The Old Neverending PublishAmerica Thread (Publish America)

LOL, a few months ago, I may have fallen for that, but not now. LOL...and by the way, every time the PA people talk about law suits, I think don't they mean suites!! (suites-an old joke)
doh!

I wrote a blurb about Atlanta Nights in today's Absolute Write Newsletter. Hope it brings in some much deserved sales for this masterpiece.

hmm... HB's been quiet about that for a day or three - wonder how many he's scammed into going out for this fiasco?

"Come! Watch frustrated writers sell their books to each other in the rented boardroom of a Holiday Inn! Marvel at how they continue to think that PublishAmerica is a good publisher while they run up their credit cards buying books for resale! Dazzle your eyes at HB's continual harassment of local businesses for attention and donations while he pulls a guitar out of his tush!"

:rollin

ROFLMAO as if they'd have cause.:lol

Nope, no response from their prompt professional staff over at PA. None whatsoever. Suprise anyone?

I've just zipped through the last 20 or so pages of posts....

O-M-G! Uncle Jim, Ann, Victoria, etc.,You folks are amazing. When is Travis doing a book tour? :b

PS - continued good luck bringing PA to heel. Now it's off to purchase me a copy of Atlanta Nights....

"Editor
Love of writing and reading necessary. Competitive compensation. Work from home. Email resume to: info@publishamerica.com."

64.233.187.104/search?q=c...ment&hl=en



Yes I've spent the last 30 minutes looking for want ads filed by PA and this was the only one I found. oh well.

Raechel said:
Then it has editors who have more the function of copy editors at mainstream houses. They handle 100 books a year -- no mainstream house edits at that pace -- and mostly pay attention to grammar, punctuation and spelling.

I truly wouldn't call that copyediting. It's text cleanup and formatting plus a spellcheck, and it's only one or two notches up from "services you can arrange for your typesetter to provide."

Just as a clarification that was Paula Span's answer to my question about PA's level of editing versus a commercial publisher's editing.

I thought the bogus press releases were bad enough, but I just wandered over to PublishAmerica's site, where I found their "response" to the AP and <cite>Washington Post</cite> articles.

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>It is amazing, and very gratifying to our staff, to see so many people's lives effected in such a positive way.<hr></blockquote>

Here's a clue.

300!

Quote:
It is amazing, and very gratifying to our staff, to see so many people's lives effected in such a positive way.

Here's a clue.

It's not really all that surprising when you consider that many (if not all) of the "editors" are telecommuting, and God only knows what their qualifications are. Those who live close enough may get dragged into Mr. Cloppers's townhouse for photo ops, but I suspect most of the "work" is done by whomever, wherever, at all hours.

"Editor
Love of writing and reading necessary. Competitive compensation. Work from home. Email resume to: info@publishamerica.com."

64.233.187.104/search?q=c...ment&hl=en

Interesting! I'm looking to change jobs.

First, Sher2... you wouldn't be able to work fast enough to please them... you'd actually have to read the manuscripts... it's in your nature. You won't have time to read to work at their standards.

Second, doing a little math after my masochistic morning there are roughly 744 testimonials + or - 1 ... approximately 12 per page x 62 pages... some of those are from now disaffected authors from what I've been told.

I thought they had 11,000 happy authors. Where are the other 10,256 authors?

Second, doing a little math after my masochistic morning there are roughly 744 testimonials + or - 1 ... approximately 12 per page x 62 pages... some of those are from now disaffected authors from what I've been told.

I thought they had 11,000 happy authors. Where are the other 10,256 authors?

Is that taking into account that many of the testimonials were from the same people, over and over again?

The other 10,256 authors -- banned, maybe?

Just think, when Atlanta Nights becomes a cult-classic and a bestseller, PA is going to be kicking themselves for sending out that (mis-timed) letter about it being unsuitable for publication...

:hat
Big Daddy West

p.s. Hit 300, and with 5 days to spare...wasn't far off...

Here's a request from me to all PA and former PA authors. If you still have the email address for your "editor", please send it to me. I want to compile some information. I will not do anything illegal with those email addresses.

I've just made my posting past 200....and climbing.

Still NO WORD from PA about the retraction. Think there will be one? do do do do do do do.....dododododo....do do do do ..... (Jeopardy Theme)

Some people keep complaining about the term PAvidian (which, incidently, I've never used myself before this post) but in some ways, I feel it's almost apt.

The more I read the PA boards and see the torturous convolutions many of the well-meaning authors pull to keep their faith in their publisher, the more it reminds me of the followers of a certain restrictive religion in which I grew up. The religion wasn't up front with its followers about its origins, it often required a lot of hard work and investment in time and energy with very little personal or spiritual reward, and followers were quite often certain that they were being unduly persecuted for their beliefs. One wasn't told all the details of certain religious vows and promises made until after one had already signed the contract so to speak. People who left this organisation were quite often villified one way or another, and friends who were still members would quite often shun them from that point forward. Attempts to show how leaders had lied to them or didn't know what they were talking about was considered persecution to many followers, or part of a grand spiritual conspiracy.

If you take this analogy further, those who did leave often went through several stages of denial (I can't believe they lied to me), anger (those %^$&!), and eventually acceptance and moving on. Many people experience a desire to aid those they feel are trapped without the knowledge that they now possess. Some approach it more tactfully than others, I will admit.

When I think of the PA authors, I'm reminded of my family, every one of them with the exception of one cousin, still belonging to this religion I've mentioned. Many of their needs aren't being met by this organisation, while a few are perfectly happy.

I personally bear no ill will towards any of the PA authors myself and I really don't think anybody on this board does either. What we do resent is an organisation representing itself as one thing to people who don't know any differently. When those same people that we are trying to help go through some pretty strange logical contortions, I understand why--they've invested a great deal of time and energy down this path already. Many of them want to know or think that they've not been taken for a ride.

........


I'll be blogging this thread--I heart the Googlebombing.

This has been pointed out to me:

1) PA claims that they released 4,800 titles last year.

2) PA claims that B&N is their biggest customer.

3) PA claims that they sold 30,000 books to B&N last year.

4) PA claims that, on average, each author's circle of friends buys 18 copies.

Thus: The authors' circles of friends, for last year's releases, would have bought 86,400 books. Last year B&N only sold 30,000.

How is it, then, that PA can claim that most sales aren't to the authors' friends?

Did someone else sell 56,400 when B&N (their largest customer) could only move 30,000?

I eagerly await clarification. PA junior staffer, could you please comment next time you're looking this way?

Pixel, I know that faith too. IMO, its two most characteristic phrases are:<blockquote>1. Just because they made it up, doesn't mean it isn't true.

2. I just know I could have made it work if only I'd tried hard enough.</blockquote>You're right. It's a lot like PA.

Is that taking into account that many of the testimonials were from the same people, over and over again?

I've filled my masochist quota for the day so no it doesn't subtract for some being from the same people over and over. That will be for another day. :rollin

My head hurts now from everything I've looked at and ...

A thought occurred to me while I was resting my eyes. Many of the testimonials thank specific editors. I wonder how many of those editors are still employed, why they left if they are not, how they were hired in the first place, whether they telecommuted or worked in the "offices"... oh, well, I can think of a lot of questions I'd like to ask those editors.

sending you all the email addresses I've collected, Dave.

What Stephanie stated has to do with what I think might produce more information and possibly some results. My idea is to gain the names and email addresses of former and current PA employees. Those who aren't employed any longer may be willing to divulge important information.

It doesn't matter whether PA released them with a gag about company policies or not since criminal acts can't be covered by such maneuvers. You can bet the farm that some of them will talk because they won't want to be thrown back into the pit with PA and share in any punishment that might go their way.

As the same time, we can persuade others that they don't want to remain with PA unless they want to share its punishment in court. Doubtless, we won't persuade some such as Claudia Prather who is probably related to Miranda Prather. Still, the others won't want to get stuck with anything illegal.

So, if you have those names and email addresses, send those to me.

I looked at lulu's Atlanta Nights page just now, and all the reviews were missing.

Hmm. Gotta be your browser, Reph--shows up ok for me.

Something weird's going on with your browser, Reph. They're all still there (I just checked).

(Over 1,200 hits....)