The Old Neverending PublishAmerica Thread (Publish America)

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WhisperingBard

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Sounds like PA was determined to put themselves above themselves...

Which is like being beside yourself in a way.
Ah, heck, I can't give you any more points right now. But I wanted to! lol

(I can't think of anything to say about PA at the moment, so this post will have to stand on its own...as a tribute to Laura, my favorite librarian.) :D
 

victoriastrauss

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CaoPaux said:
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to run a few through either the brand-spanking new AW Agent/Publisher Index *koff* and/or P&E, and report yer findings. ;)
Everyone, check out The Index. Cao has done a fantastic job. Give rep points!

- Victoria
 

T42

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victoriastrauss said:
Everyone, check out The Index. Cao has done a fantastic job. Give rep points!

- Victoria
He already has mine! Good Lord it is amazing and wonderful. He put so much work into that! Thanks Cao! :Clap:
 

NancyMehl

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Writer's Digest....

Don't cut me off. This will tie into PA.

I was a subscriber for years (and years). Then, I sold an article to WD. They paid me around $550.00 for it - and gave me a date for publication. That date came and went.

I wrote to them.

Then, I was given another date. That came and went.

I wrote to them.

I was told my article would be in a special year end edition. (Can't remember the name of the pub.) I was faxed a form to sign and return saying that they would actually be printing my article in WD AND the other publication. I would be paid more money. How exciting!

An e-mail came. No, it would only be in the year end edition.

I waited.

Shortly before the year end edition hit the stands, I received an package from UPS. Inside was one badly wrinkled and ripped copy of this year end special magazine - without my article.

I wrote to them.

Oh, no! They'd left it out. It was an accident! They were sorry! I could have all the rights back so it could be published somewhere else! (Huh?) I declined. Told them I'd wait until they ran it.

Great! They said. Your article is perfect for our "Inkwell" feature at the beginning WD.

"Great!" I said.

I waited.

I wrote to them.

The Inkwell editor is looking it over. He will be using it soon, I was told.

I waited.

I wrote to them.

I got a rather nasty reply about how they would use it if and when they felt like it. Perhaps it wasn't really an important topic for many writers. (Stealing domain names isn't important???? Perhaps someone should contact the Authors' Guild and tell them it isn't important. They might be surprised by that opinion.)

I stopped waiting.

I stopped writing.

I stopped renewing my subscription.

The PA link? I've always wondered if they treated me with so little respect because my book was published by PA.

Guess I'll never know.

Nancy
 

Sher2

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Ed Williams said:
...have y'all noticed that their website looks like nothing has been updated in quite some time? They've not changed their "new releases" link in close to two weeks now, and nothing else appears to have changed. The longest running internet fossil in history is still there, the "Jamie Farr on Hollywood Squares" blurb. Maybe, the New Three Stooges have decided that the best way to fight back is to bore all of us picklers to death! If that happens, they'll hope we'll move on to another scam and leave them to their gloomy and nefarious dealings...
This is so unlike our favorite non-POD that it strikes me as ominous. If I were the new partners, I'd be keeping a close eye on the whereabouts of the Stipid 3 and the corporate checkbook. Or ... maybe they are trying to bore us to death.
 

Crystal Rivers

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Okay, on the subject of PA. You see, I uh...have this friend, who is having a problem with them, and uhhh, this friend, uhh, wants to know the best thing to do if you were uhh me, I mean, her.

Let's just say that my uhh friend, wants to know what to do first since PA (a.k.a. P-on-U) is acting as if my friend is not even there. They ignore her many many pleas to settle a matter. What course of action should I, I mean, my friend, take first? She'd like to call the IRS, CIA, FBI, the President, the BBB, Attorney General, the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force, but who or what should she do first?

Where is Superman when you need him?
EmoteWha.gif


Many thanks.
Crystal
 

Sassenach

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Nancy:

Did you at least get a kill fee?

I pitched them some ideas a while back, and the response was very snotty, fwiw.
 

PVish

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Just wondering...

Has anyone ever downloaded one of the old 19th century novels from Bartleby.com, done a search and replace for all the names ("Silas Marner" might become "Siggy Manfred," "Eppie" might become "Britney Sue," etc.), then search and replaced place names ("Ravelow" might become "Cincinnati"), then certain verbs ("found" might become "floundered"), etc. until the plot was sort of there, but all the characters and settings and some actions had changed?

And, if so, has anyone maybe submitted this PAthetic literary attempt anywhere to see if it might resonate with a publisher?

Just wondering...
 

Sher2

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Crystal Rivers said:
Okay, on the subject of PA. You see, I uh...have this friend, who is having a problem with them, and uhhh, this friend, uhh, wants to know the best thing to do if you were uhh me, I mean, her.

Let's just say that my uhh friend, wants to know what to do first since PA (a.k.a. P-on-U) is acting as if my friend is not even there. They ignore her many many pleas to settle a matter. What course of action should I, I mean, my friend, take first? She'd like to call the IRS, CIA, FBI, the President, the BBB, Attorney General, the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force, but who or what should she do first?
Crystal, if you can't get the CIA interested, do what Victoria just suggested. It's a good first step.:)
 

Crystal Rivers

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Sher2 said:
Crystal, if you can't get the CIA interested, do what Victoria just suggested. It's a good first step.
smile.gif

Thanks, Sher. I'm sure she'll appreciate it. Was Phase I effective in helping authors?

Crystal
 

Sher2

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PVish said:
Has anyone ever downloaded one of the old 19th century novels from Bartleby.com, done a search and replace for all the names ("Silas Marner" might become "Siggy Manfred," "Eppie" might become "Britney Sue," etc.), then search and replaced place names ("Ravelow" might become "Cincinnati"), then certain verbs ("found" might become "floundered"), etc. until the plot was sort of there, but all the characters and settings and some actions had changed?

And, if so, has anyone maybe submitted this PAthetic literary attempt anywhere to see if it might resonate with a publisher?

Just wondering...
I'm not sure that such a wickedly resonant piece of literature has been undertaken ... but it wouldn't surprise me. Which does not preclude its being done over and over again. Hey, it's not like they're reading the darn submissions. If anyone wanted to pursue it, far be it from me to attempt to disabuse them of the notion.;)
 

T42

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Crystal Rivers said:
Okay, on the subject of PA. You see, I uh...have this friend, who is having a problem with them, and uhhh, this friend, uhh, wants to know the best thing to do if you were uhh me, I mean, her.

Let's just say that my uhh friend, wants to know what to do first since PA (a.k.a. P-on-U) is acting as if my friend is not even there. They ignore her many many pleas to settle a matter. What course of action should I, I mean, my friend, take first? She'd like to call the IRS, CIA, FBI, the President, the BBB, Attorney General, the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force, but who or what should she do first?

Where is Superman when you need him?
EmoteWha.gif


Many thanks.
Crystal
PublishAmerica~Helping Authors To Lower Their Standards For Years!

Contact the IRS Fraud Department toll free at 1-800-829-0433

 

James D. Macdonald

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Sassenach said:
Speaking of the Pulitzer, there's a thread on the PA boards in which the [so-called] nominee announced he didn't win.

In the normal course of things it's the publisher, not the author, who supplies the four copies and the application fee.

This thing with the Pulitzer drives me fairly frantic. You see it all over the vanity-published world.

Let's look at a couple of things.

Here on the PA board:
The WA post article left out many facts, and made errors in the information that they did share. One fact that was ignored is that presently a Publish America author, who wrote [book title], is nominated for the Pultzer Prize. (Sorry to hear that the Writers Guild will not accept a Pultzer Prize nominated author).

Title deleted so as to avoid embarassing that author (Ed, would you confirm that same author was told by the B&N buyer that his book would not be stocked by B&N?)

Writers's Guild and Washington Post apparently know that all it takes to get to the place this author reached was fifty bucks and four copies.

Shoot-fire, boy, cheap at twice the price if it'd buy you membership in the Writer's Guild and stocking in B&N stores.

But what does the Pulitzer committee itself say?

The #1 answer in their FAQ:

Nominated Finalists are selected by the Nominating Juries for each category as finalists in the competition. The Pulitzer Prize Board generally selects the Pulitzer Prize Winners from the three nominated finalists in each category. The names of nominated finalists have been announced only since 1980. Work that has been submitted for Prize consideration but not chosen as either a nominated finalist or a winner is termed an entry or submission. No information on entrants is provided.

Our chum should have called his book an "entry" or a "submission." "Nominated" wasn't the word he was searching for.

Since 1980 the nominated finalists and winners in novels were published by:

Alfred A. Knopf
Amistad/HarperCollins
Atheneum
Atlantic Monthly
Bantam Books
Crown
Delacorte
Doubleday
Dutton
Farrar, Straus
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
G.P. Putnam's Sons
Harper & Row
HarperCollins
HarperFlamingo
Henry Holt
Houghton Mifflin
Little, Brown
Louisiana State U. Press
Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin
Nan A. Talese/Doubleday
Pantheon Books
Random House
Scribner
Simon & Schuster
The Ecco Press/HarperCollins
Viking
W.W. Norton


Not one self-published book among them. Not one vanity-published book among them. Not one PublishAmerica book among them.

You're looking for a Pulitzer? Run with the big dogs. There's your list of where to submit your novel. You can't get published there? Why not? If your book is Pulitzer quality, you can get published there. If it isn't -- dude, don't come crying to me.

(And here's a hint: Folks who are published by any of those folks don't have one bit of problem getting shelved by Barnes & Noble.)

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

How 'bout you, Uncle Jim? Any of those places ever publish you?

Yeah, as a matter of fact. I've been published by one or two of those guys. And I'm nobody. What the hey's stopping you?

Work on your craft. Nothing else will get you where you want to be.
 
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reph

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What will we see as PA's next promotion to authors? "Buy four copies of your book to send to the Pultzer [sic] Prize Committee"?
 

James D. Macdonald

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Ed Williams said:
...have y'all noticed that their website looks like nothing has been updated in quite some time?

Maybe the guy who was in charge of updating the website said "Bugger all this for a lark!" and got an honest job playing piano in a house of ill repute....
 

Ed Williams

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Uncle Jim......

James D. Macdonald said:
Title deleted so as to avoid embarassing that author (Ed, would you confirm that same author was told by the B&N buyer that his book would not be stocked by B&N?)

Writers's Guild and Washington Post apparently know that all it takes to get to the place this author reached was fifty bucks and four copies.

Shoot-fire, boy, cheap at twice the price if it'd buy you membership in the Writer's Guild and stocking in B&N stores.
...it's the same guy, he was basically read the riot act by the Southern Regional Buyer for Barnes and Noble. I won't go into what all he said to this PA author, but he left no doubt as to how he felt about PA books, and he strongly made the point that he would sponsor no booksignings for PA authors in any of the Atlanta stores.

Know what got me the most about this whole situation? I felt sorry for the author involved, he was led to the slaughter by the lack of information provided to him by his publisher regarding matters like these...
 
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JennaGlatzer

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Hmm... far as I know, that's Nikki Allen who does their webmastering over there (and is the head of the ordering department). Nikki's been there for some time. I do hope she's found a better job opportunity.
 

James D. Macdonald

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Crystal Rivers said:
She'd like to call the IRS, CIA, FBI, the President, the BBB, Attorney General, the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force, but who or what should she do first?

All of the above.

Seriously, hard-copy letters stating calmly and with detail (times/dates/places/dollar amounts/quotes) to the BBB, the IRS, the FTC, the Maryland Attorney General, her state's Attorney General, her congressman, the Governor of Maryland, and her own state's governor. Don't forget her local newspaper, the consumer reporter at her local TV station, and anyone else she can think of. Rot like this spreads in the dark.

Then she should step smartly to a phonebooth and call a lawyer who specializes in publishing/intellectual property.

You know, and I know, and the guy standing over there knows, that Willem, Larry and the PODettes are dirty as sin. They'll go down, and they'll go down hard (and the day they start their prison terms I'll send 'em a fruit basket, by Gad, so I will). All that's required is enough people telling their simple, truthful stories in public.

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

Do you know what took down Al Capone? Yes, it was the IRS, but what made that case possible?

It was Eliot Ness smashing Capone's stills. He wasn't looking for evidence. There was already enough evidence to convict Capone a dozen times over. Smashing the stills stopped Capone's revenue stream. Without the cash he couldn't buy cops, buy lawyers, buy judges, buy jurymen, buy politicians. Without money the law could finally be brought to bear on him honestly.

Our speaking the truth here is the same as Ness smashing Capone's stills. We're stopping the revenue stream from new, naive writers. That's what'll bring down the house of cards on Church Street.

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

Personal for any PA employees who are reading here: Get your resumes in order and start looking elsewhere. You don't want to be there when the whole place implodes.

Personal for PA authors who are reading here: Get your contracts canceled now, before the place collapses. Afterward your rights may be tied up in court for years, and that whole time your book won't be available anywhere.

Personal for Willem, Larry, Miranda, and the PODettes: I'll come to your trial, folks. That'll be me, sitting in the front row taking notes. I'll write the book -- and publish it. And I mean it about the fruit basket.
 
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Sher2 said:
I'm not sure that such a wickedly resonant piece of literature has been undertaken ... but it wouldn't surprise me. Which does not preclude its being done over and over again. Hey, it's not like they're reading the darn submissions. If anyone wanted to pursue it, far be it from me to attempt to disabuse them of the notion.;)


I'm rather fond of this idea. Some might even say it fits my specialty like a glove. Or a gauntlet.
 
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mdmkay

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Like any PA author who woke up to the fact they got screwed, I'm still trying to do the right thing and work within my contract which says I have the right to arbitration. Have you heard of anyone who had accomplished bringing PA into arbitration, and if so, how the heck did they do it?? I've written numerous requests for information on &/or to receive instructions about arbitration. So far I've been told only that I probably should go to AAA in NY. What the heck does that mean???????
 

JennaGlatzer

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Mdm: Ask these folks (AAA = American Arbitration Association): http://www.adr.org/

Maybe show them your contract and they can tell you what to do next.

I've never heard of a PAer who's actually gone the arbitration route, but I do hope you go through with it and let us know how it goes!

Jim, can I sit next to you at the trial? I'll bring extra pens, and a distractingly large hat.
 
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