Beware PublishBritannica/PublishAtlantica

[aruna]

Since there seem to be quite a few British aspiring authors here, I thought I'd start this thread to collect information on this company, which is apparently owned by Publish America. I found references to PB on the Neverending PA thread which I thought I'd collect here for easy viewing.

In the FAQ on the website www.publishbritannica.com (http://www.publishbritannica.com/) I found this intersting passage:


However, if you are already committed to an agent, you must honor that commitment.

Note the spelling of "honor" in the last sentence. That is not the British spelling,; they didn't even bother to make that little change! In fact, the entire site is a replica of the American site

On the whole, Britain is failry unspoilt when it comes to vanity presses; yes, we do have them, but they are not nearly as aggressive and deceptive in their marketing as their American cousins. With Publish Britannica, we have the same underhand tactics as discolsed in the Neverending thread.

Anyway; I'll get back to this later and get the quotes from that thread together. If I can stop even one naive Brit from publishing there I'll be happy.

[JennaGlatzer]

Good idea. Thanks, Aruna!

[aruna]

OK, here are some messages gleaned from the Neverending thread:


This is something that has bothered me a great deal over the last few weeks. I feel it needs to be discussed, and that this is another thing we can point out to the BB and other authorities.

On the Publish Britannica website Publish America writes: The company is headquartered in Milton Keynes, midway between Birmingham and London.


A UK author emailed me about this and he told me it is a lie, that they have no office headquartered there. He checked it out personally and there is no Publish Britannica office anywhere in England.

He has given up on his book, and he said he cannot cash his royalty checks because they are sent in US dollars and it costs more to transfer them to pounds than to cash it in. If Publish Britannica was actually at the said location, then wouldn't UK authors be getting their royalty checks from that address and in pound notes? Instead UK authors have told me they get their checks from the Maryland office in US dollars.

What is in Milton Keynes is a division of Ingram Book Distributors. The above statement leads a prospective author in the UK to believe Publish Britannica is actually headquartered in England. In reality, they are located in Frederick, Maryland, the same office as Publish America. See the lie there? See the deception?



Their website: www.publishbritannica.com (http://www.publishbritannica.com/)

A quote about the Maryland location.

PublishBritannica is part of an international book publishing conglomerate, spanning the North Atlantic, with presences in the United States, Scandinavia, and on the European mainland. World headquarters are located in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, in Maryland, USA.

Sounds impressive, doesn't it. I mean PB is part of an 'international' book publishing 'conglomerate'. Sounds huge. And they are all over the world. In fact they have a world headquarters located in the DC area....ah, that's a little more than an hour west of DC in a sleeper town..



Quote:
Originally Posted by ByGrace
What is in Milton Keynes is a division of Ingram Book Distributors. The above statement leads a prospective author in the UK to believe Publish Britannica is actually headquartered in England. In reality, they are located in Frederick, Maryland, the same office as Publish America. See the lie there? See the deception?



Yes. I wonder if there are laws against false and misleading advertising in Britain. If so I believe the fellow may have a complaint.

What's in Milton Keynes is a Lightning Source International printing plant.

The easy way to prove that PublishBritannica doesn't exist is to look at the ISBN prefix. It's exactly the same as PublishAmerica's.

Here's my thought: PublishIcelandica and PublishBritannica are non-existent companies, set up so that Willem can vacation in Europe and write it off on his taxes.

[Trapped in amber]

There is an additional problem U.K. authors of Publish Britannica experience on top of all those they share with the U.S. Publish America authors.

Their royalties are sent in dollars.

Some authors have said they can't afford to cash these checks. It's expensive, and the royalties are too low to make it economically viable.

[Trapped in amber]

I don't think the extent to which Publish America/Britannica overprices books really hit me until I saw it in pounds rather than dollars.

Dragon Blaze by Peter R. Harris is a children's fantasy book, in paperback. It is 148 pages long. On Amazon the price is £12.50.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1413767060/qid%3D1120139660/202-1479570-9623863

The Publish Britannica online bookstore only has prices in dollars.

http://www.publishamerica.com/shopping/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=36&subcat=36&cat=PublishBritannica+Authors

[aruna]

I am sure the Trading Standards woudl be intersted in this. I'll do some investigation in that direction.

[Trapped in amber]

Here is one U.K. author's account of his experience with this company:

http://ezinearticles.com/?PublishAmerica---Publishing-Parasites&id=32046

[aruna]

Thank you. I have found the Trading Standards website and they DO look into scams - however, I doubt there is anything that can be done, seeing as all the "business" is carried out in the US. Are the books also printed inthe US, and shipped to Britain? Does anyone know anything about the legal issues? I don't see any way they could be legally stopped from Britain.

[Trapped in amber]

We need to hunt down a U.K. version of Jaws:D.

[Trapped in amber]

This is a good site. It was previously linked to by Uncle Jim in the Big PA thread:

http://www.vanitypublishing.info/points.htm

The reason this is applicable is because Publish Britannica is a Vanity Publisher.

Although it asks for no money up front, its business model is to sell books to authors and pocket markets around the author. A commercial publishing house sells books to the general public through retailers.

And Publish Britannica's authors do pay the vanity fee. But instead of paying up front, they are encouraged to buy their books at inflated prices. Unfortunately Publish Britannica, as with Publish America, gives authors the impression that it is a commercial publishing house selling books to the public. That's the purpose of the token advance.

[James D. Macdonald]

Are the books also printed inthe US, and shipped to Britain?

Some may be, but some I'm sure are printed at the Lightning Source facility in Milton Keynes.

[CaoPaux]

Thank you. I have found the Trading Standards website and they DO look into scams - however, I doubt there is anything that can be done, seeing as all the "business" is carried out in the US. Are the books also printed inthe US, and shipped to Britain? Does anyone know anything about the legal issues? I don't see any way they could be legally stopped from Britain.IIRC, the address given for PB is actually that of Lightning Source (the POD printer they use), so the books are produced in the UK.

[MadScientistMatt]

IIRC, the address given for PB is actually that of Lightning Source (the POD printer they use), so the books are produced in the UK.

I have to wonder - from a legal standpoint, is merely pretending to do business in the UK enough to be prosecuted for charges about inappropriate business practices in the UK?

[CaoPaux]

I have to wonder - from a legal standpoint, is merely pretending to do business in the UK enough to be prosecuted for charges about inappropriate business practices in the UK?That might be question for Her Majesty's tax collectors, too.

[Trapped in amber]

These statistics show that in the U.K. during 2001-2002 around 76% of books were bought from bookshops and other brick and mortar retailers.

http://www.booksellers.org.uk/industry/display_report.asp?id=483

And apart from one or two local bookshops, Publish Britannica authors cannot get their books into brick and mortar retailers.

This is because Publish Britannica isn't set up to sell books to the general public, so they don't allow booksellers to return unsold books, and they price uncompetitively.

[Trapped in amber]

They definitley claim they have headquaters here:

"The company is headquartered in Milton Keynes, midway between Birmingham and London." (PB Website http://www.publishbritannica.com/aboutus.htm )

But I can't find an actual address for them on their website. Or anywhere else so far. Still looking.

[aruna]

They definitley claim they have headquaters here:

"The company is headquartered in Milton Keynes, midway between Birmingham and London." (PB Website http://www.publishbritannica.com/aboutus.htm )

But I can't find an actual address for them on their website. Or anywhere else so far. Still looking.

There is an American phone number on the site. And if you click to their bookstore you go straight to the PA bookstore; and all books listed are in dollars. This means that they ARE printed in the US. The office in Milton Keynes is perhaps just a non-existant front.

I have a nasty vision of a PublishGermanica, PublishItalia, PublishFranka etc coming out soon.

[DaveKuzminski]

I'm waiting to see them open PublishLeavenworth. ;)

[aruna]

This means that they ARE printed in the US. The office in Milton Keynes is perhaps just a non-existant front.
QUOTE]

OK, I retract. I found this on the neverending thread:

In regards to Publish Britannica.

I emailed a PA author friend of mine living in the UK and asked him if he ever had the chance to visit the office over there. On the PB website http://www.publishbritannica.com/ it says ‘The company is headquartered in Milton Keynes, midway between Birmingham and London.’

So my friend told me this address is the British headquarters of Lightning Source.

[QUOTE]This is from Lightning Sources website. Interesting PA claims to have offices at the same address.
Introducing Lightning Source in the United Kingdom
In January 2001 Lightning Source set-up its first international sales office in Milton Keynes, England with a focus on print-on-demand services. Milton Keynes is located North of London on the M1 motorway (map) and is centrally placed for rapid distribution of books throughout the UK. By August 2001, Lightning Source UK Limited was printing books on demand in a new facility under its UK Executive team.

[JerseyGirl1962]

It's too bad Alcatraz is only open to tourists... :Hammer:

~Nancy

[Trapped in amber]

From the Lightning Source Web Page:

Publishers with an LSI US Dollar Account can …

* Sign-up for UK Distribution through Lightning Source UK and it’s channel partners by signing & returning a UK POD Agreement

* Print books in the UK for delivery to UK, Europe or other international addresses

https://www.lightningsource.com/index.htm

I take it from that it would be pretty simple for PA to set up.

[logos1234567]

The easy way to prove that PublishBritannica doesn't exist is to look at the ISBN prefix. It's exactly the same as PublishAmerica's.

An ISBN prefix can be legitimately spread over several imprints. So Publish Britanicca is (probably) legally set up as an imprint of Publish America and (probably) does legally exist in its own right.

[logos1234567]

Just looking at PB's website as I didn't realise these sharks existed over here. Found this rather amusing...

With the author's consent, the company will donate an allotted number of copies to a library for the blind...

what in braille?!!!

[NicoleJLeBoeuf]

Just looking at PB's website as I didn't realise these sharks existed over here. Found this rather amusing...

With the author's consent, the company will donate an allotted number of copies to a library for the blind...

what in braille?!!!What exactly about that claim do you find so amusing/surprising/ridiculous? There really are libraries for the blind out there--nothing weird or ridiculous about that. There are conversion processes to print books in braille, or have them read outloud (by humans or by text-to-speech sythesizers), or in large print, or into a format suitable for use with maginification viewers, etc, etc, etc.

There are many reasons to distrust or ridicule PB/PA, but I don't think this is one of them.

[logos1234567]

I was NOT making fun of the blind - I am aware there are processes to transform reading material. What I do not think PA/PB would do is to go to the cost/expense of changing the book's format for said libraries though, perhaps making the gift a bit of a white elephant...that's all.

[DaveKuzminski]

The PA way of thinking and acting in this instance would be to send one copy as is to the institute or library and leave the conversion protocols and expense to the recipients to deal with. Then they'll claim they supported the blind even though they didn't actually do anything.

Of course, after dealing with the first book, if any are or have been sent, I doubt that the recipients would be willing to convert a second since they'd know by then that many PA books lack proper editing.

Hey, James, you should donate a copy of Atlanta Nights along with a brief clipping explaining the sting behind it! I'm certain that even blind people can see (pun intended) what you proved about PA.

[logos1234567]

How many copies has Atlanta Nights sold? Where's the thread on this please? I read on another forum it was a mickey take...

[James D. Macdonald]

473 copies have sold as of today.

http://www.lulu.com/content/102550

Buy one -- better still, buy a dozen. They make excellent gifts.

Most of the discussion was in the NEPAT in January/February.

[Vomaxx]

There is an additional problem U.K. authors of Publish Britannica experience on top of all those they share with the U.S. Publish America authors.

Their royalties are sent in dollars.

Some authors have said they can't afford to cash these checks. It's expensive, and the royalties are too low to make it economically viable.

I would guess that this must especially true of the advance. :) ($1)

[NicoleJLeBoeuf]

I was NOT making fun of the blind - I am aware there are processes to transform reading material. What I do not think PA/PB would do is to go to the cost/expense of changing the book's format for said libraries though, perhaps making the gift a bit of a white elephant...that's all.Gotcha. That totally makes sense. Sorry to have jumped to the worst possible conclusion with your post; I just didn't realize what point you were making.

I'm with Dave on this, then--knowing the PA franchise, they'll probably exert the least possible effort needed to comply with the exact wording of their promise, to hell with the spirit of it. Which probably means a single Braille copy created by an automatic Duxbury translation of an MS Word doc. Although if they've actually paid a liscensing fee for Duxbury I'll be very surprised.

Maybe even that would be too much trouble for PA; maybe all they'll do is up the font size on the Word doc, resulting in a "large print" PDF. Done.

[Mac H.]

PA can simply donate the book 'as-is' to the 'library for the blind'.

Copyright laws (at least here in Oz) allow such libraries to translate books themselves into braille etc just by having a single legal copy.

While normally you would need to get permission and pay royalties to translate the book into another medium or language, the copyright laws have special exceptions for translating to work around disabilities. (It's not as if the publishers are losing on the massive 'braille' market, so nobody really minds. Audio books might be a more interesting case.)

From memory, they may only be permitted to make a 'braille' copy per legal copy or something - I can't remember.

But that would be a reason that the library would want to have a legal copy. (Although I suspect they may prefer 'The Da Vinci Code'...)

Mac

[aruna]

Thought I'd bump this back up due to the EB case. Ha! I googled PB and this thread is SECOND on thelist, right after PB's own site, with the heading Beware Publish Britanica. And third on the list is a thread about the EB case on another forum.

[aruna]

This lady gave up her job before her PB book "hits the stores".
http://www.port.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressoffice/newsreleases/title,21694,en.html

Her novel isn't even on amazon. It was published last year. However, she has several other non PA books under her belt, mostly school books. Would be interesting to hear what happened to her novel. More about it and her here:
http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewwork.asp?id=12150

[aruna]

http://www.crimescenescotland.com/guidelines_reviews.htm

Sensible folks! "We do not review books published by Publish America/Publish Britannica."

[CaoPaux]

"...but publishers such as those mentioned above do not have an editorial process that satisfies us as to the general quality of their output."

:cool:

[HBHuisinga]

http://www.authorslawyer.com/case/diln05c4519d001.pdf

This link to a .pdf file was presented on Writer's Weekly on August 31, 2005. An interesting read for anyone trying to find more info on PB.

Basically, PA's being sued for allegedly infringing on Encyclopedia Britanica's trademarked name.

hb

[Bufty]

This lady gave up her job before her PB book "hits the stores".
http://www.port.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressoffice/newsreleases/title,21694,en.html

Her novel isn't even on amazon. It was published last year. However, she has several other non PA books under her belt, mostly school books. Would be interesting to hear what happened to her novel. More about it and her here:
http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewwork.asp?id=12150

I recently posted PA warnings on another message board. This particular lady responded that Publish Britannica was not a Vanity Press because they didn't charge up front. I outlined the PA and PB scenario in a sequence of long and clear posts, that culminated in a request from the author Moderator to make no further posts on the topic because both the lady and I had made our points. Hmmm.

[Old Hack]

Which messageboard was that, Bufty? Sounds like I might need to visit it!

[Bufty]

Which messageboard was that, Bufty? Sounds like I might need to visit it!

Nice thought, Hack, but the topic was WELL COVERED and make no mistake, I came out way on top, got my point across in no uncertain terms and the posts were well received across the board. (Sent you a PM)

[aruna]

I read somnewhere that "Atlantica" is also a trademark registered under the Madrid Protocol (that is, particularly in the European Union).

[engrose]

My Aunt lives in milton keynes in fact she lives 5 minutes from the Said address.
I was taken into the PA web, i have Phoned Lighting, and my aunt has gone around there. PB are NOT at all in the UK.

My best friend is also a lawyer, as they are Lying about being in the UK it is fraud and any PB contracts or anyone that thought they were dealing with PB and not PA can Void their contract. Some how i got the PA contract even though i submitted my work to PB.

[Flapdoodle]

Since there seem to be quite a few British aspiring authors here, I thought I'd start this thread to collect information on this company, which is apparently owned by Publish America. I found references to PB on the Neverending PA thread which I thought I'd collect here for easy viewing.

In the FAQ on the website www.publishbritannica.com (http://www.publishbritannica.com/) I found this intersting passage:


[b][color=#993333]

Note the spelling of "honor" in the last sentence. That is not the British spelling,; they didn't even bother to make that little change! In fact, the entire site is a replica of the American site

On the whole, Britain is failry unspoilt when it comes to vanity presses; yes, we do have them, but they are not nearly as aggressive and deceptive in their marketing as their American cousins. With Publish Britannica, we have the same underhand tactics as discolsed in the Neverending thread.

Anyway; I'll get back to this later and get the quotes from that thread together. If I can stop even one naive Brit from publishing there I'll be happy.

Weren't Vanity presses pretty much banned from advertising in most newspaper years ago? I remember a bit of stink about the whole thing, and a lot of the broadsheets refised to advertise them - I haven't seen an advert for one in some time now.

[Kophaine]

Hm...wondered where my publishers website had gone...

So, pb and pa have published two of my books.

A couple of things...I agree and disagree...

None of my books are on any shop floor in any physcial shop, but then I have to say...from reading the FAQ's on the site before I signed thats not what I expected anyways.

PA have not publicised my books in any way...and again I didn't read on their site that they would.

So, yeah they don't do these things but as far as I can see (and im sure alot of you will disagree with me) they never proclaim to.

Don't get me wrong...it would be great if they did. But they dont. And they have stated that.

Yes I was disappointed when I received my first royalty cheque in dollars and then realised it would cost me money to cash it. But they have said (whether true or not I shall be able to tell you in a few years at this rate) that if I hold on to the cheques they will issue one accumulated cheque when I ask for it in the future...so fair play there. Could be better, but not a total loss.

In the end, I wanted to see my book in print. And I did. I wanted something to give to my children in the future. And I will.

Next... looking at the books on the pa website I was quite dubious as to what the front cover would look like. But lo and behold, I loved them both.

So... I see what your all saying but I havn't had to pay anything. I havn't lost anything and the publishers are making some money too. Fair play to them.

Oh yeah... and if you don't want to buy 500 of your own book to resell, don't buy them. You can't blame pa for that. Your choice. For instance I havn't. Or here's an interesting thought. Buy them from someone other than pa that sells them a lot cheaper.

But thanks, i found it really interesting reading thro the thread. And I will come back and let you know if my opinion is changed.

Takecare.

[Tilly]

Kophaine, I'm really glad you're happy with your experience. Publish America/Britannica/Atlantica goes out of its way to imply it's a commercial publisher (commercial publishers do get their books on bookshop shelves), it states it's not a vanity publisher or a POD. It's both. That deception has hurt a lot of writers. I'm also guessing you haven't received a tone letter, or been subjected to any of PA's other more repugnant practices.

This website has collected together the experiences of some PA writers, bookshop placement is only one of the issues PA authors face:
http://www.wizardessbooks.com/html/PA_stories.htm

[Tilly]

And this thread is a good outline of the problems with this company:
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10211

[aruna]

Shouldn't this thread be in the PublishAmerica folder?

[DeadlyAccurate]

Yes I was disappointed when I received my first royalty cheque in dollars and then realised it would cost me money to cash it. But they have said (whether true or not I shall be able to tell you in a few years at this rate) that if I hold on to the cheques they will issue one accumulated cheque when I ask for it in the future...so fair play there. Could be better, but not a total loss.

Wasn't there something about this that another British author noticed? Something that implied they would never get their money or something?

[kmm8n]

I think the checks are only good for one year.

[aruna]

Wasn't there something about this that another British author noticed? Something that implied they would never get their money or something?

But anyway, I wouldn't trust such a promise by Publishamerica, and for a British author it would be hard to enforce legally. I think you can just write off those cheques - PA is counting on you to do so.

It's also good to be aware that PA books sell best just after release, when family and friends buy them and the author's enthusiasm is highest. Once this market is exhausted, sales go down rapidly and in a few years you may find yourself getting those famous $0.00 cheques. Not much to add up there!

[Glenda]

I tried to go to www.publishbritannica.com (http://www.publishbritannica.com) but I get this: You are not authorized to view this page.

I just wonder what that is all about? Do you think PA is really mad at me. Like I care. :ROFL:

[Tilly]

I get the same. PA's mad at all of us :D

[Glenda]

Kophaine[/B]
Yes I was disappointed when I received my first royalty cheque in dollars and then realised it would cost me money to cash it. But they have said (whether true or not I shall be able to tell you in a few years at this rate) that if I hold on to the cheques they will issue one accumulated cheque when I ask for it in the future...so fair play there. Could be better, but not a total loss.

I really think PA is counting on this.

Wasn't there something about this that another British author noticed? Something that implied they would never get their money or something?

Yes there was and if I remember correctly, it was even disussed on PAMB board. Of course I could be wrong about that.

[DaveKuzminski]

None of my books are on any shop floor in any physcial shop, but then I have to say...from reading the FAQ's on the site before I signed thats not what I expected anyways.

PA have not publicised my books in any way...and again I didn't read on their site that they would.

So, yeah they don't do these things but as far as I can see (and im sure alot of you will disagree with me) they never proclaim to.
Actually, there was a time when PA claimed they did those things. However, this board and other sites proved that PA didn't. PA then removed those claims from their site.

[LloydBrown]

I've never taken a job that claimed that I didn't have to pay them as indicative of what a good employer they were.

Writers don't pay publishers. Publishers pay writers.

If all you want is "to see your book in print", then you don't have any more need for a publisher than you do for a used car salesman. The service you need is a printer.

[Sassenach]

Kophaine is pretty easy to please.

Does the fact that you've signed your rights away for 7 years matter?

[LloydBrown]

Does the fact that you've signed your rights away for 7 years matter?

That's the main cost. That's one book that no real publisher will consider for at least 7 years. After that, if you could sell it, they'll treat it as a reprint and you earn much less than if you had published it with them in the first place.

If your book was commecially viable, you've done thousands of dollars' worth of damage to its income potential.

Again, if all you want is to hold books in your hand, you could have spent your $30 copyright registration at Lulu.com, had 3 copies in your hand instead of 2, and kept your publishing rights! Lulu wins all the way around.

[Bufty]

I don't think the site exists any more. No point if they are not accepting submissions from the UK.

I tried to go to www.publishbritannica.com (http://www.publishbritannica.com) but I get this: You are not authorized to view this page.

I just wonder what that is all about? Do you think PA is really mad at me. Like I care. :ROFL:

[Tilly]

Does anyone know at what point they stopped taking submissions from the UK, and did they make any kind of announcement?

[Bufty]

It's at least several months now, and no, as far as I know they made no formal announcement. Which prompts the obvious question - how do you know, then?

Simple, I asked PA about Publish Atlantica (previously Britannica) out of pure curiosity and they replied as follows...

Unfortunately, we can not accept authors from the United Kingdom. Our sister company formerly did so...but this program is now defunct.

[DaveKuzminski]

Well, let's face it. Every time PA tried to fashion a new name for that imprint they had in the UK, it seemed someone else already had it and was ready to fight.

[MadScientistMatt]

Well, let's face it. Every time PA tried to fashion a new name for that imprint they had in the UK, it seemed someone else already had it and was ready to fight.

Either that or Lightning Source told them they would drop their account if PA kept using their street address and claiming to have PublishWhateverica's headquarters there.

[DaveKuzminski]

Surely by now Lightning Source has evaluated the facts. You'd think they'd recognize that PA's loss to them by refusing to do business with them would be quickly picked up by other publishers that wouldn't have nearly the amount of grief attached to their operations as PA.

[Aconite]

I tried to go to www.publishbritannica.com (http://www.publishbritannica.com) but I get this: You are not authorized to view this page.

I just wonder what that is all about? Do you think PA is really mad at me. Like I care. Well, to be really accurate, it should say, "We are not authorized to use this name, as we got our butts sued for trademark infringement and deceptive practices and had to pony up a pretty penny and stop using the name. But we're going to make you think this is your fault somehow. 'Cause we're like that."