PA from the inside

[deepthroat]

I've waited for a little while before I came on here. I will be happy to tell you anything you want to know about PA. My motivations are plain and simple, I want to protect everyone from that place. So ask away, but please don't kill me.

[Cyia]

Interesting choice of screen name there.

So...

Who are/were you?

What did you do there?

How do we know you worked for PA?

[Guardian]

Well hi. :) I bet this thread is going to get interesting fast. I'm not sure what to ask. Did you have to deal with superiors yelling, "Give them no money! Send out more highly priced offers! Re-word that response - it's not threatening enough!" lol I don't know.

[Jersey Chick]

No worries, no one is going to kill you.

:welcome:

[thothguard51]

What did you do at PA?

Who did you report too?

[Chris P]

I asked this of the last former PA employee who came here. Of the 50,000 authors, roughly how many were active? In other words, how many ordered books during any one billing period?

[Sarah1981]

Approximately how long did you work for PA?

[deepthroat]

Interesting choice of screen name there.

So...

Who are/were you?

What did you do there?

How do we know you worked for PA?

If you read P.N. Elrod's blog then you know who I am.

PublishAmerica is located in a plain looking brick building behind the Thomas/Bimbo Bakery on the edge of Frederick, MD. I floated around through a couple of different departments, and handled hundreds of books. If it helps there is a weirdly out of place poster of hot sauce across the hall from the kitchen, and Miranda's office is covered in horse stuff and New Orleans Saints stuff.

[deepthroat]

Well hi. :) I bet this thread is going to get interesting fast. I'm not sure what to ask. Did you have to deal with superiors yelling, "Give them no money! Send out more highly priced offers! Re-word that response - it's not threatening enough!" lol I don't know.

Believe it or not, until about a few weeks ago, we weren't directed to ask for money. Another department handled that. Also, if anyone knew who the superiors were, that would have helped. It's not quite clear who had what roles in that place. Except for the tripartite evil doers in that place.

[deepthroat]

What did you do at PA?

Who did you report too?

Miranda was the final authority, but it depended. To this day I am not sure who I reported to in the different departments. It seemed to change daily.

I worked in all departments except, acquisitions and shipping and receiving.

[deepthroat]

I asked this of the last former PA employee who came here. Of the 50,000 authors, roughly how many were active? In other words, how many ordered books during any one billing period?

I handled hundreds of authors. My guess is somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 - 3,000 presently. Most of them in Children's Picture Books and Juvenile Fiction.

Quota numbers:
(Books must be completed, cover, layout, and in review)
Children Picture Books: 1 per hour, 4-8 depending on your shift.
Regular Books: 3 per day
eBooks: 6 per day
audio books: 1-2 per day

They have a crew of 15-20 at night working on children's books. The day crew is 30 strong in the book departments. Another 25 work in Acquisitions, support, shipping, and misc.

The book department has 3 working on eBooks, 3 working on Audiobooks, and 24 on new books.
16 in regular books, and 8 childrens.

[Unimportant]

Why did you take the job? And why did you leave it?

Also: Bimbo Bakery? Seriously? What an odd name.

[deepthroat]

What did you do at PA?

Who did you report too?

I worked in all departments. No one really reports to anyone in that place. There is no clear structure of management in that place. The only certains are HR, Miranda, Larry, and Wilhelm.

[Guardian]

Did you ever hear about authors who were dissatisfied with the company? Or were a lot of people you experienced generally pleased?

[deepthroat]

Why did you take the job? And why did you leave it?

Also: Bimbo Bakery? Seriously? What an odd name.

Bimbo Bakeries USA is a big company.

Would everyone like to know a secret about that place?

In Frederick, MD there are three temp agencies that service PA. Aerotek, Speherion, and Randstad keep a supply of temps for the company to consume.

There is a high turnover at PA for a reason, Temps. I was hired through a temp agency. I left over ethics, and the fact that I could not sleep at night. After I was moved into a deeper role besides superficial layout and cover design; I saw the deep lies that flow through that place. There is no truth, and lies is all that comes out of that place. I was there under 6 months.

I left over health reasons. The stress of that place got to me.

It sucks because they actually paid me well. However, they didn't pay me well enough to continue. As someone who has worked in different parts of the publishing industry, this place drove me bonkers. Employees are put in a damned if you do, damned if you don't position. However, most employees, like the prey, are not aware of how things really work in the industry.

[Cyia]

Why did you take the job? And why did you leave it?

Also: Bimbo Bakery? Seriously? What an odd name.

LoL. Bimbo's a national brand. He's a white, fluffy teddy bear in a baker's hat.

[deepthroat]

Did you ever hear about authors who were dissatisfied with the company? Or were a lot of people you experienced generally pleased?

Not tooting my own horn, but people loved my covers. Covers are the only place where I could stretch my talent. My covers were the nicest. Everyone else does the generic covers. They aren't really creative. They just do them to get them churned out. I really didn't care about numbers. I broke the rules in a lot of respects and did some light editing. Since I don't work there any longer I can admit that.

My writers were pleased generally. However, some people can never be pleased.

Now, my experience is that PA is great at doing puffery. They are pros at lying, and make their authors feel they will be something they will never achieve at PA. It's sad but true. These published authors have not met the truth. I generally handled first timers. So I got the gullible ones.

[deepthroat]

LoL. Bimbo's a national brand. He's a white, fluffy teddy bear in a baker's hat.

One of the few things I will miss is the smell of the english muffins as they were going through the line.

The other thing I will miss is the very cute red headed girl that worked in the same part of the office as I did at the end.

I never had the gusto to destroy the no office dating policy. I wish I had.

[Guardian]

I think the only thing that would really satisfy is a tell-all novella about the daily grind in a place like PA. People are asking facts and figures but honestly I kind of want to hear about if so-and-so was cracking an actual whip at employees or laughing maniacally in a swimming pool of money and children's tears. Just something interesting like that, lol. Probably not as obviously evil in reality though, huh? :P Ignore my feverish imagination.

[Guardian]

Not tooting my own horn, but people loved my covers. Covers are the only place where I could stretch my talent. My covers were the nicest. Everyone else does the generic covers. They aren't really creative. They just do them to get them churned out. I really didn't care about numbers. I broke the rules in a lot of respects and did some light editing. Since I don't work there any longer I can admit that.

My writers were pleased generally. However, some people can never be pleased.

Now, my experience is that PA is great at doing puffery. They are pros at lying, and make their authors feel they will be something they will never achieve at PA. It's sad but true. These published authors have not met the truth. I generally handled first timers. So I got the gullible ones.

That's sad to hear but that sounds about right for what I've heard about PA. I'm glad that you did take some time to give authors nice covers. That does mean something, at least. I've seen the threads about recycled covers with minimal effort put in to them.

[deepthroat]

I think the only thing that would really satisfy is a tell-all novella about the daily grind in a place like PA. People are asking facts and figures but honestly I kind of want to hear about if so-and-so was cracking an actual whip at employees or laughing maniacally in a swimming pool of money and children's tears. Just something interesting like that, lol. Probably not as obviously evil in reality though, huh? :P Ignore my feverish imagination.

Nah Miranda, Larry and Wilhelm would have to crawl out of 7th and 9th circles of hell to do that. There isn't a swimming pool of money. However, I will say that they have great taste in French wine.

It is really quiet in that place. There isn't much conversation going on. Honestly, it is kind of odd. People really don't speak to each other unless spoken to most of the time. It's not comfortable silence; it's awkward. Everyone has their iPods or various MP3 playing smartphones on. So everyone is kind of locked in their own world. We really communicate through email. That at best can be described a few and far between.

[deepthroat]

That's sad to hear but that sounds about right for what I've heard about PA. I'm glad that you did take some time to give authors nice covers. That does mean something, at least. I've seen the threads about recycled covers with minimal effort put in to them.

They do recycle covers, and are really generic. I put effort into my covers and did nice effects to give their covers some zing. Even though my books would not be available in book stores. I wanted my authors to have something nice they could display. I mean these authors put their hearts in their books, and the least I could do is give them something beautiful and original.

I did my best with what I had. We only have Adobe Photoshop CS2.

Here is the list of programs we had at our disposal.

Adobe Photoshop CS 2
Adobe InDesign CS3 and CS5 (Not everyone has CS5 yet)
Adobe Pagemaker (used sparingly)
Microsoft Word
Corel WordPerfect

That was it.

Audiobooks are not read by live people. They are done with a program called Text 2 Voice.

[Cyia]

It's not comfortable silence; it's awkward. Everyone has their iPods or various MP3 playing smartphones on.


Did they repeal the "no phone" policy one of the other former PA people mentioned here a while back?

[deepthroat]

Did they repeal the "no phone" policy one of the other former PA people mentioned here a while back?

Well if there is a no phone policy then everyone including the uppers are in direct violation. I think that policy was a rumor, and not the truth. It probably was repealed when smartphones had the ability to hold tons of music like mp3 players. Almost everyone that works there has a smartphone of some sort. Most people have Android devices. I noticed a few iPods, and iPhones in that place. Interesting thing though, Larry is a technology guru. Last year everyone got engraved iPod classics for a christmas present. This year we all got gift cards.

[Guardian]

Audiobooks are not read by live people. They are done with a program called Text 2 Voice.

D: Wouldn't that be terrible, though? Unless it was much nicer software. I can't even stand to listen to the weather with an automated voice. It would suck to publish a book, get all excited about it being put on audio tape, only to find that it's just the MS dumped into a Text2Speak software. PA takes a lot of shortcuts I'm guessing.

[deepthroat]

D: Wouldn't that be terrible, though? Unless it was much nicer software. I can't even stand to listen to the weather with an automated voice. It would suck to publish a book, get all excited about it being put on audio tape, only to find that it's just the MS dumped into a Text2Speak software. PA takes a lot of shortcuts I'm guessing.

Someone gets a cookie for that observation. It's automated sounding. Shame is that they could have had a legitimate voice actor do the books on tape. Well I guess they missed that opportunity.

[Guardian]

What's a shame is that an author could probably do the same thing at home for free. Lots of computers already come with a crude text-to-speech tool, and I'm sure they could figure out a way to record it into some easy format. :( Too bad, because I'm betting PA would make them pay some sort of fee for audio book formatting, but like I said, it can probably be done for virtually nothing at all. Big profit that way. That would be so clever but so skeezy.

[Karen Junker]

So, how did you find AW?

[deepthroat]

What's a shame is that an author could probably do the same thing at home for free. Lots of computers already come with a crude text-to-speech tool, and I'm sure they could figure out a way to record it into some easy format. :( Too bad, because I'm betting PA would make them pay some sort of fee for audio book formatting, but like I said, it can probably be done for virtually nothing at all. Big profit that way. That would be so clever but so skeezy.

I think they charge 99 for them to do the audio book.

[deepthroat]

So, how did you find AW?

P.N. Elrod and Google

[Chris P]

Much of what PA does an author could do at home--layout, editing, formatting, etc.--with the exception of binding. Shoot, I did a mock-up cover from istockphoto in PowerPoint with about a PA result (no offense intended, deepthroat, but some PA covers are laughable). Print it on photopaper and head off the the local Copy Cat.

Here's a question for DT, if you know: What percentage of authors come back to have their second books done by PA? Is the 50,000 authors actual authors, or is that titles?

[Guardian]

I think they charge 99 for them to do the audio book.

At first I naively thought, 99 cents, oh that's decent. But that must be 99 bucks.

Much of what PA does an author could do at home

That's mostly true, come to think of it. Printing could get pricey and tricky though, I think.

[deepthroat]

Much of what PA does an author could do at home--layout, editing, formatting, etc.--with the exception of binding. Shoot, I did a mock-up cover from istockphoto in PowerPoint with about a PA result (no offense intended, deepthroat, but some PA covers are laughable). Print it on photopaper and head off the the local Copy Cat.

Here's a question for DT, if you know: What percentage of authors come back to have their second books done by PA? Is the 50,000 authors actual authors, or is that titles?

Children's books are more likely to have return authors. If I ballparked I would say it is somewhere between 10-20% come back for more punishment.

Also, I totally concur most of the covers that get churned out are laughable in their total lack of skill. Then again they don't have real graphic designers working. They have people from temp agencies for the most part. Most of the people that they have doing formatting don't understand what the hell to do in the first place. I gave crash courses in Photoshop and inDesign during my tenure to people who had no idea what they were doing. Anyone can work there as long as they have a pulse.

They have a macro they run in WordPerfect called Remcodes. That is what does the formatting.

[Bartholomew]

Thanks for dropping by!

Can you describe the processes behind PA's editing and copyediting?

[CatSlave]

If it helps there is a weirdly out of place poster of hot sauce across the hall from the kitchen, and Miranda's office is covered in horse stuff and New Orleans Saints stuff.
Yes, you're for real.

[CatSlave]

No phones policy:
I think that policy was a rumor, and not the truth.
That was true when they were in the Church Street headquarters.
There were no phones on the desks of regular employees.
Some supervisors had access to a phone. All calls were channeled to Author Support.

Then everyone started carrying cell phones.

The silence in the workplace is creepy. You can almost smell the fear.

[TheTinCat]

How much time and work does it take to make the small corrections in already "published" books, that they are charging the authors upwards of $200 to make?

[deepthroat]

Thanks for dropping by!

Can you describe the processes behind PA's editing and copyediting?

Have you ever seen what we do? There is no editing allowed...period. We aren't allowed to suggest anything to the authors. All we can do is run a program called "remcodes" it removes formatting that authors do in their word processing programs. "Remcodes" is a macro that runs in WordPerfect. They also give us a list of codes and their replacements to put in the Change/Find in inDesign. It takes all of 15 minutes to do everything. Unless we have to close up space between paragraphs to make things flow between pages. It's maddening and frustrating. We aren't even allowed to run a spell checker. There are so many stories I wish I could have made simple suggestions on to help the flow of their stories.

[deepthroat]

How much time and work does it take to make the small corrections in already "published" books, that they are charging the authors upwards of $200 to make?

Depends can be as little as 10 minutes. It can be as long as a days worth of work if you are formatting a big cookbook. For the record cookbooks are PublishAmerica's biggest sellers on average. However that is still under 25 books on average. My running gag is that my books are so good they may sell in the teens. :-)

[deepthroat]

No phones policy:

That was true when they were in the Church Street headquarters.
There were no phones on the desks of regular employees.
Some supervisors had access to a phone. All calls were channeled to Author Support.

Then everyone started carrying cell phones.

The silence in the workplace is creepy. You can almost smell the fear.

I was there in Metropolitan Court. We still don't have phones at our desk. We just have our cell phone. We can't call authors, we are only allowed email.

The silence is beyond creepy. It is totally uncomfortable, and people who have been there a long time walk on eggshells around the trilogy of evil.

[deepthroat]

Yes, you're for real.

Not that I'm defending Miranda, but recently she has adopted Secretariat's Granddaughter. She is with foal, and I think that is cool that they saved her from a kill pen. Yeah Miranda is a horse lover, and it is quite obvious because of the amounts of equestrian stuff around the office.

[Chris P]

Roughly how many books does an author need to buy for PA to turn a profit? And is it true PA would introduce spelling errors with the goal of charging authors later to correct them?

[Guardian]

Have you ever seen what we do? There is no editing allowed...period. We aren't allowed to suggest anything to the authors. ... There are so many stories I wish I could have made simple suggestions on to help the flow of their stories.


Aggghhh. That sounds terrible. Personal question a bit but, Do you think you will find a job at a legit agency anytime soon so you can actually help people? Or are you going to avoid the business completely?

[deepthroat]

Roughly how many books does an author need to buy for PA to turn a profit? And is it true PA would introduce spelling errors with the goal of charging authors later to correct them?

I honestly don't know how many books need to be sold to make a profit. Considering they sell everything way to high, it wouldn't take many to get to a profit. However, I have no idea what they would need to sell.

I wouldn't put it past PA to do that, but reading the emails from some of the authors I think the mistakes are honest. However, I don't put anything past them to make them a buck.

[deepthroat]

Aggghhh. That sounds terrible. Personal question a bit but, Do you think you will find a job at a legit agency anytime soon so you can actually help people? Or are you going to avoid the business completely?

I would like to go to work for a legitimate agency. I would also like to open my own publishing house that would do in the neighborhood of 30-50 books a year. I think the investment on some new authors would be awesome. There is a book that came across my desk that I wish had went to a real publisher. It was a great story, and really should have been with a company that would market her novella.

If you know someone who may have an opening, I am open to listening.

[Chris P]

I would like to go to work for a legitimate agency. I would also like to open my own publishing house that would do in the neighborhood of 30-50 books a year. I think the investment on some new authors would be awesome. There is a book that came across my desk that I wish had went to a real publisher. It was a great story, and really should have been with a company that would market her novella.

If you know someone who may have an opening, I am open to listening.

I was so hoping you were talking about my novella, but you said "her" and mine went through before you were there anyway :). And although I'm no fan of PA, the "introducing errors" rumor never washed with me. There were some strange ones I can't imagine I missed ("Mary" spelled as "Marry"), and they did correct all the mistakes I caught in the page proofs. I have my guess on how many (or how shockingly few) books PA needs to sell to make a profit, but others would have a more educated guess than I would. Seeing the average is about 25 (or is that just cookbooks?) and that PA has been around a while, my guess wouldn't be too far off.

[deepthroat]

I was so hoping you were talking about my novella, but you said "her" and mine went through before you were there anyway :). And although I'm no fan of PA, the "introducing errors" rumor never washed with me. There were some strange ones I can't imagine I missed ("Mary" spelled as "Marry"), and they did correct all the mistakes I caught in the page proofs. I have my guess on how many (or how shockingly few) books PA needs to sell to make a profit, but others would have a more educated guess than I would. Seeing the average is about 25 (or is that just cookbooks?) and that PA has been around a while, my guess wouldn't be too far off.

I would give the title of the novella, but it would give me away. The database program they use is not secure. Anyone can find all the information you hand over to them. Your name, social security number, all credit card info, addresses, email addresses, and anything else you give them is available to all employees. There is no security for your information. It is a gold mine for people who specialize in ID theft. Just keep that in mind your info is not safe with PA.

[CatSlave]

Does PA have its own in-house printing operation at Metropolitan Court, or has that gone with the wind?
The Water Street print facility across from McCutcheon's has been vacant for quite a while now. That may have been before your time.

[Guardian]

Anyone can find all the information you hand over to them. Your name, social security number, all credit card info, addresses, email addresses, and anything else you give them is available to all employees. There is no security for your information. It is a gold mine for people who specialize in ID theft. Just keep that in mind your info is not safe with PA.


Holy flying poop fish!! o_o

[deepthroat]

Does PA have its own in-house printing operation at Metropolitan Court, or has that gone with the wind?
The Water Street print facility across from McCutcheon's has been vacant for quite a while now. That may have been before your time.

I know for a fact that is where they print and bind all hardcover books that are ordered. They just restarted printing the hardcover books, dust jackets, and binding in house. They have a couple of young people who do that. The trade PAperbacks are outsourced. They only have one printing press and can only handle small runs for the hardcovers.

[deepthroat]

I also know that the lost records are a total piece of bullshit. They are sitting right in the warehouse nicely marked in white boxes. They have hundreds of them clearly marked with dates. I took a few pictures of the wearhouse a while back to give to Victoria Strauss, but she didn't want the pics. I will gladly share them here, but it will have to wait till tomorrow.

[CatSlave]

Oops again, South Wisner, not South Water Street.

[deepthroat]

Another interesting tidbit about PA: The CFO of the company was hired last year. His name is I think Jeff. Jeff specializes in financially troubled companies. I know that they have been losing court cases recently, and are pushing their employees to push for more money from the authors. They are in real financial trouble from the look of it, and it wouldn't surprise me that things are not going in their favor.

At the end of last year they were trying to revamp their website, and internal computing. The ended it last year because the cost was going to be more than they could afford. The plan to my knowledge was to make the website more user friendly, and to make it easier to sell their books. I'm not sure if the CFO survived the Christmas cut, but from the way it appears things are not in great financial shape at PA.

I know they were evaluating Magneto software for the website to fix the storefront, and to make the shopping experience easier for people. It would also had made finding books easier for people. However, this was going to take more than they could afford. Money is tight around in PA.

[CatSlave]

*grinning from ear to ear*

What goes around, comes around.
I hope with all my heart.

Thank you for the up-to-date insider's view.

[deepthroat]

*grinning from ear to ear*

What goes around, comes around.
I hope with all my heart.

Thank you for the up-to-date insider's view.

My pleasure to let everyone know what is up at PA. Plus, I am not afraid of them.

[Guardian]

Haha. Maybe PA would have fared better in the long run if they had actually invested time in finding good books and promoting them rather than scamming a lot of hopeful authors and expecting to make their revenue out of those pockets. I know they'd barely get a red cent out of me, I'm so poor. :P

[deepthroat]

Haha. Maybe PA would have fared better in the long run if they had actually invested time in finding good books and promoting them rather than scamming a lot of hopeful authors and expecting to make their revenue out of those pockets. I know they'd barely get a red cent out of me, I'm so poor. :P

I never understood why they didn't do limited runs and distribute them out. I mean print 5,000 copies of some books and put them in book stores. Sell them and make some real money. However, they don't see the forest for the trees. It cost them $3.00 and less to print their books.

[Queen of Swords]

Have you heard anything about the PA convention that's supposed to happen this summer?

[deepthroat]

Have you heard anything about the PA convention that's supposed to happen this summer?

Atlantic City, NJ sometime this year. Save your money and go visit somewhere else.

[CatSlave]

Were you required to sign a nondisclosure agreement as a condition for employment?

[TheTinCat]

The database program they use is not secure. Anyone can find all the information you hand over to them. Your name, social security number, all credit card info, addresses, email addresses, and anything else you give them is available to all employees. There is no security for your information. It is a gold mine for people who specialize in ID theft.

I think this needs to be quoted again.

I don't even know how to comment on it. I'm just staring at my screen in dumbstruck silence.

[CatSlave]

So does this:
It cost them $3.00 and less to print their books.

[Torgo]

Children Picture Books: 1 per hour, 4-8 depending on your shift.

That's... I don't even...

Wow.

[Torgo]

Audiobooks are not read by live people. They are done with a program called Text 2 Voice.

:roll:

This is priceless.

[Terie]

:roll:

This is priceless.

Um. We're talking PA here. NOTHING is priceless. :roll:

I looked here (http://www.publishamerica.net/online_bookstore.html) to find the price, but they don't seem to have it listed. Could it be in the 'if you have to ask, you can't afford it' range? :D

[Old Hack]

Blimey. Just imagine if you paid your publisher to make your book into an audiobook and it arrived with a computer-generated voice. How hurt / upset / bewildered would you be? And how ridiculous would you feel?

It's a dreadful thing for PA to do. Just dreadful. My heart goes out to any writers who have been treated in this way.

[priceless1]

I never understood why they didn't do limited runs and distribute them out. I mean print 5,000 copies of some books and put them in book stores. Sell them and make some real money. However, they don't see the forest for the trees. It cost them $3.00 and less to print their books.
They don't do that because they don't want to assume any risk. It's hard work getting one's books into the stores, and then you have the return factor for the stock that doesn't sell. They'd be out of business in weeks if they tried this model.

It's more financially sound to make your own authors your income source because you don't need to hire marketing and sales people. PA is probably suffering because authors don't have the disposable income to buy their overpriced books. I've always said that this type of "publishing" model would die a quick death if every author refused to buy their own books.

[TheTinCat]

I never understood why they didn't do limited runs and distribute them out. I mean print 5,000 copies of some books and put them in book stores. Sell them and make some real money. However, they don't see the forest for the trees. It cost them $3.00 and less to print their books.

Because that would mean reading, picking out and editing only the best books so people would actually buy them. Even if they wanted to no one at that company would be able to do that to save their lives. They're not just unprofessional, they're deeply incompetent as well.

[DreamWeaver]

Because that would mean reading, picking out and editing only the best books so people would actually buy them. Even if they wanted to no one at that company would be able to do that to save their lives. They're not just unprofessional, they're deeply incompetent as well.I agree with all that (I particularly love *deeply incompetent* :D ), but in addition POD books are readily identifiable by sight and bookstore customers avoid them in droves, even the good ones. There are just so many bad POD books right now that it's a death-by-association thing, I think--readers who've sampled a bad POD book seem to be following the adage "once bitten, twice shy".

Of course, with no gatekeeping, editing, or production expertise, PA is in the group who caused the reader POD-avoidance problem in the first place.

ETA: Thanks for the reminder, Christine_N (see next post). I see "deeply incompetent" referring to the company's ability to put out a professional product, not to the work ethic or work ability of individual workers.

[Christine N.]

I don't want to insult the poor souls that work at PA - most of them have no idea what publishing actually entails, nor are they equipped to do the job. If they come from a temp agency, they are probably good office personnel and clerical workers. Occasionally you'll get a recent grad who has an inkling, but who will not be allowed to fully use those skills they have.

They need a job just like the rest of us. It's the top three who are unconscionable

[Guardian]

I looked here (http://www.publishamerica.net/online_bookstore.html) to find the price, but they don't seem to have it listed.

I followed that link and what the shit is this? I don't understand what they are selling.

Returning Rights (http://www.publishamerica.net/product24469.html) by
PublishAmerica
ISBN: Reverting Rights

Reverting Rights (http://www.publishamerica.net/product38283.html) by

PublishAmerica
ISBN: Returning Rights

Where the "Buy back your dignity!" one?

[cryaegm]

Blimey. Just imagine if you paid your publisher to make your book into an audiobook and it arrived with a computer-generated voice. How hurt / upset / bewildered would you be? And how ridiculous would you feel?

It's a dreadful thing for PA to do. Just dreadful. My heart goes out to any writers who have been treated in this way.
If it's sung by Hatsune Miku, I'd be impressed (lame nerd/anime-geek (not an otaku) joke).

[CatSlave]

Note the difference between the Reverting and Returning offers and their corresponding ISBN listings.

[Sepisllib]

If you go onto the "order" page of this process you will see this all identified as "reverting Rights" with the information under the SKU as "Returning Rights". They are wrapping it all up together under one package.

God Bless

Bill

[LoopyLinde]

The only certains are HR, Miranda, Larry, and Wilhelm.


Is that last guy still there? I've been lurking for a while (Hi!), and seem to remember reading that Wilhelm had moved on.

[CatSlave]

You can read about the ongoing adventures of Slick Willem on the investigative report blog by Rev. Sinthyia Darkness:
http://sinthyiadarkness.blogspot.com/2010/12/tax-woes-for-willem-meiners-and-help.html

[CatSlave]

Here's another one worth watching, Rubbish America:
http://publishamericascam.blogspot.com/

[victoriastrauss]

You can read about the ongoing adventures of Slick Willem on the investigative report blog by Rev. Sinthyia Darkness:
http://sinthyiadarkness.blogspot.com/2010/12/tax-woes-for-willem-meiners-and-help.html

I'm skeptical of this blog--it has jumped to some conclusions before that weren't supported by the evidence.

- Victoria

[JulieB]

I could be wrong, but I have the feeling both of those are written by the same person.

[CatSlave]

They are.

[JulieB]

Ack. I edited my post to say that. I know I did. It got eaten by the Icepocalypse!

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. ;-)

[circlexranch]

I'm skeptical of this blog--it has jumped to some conclusions before that weren't supported by the evidence.

- Victoria

I agree 100% and wouldn't use it as a reference. Howevah . . . it is fun to watch her be a thorn in PA's side!

[redrighthand]

The thread starter was sent a C&D by PA. This is exactly why you must be discreet.

[CatSlave]

Was it signed by Mr. Cretella? Just wondering if he still represents PA.

[kaitie]

Would someone be protected by whistleblower laws in a situation like this?

[thothguard51]

I doubt it because as other PA employees have said they have to sign a confidentially agreement.

[CatSlave]

It seems that PA would have bigger fish to fry than to waste time "ceasing and desisting" an ex-employee.

[Stacia Kane]

I certainly hope s/he is okay.

[James D. Macdonald]

IANAL, but I'd think that companies can't hide illegal activity behind confidentiality agreements, and that whistleblower laws are exactly what protects employees who reveal illegal activity.

But the OP didn't allege illegal activities. Tacky, tawdry, unprofessional, slipshod, and stupid activities, yes. Illegal? No.

I doubt we're going to hear about illegal activities until until there's a falling out between Miranda and Larry, or if, perhaps, Willem decides to turn state's evidence.