway, just in case you change your mind. (has hell frozen over?)

If you prefer to stay within your current, exclusive, contract, that will be
fine with us. One correction, though: book rights are sold while being under
contract all the time, every day. Those who tell you the opposite don't know
the first thing about the publishing industry. (oh contraire!)

Either way, it is important to register that we have offered you to take
your book anywhere you want. Under the proposed amendment, you are free as a
bird. (until we ban you) You may elect to self-publish the book, or turn it into an e-book, or
find yourself any other publisher of your choice, and if that publisher
prefers to secure the exclusive rights to your book, we will terminate the
contract within a matter of months, well before your new publisher would be
ready to produce and release the book. In other words, we are offering you
the best of all worlds. (The hell you say!)

Again, we are offering you freedom, and you are refusing it. (Damn Right!)You don't like
our no-return policy that was disclosed to you before you signed the
contract? Fine, the amended contract allows you to find yourself another
publisher who will make your book returnable. You don't like our pricing,
though there were approximately 8,000 book prices on our website for you to
see before you signed the contract? That's alright, we are offering you to
find yourself a new publisher who has different pricing schedules. We are
offering you total freedom. You don't like us, period? No problem, we are
holding the door wide open for you. (Well, don't let it hit you in the a**)

The only thing we will not do is cancel your contract altogether at this
time. It carries your own signature, so it remains in full force. This does
not restrict you in any way if you were to agree to making it non-exclusive.
Until you do, it remains an exclusive contract, which is perfectly fine with
us as well.

Thank you,
Author Support Team
[email protected]

Although it is anonymously sent, that had to come from one of the big 4. Trying to be oh so clever while they're running scared. And the sarcasm trying to cover up the contradictions... I'm speechless. Almost.

First they try to tell you are free to go. Then at the very last tell you that they have you wrapped up in a 7 year contract and that you are bound to live with until the time is up unless you agree to allow them to charge you $5000 any time they feel like invoking the their nondisparagement clause.

Holding the door wide open for you... yeah, right. Or did they mean the door to bankruptcy court? Yikes!
 

DaveKuzminski

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It's clear to me that sending copies of PA's responses to the AG, BBB, FTC, and media are having an almost immediate effect. PA just doesn't want it's laundry aired in public.

The new letter from PA's author support is evidence to me as to why PA made Janet a general partner. She's got more brains and tact than Larry, Willem, and Miranda combined.

Now our next important tast is to get this message about NOT SIGNING THE NEW CONTRACTS to the other authors at PA, even if it means exposing a few authors who are still posting there as well as here. So, if you want to do something important despite the fact that you'll probably be banned, post a message on the PA forum asking their other writers to visit here and read this topic where we have the information about the new contracts. It's the right thing to do.
 
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T42

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robeiae said:
We are offering you total freedom, if you define freedom as being chained to our townhouse! (but at least you get out in the sun!)

Heinous...heinous...heinous!

You would think that after having been in business for a while, company spokespersons would know how to act like proffesionals.

Rob
You woulda thunk huh? Sheri are you taking a tone? (put it back)
 

T42

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DaveKuzminski said:
It's clear to me that sending copies of PA's responses to the AG, BBB, FTC, and media are having an almost immediate effect. PA just doesn't want it's laundry aired in public.

The new letter from PA's author support is evidence to me as to why PA made Janet a general partner. She's got more brains and tact than Larry, Willem, and Miranda combined.

Now our next important tast is to get this message about NOT SIGNING THE NEW CONTRACTS to the other authors at PA, even if it means exposing a few authors who are still posting there as well as here. So, if you want to do something important despite the fact that you'll probably be banned, post a message on the PA forum asking their other writers to visit here and read this topic where we have the information about the new contracts. It's the right thing to do.
I second that. Some of us don't have the power to do what some of you can. Heck I didn't even have time to get on the private board before they gave me my freedom!
 

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"we will terminate the contract within a matter of months"

Oh, THAT is ripe!

They can work that "a matter of months" to string along the sap-under-contract indefinitely. No other publisher of any type would rationally take the risk of investing time, effort, and money in a potential republication under the threat of being strung along month after month after month with the implied need to pay ransom in order to proceed or to dump the project after incurring costs.

--Ken
 

T42

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By the way, I am sending this letter back with my first one I sent yesterday with my little comments. The subject line will read: I am also sending you a second copy just in case you change your mind.
 

James D. Macdonald

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...we will terminate the contract within a matter of months...

Let's see: seven years is a matter of months ... 84 months, to be exact.

And if you sign that release form of theirs, it says that nothing else they've ever told you counts: "
...including any pre-contract and post-contract representations."

Presumably including:

...well before your new publisher would be ready to produce and release the book.


Mem, you want my advice? Talk to a lawyer, pronto. Don't sign anything. Don't communicate with them except through counsel.

These are bad people. The truth is not in them. They know nothing whatever of legitimate publishing. (I wonder if Larry passed that course he claims he took?)


 

DeePower

Why? What's the motivation for PublishAmerica?

My comments (this is not legal advice, I am not an attorney) are in blue.

Dear Ms. McDermott:

You are free to refuse your freedom. We have gone ahead and mailed the extra copy anyway, just in case you change your mind.

Freedom from from what? Why did PA mail the extra copy? If they mailed these amendments to even just a thousand of their disgruntled authors, that's a lot of postage, paperwork, and envelope stuffing. And then in their excitement they only mail one copy and have to do it over. Did anyone happen to notice that the dates on the amendments are a couple of weeks prior to the dates the authors are receiving them? Where were those letters in the interim?

If you prefer to stay within your current, exclusive, contract, that will be
fine with us. One correction, though: book rights are sold while being under
contract all the time, every day. Those who tell you the opposite don't know
the first thing about the publishing industry.


Why is it important for PA to add the word 'exclusive' to current contract? And the author here did not say that she prefered to stay within the current contract, she has asked a number of times for the current contract to be terminated.

Book rights under contract are sold every day. They are sold as movie rights, audio rights, foreign language rights. Books under contract are not sold 'every day' from one publisher to another to republish the same title in the same format.

Either way, it is important to register that we have offered you to take
your book anywhere you want.


Flashing sign here! Why is it important to PA to 'register that we have offered'? And it's not a true statement. This author wants to take her book away from PA, that would be defined under 'anywhere you want.' But PA is not agreeing to that.

Under the proposed amendment, you are free as a bird. You may elect to self-publish the book, or turn it into an e-book, or find yourself any other publisher of your choice, and if that publisher prefers to secure the exclusive rights to your book, we will terminate the contract within a matter of months, well before your new publisher would be ready to produce and release the book. In other words, we are offering you the best of all worlds.

Why would it take PA 'months' to teminate a contract? It takes hours, the time to have their word processors spit out the termination agreement, have Ms. Morrissey sign it and stuff it in an envelope.

This is not 'the best of all worlds,' this is something that for some reason PublishAmerica feels they have to do. It is not advantageous to the author whatsoever.

Again, we are offering you freedom, and you are refusing it. You don't like
our no-return policy that was disclosed to you before you signed the
contract? Fine, the amended contract allows you to find yourself another
publisher who will make your book returnable. You don't like our pricing,
though there were approximately 8,000 book prices on our website for you to
see before you signed the contract? That's alright, we are offering you to
find yourself a new publisher who has different pricing schedules. We are
offering you total freedom. You don't like us, period? No problem, we are
holding the door wide open for you.


Freedom, or the word free is mentioned is mentioned five times. Why is that so important to Publish America? The author is not 'refusing freedom.' The door is not being 'held wide open.' The author is being offered amendements which are more confining while offering the illusion of being more open.

In the above paragraph PA includes the objections of authors who wish to terminate their contract: no return policy and high prices. While at the same time stating that the author knew of the policies and implying that the author knew of the effect of those policies.

The only thing we will not do is cancel your contract altogether at this
time. It carries your own signature, so it remains in full force.


Why won't PA cancel the contracts? Why is it critical that they have 10,000 (or 9,000 or 12,000 whatever number they want to use authors). Good business sense would demand that the dissatisfied authors/customers be let go. But PA insists on enforcing the contracts.

This does not restrict you in any way if you were to agree to making it non-exclusive. Until you do, it remains an exclusive contract, which is perfectly fine with us as well.

Thank you,
Author Support Team
[email protected]

There is so much emphasis on the author signing the amendments it makes a reasonable person skeptical about the movitation of PA.

Dee
 

Duncan J Macdonald

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T42 said:
I posted my letter to Pa yesterday that I had sent them. I just got this email.
From :

Author Support Team <[email protected]>

Sent :

Monday, March 28, 2005 5:14 PM
Anybody else notice the time stamp on the e-mail?
T-42, what is the time-stamp of your e-mail system's received marking?

Has PA inventied a time-machine, or are they displaying for all and sundry that they play shennanigans with time stamps?

T-42, can you post the complete header from that e-mail? It should show time stamps for all the places it went through from Frederick to you.
 

T42

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Uncle Jim, I would never sign anything with them again unless it is for termination under my conditions and with the advice of a lawyer:) If I have to keep my mouth shut to get it terminated then they will sit with it for seven years.
 

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"In the above paragraph PA includes the objections of authors who wish to terminate their contract: no return policy and high prices. While at the same time stating that the author knew of the policies and implying that the author knew of the effect of those policies."

I believe that is the mode of argument called "Blame The Victim."

--Ken
 

T42

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Duncan J Macdonald said:
Anybody else notice the time stamp on the e-mail?
T-42, what is the time-stamp of your e-mail system's received marking?

Has PA inventied a time-machine, or are they displaying for all and sundry that they play shennanigans with time stamps?

T-42, can you post the complete header from that e-mail? It should show time stamps for all the places it went through from Frederick to you.
I'm not sure how my clock is set up...I'm a computer dummy:)
Author Support Team <[email protected]>Sent : Monday, March 28, 2005 5:14 PMTo : Subject : Memory McDermott : non-exclusive contract
From: "Memory McDermott"
To:
[email protected]
Cc:

Subject: non-exclusive contract
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2005 16:54:56 +0000
 

DaveKuzminski

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T42, use your email forward button to send the email to either James or myself to view. One of us should be capable of checking the date time stamp of the headers for you.

I think in their letter that PA is also trying to claim that authors cannot cancel their contracts in the same manner that PA has in the past.

Forget it, PA! Saying so in a letter that both parties haven't signed doesn't make it so. You're so full of S _ _ _, your eyes are now brown.
 
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