PAMB and its quotes

Ken Schneider · Feb 11, 2007

I bet he could post a five thousand word sales pitch about his PA book and it'd stay up.

zizban · Feb 11, 2007

I sent him a brief email with a link back here. Maybe he'll show up.

CatSlave · Feb 11, 2007

Big Brother IS watching you!

spinnerin said:
I've started wondering that too. The game they're running seems like it must be exhausting to keep up, especially since the authors can talk to each other online and trade notes.

PA closely monitors their forum -and this one- and deletes comments at will, if they appear to be negative toward PA in any way. They will lock threads, remove comments and ban authors at the drop of a hat. Anyone who does not adhere to the PA cult mentality gets tossed out of there. There is no freedom of speech on that forum whatsoever.

It's for your own good; we don't want negative comments to discourage you.

What the PA authors need is a private, unmonitored forum in order to speak their minds and compare notes.
Big Brother Is Watching You is exactly what is happening at PA. It's creepy!

brianm · Feb 11, 2007

Here's how he responded later...

Authors can use this site to list and sell their books as long as they are collectables, which they are as long as they are signed copies. I only posted my books there today and they are receiving hits already. Since Jan. ii my site has been hit over 6000 times from all over the world. I thought this might be a unique way to sell your books that you've purchased from PA.

platedlizard · Feb 11, 2007

brianm said:
* I don't know how to take a posting from PA and place it here, so I just copied and pasted it in word.

Brianm, just write [ quote ] XXX [ /quote ] without the spaces and copy/paste the quoted bit in the middle where the XXX is. If you want to indicate who is quoting you can do [ quote=Jane Smith ]text here[ /quote ].

brianm · Feb 12, 2007

And here is what PA said this morning...

info center said:
In his original post, the gentleman was offering a service in return for money. Not allowed on this board.

Something told me the original post had to be something about making money.

(platedlizard, thank you for the info.)

Ken Schneider · Feb 12, 2007

CatSlave said:
PA closely monitors their forum -and this one- and deletes comments at will, if they appear to be negative toward PA in any way. They will lock threads, remove comments and ban authors at the drop of a hat. creepy!

They've been doing that for the whole 6 years they've been in business.

They booted me off two years ago. Nothing has changed except the people.

99% of the people that have a book through PA are first time writers and that was their first stab at trying to be published.

Easy targets for wolves in business clothing.

xhouseboy · Feb 12, 2007

brianm said:
And here is what PA said this morning...

Something told me the original post had to be something about making money.

(platedlizard, thank you for the info.)

I can see Infocenter's point. Any disposable income sloshing around must be sent directly to PA. They probably seen this guy as someone attempting to muscle in on their racket...sorry, business.

DeadlyAccurate · Feb 12, 2007

spinnerin said:
I've started wondering that too. The game they're running seems like it must be exhausting to keep up, especially since the authors can talk to each other online and trade notes. I'm reminded of a few movies that portray con artists as a kind of addict.

It makes sense if you think about con artists as people who get just as much thrill out of fooling people as they do about making money. For just a second, allow yourself to feel the schadenfreude and sense of superiority from tricking people, and you'll understand. For the majority of people, our conscience and decency outweighs any perceived pleasures. But if you have no sense of shame...

(Note: IANAP)

James D. Macdonald · Feb 12, 2007

As failed writers themselves, the Stooges want other writers to fail. Any one of the writers they pull down could be (and many are) more talented and more skilled writers than any of the Stooges. And knowing that chafes them. Harming others is as much of a motive to them as making money or the thrill of running a succesful scam.

zizban · Feb 13, 2007

According to Tom Rent ( http://publications.clarylopez.com/articles.html ) "only a handful of POD books to date have sold over 5000 copies, a number most traditional publishers start at for a new title print-run. But given more time, this likely will change as POD catches on across the industry."

At first I wondered how this wasn't deleted by infocenter then I read it again. The poster is confusing the technology with the business model.

(and I can not imagine a day will come anytime soon where Random House will do a first run of books on POD machine).

J.S Greer · Feb 13, 2007

brianm said:
For every PA writer that becomes unhappy, there are at least 1000 more "writers" waiting in the wings for the ego stroke.

And really, this is it in a nutshell.

Well said. :Hug2:

CatSlave · Feb 14, 2007

new thread

http://bb.publishamerica.com/viewtopic.php?t=19587

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:47 am
Post subject: Again, Who is the Head of PA and or the assistant, or vice

I asked this question previously, but have received no answer and it was deleted. Why?

This should be interesting.

Sparhawk · Feb 14, 2007

CatSlave said:
http://bb.publishamerica.com/viewtopic.php?t=19587

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:47 am
Post subject: Again, Who is the Head of PA and or the assistant, or vice

I asked this question previously, but have received no answer and it was deleted. Why?

This should be interesting.

"Buy Meiner's book, it will tell all!" What a laughable reply. The poster than got spanked by somebody else who spilled the goods. I give this thread about half a day. The woman who got rebuked is a PA Matriarch, maybe there'll be some in house drama before infomonster shuts things down.

zizban · Feb 14, 2007

Its gone.

Sparhawk · Feb 14, 2007

zizban said:
Its gone.

Infomonster must be monitoring this thread, LOL!!!... HI Infomonster :tongue

Maddog · Feb 14, 2007

Snagged from the PAMB

It won't last...

Does PA drop you if you make more sales? That's just wrong! Why would PA drop you , that's how they make their money, SALES! Why would they not want you to sell? I can't seem to understand this??? The reason people aren't selling more is not PA's fault. I believe the Authors are just letting PA do all the work. You have to tell people too! They print your book for free! This is how they make their money back, this just plain doesn't make sense to me? Will someone please explain this to me, I'm new. My book is not on the shelf yet but it will be in six to eight weeks. What should I expect? My book is called...

James D. Macdonald · Feb 14, 2007

PA makes its money on bulk sales to you, the author.

They aren't interested in sales to the public through bookstores. That's why they do everything in their power to stop them.

CatSlave · Feb 14, 2007

Sparhawk said:
Infomonster must be monitoring this thread, LOL!!!... HI Infomonster

That's a full-time job, monitoring us and them.
I wonder if the Infomonster is starting to feel like Lucy and Ethel at the conveyor belt in the candy factory.

JimmyD1318 · Feb 14, 2007

CatSlave said:
That's a full-time job, monitoring us and them.
I wonder if the Infomonster is starting to feel like Lucy and Ethel at the conveyor belt in the candy factory.

The image that just came to my mind nearly made me spit up my drink! :ROFL:

Good one!!

tlblack · Feb 15, 2007

Attention PA writers:

I opened a discussion in the fantasy chat room, The question was,"Does anybody actually buy anyone elses book??"

The comments against PA and its writers were awful, bordering on Defamitory. Don't worry I stood up for us, but if you're interested you can check it out and add your own 2 cents.

This one was posted on the PAMB last night and had also included a link to the discussion he was referring to. Since then the post has been edited so that the link is no longer there. For any of the PA authors who read these threads, here is the link he posted last night before it disappeared from the post.

brianm · Feb 15, 2007

I saw that last night.

No one was bashing PA members on the amazon message board. The gentlemen in question claims to be an attorney, and yet he still signed the PA contract. He claims he only wanted to have his book about his daughter printed so he could share his thoughts with her in print. However, he has another book he wants PA to print.

It just goes to show that some people will close their eyes to the truth in order to get their ego stroked. Regardless of what supporting a scam company does to writers who are interested in a serious career.

brianm · Feb 15, 2007

Pa has deleted this thread from their message board for the second time.

Attention PA writers:

I opened a discussion in the fantasy chat room, The question was,"Does anybody actually buy anyone elses book??"

The comments against PA and its writers were awful, bordering on Defamitory. Don't worry I stood up for us, but if you're interested you can check it out and add your own 2 cents.

Maybe the OP will start to get the idea that something is up with PA. Considering his responses in the thread he is referring to, I doubt it. However, there’s always a chance he'll start to question why they would delete his thread twice.

Ken Schneider · Feb 15, 2007

brianm said:
I saw that last night.

No one was bashing PA members on the amazon message board. The gentlemen in question claims to be an attorney, and yet he still signed the PA contract. He claims he only wanted to have his book about his daughter printed so he could share his thoughts with her in print. However, he has another book he wants PA to print.

It just goes to show that some people will close their eyes to the truth in order to get their ego stroked. Regardless of what supporting a scam company does to writers who are interested in a serious career.

Not really. If one just wants two copies of thier book and doesn't purchase any from PA, doesn't care that PA has the rights to that book for seven years, then no harm is done.

What the poor guy doesn't know is that if he doesn't buy any of the first book they'll never print the second one.

Why waste money to print a second book that they know will never net them any money.

Marian Perera · Feb 15, 2007

a PA author said:
established publishers have very large overhead to pay. They are ruled by the almighty dollar and often their creative decision are ruled by that priority.

The irony is remarkable. What are PA's creative decisions ruled by? Altruism? Sheer love for all the unpublished writers out there?

PAMB and its quotes

Absolute sagebrush

Mah tale iz draggin.

Brian Boru

platin' mai lizard

Brian Boru

Absolute sagebrush

In the Yellow Woods

Absolutely Fazed

Your Genial Uncle

Feel the power!

Mah tale iz draggin.

Jenna's Cabana Boy

Jenna's Cabana Boy

Your Genial Uncle

Mah tale iz draggin.

THE POPCORN MONSTER!

nothing simple here

Brian Boru

Brian Boru

Absolute sagebrush

starting over