The Newer Never-Ending PublishAmerica / America Star Books Thread

RedRajah

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FWIW, I posted a link to my "Pursuit of Publishing" booklet, which can arm aspiring book authors against the scams and put them in a position to at least know what questions to ask and where to turn for meaningful answers. (A couple of pages of the booklet specifically expose PA's shenanigans.)

--Ken

Is there a link to comments to that article? I fully admit I may be blind and I'm not seeing them.

Or maybe she took a page from PA and is cornfielding any negative ones.

ETA: Ahh, there it is!
 
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Jill Karg

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I got the same mailing about ghostwriters..and busted a gut. I really started laughing...I can't imagine anyone taking it seriously.
 

Gillhoughly

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Got PA ghost writers?

Who ya gonna call??

images
Vinkman: Whoa, that's some tone letter Miranda left on the wall. You'd think after ten years at even a pretend publisher she'd learn not to end a sentence with a preposition.

Ray: That's not a preposition, Vinkman. Her magic marker went dry halfway through a word.

Vinkman: And she didn't notice?

Ray: What do you think?

Vinkman: I think we need to show these Frederick Stooges how we do things downtown.

 

Neil Larkins

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I got the same mailing about ghostwriters..and busted a gut. I really started laughing...I can't imagine anyone taking it seriously.
Hey, I was gonna post that too, just now, before I realized it was already up. (I was watching some DVDs. Just saw "Second Chance Harvey." Great little film. Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman: great in a May-December romance.) Good work on the posting, folks.
OK, what, me pay 500 big ones to have PA ghostwrite my book, the same one they couldn't even print just as I sent it, that they had added more errors to even after I had corrected their first errors? (Incidentally, at that time you only got one chance to correct copy before it went to print...or at least that's how it was until some months back they offered the chance to make changes if you bought a few of your flawed copies first.)
Neil
 

Wrider

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A while back I said I was calling PA from the bookstore area where I work, to inquire about wholesale discounts. I didn't get information about the "paperbacks" though, but every time I tried to call back, I got the machine.

This morning, I finally made it through again. They said that bookstores receive a 25% discount on their "paperbacks." Shipping is still $3.99 per book, unless the bookstore submits their own UPS account number to be used (which would, of course, be cheaper).

I didn't ask any other questions - didn't have time or energy to dig.
 

DreamWeaver

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AThis morning, I finally made it through again. They said that bookstores receive a 25% discount on their "paperbacks." Shipping is still $3.99 per book, unless the bookstore submits their own UPS account number to be used (which would, of course, be cheaper).
- PA paperback "softcover" price avg about $24.95
- minus 25% ($6.24) = $18.71
- plus $3.99 shipping = $22.70
- net to store = $2.25
- minus cost of lowly wage-slave bookseller earning $8/hour who takes a lightning-quick 10 minutes to process the book (original order, looking up, calling PA, unpacking, logging in, calling customer, retrieving book from storage area, running cash register) for a cost of $1.34 = revised net to store $0.91
- minus overhead (register tape, bag, portion of phone bill/electric bill/rent, non-wage employee costs such as social security & unemployment insurance) = NOT FR*GGING WORTH THE TIME

As you can imagine, if paperback means the $9.95 PAYperback, the store's in the red right after the shipping charge gets added.

Even free shipping wouldn't really make it economically inviting to the bookstore. There's a reason wholesale in most industries is 50% or less of retail price. Books are a bit high on the wholesale scheme, but that's balanced out by their liberal returns policy.

Oh, right. No returns policy.
 
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Wrider

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Yep. The only way to come ahead is to charge more than the $9.95 for the "paperbacks." Using a UPS shipper number would significantly reduce the cost of shipping. However, still... with that small of a discount, you're right. What bookstores out there will purchase them?
Where I work, it's a ministry and they stock my book because they like it and because I wrote it. The only way they can come ahead though is to charge a higher price. And... they don't sell very many.
 

Jill Karg

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Key term is 9.95...checked out their PAperback site and most are 14.95 or higher. Only books with low page counts are 9.95. So again it isn't worth stores to carry these books because they will have to raise them to at least 22.00 to 25.00 just to turn a small profit.
 

Jozzy

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I hope the word cornfielding makes it to the Urban Dictionary. :D

I added a definition...I mentioned PublishAmerica in the example, so I don't know if it will get past their editors...one can always hope!
 

Katrina S. Forest

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Seriously, does no one in the reporting business do their homework anymore? I realize that times are changing, but credibility and research should still count for something.

Agreed.

It's disheartening to see that this reporter gave up after only two dozen rejections/non-responses. Not went back and tried to revise the novel or the query letter, but just gave up the commercial publishing route. No wonder PA has so many customers.

Also, it drives me crazy when people use Lisa Genova as an example of why self-publishing is a good idea. She's stated explicitly on her website that her entire goal in self-publishing was to show the book had marketability. At no point did her goal become to join a new publishing trend, or to have more freedom in her work, or to get it into print faster.
 

RedRajah

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I added a definition...I mentioned PublishAmerica in the example, so I don't know if it will get past their editors...one can always hope!

I know Fandom Wank had specific journals set up for Harry Potter wank and now Twilight wank with a cornfield-esque handle, so there IS precedence.
 

Gillhoughly

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It's disheartening to see that this reporter gave up after only two dozen rejections/non-responses. Not went back and tried to revise the novel or the query letter, but just gave up the commercial publishing route.

Two dozen rejections is just getting warmed up!

Of course, *I* knew my fabulous book got rejected for a reason, so each time it came back I'd rip into it and rewrite to make it better.

Hell, my agent subbed my latest proposal to a LOT of publishers this year. We had a 4-month wait--which is the fast track--and still only one was interested in making an offer. Happily, it's a *major* house and I know they'll go gonzo on great cover art and put some solid promotion behind it. (Not to mention top notch editing and placement in every store in the US & Canada with my agent reselling it in Europe--things PA is unable to do for its 40,000 happy, dammit, customers writers.)

PA just LOVES impatient writers who are confident they can't possibly make their book any more perfect.

And for the rest, they have that ghost writing "service". For a fee.
 

Jill Karg

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PA just LOVES impatient writers who are confident they can't possibly make their book any more perfect.

And for the rest, they have that ghost writing "service". For a fee.

I wasn't impatient..but still got snagged. I wish I didn't. They already won't let me comment on their boards. Guess I'm a bad bad girl. Or maybe it is because I haven't bought any books for over two months. Or could it be I'm honest...and speak the truth whenever and wherever I can. lol. Just maybe it is all the above. But glad that you all listen to me and no deleting....

One day will have book back but until then will write childrens book...lol
 

Gillhoughly

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We're glad you're here, Jill. No one gets banned from AW unless they're flat out horrible to people and that sure ain't you.

When you're up to it there's nothing like posting links on FaceBook to get quick warnings out.
 

spamwarrior

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First time in this thread. I was up in Bar Harbor, Maine, near Acadia National Park, on vacation with family. I was window shopping, and walked into one of the small bookstores. My father drew my attention to a small table in the front. He mentioned that there had been a lady doing a book-signing but no one showed up, so she just left. I had an inkling that something was up, and went to check out the books that she'd left on the table.

She'd been published by PA.

I felt very sad. It seems that she worked very hard on the books. They were children's books, based around the adventures of some animals, and printed in poetry form. I noticed that she had been allowed to have her own illustrations on the cover of the second book, but the third book had been published with a stock image slapped on the cover. Her author bio had several obvious grammatical errors.

I can't imagine how disappointed she must have felt showing up at the book signing and having no one show up. But then, she's had SIX books published with PA...

The books I saw were priced 25 - 30 dollars each on PA. They're quite flimsy looking. There was no price tag when I saw them in the store.
 

circlexranch

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Hey SW! Welcome to the never-ending PA thread. Have some coffee and muffins. The PA "royalty/reality" checks are due to go out soon, so we have a steady supply of munchies for the refugees.

Thank you for the story. It is sad, but you think she would have figured it out after a book or two.