The New Never-Ending PublishAmerica Thread (NEPAT)

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DeadlyAccurate

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so could i purchase one or two for myself then say i'm done or would i get in trouble?

Unless your contract specifies a certain number of copies you're required to purchase, no, there's not much they could do at that point.

if they said it's in the contract that I have to promote it can't I say it's in there that you have to too?
They use the words "at their discretion" for a very good reason. That gives them an out to do anything they don't feel like doing. And they never seem to feel like doing any marketing or promotion on their authors' behalves.

basically i'd like to get a few copies for myself then get the contract voided so i could pursue other options.
You will have used up first publishing rights, so your other options are few and far between, especially regarding legitimate commercial publishing options. Don't count on being able to cancel the contract. Sometimes they do it; sometimes they don't. But if you give them your money, they may hold onto the book in the hopes of getting even more cash out of you.

To be honest, your best option is to forget about this book and write a new, better one and try to place that with a commercial publisher. Many, many of us have books that never sold, and in that you're no different. They're the books we wrote to learn how to write novels.
 

James D. Macdonald

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I wanted to go with PA because I wanted my book published without me spending a penny.

And so it has been! But if you want to see a copy you're going to have to spend a whole lot of pennies.



I just signed the contract friday but now i feel like i made a huge mistake. anyway out of this for me? There's a lot of talk on here about them putting out a shotty product but in my contract it said it would be something we were both happy with, so if it's not and i let them know about it is that a breach of contract on their part?

Good luck with that. Does the word 'happy' actually appear in the contract?

Rather, like I've advised others, tell them that you won't renew the contract in seven years' time, add their email address to your kill file, and forget they exist.
 

Gillhoughly

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i should just have to spend what the book cost shouldn't i? there is nothing i'm supposed to have to pay for.

The book "costs" them about 3.00 to print. They will likely quadruple that price to sell you a copy.

Your "editor" (a minimum wages college kid) spent about 5 minutes running it through the spell checker--if they bothered.

The cover artist will spend another 10 minutes picking out a stock cover and slapping on your name and the title. Chances are good one or both may be spelled wrong. (It's happened.)

So your book costs them *maybe* a whopping 5 bucks to produce what with labor costs and the paper.

You won't get any authors' copies. They stopped doing that.

You'll have to buy a copy to hold in hand, and it will be a lot more than five bucks + added postage.

Every week expect to get emails urging you to buy more copies to "have on hand". The only marketing they ever do is aimed at you the writer, not bookstores or libraries.

I would suggest you try contacting them right away, tell them you've changed your mind, that the book needs massive revisions, that there's been a family disaster and you can't promote it, whatever, and ask to cancel your contract before they proceed any farther.

Keep in mind that they cruise this board and might connect your name here with your book.

You may have to repeat this a lot until they give in.

Keep it simple, don't mention you heard bad stuff about them. Sometimes they will withhold release out of pure spite. Just state that you need to have the contract canceled, there's no way you can market/promote the book, you don't want to buy any copies.

You might luck out and get released. They don't want to waste time on writers they view as "deadbeats."

Otherwise, you write that book off and do another one and never use them again.

As stated, you'll have a better, lower cost book by taking it to Kinkos or using Lulu.
 

CaoPaux

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i should just have to spend what the book cost shouldn't i? there is nothing i'm supposed to have to pay for.
Are they registering your copyright for you? If not, that's $35 you'll have to pay, minimum.
 

tlblack

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Depending on the number of pages in your book, the average PA price per book is $25 plus $3.99 or more per book for shipping. That price is for books of around 150-250 pages; more pages equals higher prices.

If you'll notice my avatar picture, (MY PA books) you'll notice pages falling out of one, it's cover curling outward and also blurry. That orange smudge you see across the front is supposedly a fall colored tree. This book was in that condition when it came out of the box, but PA wouldn't replace it as they had a no returns policy. It also isn't the only copy that had loose pages. PA's "editor's" added more errors than my original manuscript has as well as seeming to loose parts of the text. Any and all attempts by me to contact PA regarding the books shoddy condition were either ignored or denied.
 

DaveKuzminski

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If you have a spare copy, send one to the Maryland Attorney General and explain how it arrived in that condition and how the publisher won't back the product.
 

dvbone

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As someone who worked there, let me tell you what your book went through:

Minimum wage desk grunt (such as me) dumps your MS into an Adobe InDesign template. It will get a spelling and grammar check. To meet our daily quota, I and others in the Text Department usually just hit "change all" and "accept all changes". Maybe not even that. All that matters are that our daily quota is met.

Then onto cover design where it gets the same treatment. Just use a keyword search in the database (if you book has vampires in it, they search for something close). Add some fancy text, done. Takes ten to fifteen minutes top.

Your book doesn't matter. All that matters is getting it to press as fast as possible.

You want to hold your book? Go to Lulu.com. You'll get a better looking book with more control over the process and it will be cheaper. Much, much cheaper.

Everyone at PA realizes within their first day of work there that PublishAmerica is just a fast food printing joint, not a publisher. You put your heart and soul into your novel. PA puts nothing into it. Jump dump it into a PDF form and sent it to the press. Then it's onto the next one. And the next one, Hundreds per month.
 

tlblack

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As someone who worked there, let me tell you what your book went through:

Minimum wage desk grunt (such as me) dumps your MS into an Adobe InDesign template. It will get a spelling and grammar check. To meet our daily quota, I and others in the Text Department usually just hit "change all" and "accept all changes". Maybe not even that. All that matters are that our daily quota is met.

Then onto cover design where it gets the same treatment. Just use a keyword search in the database (if you book has vampires in it, they search for something close). Add some fancy text, done. Takes ten to fifteen minutes top.

Your book doesn't matter. All that matters is getting it to press as fast as possible.

You want to hold your book? Go to Lulu.com. You'll get a better looking book with more control over the process and it will be cheaper. Much, much cheaper.

Everyone at PA realizes within their first day of work there that PublishAmerica is just a fast food printing joint, not a publisher. You put your heart and soul into your novel. PA puts nothing into it. Jump dump it into a PDF form and sent it to the press. Then it's onto the next one. And the next one, Hundreds per month.

And that says a lot about PubliSHAMerica's "traditional" publishing.

Oh and Dave: :D
 

CatSlave

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As someone who worked there, let me tell you what your book went through:

Minimum wage desk grunt (such as me) dumps your MS into an Adobe InDesign template. It will get a spelling and grammar check. To meet our daily quota, I and others in the Text Department usually just hit "change all" and "accept all changes". Maybe not even that. All that matters are that our daily quota is met.

Then onto cover design where it gets the same treatment. Just use a keyword search in the database (if you book has vampires in it, they search for something close). Add some fancy text, done. Takes ten to fifteen minutes top.

Your book doesn't matter. All that matters is getting it to press as fast as possible.

You want to hold your book? Go to Lulu.com. You'll get a better looking book with more control over the process and it will be cheaper. Much, much cheaper.

Everyone at PA realizes within their first day of work there that PublishAmerica is just a fast food printing joint, not a publisher. You put your heart and soul into your novel. PA puts nothing into it. Jump dump it into a PDF form and sent it to the press. Then it's onto the next one. And the next one, Hundreds per month.
Thank you for sharing.

Do you know who is wearing the Infocenter hat these days on the PAMB?
 
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tlblack

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Yes, welcome dvbone and may I ask just how many manuscripts make up a daily quota? I'm sure others would like to know as well since PA seems to print them out 100 or so per week.
 

Willowmound

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I don't know about the states but here in the UK it is £8.000 for the services of a vanity publisher or become a celeb.

Which is patently untrue.

The statement is so ridiculous, in fact, that I'd worry for your mental health, if only I cared enough.
 

Eirin

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You can buy my PA book anywhere in the world and it cost me nothing.

Yes, yes, but how many have you actually sold? To people who are complete strangers to you, I mean. People who, without any prior knowledge of you and your work, found the book online and thought it looked interesting enough to buy despite PAs exorbitant price.
See, I think you can count those sales on one hand. Possibly on one finger, if that.

"Getting it out there" by having an ISBN is pretty much meaningless. Your book is huddling in online obscurity along with millions of other hopeful works. Millions. The chance of it being found and bought in any great quantity is about on par with you becoming famous simply from being in the phone book (props to DeadlyAccurate :)).

PA can't (even if they want to, which they certainly don't) offer anything but a seven-year long expensive exercise in futility. It's a hell of a way to waste first print rights.
 
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dvbone

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There is the funeral home and the lutheran church, big white building with the twin steeples. Which one do you mean?
 

dvbone

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Oh right from across the street. There is a townhouse for sale and Frederick Fudge is right there.
 

Sparhawk

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There is the funeral home and the lutheran church, big white building with the twin steeples. Which one do you mean?


welcome dvbone. You have my deepest sympathies for having to endure PA. Thanks for giving us some insight as to the goings on inside Fortress Frederick.
 

JimmyD1318

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I would like to say welcome to dvbone. Like everyone else said welcome to the board and thanks for sharing your insight into what goes on inside PA's inner workings. Want some popcorn? :popcorn:
 
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