The Old Neverending PublishAmerica Thread (Publish America)

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Sarashay

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Let me know what you think of this...

I write FAQs about things for fun. I'm kind of weird that way.

So I wrote this:

http://sarashay.tripod.com/pafaq.html

(Sorry about the popups.) Let me know what y'all think, if I got any facts wrong or need to address a point I missed. Ta!
 

Gratian Gasparri

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And basic Latin too!

PA said:
...in a surprise media.

Uncle Jim said:
(Editing note: "Media" is plural. You meant to say "in a surprise medium." Agreement of number, guys. This is basic English.)

And it should be basic Latin too! Unfortunately, PA now has me second guessing my declensions.

Nom. Medium Media
Voc. Medium Media
Acc. Medium Media
Gen. Medii Mediorum
Dat. Medio Mediis
Abl. Medio Mediis

On another note, today I dropped by the Coles Bookstore at Billings Bridge in Ottawa. I spoke with a nice lady who appeared to be the store manager. She was extremely polite.

The store did not stock any PA books. She vaguely recalled having heard of PA, "but I don't think we order their books too often."
 
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kmm8n

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DreamWeaver said:
Help! Help! I've been darfed!!! :faint: Someone call a medic!

Does anyone get darfed in Atlanta Nights?

Kris

LMAO...I thought the same thing. It sounded like a SF term to me. Something Captain Kirk would say to Lt. Sulu..."Are we at darf speed yet?"
 

ResearchGuy

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Barnes & Noble field trip report

Feeling as though I should put a bag over my head to disguise my identity, I sidled up to the customer service desk at the Barnes & Noble in Citrus Heights, CA. I asked if the store carried any books published by PublishAmerica. The clerk dutifully tappy-tap-tapped at his keyboard, studied the screen, and said NO, none. My wife and I had to settle for buying three remaindered hardbacks, a remaindered trade paperback, and a couple of new mass market paperbacks from other publishers. Oh, and the music CD that was the one item we actually went into the store to buy.

FWIW.

--Ken
 
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Hi,

I was almost embarrassed to come back here, but here I am. I see some of you are still directly/indirectly insulting PA authors, so be it. It’s a free country.

Anyway, I was getting a headache trying to read all the posts on the subject of PA since I was last here, so, I’ll come to the point. I may have missed it, but could one of you please post the website that contains the NYT interview with PA? If it is not online, could you tell me the date of the issue?

I would greatly appreciate it.
 

ResearchGuy

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Passionate N.Y. Lady said:
...the website that contains the NYT interview with PA? ...
You probably saw that Uncle Jim posted a link. For the record, it is the book review section of the Sunday New York Times, April 24, 2005. You may need to register with www.nytimes.com to read the article online, but it is free and simple to do so. It is an interesting article, and I thought surprisingly positive and free of cynicism about print-on-demand as a publishing option. Some folks here may have taken issue with the point of view. As a member of a regional organization of small presses/self-publishers that includes some authors who have gone the POD route (iUniverse, Booklocker.com) in preference to genuine self-publishing, I thought it was a well done article, given the limitations of space (two pages). The paragraphs on PA comprised a small part of the article.

--Ken
 

MartyKay

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I went looking for "Lakota Moon" (mentioned in an earlier quote), and found someone else's book (Robyn Jackson), published elsewhere in 2003.

I also found a review site where someone was interviewing a PA author. This author (who states that they had published their second book with PA because "they did such a good job on the first one") gives some advice to new authors:

Send out query letters and sample chapters before your book is complete. Once you get a response from a publisher, investigate them and their practices. Make sure they fit both your needs and those of your book. Check out their promotion campaigns; compare their royalty payments to those of others. Then make an educated decision to sign on the bottom line or not. Don't get so caught up in the idea of being published that you don't do your homework. Look at what others say about the publishers that contact you but don't let their opinions make your decision because what is right for one person may not be for another.

This author also states that they had some interest from 3 other publishers... but PA was going to publish it quicker.

disinformation centre said:
We have hired PR staff that is doing nothing

Fixed the line. Darf.

From the same thread
"A book from Publish America is like the gift that keeps on giving!"
... like herpes?
 

Patricia

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ResearchGuy said:
Feeling as though I should put a bag over my head to disguise my identity, I sidled up to the customer service desk at the Barnes & Noble in Citrus Heights, CA.

Ken, when I got enough nerve to go into a B&N some miles from you, it was pleasant.

Me: "Do you have (my title by my name) published by PublishAmerica?"

Clerk checked computer database. "No, I'm sorry; we haven't got that one in stock."

Me: "Can it be special ordered?"

Clerk does more computer checking. "Yes, it can. May I place an order for you now?"

Me: While handing him my business card. "Not at this time, but thank you so much for checking that out for me."

Clerk looking impressed said, "Let us know if we can be of help in the future."

Poor kid -- I am sure he will find out there is more to it than that. I think I may be the only PA author in my immediate area and that store may not be as bothered with author request as maybe NY or some other large metro area. What about your area, Ken?
 
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Tilda

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Ann said:
AND -- Pierrette IS a Republican -- which she has also stated many times on the boards.

Oh, OK, I stand corrected. It was R*publican...ok, now I'll shut up on that:Ssh: and say:

Grow up, PA! You're acting like a bunch of hormonal teenagers. Get your act together and be professional. Then your Author Insult Team might get fewer "barely coherent" emails with "a tone" to reply.

New authors: do not sign up with PA...because YOU are worth it!
 

spacejock2

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Ed Williams said:
Finally, and this will sound totally crazy, but I swear I think that someone else is posting as "Pierrette" over on the PA boards. I might be totally wrong, but these new posts do not read at all like her old ones did. Someone messaged me about this earlier, so went over and took a look for myself - could there be a Pierrette imposter on the PA boards?

I suggested this would happen a couple of days ago, before she reappeared. Her first post had 2 typos and she (I think) signed herself as Pier. The writing style didn't read the same to me at all, but I figured the other person on the PA forum who is in email contact with the real 'P' would have said something if the real 'P' emailed to say she was being puppetised. (Unless the email contact has been banned too, or replaced by another Stepford Wife.)

Then I went for a coffee and a lie down, because it all got a bit too X-files.

Cheers
Simon
 

lindylou45

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Arkie said:
Dolan: The other thing that I complained about was the two options that are being given to the new people coming on board at PA. One option allows the author to have PA do the editing. The second option allows the author to edit their own work and if they agree to it, will get their book published as much as three months quicker. My comment was that when PA gives the author the option of editing his/her own work, and it is published without any pretense of professional review, then PA becomes simply another printer. That post got me booted and I notice that no one else on the PA board has brought it up again. And too, the fact that PA is now offering five free copies instead of two.

This option was not available to me. PA was supposed to edit my books, but I ended up editing them myself and still PA was able to include errors.

This "new policy" is simply a way for PA to explain why they need two years to publish your book as opposed to the one year they needed for those of us who signed contracts years ago.
 

James D. Macdonald

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MartyKay said:
I went looking for "Lakota Moon" (mentioned in an earlier quote), and found someone else's book (Robyn Jackson), published elsewhere in 2003.

The PA "Lakota Moon" isn't listed at Amazon, nor is it listed in PA's own bookstore.

What that means is, no matter how wonderful the local newspaper coverage might be, no one who was interested could find the book. By the time the book does come out (perhaps a year from now), any newspaper stories will have been long forgotten by the public, while the newspaper itself will consider the book old news.

You want to get your press releases to the newspaper a month before the book comes out so the announcements and reviews and articles and such hit the streets the same week the book hits bookstore shelves.

That author's efforts were wasted.
 

lindylou45

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DeadlyAccurate said:

Here's the letter it came up with for PublishAmerica:

My complaint about PublishAmerica
As much as some people may disagree with the following observations, I stand firmly by them. To start, I correctly predicted that PublishAmerica would lobotomize everyone caught thinking an independent thought. Alas, I didn't think it'd do that so effectively -- or so soon. If we are to make some changes here, then we must be guided by a healthy and progressive ideology, not by the unsympathetic and petty ideologies that PublishAmerica promotes. We can say that this is a problem long overdue for debate, and PublishAmerica can claim the opposite, and it won't make one bit of difference. Rhetoric aside, PublishAmerica is firmly convinced that things have never been better. Its belief is controverted, however, by the weight of the evidence indicating that I should note that as that last sentence suggests, you don't have to say anything specifically about PublishAmerica for it to start attacking you. All you have to do is dare to imply that we should raise the quality of debate on issues surrounding its rotten tirades. There is something grievously wrong with those peremptory nutters who tear down everything that can possibly be regarded as a support of cultural elevation. Shame on the lot of them!

There are two reasons which induce me to submit PublishAmerica's vituperations to a special examination: 1) Evidence exists to suggest that in a matter of days, PublishAmerica will order its vassals to rob from the rich but -- unlike Robin Hood -- give to filthy tightwads, and 2) PublishAmerica, having recently learned a smattering of scientific terminology, uses it to dissolve the bonds that join individuals to their natural communities. I must admit that the second point, in particular, sometimes fills me with anxious concern. Perhaps PublishAmerica received its information (or rather, misinformation) from late-night television programs and "B" movies. Even if we accepted PublishAmerica's words, so what? Does that mean that its decisions are based on reason? Of course not.

PublishAmerica has a natural talent for complaining. It can find any aspect of life and whine about it for hours upon hours. As blinkered as PublishAmerica's slogans are, if PublishAmerica believes that it can walk on water, then it's obvious why it thinks that we're supposed to shut up and smile when it says worthless things. I have the following advice for PublishAmerica: If you can't manage to be grateful for all the things we've done for you, at least have a little dignity, don't whine, and don't expect to be treated like a fragile doll just because you have a theatrically hypersensitive soul and delusions of entitlement. Think of all the lives that could be saved if we would just punish those who lie or connive at half-truths. Think of PublishAmerica's treatises as being the sum of two components: a wanton component that consists of PublishAmerica's desire to keep a close eye on those who look like they might think an unapproved thought and a passive-aggressive component that consists of everything else. We are concerned primarily with the former. The facts are in: We are in trouble when hitherto reputable people advertise "magical" diets and bogus weight-loss pills.



It's unbelievably close to the truth! :Thumbs:
 

lindylou45

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changling said:
Ed, I couldn't agree more. I can understand the frustration of being hounded by thousands of hope filled writers.

My point concerned the handling of the situation by this so called professional.

Kind of like P.A handles them.


I agree, Ken.

I was lucky, the bookstore manager who told me the truth about PA was very kind about it. I think he might have even owned the store. He took me back to his office to talk to me about the book, he didn't do it in front of his customers. I appreciated that a great deal.
 

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From the infocenter post:

Everyone knows the final outcome. The Goliath elite will be beaten, not by our slingshot but because we are darfing them.

And who amongst us hasn't experienced the excruciating pain of a damn good darfing?

Cheers
Simoni
 

DeadlyAccurate

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Ed Williams said:
"sells" instead of "sales"...

Making fun of Infocenter's mistakes is one thing, but it strikes me as quite impolite to make fun of the authors' misspellings. I've noticed more than a fair share of mistakes on this board, too.
 
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lindylou45

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Ed Williams said:
I responded that PA proudly has a non-return policy because all their books are of the highest quality content and the books would most likely be sold out than returned ...
...a drug test...


They've been dipping into the Kult Kool-Aid again, I see. :Wha:
 

SeanDSchaffer

Another cult-like mentality I only now thought of...

Has anyone here noticed what the PA posters on their boards do in response to 'Bashers?' Has anybody seen the average poster's responses over there to 'Bashers?'

I've noticed something that is gaining momentum over there, and I wanted to bring this up. When a group of people (such as ourselves) 'bash' PA -- for lack of a better word -- many of the PA people bash the bashers personally. It's interesting to take note of this. AW posters bash a company. PA posters bash AW posters on a personal level.

No, they don't say, "Sean D. Schaffer is a so-and-so and a such-and-such." That's not the personal level I'm referring to.

But has anyone who looks through the PA boards noticed that the pro-PA people over there say things like "Oh, those bashers, they're a bunch of losers! They don't know anything."

That's the kind of personal level I'm referring to.

This is not to say that we over here are somehow better than the posters over at PA's boards. Many of us were posters over at the PA boards, myself included. I'd be a hypocrite to imply that AW posters are better than PA posters. No, what I'm saying is simply that it's an interesting contrast between the two.

You'll notice my title line is 'Another cult-like mentality I only now thought of.' The reason for this is that, in a lot of cults, the members have the nasty tendency of treating those who doubt the validity of their cult like common imbeciles. "Only an idiot would believe our leaders are not perfectly right," they might say. Or, as an old saying used to go in the church I went to a long time ago, "I'm XXXX born and XXXX bred, and when I die I'll be XXXX dead."

I think this mentality is a major problem over there. They sound so much like 'If you don't belong to PA, you're nothing,' any more. That's something I think personally, as History will point out eventually, will be part of PA's downfall. I only hope their authors don't go down with them. There are a great many wonderful people over there; they've just been fooled by the cult-like mentality of their Publisher.

It's heart-breaking, to be honest.
 

lindylou45

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James D. Macdonald said:
Y'know, this is something that we can all do, every time we enter a bookstore over the next couple of weeks, and reporting back here on our results.

I've checked with all fifteen bookstores in my area. None of them accept PA books and all of the employees have heard of PA and have nothing nice to say about the publisher.
 

lindylou45

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Ed WilliamsI will be giving AW and [url="http://www.publishamericasucks.com/" said:
www.publishamericasucks.com[/url] some plugs Sunday, so hopefully that will help the cause a tad.

Yay, Ed!!! Thanks for plugging the site. I'll be sure to listen!!! :snoopy: :partyguy:
 

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Checked out my local B&N...

and I was too embarassed to ask the Customer Service Desk about PA books in stock, so I browsed through the local author and regional sections. I found:

1. No PA books. Go figure.

2. Three copies of a book published by Booksurge. Copyright was in 2003. The author is a local woman, and I know this because in one of three books, I found her business card. In all three of the books, she had inserted a one-third sheet of paper with quotes from reviews of the book by places I had never heard of.

3. Ten copies of a self-published book by a local author - BUT - the book a niche non-fiction book (info about hiking trails in my area). It happens to be in its third edition. I have a copy of the first edition, and it's wonderful and very informative and very reasonably priced. The same author also has another book out (info about hiking the trails about 200 miles from my area), and the store had five copies of that.

Maybe if I get up the nerve this weekend, I'll inquire about PA books.

Oh, and just in case a recently banned poster is still lurking, I found five different books by Terry McMillan and five or six different books by Eric Jerome Dickey - all in stock in a B&N in the middle of a pretty "white" town (we just don't have many minorities here).
 
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