The Old Neverending PublishAmerica Thread (Publish America)

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Sher2

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robeiae said:
Will The Pickler and Gherkin escape the clutches of the Vile Stooges?
Will Justice and Proper Grammar reign once again?
Or will our heroes be forever trapped in the Land of Poz,
For the Vile Stooges to relish in their demise?

For the answers to these and other exiting condiment-related questions, tune in tomorrow: Same pickled place, same pickled time!
Tomorrow, on "As the Vat Ferments," tune in with mouth agape as The Pickler, armed to the stem with condiments, metes out Brine Justice, with each dynamic word grammatically correct.

Hell, no, I'm not working. Do I look like I'm working?
:Smack:
 

Christine N.

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A new supervillian has emerged... BRINE BOY! Sloshing sloppily wherever he goes, this evil sock puppet dies at least once a year, spewing lies and deceit, leaving a bad taste in the mouths of people who trusted him. You can follow the trail of bad jokes and poorly edited books right to his lair.

Ok, I'm not working either. I really want this book to rewrite itself, and I'm holding out for that.

Oh Yeah, PA SUCKS!

PS, Diana - I thought that was the deal.
 

Sher2

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Christine N. said:
A new supervillian has emerged... BRINE BOY! Sloshing sloppily wherever he goes, this evil sock puppet dies at least once a year, spewing lies and deceit, leaving a bad taste in the mouths of people who trusted him. You can follow the trail of bad jokes and poorly edited books right to his lair.

Ok, I'm not working either. I really want this book to rewrite itself, and I'm holding out for that.

Oh Yeah, PA SUCKS!
Okay, I stapled some pages. That's working, right? I have "The Best of Cream" on the CD player. I got sidetracked.

I propose that henceforth, each year when Brine Boy croaks, we dig up the carcass and chop it up into relish.
:D
 

Sher2

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Christine N. said:
I dunno, he might like that :banana:
Ol' Purple probably would. I'm not so sure about Travis. I seem to recall that his tastes run more to breathy, redheaded women with white, sweaty thighs on hot 'lanta nights.;)
 

T42

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DeePower said:
If you know of a lawsuit or investigation regarding PublishAmerica, email me
[email protected]

Dee
Congratulations! Dee, are you still with PA or did you get out of your contract? I have been trying to get my book removed and PA has managed to intercept the letters and I don't know how for sure.
 

Jaws

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Steve 211 said:
The Book Club is a quality outfit, and so I'm hoping they're unaware of PA's reputation and aren't sinking their own by pushing the fact that their members have been published.
The Book Club, WD, and F+W Publications know perfectly well what they're doing. They just don't care about preventing anything less than outright and obvious fraud, and even then it's questionable whether they'll do anything. Keep in mind that the advertisers essentially pay for the magazine: The ad revenue alone covers all of the magazine's sunk cost (or, at least, does under the GAAP), meaning that every copy sold is profit.

Of course, one must remember that the WD empire is built upon four precepts:
  • Anybody can be a published author if he/she works hard enough; talent, education, intelligence, ethics, etc. are all relatively irrelevant.
  • Everyone who wants to be a published author not only can be one, but deserves to be one—that is, there is an entitlement.
  • The less we emphasize the hard work involved in being a successful author, the greater our audience will be. (This is a corollary of the "entitlement" noted in the previous point.)
  • Our audience is going to turn over by better than 90% in 24 months, so we can facelifted versions of the same tired material, relying on the same tired mythology, every couple of years and almost nobody will notice.
That's not to say that's the attitude of everybody there, or of all of the authors; it's the corporate culture. Consider, for example, the changes in labels in the classified ads in the back of the magazine. All of those ads for fee-charging agents (it isn't illegal or unethical per se, but then neither is putting a grossly inflated price on a used car of dubious repair history) used to be under "agents;" they're still there, but spread across several more-innocuous-sounding categories. The labels, though, don't change the substance; they don't somehow change M___ Su___ into an agent who can actually get any writer's manuscript placed at any commercial publisher, let alone on favorable terms or with any degree of reliability.

In short, the WD approach—and I'm picking on WD just because they were the subject of the quoted message; most of their "compatriots" in the writer-advice business are no better, and some are far worse—doesn't work because it doesn't empower a writer to say no. It implores the writer to follow the dream, even when the dream bears little relationship to reality. That is the classic environment for fraud. Perhaps it's better to compare WD et al. to enablers (in the dependency-treatment sense) than anything else: They're not doing something inherently wrong, but it is not in the best interest of their "friends" with dependency problems.
 

NancyMehl

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Wow....

orraloon said:
"Your letter is barely coherent, and probably does not warrant a response, but we will briefly respond."

First of all, ya take a night off and ya come back to pages and pages of posts! Sheesh! Do you guys have lives????? (Do I? What am I doing here? What is the meaning of li.... Sorry. Started to drift a little...)

And what's the dill with all the pickles????? :Wha:

Back to the letter from pa nonsupport....

I have one question: If this pa author's letter is barely coherent - then what was pa thinking when they offered him a contract for a book?

Even when pa thinks they're being clever - it comes out dumb! :Huh:

Nancy
 

Sheryl Nantus

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slightly off topic and yet ON topic - don't all writing magazines do the same thing?

if I were to give up my subscription to WD due to their taking money from scammers and running the ads, would I not then have to give up Writer and the rest of them???

ooh... start a boycott... that's something for a quiet spring day, says I.
 

CaoPaux

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James D. Macdonald said:
How about this? All you folks who went with PA after seeing an ad in Writers Digest, write a nice letter to the editor about your experiences.

(But here's a word of advice for y'all: If you see a publisher or an agent advertising in Writers Digest, cross them off your list. If it weren't for ads from scammers WD would go out of business.)
To echo, reiterate and repeat: Legit agents and pubs do NOT need to advertise in Google ads or in the backs of writers' mags. If you see an ad for an "agent" or "publisher", cross 'em off your list! If you see one “looking for new writers” RUN!

Thank you. Carry on.
 

Sher2

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NancyMehl said:
First of all, ya take a night off and ya come back to pages and pages of posts! Sheesh! Do you guys have lives?????

And what's the dill with all the pickles????? :Wha:
Apparently, I don't. Have a life, I mean. So, the dill is that the pickles add a little spice. ;)

Yep, here I am back again. My ms needs more sex. I have a headache.
 

T42

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:roll:
James D. Macdonald said:
Writers Digest is like Brides magazine. Everyone gets a subscription to it once, but if you renew your subscription you ought perhaps to rethink your career.
:roll:
 

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CaoPaux said:
... If you see an ad for an "agent" or "publisher", cross 'em off your list! If you see one “looking for new writers” RUN!

Thank you. Carry on.
Any comments on the agents listed in April 2005 WD cover article on agents looking for new authors? Cover blurb: "ATTENTION NEW AUTHORS! 21 AGENTS who want YOUR book."

--Ken
p.s. Do any of those agents send authors to PA?
 
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T42

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Sher2 said:
Apparently, I don't. Have a life, I mean. So, the dill is that the pickles add a little spice. ;)

Yep, here I am back again. My ms needs more sex. I have a headache.
Well little missy if you have a headache then you don't need sex at all! Oops..I forgot and PA SUCKS so stay away from them if you have a headache!
 

Sher2

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T42 said:
Well little missy if you have a headache then you don't need sex at all!
*I* don't need it, the manuscript does. Actually, maybe I do need it. I'm running low on empirical experience. :ROFL:
 

victoriastrauss

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ResearchGuy said:
Any comments on the agents listed in April 2005 WD cover article on agents looking for new authors? Cover blurb: "ATTENTION NEW AUTHORS! 21 AGENTS who want YOUR book."

--Ken
Can you list the agents? I'd love to know who they are. In past articles like this, there've always been a few inaccuracies or undesirables.

Disclosure: I've written for WD, and may write for them again, but I fully acknowledge their shortcomings.

- Victoria
 

T42

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Sher2 said:
*I* don't need it, the manuscript does. Actually, maybe I do need it. I'm running low on empirical experience. :ROFL:
Hey a girl does what a girl has to do for the cause and PA makes me stink!
 

realitychuck

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Sheryl Nantus said:
slightly off topic and yet ON topic - don't all writing magazines do the same thing?

if I were to give up my subscription to WD due to their taking money from scammers and running the ads, would I not then have to give up Writer and the rest of them???
It's been a decade or so since I picked up a copy, but I got the impression that The Writer was generally better in this area than WD. It concentrated on finding better ways to improve your craft, as opposed to WD, which concentrated on finding better ways of marketing. I also recall fewer ads for vanity presses and the like.
 

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victoriastrauss said:
Can you list the agents? I'd love to know who they are. In past articles like this, there've always been a few inaccuracies or undesirables.

Disclosure: I've written for WD, and may write for them again, but I fully acknowledge their shortcomings.

- Victoria
It is a six+ page article, with details on each agency (names, genres, and much more). Even listing all of the agencies (more typing than I am willing to do here or than might be appropriate) would not give a fair picture.

--Ken
 
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