Archive of the NEPAT

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James D Macdonald

Go Get A Copy

Everyone -- PA booster, PA detractor, PA employee or owner, those who are just curious, first time authors and old pros -- go get a copy of <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0809325756/ref=nosim/madhousemanor" target="_new">Ten Percent of Nothing</a> by Jim Fisher.

You owe it to yourself to see the story behind the Dorothy Deering Agency and Sovereign Publications.
 

James D Macdonald

Re: It's just

Most of the time when using a science fiction publisher, or young adult publisher, the author is not permitted to retain the copyrights over their own fiction.

This is a complete, utter, side-to-side and end-to-end lie.

A fib. A taradiddle. An untruth. A misrepresention. A prevarication. A distortion. A fish story. A cannard. A crock of sh*t.

And those are its good points.

False, proveably false, infamously false.

Is PublishAmerica getting sloppy, getting arrogant, or getting desperate?
 

vstrauss

Re: It's just

>>Is PublishAmerica getting sloppy, getting arrogant, or getting desperate?<<

It's getting traffic. Try typing "fiction publisher" into Google and see what comes up as #1.

- Victoria
 

James D Macdonald

Re: It's just

And the link that takes you to next... <a href="http://www.publishamerica.com/benefits.htm" target="_new">Benefits</a>.

Misleading, deceptive, and false throughout, yet seductive to the new, naive writer.

I'm feeling the urge to do a line-by-line on that one.

I really hate what they're trying to do to my brother and sister authors.
 

AnneMarble

Re: It's just

Most of the time when using a science fiction publisher, or young adult publisher, the author is not permitted to retain the copyrights over their own fiction.
Click to expand...

Now what are the people who claim that PublishAmerica never lies going to say to this? :shrug Or will they say it doesn't count because it's not in a contract?

Anyway, I thought the Greeking made more sense... :bang
 

CaoPaux

Re: It's just

And the link that takes you to next... Benefits.
Click to expand...
Oh. My. God. That #1 alone...how Clintonesque: "Your honor, it depends on what the definition of 'in' is."

Please, Uncle Jim, a rebuttal as only you can give. :hail
 

James D Macdonald

Disclaimer

Have y'all seen PA's disclaimer on their site?

<BLOCKQUOTE>
This site is provided by PublishAmerica, Inc. on an "as is" basis. PublishAmerica, Inc. makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the operation of the site, the information, content, materials or products, included on this site. To the full extent permissible by applicable law, PublishAmerica, Inc. disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. PublishAmerica, Inc. will not be liable for any damages of any kind arising from the use of this site, including but not limited to direct, indirect, incidental punitive and consequential damages.</blockquote>

<a href="http://www.publishamerica.com/disclaimer.htm" target="_new">www.publishamerica.com/disclaimer.htm</a>

In other words, they lie, they know they lie, and it's your fault if you believe them.

Myself, I don't think this disclaimer protects them half as much as they think it does, but IANAL.
 

GigiSahi

Another rant

Thanks for all the advice, info and humor. It was helpful and fun. I like this board--lots of great and informed minds at work here.

~ Gigi
 

publishorperish

Re: Disclaimer

Sounds like a standard, boilerplate disclaimer. I doubt that it is a defense to false advertising. They probably cribbed it off some other company's website.
 

James D Macdonald

Re: Another rant

Hi, GigiSahi --

Anything I could say here is probably off topic, so...

Obligatory On-topic Comment: You'd be nuts in the head to consider PublishAmerica.

Now ...

Get the guidelines for the following publishers:

UpStream Publications
Triple Crown Publications
Atria
Teri Woods Publishing
Strebor Books
Dafina
Miramax
Harlem Moon
Dutton Books
Kensington Pub Corp.

When you have their guidelines, put 'em in order of which ones you'd most like to be published by.

Then, follow those guidelines to the letter. If you get a "no" from one publisher, that same day write to the next one on your list.

Meanwhile, work on your next book.

Later, come back and tell us how you made out.
 

CaoPaux

And the glow fades for another one

www.publishamerica.com/cg...s/2119.htm

Roze
9/13/2004
18:34:13

Message:
Let's just face it guys, we are going to have hell of a time selling our books to bookstores, because of "no return policy of PA." I tried, only God knows how I tried. Only to have one refusal after the other. PA should change their policy if they want us to sell our books.

My book sale and my first check was a joke.

Sorry, I had to vent.......

One sad sad PA author...

Roze........
Roze Dawson
www.rozedawson.com
[email protected]
ISBN 1-4137-2392-6
"Yesteryears, The Pain Left Unhealed"

-----

FYI - Her book became available in March ’04.
 

Sher2

Re: And the glow fades for another one

My book sale and my first check was a joke.
Sorry, I had to vent.......
One sad sad PA author...

FYI - Her book became available in March ’04.
Click to expand...


That is truly sad. No longer an uncommon story, but sad.
 

dgkgoldberg

and

Gigi/Sahi
you might want to add soft skull and nightshade to that publisher list.
 

Whachawant

So...did we win one?????

O.K...

I'm tired of sob stories... although I must sympathize..
with all who have had hardship...

Chances are the response has already been posted many a time.......

But seriously...

Has anyone here filed a lawsuit and won..?...and on what grounds....

Has anyone here filed against P.A. and lost and on what grounds?...should that require additional investigation..? (as in why did the court rule in favor of P.A.? loop hole?...)

Should any law that they are abiding by be change so that it doesn't meet certain criteria?(i.e. loopholes)
abiding by any illegitimate publisher posted....?

Should P.A. go under an I.R.S. investigation?

Is it possible that P.A. (as a result of forged paperwork),.. be able to file bankruptcy and the owners/ceo/shareholders start a new terror on the literary world..(obviously if nobody is receiving income from their books, then technically the company cannot be receiving any revenue, through the process of backtracking the logs.. ) ???

So ...is this company expanding?,...seems to me that if more 'suckers'(pardon the expression) are supplying this faux paus with income then they have the ability to expand to reap the benefits from additional casualties.

Even tho this thread is quite large is doesn't seem to do the weak ,. justice.. ...



Peace..
 

Auraura

Re: It's just

It's easy for anyone with the means (namely PA) to change the author name, book title and publish date; print the material and sell it to stores through another company. It's astonishingly easy. A few words here and there removed, maybe even an entire excerpt and voile...

And the works could be on shelves for literally years without anyone being the wiser. Especially if you're an author just starting out and your work is not known by the masses.

So they take the submissions and send out contracts, give the aspiring authors the warm-fuzzies and happiness they have so been craving for years (I'm finally published!). Take advantage of the ignorance of many just entering the industry, and when the fit hits the shan (*smile*) drop em like a bad habit because they 'stepped out of line'.

I say work to get a class-action lawsuit filed against this company for misrepresentation, and if you can, breach of contract. Find an attorney (or attornies) who know copyright law like the back of their hand and hope they work for free or for a percentage of the win.

Enough people need to stand up, speak up and NEVER shut up. Once you stop doing any or all of these things you've lost.

Just my two cents
 

SRHowen

Gigi/Sahi

I want to add something here--

You may be doing yourself a huge disservice by only focusing on those agents who are the same race you are or who rep the same race. (big names) Those agents rep those big names not because of race but because of who they are.

James gave you a good list, but try outside it. Forget race when looking for representation and see what happens.

I started out the same way--hey I have a better chance of getting published or represented if i find an American Indian agent or publisher, and there are several small press publishers and small time agents who are ndn. While I got some very nice rejection letters, they were still rejections. Many were not taking on new clients, or wanted very specific stories--

Ultimately I did find an agent, a very "white" man in NYC. (though at the time he did have an ndn client)

My point is to expand your horizons and see what happens.

Shawn
 

James D Macdonald

Re: It's just

It's easy for anyone with the means (namely PA) to change the author name, book title and publish date; print the material and sell it to stores through another company.

No, I'm sorry, but I don't agree. If PA could sell books in stores they wouldn't have the reputation that they do. Selling books to the public is hard. Selling books to their own authors is easy.

The only way they could get away with a scheme like that would be if no one ever bought or read their altered books ...
 

Kate Nepveu

Re: Another rant

Whether they were accepting unsolicited submissions or not, I still contacted them. . . . Apparently, I assumed too much--because I never received a reply.
Click to expand...

I hate to say it, but if they said they weren't accepting unsolicited submissions, your submission almost certainly went directly in the trash, so it's not surprising that you didn't hear from them. Have you considered sending query letters to the places that weren't accepting unsolicited submissions, to try and get them to solicit your manuscript?
 

James D Macdonald

Re: Another rant

Kate's right.

All that "no unsolicited" means is "send us a query letter first."

When I say "follow the publisher's guidelines to the letter" I mean it.
 

GigiSahi

RE: it's just

This is interesting. How does PA stay afloat? They have no bestselling authors because no one will stock a PA book. Most of their sales are generated by authors purchasing their own books or a few friends and family members buying them. But, let's look at that....

I come from a large family but even if every member of my family (that I'm aware of) were to buy a dozen copies of my book that would generate less than 2,000 sales. If all my friends were to follow suit that would generate less than 1,000 sales. Combined less than 3,000 books sold. Clearly, no one is going to buy 12 copies of the same novel--no matter how much they love and support their friends or relatives. Perhaps a handful (and that's being extremely generous) of PA's authors have the means to purchase hundreds of copies of their own novel with the prayer of somehow selling them.

PA's gimmick is not charging their authors to have their books published then charging astronomical prices for the books. But, they have no guarantee that their authors or authors' friends and family will buy the books--although human nature and vanity dictates otherwise. Still, mathematically that wouldn't be enough to generate the necessary revenue to keep a business going. This leads us back to the original question--How does PA stay afloat? That definitely bears looking into.

~Gigi
 
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