My Story with PublishAmerica by An Almost Victim!

[pinknpurple101]

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[Guardian]

I'm so glad that you found out before sending them your entire manuscript. I'm so glad for you!!

[suki]

I'm so glad you got some good advice. But...I will caution you. Until PA actually releases you from that contract, I'm not sure you can publish that book with any other publisher. You need to read the contract very carefully, and get some legal advice before you sign a contract related to this book with any other publishers.

She is correct that right now you don't have any assets worth pursuing. But if another publisher wanted to publish that book, they would ask you to sign a contract saying you had full rights to let them publish it. And you might not - not until PA releases you. Even without the book in their hands, they have the right to publish that book.

And if it did get published by someone else, then PA might have something to sue over - your and your publisher's profits. Now, would they? I don't know. But they possibly could.

You need to get some legal advice before signing any contracts to publish that book through any other publisher.

I'm not saying it's hopeless. I'm just saying you might not be in the clear yet, and you need to be careful.

good luck!

~suki

[thothguard51]

Good for you and wishing you much success on you authors journey...

[Chris P]

Hee hee. You sure do like writing!

Welcome to AW! I hope the author is right and you can't be held to the contract (I do suggest getting legal advice if things start getting tense).

I found out too late. When I saw that my book was listing for $24.95 when even I didn't think it was worth half that is when I started looking around and found AW and Preditors and Editors. In addition to learning how to become a better writer, I've also learned how to move on to new, and better books. This is a great place for writers!

ETA: Meridian is a neat town. Have a chili relleno at La Pinata for me!

[Momento Mori]

Welcome to AW but unless and until you get a release from PA, they still have first dibs on your manuscript once it's finished.

You need to email them saying that you can't finish the book and no longer wish to publish and ask them to release you from your contract.

If they don't, then you need to change your manuscript to make sure it isn't substantially similar to the one PA has a claim on.

MM

[pinknpurple101]

Thank you for the great advice, Suki.

Right now, I'm just glad to still have my book, and I'm not looking into publishing it for a while since I am going to college in the fall. As for seven whole years of waiting... I'm not so sure. But I am definitely going to follow your advice with going to a lawyer and regaining my rights as soon as I can.

[pinknpurple101]

And to everyone else that posted - thank you! Your words really are helpful to me :)

[suki]

Thank you for the great advice, Suki.

Right now, I'm just glad to still have my book, and I'm not looking into publishing it for a while since I am going to college in the fall. As for seven whole years of waiting... I'm not so sure. But I am definitely going to follow your advice with going to a lawyer and regaining my rights as soon as I can.

See also Momento Mori's post. But good for you for both getting out in time, and for having a good attitude about it. Good luck in college and with the book.

~suki

[Guardian]

I've heard advice given to keep emailing them asking them to get rid of your contract. They might lash back at you, but keep emailing them politely to let you go.

Can anyone chime in on this and if that's legit advice?

[James D. Macdonald]

Hi, Pinknpurple.

See also, Alternatives to PublishAmerica (http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142370).

Please be very, very circumspect. The rights situation for your book at this moment is ... confused. You may have some more hoops to jump through.

Also, be aware that the honchos at PublishAmerica read this board (they have lots of time to do so since almost no one posts to the PA message board any more). They aren't above screwing with you just because they can.

All of the top echelon at PA are failed writers themselves; they'll do their best to hold back and stomp on anyone who they think is a writer or might possibly succeed in publishing.

[Gravity]

Welcome, Pink. You'll find AW a massive, welcoming, and highly useful site. Best of luck to you!

[Cyia]

Hi pinkpurple!

I wanted to ask you something, since you mentioned losing so much work on a crashed laptop. Do you still have it? Even if the laptop won't start, the files may still be in tact, and may be transferable to a new computer by USB cable, just like the crashed laptop was an external hard drive.

[bearilou]

Thank you for reading this novel of a thread, but I found it extremely important!

:hooray:

So glad you found us.

*waves to you from over the hill in Camden, MS*

[pinknpurple101]

To Cyia: I do still have my old laptop! And I've tried almost everything. I did actually try the USB cable trick, but it is completely dead and the battery refuses to charge. :(

[Cyia]

:( Sorry to hear that.

[Anninyn]

I'm so glad you found us too. In the meantime, while you're waiting that seven years (be sure to email them at the end of that time requesting they do not renew the contract, they've pulled that trick before) write.

Write more novels. Edit them. Get them critiqued. Edit them again. When you're done with college, and looking for a reputable publisher, you'll have more than one thing to sell them.

And if you need any help, the people here are always here, even for newbies.

[Bookewyrme]

To Cyia: I do still have my old laptop! And I've tried almost everything. I did actually try the USB cable trick, but it is completely dead and the battery refuses to charge. :(

I had a similar thing happen, and unfortunately got rid of my laptop. Afterwards, I was told I should have taken it to professionals. Frequently, people like Geeksquad can retrieve data from a dead hard-drive. Even if a hard-drive is completely erased (which it doesn't sound like this one is) some version of files, particularly documents, can usually be retrieved. I don't know how much money/time you're willing to spend on retrieving those MSs, but just something to think about. :)

Anyway, welcome to AW and congrats for escaping PA before any seriously lasting harm could come to your book (rights ambiguity not-withstanding, since if you worst comes to worst you can just wait them out for 7 years). Good luck with college and your writing! :)

[Little1]

So glad you found us before you gave them your baby! :)

[pinknpurple101]

Thank you everyone who is wishing me luck with college! I am definitely in need of all the luck I can get :) I am majoring in Registered Nursing, which many have thought strange since I am a writer and singer by trade. Even so, I have always wanted to be apart of something that matters - both physically and spiritually. I guess my calling is to help people physically through the medical field and spiritually through my stories :)

[DaveKuzminski]

If you know someone with the same kind of laptop, get with them and swap out hard drives. Then you download your files to a flash drive, swap hard drives back, and you're in business as soon as you plug your flash drive into your new computer.

[cryaegm]

I had a similar thing happen, and unfortunately got rid of my laptop. Afterwards, I was told I should have taken it to professionals. Frequently, people like Geeksquad can retrieve data from a dead hard-drive. Even if a hard-drive is completely erased (which it doesn't sound like this one is) some version of files, particularly documents, can usually be retrieved. I don't know how much money/time you're willing to spend on retrieving those MSs, but just something to think about. :)

Anyway, welcome to AW and congrats for escaping PA before any seriously lasting harm could come to your book (rights ambiguity not-withstanding, since if you worst comes to worst you can just wait them out for 7 years). Good luck with college and your writing! :)
FWIW, GeekSquad, 9 times out of 10, have people who don't know what they're doing when it comes to computers.

TC: Welcome to AW. :) I escaped from PA, too. They said I was too young and had to be 16 in order to get published (gosh, this was almost six years ago; 20 now). It's a good thing you escaped their clutches. Try to get out of that contract, and in the mean time, write. ;)

[stormie]

The sign of a good writer--you hooked me right away. Your first post on this thread was interesting. Never stop writing. And glad you found out about PA. And found AW. :)

[pinknpurple101]

If you know someone with the same kind of laptop, get with them and swap out hard drives. Then you download your files to a flash drive, swap hard drives back, and you're in business as soon as you plug your flash drive into your new computer.

I've actually thought about doing that, Dave. The only problem is, my laptop is an older model and I really don't know anyone that has one even similar to it. I have been looking on places like Ebay and Craige's List for my model. Hopefully I will find an affordable one soon! lol :D

[pinknpurple101]

Thank you, Stormie! That really means a lot to me :)

[newbound]

I guess I'm lucky that PA never emailed me back, and it's been years since I sent them a query...probably almost a decade. Phew! :)

[areteus]

I was also going to suggest the hard drive swap trick. If that does not work (and it might not - sometimes putting a new hard drive onto another motherboard causes problems with the registry and the BIOS and you don't get it booting) then it is sometimes worth popping down to a computer shop and asking if they have any external drive cases (they have a proper name but I can't remember what it is). This is basically the outside bit of an external hard drive with the appropriate power and data cables inside. You take out your old drive, connect it to the correct plugs inside the casing and plug this casing into another laptop or PC using the USB. Its worked for me a number of times when a laptop or desktop has failed.

Before you buy your casing, though, you do need to check what sort of hard drive you have - is it IDE (most older models will be) or SATA (as most newer models will be)? If in doubt, take the drive into the shop with you to show the connections but basically IDE is a large plug whereas SATA is a much smaller one.

And, a harsh lesson here, make sure you always back up... and this tip carries to college as well. When I was writing my Master's thesis I was paranoid enough to have 3 copies of it on 3 different floppy discs (this was before the days of USB drives or even USB :) ), 3 more copies on 3 different PC hard drives, a copy on the college network and a copy sent to my gmail account (so it would be stored on their server...). That's overkill but at least make sure you have at least one back up in an alternative location to your laptop.

[pinknpurple101]

To areteus: Thank you for the advice! I have no earthly clue what sort of hard drive I have (I got my laptop for my twelfth birthday seven years ago, and even then it wasn't the newest model on the market!) but my dad is pretty good at computers and he could tell me.

And I did learn a very hard lesson that day - save often, and save on lots of backups! I laughed when I read about you saving on several computers and emailing your thesis to your gmail because that is exactly what I do! It may be overkill, but at least I will never loose my book (unless I have another stupid moment and sign a contract for PA.) Thank you for your post!

[Ari Meermans]

Hi Pinknpurple, just a quick thought—and you can take it as you will, with or without the proverbial grain of salt—the Age of License in Mississippi used to be 21. At least, it was as of 2009. If it still is, and you signed the contract without your parents co-signing, then the contract with PA may not be legally binding. It would be worth checking with your family's attorney or one you may know socially just to be sure. If you find that this is the case, then you are definitely "not worth suing" from PA's perspective. lol

ETA: There exists the possibility that my information may be outdated so, again, take it as you will.

[Blake M. Petit]

Sounds like you've already got a good head on your shoulders -- it's a nice head start. Good luck!

[Sarah1981]

areteus's suggestion of the enclosure is good. I used a cable that did the same thing, though it was a bit delicate--the plastic housing over the IDE connector broke off, but it still worked fine as long as I was gentle with it.

The cable had SATA and IDE connectors as well as USB and power cables, so I just connected the cable to whichever internal hard drive I'd pulled and went from there. I think this cost me thirty bucks several years ago. Mostly, I used less-expensive, internal hard drives for data backup because it was cheaper than buying an external drive.

When I was an undergrad, a grad student on campus lost his laptop--somebody stole it. The computer contained the *only* copy of his thesis and this was near the end of the semester. He was posting flyers offering $1,000 to anybody who returned the laptop, no questions asked.

If I hadn't been slightly paranoid about multiple backups in different locations before seeing those flyers, it would have made me a believer.

Anyway, welcome to AW and I'm very happy to hear you didn't send your book to PA. Best of luck getting the contract terminated so you can freely seek publication elsewhere. :)

[merrihiatt]

Welcome to AW and way to go on hearing the painful news that PA isn't what they claim to be and having the good sense not to send them any more of your manuscript. I know that gut-wrenching feeling when you realize you've made a mistake (** raising my hand, as I am someone who signed a contract with PA, too **).

I back-up everything and send it to myself via e-mail attachment, as well. Better to have ten back-ups than zero back-ups. My theory is that if I have a ton of back-ups, I'll probably never need them, but if I don't have any, well... you know what can happen. Eep!

Good luck with college and definitely continue writing.

[areteus]

@Sarah1981:L That might work as well and since it only needs to last as long as it takes to transfer the files it doesn't have to be robust. Though on the time I did this, I also then had an external hard drive to use with my new laptop and therefore increased the storage and back up options :)

You probably won't know which hard drive it is until you open her up and have a poke inside. But it is easy to tell the difference once you see the cables involved. AFAIK (unless they've updated the standard again and not told me...) there are only two options - IDE or SATA.

[Rane]

The sign of a good writer--you hooked me right away. Your first post on this thread was interesting. Never stop writing. And glad you found out about PA. And found AW. :)

I agree. Keep writing. :-)

[shaldna]

To Cyia: I do still have my old laptop! And I've tried almost everything. I did actually try the USB cable trick, but it is completely dead and the battery refuses to charge. :(

Nothing is ever lost, and data can always be found. I spilled nail polish remover on my laptop and it literally blew. I took it down to a guy at a little independant electronics place and he was able to take my laptop apart and get the information off my harddrive and onto a flash drive for me. It didn't cost much either, and was worth it to get all my stuff back.

[jaksen]

Tuck that novel aside and all sequels, notes, ideas, etc. which go along with it. In seven years it'll be there waiting for you.

Now, seven years may seem long, but you're in school now and in a flash - the four years will pass by. Then three more? It will pass.

Meanwhile, start a new story. The creative brain that started your other story is still ripe for the plucking - it's full of many stories. The part of you that built that world, those characters, those plot elements is ready, willing and able to build and write another.

Have faith in yourself. You made one mistake, but you've quickly learned from it. Who here hasn't done something and said, yikes, what the heck was that? Welcome to the adult world, the writing world, and AW.

As for those who jumped up and down at thought of your being published, just tell them those plans are on hold for now, which they are.

And again, welcome.

[Katrina S. Forest]

Great to hear this. Sometimes when I run across PA authors (I had one PM me recently over on Shelfari), I'm hesitant to say anything, because I think they'll just get mad at me. But reading this is a great encouragement to speak the truth.

Best of luck -- especially with getting your files back!

[allenparker]

Hi Pink and welcome. You have a PM.

The big thing here is to keep writing and don't let anything or anyone tell you you can't. There is a good sized army of PA survivors here that went on to publish with other publishers and have done well. You can, too. Even I found a couple of publishers wanting my work. Go out and conquer, both college and writing.

[francisbruno]

Hi Pink,
Glad to hear you got away (hopefully) from PA.
As for your hard drive. It might be possible to recover the data. I have done this when my wife's computer crashed. If it is a PC you will need:

http://www.amazon.com/USB-SATA-5-25-Cable-Adapter/dp/B000YJBL78/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1308318350&sr=8-2

The cable will connect any hard drive you might have.

Remove the hard drive from the laptop and hook it up to the cable. Then attach the USB to another PC or laptop. If you are lucky, it will mount and you can copy the files off. However, if it doesn't, you can use this:

http://www.datarecoverysoftware.org/

The free version will scan the hard drive and let you know if it can recover the files. If it shows the files, then you have a chance of recovery, it's not guaranteed. I think it's $50 for the software and $20 for the cable.

If you need any help, you can PM me.

[pinknpurple101]

Thank you everyone for the great advice! :D I really appreciate all of you!

[shaldna]

if all else fails, you can buy your PA right back for the princely sum of 99bucks

[Gillhoughly]

No way--do not pay PA anything! I know you were joking shaldna, but we're just not gonna go there! ;)

Pink--I think it's awesome you found your way here and you're getting some great help. I'd follow up on that contract signing age thing. For some places you have to be 18 but if it's 21 in MS, then you're home free and can tell PA to release you.

Please check the links Uncle Jim posted (James Macdonald) and read his forum "Learn Writing With Uncle Jim" -- you can't have a better mentor for writing and publishing.

As for PA changing the title, that's something all publishers do. It's annoying, but so long as there's a check at the end of it, we can live with it.

It's also something you may want to consider if you want to pursue the publication of this book without any release from PA.

If you do a significant rewrite of the book you have (title change, change names of characters, locations, rearrange scenes) then legally it is no longer the same book PA sent the contract on.

Now I COULD be wrong. I'm not a lawyer! But maybe others here can verify or bust that one. My understanding is that even a 10% change on a manuscript makes it a different edition.

But keep sending PA those polite "I'm not finishing the book, sorry, please cancel" mails." They may get bored and cut you loose.

Otherwise, consider making changes so your first three chapters are different from the ones PA has.

I know a title change is a pain, especially if you're strongly attached to the one you have. But I changed the title of my first novel when the original wasn't doing the job. All career writers have to do a title change now and then until they get enough clout to have title approval written into their contracts.

Changing character names is a pain, too, but check this story about Gone With the Wind (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_with_the_Wind):

The title for the novel was a problem for Mitchell. She initially titled the book "Pansy," the original name for Scarlett O'Hara. Although never seriously considered, the title "Pansy" was dropped once Macmillan persuaded Mitchell to rename the main character. Other proposed titles included "Tote the Weary Load", "Baa! Baa! Black Sheep", "Bugles Sing True", "Not in Our Stars", and "Tomorrow is Another Day," the latter taken from the last line in the book; the publisher noted that there were several books close to the same title at the time, so Mitchell was asked to find another title. She chose Gone with the Wind.



"Baa! Baa! Black Sheep" ????????

WTF were they smoking, and where can I get some? http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/images/icons/icon10.gif

[James D. Macdonald]

Now I COULD be wrong. I'm not a lawyer! But maybe others here can verify or bust that one. My understanding is that even a 10% change on a manuscript makes it a different edition.


A different edition, perhaps, but not a different book. If Joe Random Writer published a book that was 90% identical to one of mine (and I'm not talking "both books mention staircases" or "both books have a character named 'John'"), you bet I'd be on the phone to a lawyer the next morning.

Please don't go that route without first consulting with a lawyer well-versed in IP law.

[Unimportant]

My understanding is that even a 10% change on a manuscript makes it a different edition.
Hmm. I'd have to disagree with this one. The number I've vaguely seen floated around is 25%, and anyhow the PA contract probably holds the rights to all editions of a contracted title.

When the question of "how much makes it a new book" comes up, I tend to put it in terms of a 20-Build-Your-Own-Whatever-With-These-Blueprints book, or an anthology of 20 short stories, or a poetry collection. If you took out 2 of the 20 poems or short stories or blueprints and replaced them with new ones, would it be a new book with a new title? Would readers, if they bought it having already bought the first book, feel cheated and misled?

[Gillhoughly]

There, see? That's why I'm a writer, not a lawyer! :D

Do what others have said if PA won't release (write another book[s], focus on school), but go the polite letter route for a bit and see if that works. There's no hurry!