The Newer Never-Ending PublishAmerica / America Star Books Thread

Don Davidson said:

I really hope this is true. I love the idea that not only is PA not making any money off of me, but that I'm actually costing them money just because they are hanging on to my book. What a lovely thought.

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Unfortunately, you're probably not costing them money. I doubt they enter a book into the database before they get a minimum order from the author which will cover the database costs.

DreamWeaver said:

Unfortunately, you're probably not costing them money. I doubt they enter a book into the database before they get a minimum order from the author which will cover the database costs.

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Yet one more reason for all the not-so-gentle "nudges" from PA to get the writer to share the pain.

Queen of Swords said:

Would a worse contract be one that requires the writer to sign the copyright over to the publisher, or obligates the writer to buy a large number of books?

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Yes--or is life-of-copyright with no provision for rights return, or has no stated contract term at all, or claims rights not just in the manuscript but in characters, plot, and setting, or pays royalties on net profit, or allows the publisher to edit or adapt at will without consulting the author--just to name a few. Usually a contract with one bad clause has a number of them, ratcheting up the overall level of badness.

Don is right--one of the strengths of PA's contract (from PA's point of view) is that its badness is relatively subtle, and you need to know a fair bit about publishing contract terms and language in order to spot the problems.

- Victoria

DreamWeaver said:

Unfortunately, you're probably not costing them money. I doubt they enter a book into the database before they get a minimum order from the author which will cover the database costs.

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Yes and no. My book was listed on Amazon and B&N (not there now) before I bought a single copy, and the cover design was completed and contract in place, therefore the time-intensive stuff was done before I bought any copies.

My book has sold a grand total of 12 copies (ten to me at $10/book, one to my dad, and who knows who bought the other one), and I got the 8% royalty on all 12 purchases, making the net to PA about $150. PA has still likely made money off those 12 books. From another thread, the cover can be designed in under an hour, and cover designers make about $12/hour. Assuming the people who responded to my email, converted my Word file to the text, and pushed the button on the book machine make about the same, if 12 people spent an hour on different parts of my book PA would have come out ahead. I doubt it takes 12 person-hours to produce a PA book (but if someone has better info I'd be interested in hearing it). Of course I've ignored the light bill, cost of paper, etc., but I'll bet PA makes a profit from a shockingly small "print run." As has been said, this is a very efficient model for those who run it.

Minor derail . . .

If PA decided to operate a college, it might look something like this.

Ewww--no thanks--I want higher education.

Or at least a high.

Road Trip! Shotgun!

circlexranch said:

Minor derail . . .

If PA decided to operate a college, it might look something like this.

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That's just purely awesome! I'm now considering a degree in either Post-Rational Discourse or Arse-Elbow Differentiation. I may also get in on their [FONT=Arial,Helvetica]New Fasttrack E-Degree Scheme which is now open![/FONT] Through that program I'll likely go for my MBA in Looking Busy (Advanced Management Studies) and possibly my Ph.D in Stating the Bleedin Obvious.

Thanks Circle!

How 'bout this latest from PA, rec'd yesterday 08-07 (submitted without comment - of which I could make a lot!):

"Dear author:
Do you have a website about your book? Not too much traffic going on? PublishAmerica will help you attract visitors. Possibly many, many visitors.

We will email our almost 50,000 authors to alert them to your website and urge them to click and visit and to tell others to visit. We will also let our 30,000 news media contacts know about your website and invite the to visit and contact you.

Brace yourself for the extra traffic. Be sure to have "contact me" link on your site!

Go to www.publishamerica.net, find your softcover, use this discount coupon: Website40. Minimum order volume is only 2 or more copies. Use the coupon on your softcover only. All non-softcover orders under the Website coupons will not be processed, so you'll be wasting your money if you try.

Use the Website50 coupon for orders of 6 or more softcovers and an even better discount, and we'll tell our 50,000 authors and 30,000 media contact about your website twice, with a 2-week interval!

In the Ordering Instructions box, simply mention the url of your website, your name, and the title of your book. We'll take care of the rest.

Have a nice weekend,
--PublishAmerica Bookstore"

OK, I can't resist. My only comment at this point: I would have had a nicer weekend had I not received this.

Neil

Simple translation:

"We'll do the bleeding obvious and put a link on your book's listing page, but first you have to buy copies.

We're the only "publisher" who charges you for what legit houses do as a matter of course.

And don't expect all 50K of those other writers to buy your overpriced books--that's YOUR job, Published Author!"

an increasingly desperate PA said:

We will email our almost 50,000 authors to alert them to your website and urge them to click and visit and to tell others to visit.

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That sounds like spamming to me. Especially if they email twice.

We won't notify readers, because we have no access to them, but we will notify all of your fellow authors who can't afford to buy their own books, let alone yours.

And, of course, by doing so we satisfy the terms of the contract concerning promoting and marketing your book.

Sounds like - "Here's an e-mail list of 2,000 links. We couldn't care less what you do with it because we've already got our cash."

Pity the poor authors.

Brace yourself for the extra traffic. Be sure to have "contact me" link on your site!

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** snort ** cough ** gasp ** wheeze **
PA, your desperation is showing.

This reminds me the email they sent last year where if you have a website and you sent them the address and link they would place your site here and possibly feature it on the home page. I submitted my site but it was never added. My guess as to why my site wasn't included is 1)my site doesn't go on and on about my book (because it's a piece of unedited crap) and 2)if they did a site search for "PublishAmerica" then they probably found the one small article I did about them right around the time I joined AW.

I sent them an email asking why my site wasn't included but never got a response.

bhall87 said:

This reminds me the email they sent last year where if you have a website and you sent them the address and link they would place your site here and possibly feature it on the home page. I submitted my site but it was never added. My guess as to why my site wasn't included is 1)my site doesn't go on and on about my book (because it's a piece of unedited crap) and 2)if they did a site search for "PublishAmerica" then they probably found the one small article I did about them right around the time I joined AW.

I sent them an email asking why my site wasn't included but never got a response.

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My thought as well: PA will add your - my - site to their author website page and then email all the authors to check that page. I can't imagine for a single second in my fried mind that they would send out hundreds, maybe thousands of links to their thousands of authors. Oh, the work!
And how condescending to have a reminder to add a "contact me" link. I guess since we barely know how to write we would hardly know how to construct a comprehensible website.
Neil

Neil Larkins said:

And how condescending to have a reminder to add a "contact me" link.

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Actually, not so much. Some of the writers ARE rather private people, and others are under the impression that once their book is released that they will be hurtled into instant fame. They leave out the contact link to avoid being mobbed. Never going to happen while there are celebrities having meltdowns, but the writers may live in hope.

(Toward that end, dear lurkers, I ask you to name a single writer from any publishing house who was thrust overnight into the spotlight by the release of their first novel, and having to fend off reporters in the same manner as L. Lohan. Rowling does not count, as no one noticed her much when her first book came out. Be aware that her title had a low print run, but it was indeed IN PRINT and IN STORES, neither of which PA is able to do. She got more than a dollar advance and was home writing, not promoting.)

I did hear of a writer in my area who asked a mutual friend about author etiquette for the day of her own first title's release. She had ready a head scarf and big sunglasses (in homage to Jackie O, I suppose) so she could stroll the local mall in peace.

My friend assured her not to worry about that sort of thing and very kindly kept a straight face while doing it.

The writer's book was also in print and in stores and got an advance that was rather better than one stinking dollar. Certainly it was enough to buy a nice scarf and sunglasses.

Gee, that email to all their authors is going to cause a problem for PA unless they wait until they get all the links for that promotion. Otherwise, in order to fulfill that promotion, they'll have to send out an email, and then send out another email when more links come in, and then rinse and repeat even more. After all, it could take awhile for all those 50,000 links to arrive. If PA waits too long to honor that (did I just attribute to PA something they don't have?) they could end up getting taken to court or arbitration.

On the other hand, any AW members receiving those emails can then advise everyone just how many PA authors are participating in that particular promotion. After all, if a PA author does participate and doesn't get the email along with all the other PA authors, then they'll ask questions. And PA can't legally exclude any of their authors because that violates the agreement of that offer. So if an AW member doesn't receive those emails, then they can report that no one accepted the offer. If any PA author comments anywhere that they did accept that offer, then that means evidence exists showing PA didn't fulfill it in accordance with what they offered.

I think someone at PA made a mistake with this promotion.

By the way, P&E has offered a free one-month promotion to first books by any author for years. In fact, some PA authors have taken advantage of that offer and they didn't have to buy anything at all. At P&E, we know the meaning of free. For those who don't know, it means no strings attached.

victoriastrauss said:

No, it's not a standard publishing contract. Yes, it is a poor contract. But the worst contract out there? Nope. Not by a long shot.

- Victoria

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Man. You have collected info for years. I would Love to know about worse contracts, but I understand this is not the venue for it. Must go scour your blog again.

Neil Larkins said:

How 'bout this latest from PA, rec'd yesterday 08-07 (submitted without comment - of which I could make a lot!):

"Dear author:
Do you have a website about your book? Not too much traffic going on? PublishAmerica will help you attract visitors. Possibly many, many visitors.

We will email our almost 50,000 authors to alert them to your website and urge them to click and visit and to tell others to visit. We will also let our 30,000 news media contacts know about your website and invite the to visit and contact you.

Neil

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Yes, all, we will tell every one of the other lambs going to slaughter that you can save yourselves by buying each others books. Just think, you can have 50,000 sales if everyone else in the cult buys just one of your books.

Oh, did we actually mention you have to purchase 50,000 books, one from each of your fellow authors, for all of this to work? If you don't buy, this don't fly. But it's a team effort, yes?

Gads!

I doubt PA has 30 news media contacts, much less 30,000!!

Neil Larkins said:

How 'bout this latest from PA, rec'd yesterday 08-07 (submitted without comment - of which I could make a lot!):

"We will email our almost 50,000 authors to alert them to your website and urge them to click and visit and to tell others to visit. We will also let our 30,000 news media contacts know about your website and invite the to visit and contact you.

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30,000 news media contacts?!!! Then why did they have to ask me to send them information on local newspapers in my area for their silly press release about my book (which was more about PA than about my book, by the way)? I would have thought they would have that information in a computer database!

Don Davidson said:

30,000 news media contacts?!!! Then why did they have to ask me to send them information on local newspapers in my area for their silly press release about my book (which was more about PA than about my book, by the way)? I would have thought they would have that information in a computer database!

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Perhaps that's how they acquired their list of media contacts—from their authors. Do you suppose?

Perhaps that's how they acquired their list of media contacts—from their authors. Do you suppose?

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Yes.