The Newer Never-Ending PublishAmerica / America Star Books Thread

Gillhoughly said:

Legally, yes, if you're dealing with a sane, professionally run company.

You're dealing with a tar pit of con artists who have time and again expressed open contempt for writers and positively loathe the ones who try to break free. The people at the top are narcissistic sociopaths with no sense of right or wrong. If they can get away with something, they will, and childish tit-for-tat schoolyard bully behavior is their norm.

I'd follow up with a SASE requesting a written formal statement that your rights are reverted on whatever date is on the contract.

You might put in that you absolutely need a statement from them for your tax statement. It can't hurt.

Or mention -- if that doesn't work -- that if they don't reply with the statement that you'll have to bring it to the attention of the Maryland attorney general's office of consumer affairs.

You are a consumer seeking a small business courtesy that can be resolved by a single statement in less than a minute, not asking them to dig a new Panama Canal with their collective out-of-joint noses.

Though the latter is a cheering image.

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Gillhoughly, I do enjoy reading your posts. Your wit almost always makes me laugh.

It might also work to just threaten to keep sending them letters until they respond. They don't like being bothered by writers they can't make any money off of.

I'll just be glad when this nightmare with these PA people is over (2015 for me). Every day I still hope that someone with more money, more time and more energy shuts them down in one form or another. I cannot begin to tell you how wonderful a day like that would be.
*
Just dropped in to say "hey" to all you nice peeps. Hope all is well.

"Questionable"? Understatement of the day. The question is answered by any PA author.

PA authors, have you gotten any communications recently about the PA class action lawsuit? If so, I'd like to hear from you. beware [at] sfwa.org.

Thanks!

- Victoria

Been a long time

Wow... I haven't been here in a few years... hello all. I was SURE PA would be out of business by now. I guess I was wrong. I sincerely hope everyone is well. I am so glad I founf Absolute Write and had my eyes opened about Publish America. My novels have a good home an dI have two more novels about to be published... thanks to this forum. Never...never give your work to PA.

McDonalds is going to put books in Happy Meals.

Any bets on how long until there is a new special PA offer?

Alphabeter said:

McDonalds is going to put books in Happy Meals.

Any bets on how long until there is a new special PA offer?

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Gah! Unhappy meals in 10, 9, 8 ...

--Ken

Remember when there were complaints because PA put ads for erotic romance in the backs of children's books?

I can just imagine what they might stuff into a Happy Meals bag.

A Happy Ending Meal. Lol.

Alphabeter said:

McDonalds is going to put books in Happy Meals.

Any bets on how long until there is a new special PA offer?

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I'm somehow back on their email list. There's about three special offers PER DAY, usually "Only Four Spots Left for the Orlando Book Fair!" or whatever.

PA's Email List

Chris P said:

I'm somehow back on their email list. There's about three special offers PER DAY, usually "Only Four Spots Left for the Orlando Book Fair!" or whatever.

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Yes, they keep putting me back on every few months. I just use the "Unsubscribe" link or email them back and they take me back off--until the next time. But they never seem to completely give up on trying to get money out of me. Hope springs eternal, I suppose. I wonder if I will still get the spam emails after the contract finally runs out in July 2014.

You can always send them a Cease and Desist order, just to annoy them.


Report the spam mail to their server and the FTC and any other alphabet group (like the IRS??) that might find them entertaining.

Gillhoughly said:

You can always send them a Cease and Desist order, just to annoy them.
.

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Did that three years ago! Got another royalty statement from them back in September... this year.

tlblack, not to be too noisy, but was the royalty statement have any actual sales? Just thinking that it might be a first

Honest Writer said:

tlblack, not to be too noisy, but was the royalty statement have any actual sales? Just thinking that it might be a first

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My royalty statements are usually followed by "Because you haven't sold jack s**t for years now, why don't you pay us to release your pub rights back to you?" [Might not be an actual quote ]

Gillhoughly said:

You can always send them a Cease and Desist order, just to annoy them.


Report the spam mail to their server and the FTC and any other alphabet group (like the IRS??) that might find them entertaining.

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I have to wonder if ISPs much care about low-volume spammers thesedays, and I wonder if even a very few PA email recipients per year report PA emails as spam. Maybe a note to the ISP executives describing PA and asking "do you really want to do business with this company?" would get it looked at. On the other hand, getting PA booted would move it closer to more scammy Internet outfits who never boot customers as long as they pay their bill.

But it occurs to me that PA is probably NOT following the requirements of the (otherwise totally useless) CAN-SPAM Act. I'd go that direction, and if I recall, there's a way to report violators on the CAN-SPAM website, or at least there should be.

Here's the FTC complaint form:
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/GettingStarted
I suggest clicking "continue" and filling out all the forms (do that even if you also forward it to [email protected] - that email address has been around for many years and has likely received billions of spam reports).

Okay, I looked, in 2004 [email protected] was getting 300,000 spam reports EVERY DAY, so that's only 100 million a year... this 2004 page says they were phasing it out and suggesting using [email protected]. I suppose it couldn't hurt to sent it to both.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/07/newspamemail.shtm

Their hosting company may (or may not) care. It depends on their terms of service.

Honest Writer said:

tlblack, not to be too noisy, but was the royalty statement have any actual sales? Just thinking that it might be a first

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No, no sales. The thing is, I've not been under contract since November of 2006. By this time they should have lost my files.

tlblack said:

No, no sales. The thing is, I've not been under contract since November of 2006. By this time they should have lost my files.

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Does this mean you're very close to being free?

elindsen said:

Does this mean you're very close to being free?

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Dunno! Could be.

Are these people still around? Seriously? I haven't heard much about them lately, so I thought maybe they were done.

They are like cockroaches in a nuclear blast. No matter how many times you blow them up they still keep crawling back.

Like Cher, PA can survivce apocalypse.