The Old Neverending PublishAmerica Thread (Publish America)

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Dawno

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XThe NavigatorX said:
PA's bookstore doesn't work when you go to their site and search for things. How ridiculous is that?

However, their other (secondary? backup? hidden?) bookstore is very easily searchable. Too bad you can't get to it unless you type in the url directly. It even pulls up books based on blurb keywords.

http://www.publishamerica.com/bookstore/tek9.asp

I just went to their search on the first page and typed "eyes" and the book was the 4th one on the page. Hate to 'defend' PA in any way, really I do, but it wasn't that hard to find the book...
 

mreddin

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Dawno said:
And I think they're wrong. three other booksellers contradict them on the same book -

edit: PA lists it at 312 pages

Booksense.com says 312 pages as well. That's one heck of an error...
 

mdin

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Dawno said:
I just went to their search on the first page and typed "eyes" and the book was the 4th one on the page. Hate to 'defend' PA in any way, really I do, but it wasn't that hard to find the book...

Funny. I searched for the exact title and then isbn, and it couldn't find anything.
 

Dawno

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If I was a PA author I'd start smelling an Amazon conspiracy :D And here we thought PA had gone to Washington State to meet with Amazon to work out 'marketing issues' (didn't I read that upthread somewhere?)

Looks like there are more issues yet to work out, guys....
 

Memphis Ed

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Google

A quick Google of "Tania Grab " comes up with a headline "Indians grab half the booty in Teheran". This is real and has a hidden code meaning that I can't figure out.

I simply cannot get enough of this stuff.
 

Liam Jackson

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I'll be damned, Reph. Coulda' swore I did. Thanks for the catch.
 

mdin

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I couldn't help but notice this on the Erica House website:

PROFIT TODAY from our introductory offer for Self-publishers. Send us an e-mail. We will pay you an unusually high seventy-five percent of the sales price for every sold copy of your book.

Example: if your book sells at $8.95, you earn $6.71. If your book sells at $12.95, you earn $9.71. We will send you statements and payments every sixty days.

Way back in '99 they could send royalty checks every other month, and they paid 75% of the net. Some of PA's authors would've been better off with this deal, even if they did spend $8,000 just to get started.
 

spacejock2

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reph said:
I'm beginning to see why these guys are failed authors. If a lighthouse symbolizes anything, it symbolizes Don't Bump into the Rocks.

And then there were the wreckers of old, evildoers who set up lanterns to mimic lighthouses in order to lure passing ships ONTO the rocks. After the smash, they'd go down to the thundering surf and pick over the wreckage while the helpless crew & passengers drowned nearby.

Apt.
 

Ed Williams

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I must be in the Twilight Zone...

....Brother Ed referencing "booty," and Tania Grab? Laugh all y'all want to, but a few years ago I had a close relationship with her sister, Goose U. Grab, so I would appreciate it if y'all would show her a little more respect....

I think a sojourn over to the Merry Olde Land of Poz is in order - and what will we find over therest? Hmmm, this:

Any little thing to grab the attention of the public is a boost for an author or the author's writing.
So, if we:

1. Go and pee on a squad car in front of the police department in our hometowns, get arrested, then get in the papers, it's a boost for us and our writing?

2. Fake our deaths for the 6,542nd time, that's a boost for us and our writing?

3. Pour chocolate sauce all over ourselves, declare ourselves art, and then roll around on at ant hill at a busy little league park then that's a boost for us and our writing?

Believe it or not - this was not a quote from BJO!***

***Private message me if you don't know who BJO is...
 

AnneMarble

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reph said:
I'm beginning to see why these guys are failed authors. If a lighthouse symbolizes anything, it symbolizes Don't Bump into the Rocks.

It makes me think of the spooky ghosts in the movie "The Fog." I can picture Adrienne Barbeau being chased onto the roof...
:scared:

It looks like a Freudian slip, the publisher putting a symbol on their page that shouts "Stay away from us!" Or maybe it just looks Freudian. ;)
 

SeanDSchaffer

Any apologies due on my part...

I humbly offer, to everyone here, for whatever I may have said over the last year-and-a-half that may have offended any of you.

Honestly, I don't remember everyone whom I have offended. I have a nasty tendency to harbor a very big mouth sometimes, and I could have said any number of things about any number of people. This is why I don't remember exactly everyone I have offended.

However, I do seem to remember something about a former opinion about Mr. Kuzminski that I would like to recant. I didn't know half of Dave's good intentions toward fellow writers until I joined this site a few months ago. So Dave, I humbly apologize for anything derogatory or otherwise insulting I may have said or even considered saying, about you.

The same goes for James D. Macdonald, who for some reason I remember thinking badly of at one time. Again, my memory is a bit hazy, but I think an apology is due there, too, for which I offer mine.

And of course, I remember having somewhere said something bad about Jenna Glatzer. For this I offer my apologies as well. I also offer her my thanks for setting up this site for writers and aspiring writers around the world.

And some others I remember having said bad things about include, but are probably not limited to:

CaoPaux
reph
Stormie
Bonnie Gibson


Since this thread is constantly talking about PA authors apologizing, I'll gladly do it. If I have missed out on others I have offended, or if I already have apologized for these things in the past, please forgive my oversight.

Now if you will all excuse me, I haven't been paying too heavy an attention to this thread for awhile, and thus I have a few pages of reading to do.

Talk to you all later.
 

Gratian Gasparri

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robeiae said:
Look at the awesome reviews Meiners' book received in 1999:

[snip]

Dr. David Wolf, PhD,

[snip]

Very specific, informative and insightful...

Actually, it is much more insightful than you might think. It is considered very poor form among legitimate academics to use "Dr. X, PhD". Depending upon the context and one's preference, you either sign off "Dr. X" or "X, PhD." It is generally considered amateurish to cite both.
 
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Susan Gable

Susan Gable said:
PNYL, an advance is always "charged" against the royalties due to the author. All that means is that the author must earn more than the advance before they get any more money. Tracy won't end up owing them anything - advances don't have to be repaid because a book doesn't sell well. The only time a writer has to repay an advance is when they breach the contract.

Susan G.

Hi, Ms. Gable

Thank you for responding. I have to admit, I did not know that about advances. Again, thank you for clearing that up for me.
 

SeanDSchaffer

Well, I'm caught up now

I don't know if this information will be useful or not, but on the issue of page count, price and word count for PA books, my own work is 259 pages long, $21.95 retail price, and roughly 91,000 words.

Again, I don't know if this information will be useful or not, but I hope it will be.

(I seem to remember, BTW, someone saying upthread that PA compressed their book to meet a small page count. For a 91,000 word manuscript, how many pages does that usually translate into with commercial publishers?)

Oh, and my ISBN is 1413723543 for any reference point you all might need.
 

mreddin

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SeanDSchaffer said:
work is 259 pages long, $21.95 retail price, and roughly 91,000 words.

(I seem to remember, BTW, someone saying upthread that PA compressed their book to meet a small page count. For a 91,000 word manuscript, how many pages does that usually translate into with commercial publishers?)
.

I've read that the average is 250 words per page, that figure appears in these forums and on other websites. It is a rough estimate, depending on how the manuscript is typeset. However, if 250 is about average then your book would have been 364 pages. I would not say this is good or bad, the important thing is that the text is clear and readable by the target audience. Just based on what we know about PA, I'd suspect some "compression" beyond normal standards occured but the best way to tell is to compare your book with others found from a regular publisher. Compare the text side by side and I think you will have your answer.

Mike
 

SeanDSchaffer

mreddin said:
I've read that the average is 250 words per page, that figure appears in these forums and on other websites. It is a rough estimate, depending on how the manuscript is typeset. However, if 250 is about average then your book would have been 364 pages. I would not say this is good or bad, the important thing is that the text is clear and readable by the target audience. Just based on what we know about PA, I'd suspect some "compression" beyond normal standards occured but the best way to tell is to compare your book with others found from a regular publisher. Compare the text side by side and I think you will have your answer.

Mike


Understood, Sir. Thank you kindly for the information.
:Thumbs:
 

reph

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SeanDSchaffer said:
And some others I remember having said bad things about include, but are probably not limited to:

[...]
reph
[...]
[...]
Me? Really? I don't remember it. This may be a case of mistaken identity.
 

James D. Macdonald

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What's up with this one? ISBN: 1413728529
And this one? ISBN: 1413734375

-------------------

250 words/page is for double-spaced manuscripts in Courier with 1" margins. The number of words per page in a typeset book depends on a lot of things. Essentially the book's designer can make 'em pretty much anything she wants.
 
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Liam Jackson

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And some others I remember having said bad things about include, but are probably not limited to:...

Probably me, Sean. Of course, you can make amends by putting the cost of my drinks on your tab should we ever have an AW convention. ;)

(You do realize I'm just trying to lighten the mood, right? :Thumbs: )
 

Dawno

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James D. Macdonald said:
What's up with this one? ISBN: 1413728529
And this one? ISBN: 1413734375
1413728529:One Lucky Goose, 31 pages, retail 17.95
[font=verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]1413734375: Adventures at Ja-Mar Farms: Pup-Pup, Padluck and PIG Take a Walk in the Wet Woods 47 pages, retail 19.95

yep, two very expensive children's books and 'not available' anywhere but the publisher's webstore.

sad.

edit: I think, Liam, that people are forgetting this post...

ps. I'm sorry..
.
[/font]
 
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James D. Macdonald

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I've been looking at the prices and pagecounts of PA books. My sample is every book listed as being published in Feb '05, per Amazon.

It's possible that Amazon's database has errors. I believe that they'll average out. It's possible I've made some typoes. If so, I'm sorry. It's not like I'm getting paid to do this.

So>>>> First bits of info.

If your book has 48-65 pages, the price will be $12.95.
66-105 pages, the price will be $14.95.
106-119 pages, the price will be $16.95.
120-129 pages, the price will be $17.95.
130-250 pages, the price will be $19.95.
251-277 pages, the price will be $21.95.
280-440 pages, the price will be $24.95.
450-475 pages, the price will be $29.95.
525 pages, the price is $34.95.


(Note: Some books with lower pagecounts have higher prices.)
 
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SeanDSchaffer

reph said:
Me? Really? I don't remember it. This may be a case of mistaken identity.


I thought I had said something, although for all I know I very well could have been mistaken. My memory has been kind of flaky, lately. (Medications, I'm pretty sure.)
 

James D. Macdonald

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Pages per book:

Mean: 154
Median: 144
Mode: 48
Standard Deviation: 87
Range: 494
Minimum: 31
Maximum: 525

Price per book:

Mean $18.21
Median $19.95
Mode $19.95
Standard Deviation $3.65
Range $22
Minimum $12.95
Maximum $34.95

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

I notice that they have gotten the mean (average) price per book down a bit, to $18.21. They did this in a very simple way: 162 of February's offerings (35%) have fewer than a hundred pages, and are being offered for $12.95-$14.95 each, making them very expensive pamphlets, but bringing down the average price of all books.

I believe this bit of trickery is due to our efforts, as we point out the high average prices of PA books. They're trying this dodge to lower the average and avoid the criticism.

The 48 page books cost them $1.54 each to print. They're selling retail for $12.95. A bookstore's 40% discount (if ordered direct from PA) would bring the net price down to $7.77. The author would get $0.62 in royalties, leaving $7.15. Subtract printing cost, and PA gets $5.61 in profit from each sale.

That's if a bookstore buys it. If the author buys the book herself, PA's profit is even greater.
 
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mdin

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I don't know what it means, if anything, but I think an increasing portion of these new releases are poetry, hence the lower page counts.
 
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