$99 for my rights back!

RoccoMom · Jul 13, 2010

Got this email today in response to a request for the rights to my book back:

Dear author:

Your book has shown no sales for more than a year.

At this time you may want to have your book's publishing rights reverted back to you.

We can arrange that.

Go to www.publishamerica.net/product94552.html and instruct us to return the rights to you. In the Ordering Instructions box, write the title of your book. You will receive the termination documents by mail. There are no strings attached to this termination except the $99 processing fee that covers our administration costs and our de-listing obligations to vendors and/or wholesalers. You must choose a shipping option to activate your rights return instruction.

Thank you for having been a PublishAmerica author, or for sticking around if that's what you prefer!

--PublishAmerica Author Support Team

Are they kidding???? NO strings means NO strings - and I'm not paying them $99 for my rights. What a racket. I need my head examined for ever going with this outfit in the first place.

Marian Perera · Jul 13, 2010

Cheaper than the previous termination fee of $300. They really are desperate.

Chris P · Jul 13, 2010

"Must choose a shipping option"? :roll:

$3.99? Would that be email postage? :ROFL:

Unless you have plans to rewrite and resubmit the book elsewhere, just ride out the contract. I've got four years left on mine. My PA experience doesn't have to stop me writing unless I decide so.

Torgo · Jul 13, 2010

Are these guys going out of business?

By the way, the stuff about 'de-listing costs' is, AFAIK, totally bogus.

Gillhoughly · Jul 13, 2010

It's certainly strikes me as being a last desperate bid to get money out of those writers who were smart enough not to place orders.

It's also a new LOW for PA.

Just when I think they've hit bottom when it comes to sheer greed, they start a new well.

Dear PA writers-- DON'T FALL FOR THIS.

They never earned this money.

Look at your contract. They're so fond of telling writers to look at it and claiming "we did everything as stated in the contract"--turn that back on them.

See if you can find a clause that releases you for NOTHING!

'Cause that's what they did with your book: nothing.

Chris P · Jul 13, 2010

Torgo said:
By the way, the stuff about 'de-listing costs' is, AFAIK, totally bogus.

Betcha they'll charge $200 for that, keeping the $300 termination fee they've always had.

"De-listing costs?" I do know that PA enters titles into some sort of database, that's how Amazon and all those overseas websites list PA books. For those in the know: are there de-listing fees for such databases? I'm confident if there are they aren't as high as PA says they will be.

ETA: And I'm going to be checking my email like a madman all day. I REALLY want PA to declare me one of its losers. I won't pay them anything, though. I'm having too much fun on this ride.

Marie Pacha · Jul 13, 2010

Your book has shown no sales for more than a year.

Considering the Lightning Source lawsuit and the royalty statements PA sent, how can anyone verify that?

merrihiatt · Jul 13, 2010

Please don't pummel me with rocks. I paid the $99. I weighed the pros and cons. I have five more years until my contract with PA ends. I want to be free of them. It's worth $99 to me to never have anything to do with PA again.

I've sent polite e-mails to PA every week for the past two years and was ignored. The two times I did receive a response, the answer to my request to have my rights returned was no. I am sick of it.

I made an uninformed, naive choice two years ago (and some may consider this another one), but I want out. The sooner the better.

Frankly, though, I believe this is just another way for PA to get some fast cash. Imagine if twenty thousand PA authors took advantage of this offer. That would be just under two million dollars or $1,980,000 to be exact. And, if those authors had more than one book with PA, well, you can do the math.

Do I think there are strings attached? Absolutely! Do I believe I'm going to get my rights returned? I hope so. It will depend on what the termination documents say (assuming I actually receive them).

If this nightmare can finally be over, I can close the chapter on the PA portion of the book of my life. Nothing would give me greater pleasure.

Thanks for the math adjustment, Dave!

PO'd @ PA · Jul 13, 2010

I just got the same email. There is nothing in the contract about a $99 administration fee. here it is

"Dear author:

Your book has shown no sales for more than a year.

At this time you may want to have your book's publishing rights reverted back to you.

We can arrange that.

Go to www.publishamerica.net/product94552.html and instruct us to return the rights to you. In the Ordering Instructions box, write the title of your book. You will receive the termination documents by mail. There are no strings attached to this termination except the $99 processing fee that covers our administration costs and our de-listing obligations to vendors and/or wholesalers. You must choose a shipping option to activate your rights return instruction.

Thank you for having been a PublishAmerica author, or for sticking around if that's what you prefer!

--PublishAmerica Author Support Team"

These guys sure know how to touch my buttons. What's the use though, having had a book
with them has certainly screwed my chances of being published with a real "brick and mortar publisher" And shipping option for a letter that will surely only take a regular stamp or two?
Then what's to keep them from printing my book again down the road anyway? Let me guess...honesty! LMAO. By mentioning this as no strings attached only brings suspicion because if they were actually honest, such a statement would never be imagined on their part in the first place.

Chris P · Jul 13, 2010

Merri: I for one am not going to throw rocks at you! I can feel the relief in your post and its obvious this experience has consumed you for two years. I will be interested in hearing if $99 is truly all you will be charged. Keep us posted!

PO'd: Your PA experience didn't screw you from ever being in brick and mortar book stores; it only screwed this one book! I'm certainly not going to let PA keep me from writing new and better books than the one of mine they published. My contract says nothing about $99, although that email clearly does. It's only free if I wait the entire seven years and inform them that I don't want to renew.

AudioGenius · Jul 13, 2010

merrihiatt said:
Please don't pummel me with rocks. I paid the $99. I weighed the pros and cons. I have five more years until my contract with PA ends. I want to be free of them. It's worth $99 to me to never have anything to do with PA again.

I don't have any rocks, but I do have cookies! :e2cookie:

Seriously though, I can't remotely blame you Merri. I hope it works. Be sure to let us know how it goes.

PO'd @ PA said:
having had a book with them has certainly screwed my chances of being published with a real "brick and mortar publisher"

Not true, I'm quite sure that there have been authors here that have been with PA, and then published by a real publisher later.

merrihiatt · Jul 13, 2010

Then what's to keep them from printing my book again down the road anyway?

When an author gets their rights returned, they receive written documentation. If you see the publisher offering your book on their website or publishing additional copies after your rights have been returned, you could take legal action (which would cost money, of course).

With PA, though, books don't sell anyway since they do nothing to promote book sales. No one would probably even be aware of the book. <-- It hurt to write that, please don't take it as a personal attack or anything, just the way PA does "business."

merrihiatt · Jul 13, 2010

Thanks, Chris and AudioGenius. I didn't think anyone would really throw rocks, it's just that I, too, hate giving PA even a penny. Grrr... Signing with PA held many lessons that I won't soon forget.

RoccoMom · Jul 13, 2010

So maybe in a few months the cost of termination will drop to $59.99?

Ridiculous.

My contract is up anyway in April of 2011. I'm going to make sure it terminates at that time - FOR NOTHING.

RoccoMom · Jul 13, 2010

Torgo said:
Are these guys going out of business?

We can only hope.....

Marie Pacha · Jul 13, 2010

You know, if they're sending this to ALL the authors who haven't shown a sale in a year, they are sending out a lot of emails.

Marian Perera · Jul 13, 2010

AudioGenius said:
Not true, I'm quite sure that there have been authors here that have been with PA, and then published by a real publisher later.

John Robinson, Nancy Mehl, Lynn Price (who IS a real publisher), Sheryl Nantus and several others I've missed out.

Scribhneoir · Jul 13, 2010

merrihiatt said:
Please don't pummel me with rocks. I paid the $99.

I hope it works out for you, Merri. Keep us posted.

Anon76 · Jul 13, 2010

Merri, I don't want to throw stones at you at all.

In fact, if I had the bucks I'd contact every PA author I could find and offer to pay the fee for them. I'm not a lawyer, but to me it seems they've just offered a modification in contract that is binding. Would I gladly pay PA 20-30K to take away all their authors and leave them to start from scratch. YOU BETCHA!!!!!!!!!!! That could very well shut down their doors.

As to the shipping fee, that better be in regards to the documents only. Not you paying for whatever "stock" they say they have of your book and the shipping costs in that.

DaveKuzminski · Jul 13, 2010

merrihiatt said:
Frankly, though, I believe this is just another way for PA to get some fast cash. Imagine if twenty thousand PA authors took advantage of this offer. That would be $20,000 in PA's coffers. And, if those authors had more than one book with PA, well, you can do the math.

A small correction. 20,000 authors at $99 each would be more in the terrritory of just under two million dollars or $1,980,000 to be exact. If they actually charge $3.99 or anything like that for mailing or shipping, then that's close to another $80,000 they'd collect but that's not clear yet. Sounds more like a gotcha to me.

Otherwise, I sense that they're seeing authors send in the no renewal statement and are determined to make something before that becomes a flood especially since many of their contracts are now approaching the seven year end.

By the way, will PA do a reverse author count?

Anon76 · Jul 13, 2010

You're right, Dave. The math was wrong and a lot of contracts are probably coming do.

Still though, what a beautiful dream to shut down their doors. A girl can dream, right? LOL. Hence why I write romance.

Marian Perera · Jul 13, 2010

DaveKuzminski said:
By the way, will PA do a reverse author count?

LOL. "PublishAmerica: down to 20,000 Happy ~~Meals~~ Authors and counting!"

They can have an image on the front page of a sign with crossed-out numbers. Just like in a film where the out-of-the-way town has a steadily declining population count because the people are cannibals or sacrificing each other to the corn god or something.

benbradley · Jul 13, 2010

Presuming PA goes out of business, what exactly happens to the publishing rights to all these books? Legally these contracts to publish books would be part of the "assets" but I can't imagine any entity buying such "assets." Anyone who looked would find them to be rights to print/"publish" a bunch of books that 1. have had no editing or proofreading done, and 2. many or most authors want those rights back, and 3. won't buy copies of their own books even though the business model is that they are the only customers.

Would the rights revert back to the authors? I don't imagine PA's contract says anything about what happens if PA goes out of business...

LexiCan · Jul 13, 2010

Hmm, I got the same email yet my rights, as of fall 2009, were already returned. I paid nothing.

There are no strings attached to this termination except the $99 processing fee that covers our administration costs and our de-listing obligations to vendors and/or wholesalers.

which is BS...my book still shows up on Amazon and B&N...um, what wholesalers, what vendors?

Marie Pacha · Jul 13, 2010

They're offering to charge you to return rights they already returned? Gee, that's nice of them.

$99 for my rights back!

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