The Newer Never-Ending PublishAmerica / America Star Books Thread

Wrider

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That makes sense about Google.

Weird. 'Course I don't know what PA's offering pre-production authors either. Are they nabbing them before release dates or...?
 

DreamWeaver

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Update:
I called PA as the bookstore. They said retailers receive a 40% discount plus shipping (unless the retailer has a UPS or FedEx account). Typical. Don't know where the "only 5% discount" info came from unless I missed something.
I said it. I worked at a bookstore until recently, and the only PA book that came in while I was doing receiving had an invoice that showed a 5% discount.

ETA: If there's technically a 40% discount but the books aren't returnable, that's useless too. A bunch of vanity/subsidy authors got the bright idea of special ordering their books at bookstores but never showing up to pay for those books when they came in. The idea was this would force stores to shelve those books for sale, since they weren't returnable. Stores caught on, and now most won't special order POD books unless they are pre-paid, returnable (since the store may still have to take them back under most stores' published return/exchange policies) AND have a good enough discount (40% or more) to make the transaction profitable. At 5% discount, we were losing money by the time I unpacked the book, found the special order paperwork in the file, and called the customer, simply based on my time vs my hourly wage.

If you're wondering why I would be inprocessing a PA book after all that, it had been accidentally ordered by a new bookseller who missed the notations.
 
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Don Davidson

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That makes sense about Google.

Weird. 'Course I don't know what PA's offering pre-production authors either. Are they nabbing them before release dates or...?

As you can see on the PA page of my web site, PA began soliciting me to buy copies of my book more than 3 months before the book was actually released.
 

Bartholomew

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As you can see on the PA page of my web site, PA began soliciting me to buy copies of my book more than 3 months before the book was actually released.

What would they have done if you'd bought your book before it was released?
 

Little1

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WOWZA, that was an interesting post.

I particulerly like this part.

Threatening to file a lawsuit for defamation has sometimes been used as a tool to shut down legitimate articles and comments on the Internet. Defamation, by its legal definition is making statements that harm a reputation. Our report written on behalf of the Sinthyia Darkness Corporation (see Copyright information) did not seek to damage nor have we damaged the reputation of PublishAmerica in any way, but rather our report showed by example that they have already maintained a bad reputation by way of their business practices. Even PublishAmerica themselves, issued a solicitation to its authors to remove the POD stigma and the stigma attached to association by PA itself-by reinventing itself as "Independence Books."
 

ResearchGuy

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WOWZA, that was an interesting post.

. . .
Am I the only one to wonder whether L.S.I. and whoever else is in litigation with PA is studying those posts/articles? Even if they have been removed, nothing entirely disapears on the Internet. The venue is not exactly the NYTimes, but the articles speak for themselves. (It would be such fun IF the NYTimes or WSJ got hold of the PA saga and ran with it.)

--Ken
 

Marie Pacha

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LSI could look at those posts, the PAMB comments PA made back at the last royalty statement or even the copies of the royalty statements PA sent to however many thousands of their authors. And, I'd bet LSI has the staff to do just that.
 

HistorySleuth

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The posted royalty statement on the blog just says "Additionally, some vendors have reneged on their payment obligations. " and did not say LSI outright though.

Course if that aspect ever came into play, and PA had to name their vendors, you would have more than just LSI ticked I bet.
 

Marie Pacha

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It also says that, "PublishAmerica has initiated court proceedings to recover these payments. PublishAmerica will account for the missing sales after the missing payments are received."

There were statements made on the PAMB that the vendor was LSI.
 

merrihiatt

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Ouch!

While I was checking out the link, I saw this in a box on the right hand side of the page:

Latest News: Shopping expert Paco Underhill in What Women Want: "Females make up a huge majority of all book buyers in the United States."


I went to Amazon to check out the book by Paco Underhill and the irony burned all the way down to my toes. What Women Want is available in hardcover (229 pages) and sells for... wait for it... $16.50. Publisher: Simon and Schuster.

PA wants more than double that amount for a softcover book by an unknown author. That is insane.
 

HistorySleuth

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Yep it's there. Just clicked on the link in QoS post. Too bad. Sounds good to me actually. A 572 page 6 x 9 cookbook would be a bit difficult to hold open while cooking though. Would have been nice if they did it larger for her, but that would make too much sense. Such a shame she did not take it too a real publisher.
 

Katrina S. Forest

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Well, when PA said book prices would be going up, they weren't kidding.

Softcover. $34.95. The poor author.

What's really sad is that the author could've easily just taken their best recipes and submitted them to magazines. A lot less effort than trying to put a book together and sell it via PublishAmerica - and a lot more likely to lead to total strangers actually using the recipes.
 

CatSlave

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It also says that, "PublishAmerica has initiated court proceedings to recover these payments. PublishAmerica will account for the missing sales after the missing payments are received."

There were statements made on the PAMB that the vendor was LSI.
So if PA does not receive the 'missing' payments, it will not account for the missing sales.

Nice move.
So it's LSI's fault that PA did not pay royalties.

How much money did Willem divert to the Hellocopter? $200,000?
 

Marie Pacha

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So if PA does not receive the 'missing' payments, it will not account for the missing sales.

Nice move.
So it's LSI's fault that PA did not pay royalties.


LSI sends monthly sales' reports to publishers. Each of those would list sales. So, PA (or any publisher) would know that sales were made.

Regardless of whether or not PA sent a royalty check, those royalty statements should still have included the number of books sold. I wonder if they did?

PA authors have a contract with PA. PA is obligated under that contract to pay authors per the terms of the contract. LSI is not responsible for paying authors' royalties.