The Old Neverending PublishAmerica Thread (Publish America)

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Sheryl Nantus

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here's the link for that last post:

http://www.publishamerica.com/cgi-bin/pamessageboard/data/main/11511.htm
RE: Down but not out

take note, PA authors - here you've GOT a store wanting to ORDER copies and PublishAmerica can't/won't even deliver to THEM!!!

no wonder everyone ends up purchasing their own copies for resale - PA can't/won't deliver even to the stores who want to take a chance!

explain this one away, Infocenter...

good to see things haven't changed since the Ohio debacle - they couldn't deliver books then and they can't deliver them now.

good "marketing" department, boyos...

:Shrug:
 

Deleted member 42

Ed Williams said:
Kelly, I just checked and your posting is still up, but you did well enough to get the all-knowing "Infocenter" to respond - good for you! You know, I've read that response several times, the PAvidians really must have canned responses for the most common questions. "Okay, now, if they ask about the no-returns policy, plug this in." I honestly think they have something like that in place.

They must; not only do you repeatedly see the same copied-and-pasted text (grammar errors intact), even the line breaks are the same.
 

Jaws

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A Caution

The disclaimer below applies doubly to this post.

I strongly caution anyone who wishes to terminate their PA contract that PA has been known to give some… bad instructions about correspondence. Before you even think about consulting a lawyer, read the entire paragraph on notices (that's paragraph 30 for contracts since mid-December of 2003) and then see whether you have ever gotten a notice that itself complies with that paragraph changing PA's address to the "preferred" e-mail address. If you have, then make sure you have that handy. If you haven't, you get the fun of asking a lawyer about the meaning of the last clause of the contract's paragraph on notices and figuring out what it means. (Hint: It's not what PA's "junior staffer" thinks it means; and it should make a huge difference to any licensed attorney. A difference big enough for my dog to notice, who hasn't passed the bar exam here only because she keeps eating the exam book.)

Again, this is not legal advice for your situation. It is instead a necessary investigative step before seeking legal advice.
 

Uncarved

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Kevin Yarbrough said:
Ed, you're just jealous that you don't have a Purple Pony. Don't knock it until you rode it.:whip:


Oh Ed doesn't knock ANYTHING till he gets to ride her.... I mean, it.
:D ;) :Wha: :partyguy:
 

T42

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What is the Alantis Night that everyone is talking about and who loves our books Dee? I can't even get a reply or return phone call from Barnes and Noble or anyone else for that matter. They are NOT interested in PA books or the authors of the books!
Thanks for the welcome Ed.....
 

Jaws

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Medievalist said:
They must; not only do you repeatedly see the same copied-and-pasted text (grammar errors intact), even the line breaks are the same.
:Lecture: This is a classic example of how "boiler-room schemes" work. In the bad old days—the 1960s and 1970s—the staff in many telemarketing scams (prototypically, but not necessarily, stock and investment fraud) had huge three-ring binders with approved answers to anticipated questions. Over time, as more questions were asked and the answers that worked to keep the s/u/c/k/e/r/s/ o/n/ t/h/e/ h/o/o/k/ customers happy became clear, the binders became thicker and thicker. Favored employees were allowed to take their notebooks with them when they left; deceitful employees simply stole them.

Deceitful employees? In a boiler-room operation? Who'd imagine that? ;)

In any event, it looks like PA's electronic binders are getting a bit thicker. Somewhat like the employees.
 

Sher2

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Sheryl Nantus said:
explain this one away, Infocenter...

good to see things haven't changed since the Ohio debacle - they couldn't deliver books then and they can't deliver them now.

good "marketing" department, boyos...

Hell, they can't even deliver single copy orders. I know two people who ordered my book directly from PA in November and STILL haven't gotten them.
 

T42

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Sherry, same problem I'm having. Not only do they lie to me about the "issue of books not getting to a customer" they also lie to the people who have ordered them.
 

Sher2

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Dorrance

Isn't there a thread here somewhere on Dorrance Publishing? This perhaps belongs there, but I couldn't find it. And in a circuitous kind of way, what I'm about to say is relevant to PA.

I got a letter today from Dorrance. It says that one of their researchers "discovered" my (PA) manuscript registration with the LOC and forwarded my name to them as a possible candidate for publication with their company.

I know what Dorrance's reputation is, and I am extremely pissed off that people of this ilk are trawling public records, livid that because I got suckered by PA, they now consider me fair game. Duh! You can only fool this ol' girl once.
:mad:
 

James D. Macdonald

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Ah, Fame!

Fame! Glory! Travis has been interviewed again!

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

Dorrance didn't care that you'd published with PA. They send letters to anyone who copyrights their own book. They figure people who register their own copyrights are grass-green newbies with no sense and no connection to the industry: Fair game.

Lots of folks trawl the LOC copyright registrations looking for fresh fish.
 
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Renee

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Welcome T42, you'll like it here.


Ed- Why thank you dear man for delivering the message from Sky! Sky, if you're out there I'm alive and well, thank you for asking about me!

Kelly- My books at Amazon have dropped more than half their retail price too...but they are not in quantities of 50. Guess PA is trying like hell to make some money off of me...LMFAO..(dream on PA..you can kiss my..white ***!)

Zaz- Yes, next to my books your book could be the best one out there - I know cause I read it and it was cool!

:Lecture:
 
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Ed Williams

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Uncle Jim, I am still laughing...

...what a real kick the interview with the immortal Mr. T was! I love it! And I'm gonna tell you, right up front, that if there's ever a sequel I will be deeply, and I mean, deeply hurt if I can't contribute a chapter. God, what a scream!

Kevin, don't let the purple pony thing get next to you, it's gonna follow you around like a poor relative on Thanksgiving Day - use it to your advantage. Get some book groupie action goin', maybe Travis could let you know how he handles his more amorous female fans. I can see it now, you going to a movie premier in a pimp daddy hat with six or eight gorgeous babes in tow. Hey, if William Hung can make it, by God, so can the Purple Pony!

Tina, I closely resemble that remark you made about me, and I'm so mad that I'm slowly sipping on a combo Coke/Cherry ICEE to cool down. (Does this mean you won't go to Vegas with me now?)

ZAZ! Thank God you're back. That redhead sounds good, use lots of big words and have plenty of brain freezes close by if needed. I expect a very detailed report about your social activities over the weekend this coming Monday. Remember to double space.

Back to the Publish America front, take a gander at this recent posting:

Oh by the way, that store, B Dalton had no trouble ordering 2 ot 3 copies of my book before the book signing, but when they ordered a larger amount, there was a problem. That store orders books electronically from Ingrams. I asked her to order my book from PA but she told me the company would not let her do that.
Like Uncle Jim and others have said in the past, PA does everything it can to make it impossible for their authors to sell books in bookstores. Sad to say, they don't need those sales, the 50-100 to relatives and friends on the front end is easy money. Why work for more? The PA motto ought to be:

"HO for the easy green, and NO to the rest, it ain't our scene...."


devil-smiley-104.gif


Willem (on the right) congratulating a
PA author after the contract is signed...
 
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Sher2

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James D. Macdonald said:
Fame! Glory! Travis has been interviewed again!

Priceless! :Thumbs:

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

Dorrance didn't care that you'd published with PA. They send letters to anyone who copyrights their own book. They figure people who register their own copyrights are grass-green newbies with no sense and no connection to the industry: Fair game.

Lots of folks trawl the LOC copyright registrations looking for fresh fish.

I don't suppose they know where, or whether, I published, since I was left to my own devices to get the copyright paperwork done and filed. It just ticked me off that they'd assume I was desperate enough to jump on a vanity press's oh-so-magnanimous offer.
 

reph

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Jaws said:
:In the bad old days—the 1960s and 1970s—the staff in many telemarketing scams (prototypically, but not necessarily, stock and investment fraud) had huge three-ring binders with approved answers to anticipated questions.

Telemarketers, even at reputable firms, still proceed that way. A telemarketer has a list of prepared responses, called "arguments," to the prospect's likely questions. Suppose the prospect says "It's too expensive." The argument for that one might be a speech about "our easy payment plan."
 

Deleted member 42

James D. Macdonald said:
Lots of folks trawl the LOC copyright registrations looking for fresh fish.

Ph.D. dissertations are often copyrighted (there are specific dissertation copyright scams, by the way. If you're a recent filer, email me). Some schools assist in filing the copyright, and so they accumulate the forms and submit them in bulk--and some even pay the fee.

So there's a bunch of grad students now getting offers from "publishers," agents and market types right now. Like my friend contacted by an agent who says he is "excited" by her "recent novel" entitled "Enclitic Pronouns in Old Irish, Coptic, and Berber."

Yeah, that's gonna sell. Definitely gotta get an agent and a press agent.
 

Sher2

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tinasamuels said:
In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Hot Food 3.0 and Lingerie 7.7.

Hmmmm. I tried to deliberately crash Husband 1.0 but it seems to have a life of its own. They tell me I'll have to wipe my entire hard drive to get rid of it. ;)
 

victoriastrauss

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tinasamuels said:
INSTALLING "HUSBAND 1.0"

Not to be a poopiehead, but this is way off topic. This thread is vast enough without further stretching it with OT humor. I think there's an Office Party thread somewhere for this kind of fun stuff.

Thanks!

- The Schoolmarm
 

Whachawant

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Wow Jenna, love the site... very cool...

Nice to see P.A. is still the but end of everyones jokes.

Humour 7.0 --- uninstalled....:Cheers:
 
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Ed Williams said:
ZAZ! Thank God you're back. That redhead sounds good, use lots of big words and have plenty of brain freezes close by if needed. I expect a very detailed report about your social activities over the weekend this coming Monday. Remember to double space.

Ed, please view this office party thread for last Friday's installment: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=103754#post103754
I will add to it on the morrow or later when I sober up.

I have nothing to add about Punish America and apologize to Jim for yet again, creating a future indexing headache. :gone:
 

WhisperingBard

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PA Books on Amazon

I was just re-reading the thread on the public PA boards about the low-price PA books that are being sold by a private seller at greatly reduced rates. Is it possible that PA is doing this themselves as a way of selling more books but cutting out the authors? After all, if a "private" seller is "re-selling" PA books, the PA author doesn't receive any royalties on those transactions. (And if PA is the private seller and they are selling new books, even at $6, $7, or $8 per copy, they're still making a bundle.)

Too far-fetched?
 

Ed Williams

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You know, that's not a bad thought...

...think about it, PA gets the typical author to sell their 50-75 copies to their family and friends at full price. Then, they try selling off some copies at less than retail. They know that if they do this openly that their authors will raise holy hades, so they sell them off as "private sales." Only thing is, and I am thinking out loud as I write this, it would take someone a lot of time to set all that up, I would think. Still, though, something is intriquing about the idea, and I may very well be missing something. Any other opinions?
 
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