The Newer Never-Ending PublishAmerica / America Star Books Thread

Gillhoughly

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That picture on the offers page showing the hanging banner just makes me want to crash the fair, steal the banner and hang it in front of a urinal with an invitation for the gents to indulge in target practice.
 

merrihiatt

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$9.95 to "nominate" your book plus $3.99 "shipping" equals $13.94 the author has to PAY for the very slim chance that the author will be named "Author of the Year." This means exactly what? That you paid to receive a fake "honor." It wasn't earned by people voting (for free, I might add) for the best PA book they read during the year. At least that would have some meaning. Hey, if you give me $10, I'll send you an award stating you're my "Favorite New Author of 2011." It will mean about as much as PA's offer.
 
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Gillhoughly

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Ugh. As someone pointed out on another board it's not an award when you're buying it yourself--it's a raffle.

Most raffle tickets are only a buck.

Leave it to PA to overcharge like mad and tack on S&H to "activate" it. "Administrative fee" my rosy red ass.

I bet they broke even within an hour and are well in the black on this rip.

So--what's the deadline on this? Two minutes to midnight the 24th so they can award the prize "before" Christmas?"

PA, you smell bad, your mom dresses you funny, no one loves you or ever will, not even your pets.

How are those hemorrhoids, Miranda? You should lay off the Doritos, yanno.
 

amergina

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I thought this one was particularly interesting:

US State Department by
Your book will upon being selected be sent to Leipzig for promotion and display during the Leipzig Book Fair in the U.S. Consulate General's booth. After the event it will be donated to a public or university library. If for whatever reason your book doesn't pass the selection process, you will receive a full refund of your activation fee.


Must choose a shipping option to activate. No use of coupons allowed. Valid for one title at a time. Mention your book title.
$39 bucks. But note that you have to choose a shipping option and they state that authors will get a full refund of the activation fee if the book isn't selected.

Wanna bet the 3.99 isn't refunded? Yeah.
 

gordo

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A sucker born every minute

Why do words fail you Pvish? Many of the same people who foolishly chose to submit their books to PA in the first place will gladly send them their $13.95 for a chance to be "author of the year." PA knows who they are; they play them like violin strings; and they continue to make money. No matter how hard or long you and the other rational people on this board try to convince them, I'm afraid there will always be a group of irrational people for whom vanity is such an incredibly strong motivator that they will not listen to reason.
 

LindaJeanne

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So--what's the deadline on this? Two minutes to midnight the 24th so they can award the prize "before" Christmas?"

Two minutes to midnight
The hands that threaten doom
(for your MS)
Two minutes to midnight
to kill the unborn
(dreams of publication) in the womb

With apologies to Iron Maiden...
 

Gillhoughly

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PA writers buying tons of books by other PA writers and making a nomination from that pool?

Not with the prices PA sets and the "advances" PA pays. :roll:

The only winner here is PA, cheerfully hoodwinking the new fish.
 
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aliceshortcake

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Why do words fail you Pvish? Many of the same people who foolishly chose to submit their books to PA in the first place will gladly send them their $13.95 for a chance to be "author of the year." PA knows who they are; they play them like violin strings; and they continue to make money. No matter how hard or long you and the other rational people on this board try to convince them, I'm afraid there will always be a group of irrational people for whom vanity is such an incredibly strong motivator that they will not listen to reason.

Gordo, I often find it difficult to sympathize with PA authors who fell for the scam despite there being so much information about it on the net. However, I think many of these people are naieve rather than vain or irrational - and there are some very, VERY naieve people out there just waiting to be taken advantage of.

Case in point: a couple of years ago a PA author appeared on this forum after figuring out that she'd been had. The poor woman posted on lots of threads, some of them totally inappropriate, asking for information she could have found out for herself and proclaiming her desperate need to find an agent/publisher. Sadly, it was painfully obvious that she was barely literate - I don't think she wrote a single line that didn't contain at least one spelling or grammatical error - and the excerpts from her stories posted in "Share Your Work" read like the stuff 14-year-olds contribute to fanfic sites. Yet she had a burning desire to write, a desire that PA was happy to fulfil.
 

Marian Perera

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Yet she had a burning desire to write, a desire that PA was happy to fulfil.

I think she had a burning desire to be published, actually. She could have written to her heart's content without PA even being involved. But PA not only legitimized her work, they gave her the idea that readers would be now be able to buy and enjoy her writing too.

I agree, though, that naivety and inexperience is as much of a motivator (if not more) as foolishness, vanity, etc. None of us were born knowing that scammers may not always ask for money up front. None of us are instinctively aware of what to look for when researching publishers. Yes, there's a lot of information on the 'net - but that doesn't mean all potential PA authors know that information exists, are aware of how to find it and realize how important it is.
 

Gillhoughly

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It's more of a case that her desire was something PA was happy to take advantage of.

I've mellowed a lot and come to see that EVERYONE has the right to tell their stories. Even when functionally illiterate they want to communicate, they want to reach out and be a part of a larger world and share themselves.

Doesn't matter that we may not want to listen, that person should be able to be heard, flaws and all.

But greedy, lying bags of shit like PA and other thieving hustlers claiming to be publishers have NO right to deceive and take advantage of those writers.

We get impatient with the writers, we get tired of sending out the same old warnings, we get exasperated when some refuse to listen and bull ahead into disaster.

But we don't stop.

We know the cold dash of reality those victims feel when they realize they've been cheated hurts down to the soul.

You print books at "no cost," PublishAmerica? No cost? Really?

How the bleeding hell can any of you heartless asshats in Frederick look yourselves in the mirror?
 

aliceshortcake

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Another thing that infuriates me about PA: the victims who might have been good enough to reach the top 10% of a real publisher's slushpile, ie readable with no screaming spelling or grammatical errors, regard themselves as published authors with no need to hone their skills.
 

Gillhoughly

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Well if they think getting one book published (such as it is with PA) means you can relax and stop honing your craft, then there's no help for them, is there?

I never thought that. The 808 section of my library is still my 2nd home, and I've not stopped reading the rest of the library to see how other writers sling their words.
 

Moon Daughter

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But greedy, lying bags of shit like PA and other thieving hustlers claiming to be publishers have NO right to deceive and take advantage of those writers.


How the bleeding hell can any of you heartless asshats in Frederick look yourselves in the mirror?

Amen.
 
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PVish

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Ooh, lookie! PA is forming a club:
The Literary Club is an exclusive, invitation-only community of published authors who discuss their own work and that of others. There will be invitation-only meetings where you get to meet fellow Literary Club members and PublishAmerica staff in person, and where the main topic of discussion will be books. Members will be invited to make brief reading-presentations of a book that's on their mind. Also, members' books will be singled out for recommended reading and debate.

Members will also be invited to contribute to a Literary Club Journal that will be published online, starting January 2012. The bi-monthly Journal will be edited by PublishAmerica co-founder and former newspaper editor, Willem Meiners. Only Literary Club members and invitation-only celebrity authors may contribute to the Journal. The Literary Club Journal will include nationwide bestsellers lists of members' books, and interviews with members. Each issue will be brought to the attention of tens of thousands of authors and news media, and will also appear as a freebie e-book for Amazon's Kindle, Barnes and Noble's Nook, and Google.

If too few members join, or for any reason The Literary Club fails to get started by no later than January, you will get your money back: a full refund of your membership fee!

Must choose a shipping option to activate. No use of coupons is allowed.

Welcome! This is going to be so much fun!

--PublishAmerica Author Support Team

. . . and it's only $99 to join this, uh, exclusive club. But if it's by invitation only, why would you pay the membership fee before you're invited?
 

Gillhoughly

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Great, Mr. English is-clearly-my-2nd-language Meiners gets to tell those writers how successful they are despite all evidence to the contrary.

Belly up to the bar, O Kool-Aid Addicts, this your chance to receive another golden shower from PubliSHAMerica. Only 99 bucks a pop!

Plus that special 3.99 "activation fee," of course.

Watch this space for the next offer of "Super Extra Special Membership" which will be 199.00.

In that one they take you to the back room marked "private" and bend you over a barrel for a big surprise.

You'll have no doubt about their attitude toward you after THAT experience!
 

BenPanced

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Your book will upon being selected be sent to Leipzig for promotion and display during the Leipzig Book Fair in the U.S. Consulate General's booth. After the event it will be donated to a public or university library. If for whatever reason your book doesn't pass the selection process, you will receive a full refund of your activation fee.


Must choose a shipping option to activate. No use of coupons allowed. Valid for one title at a time. Mention your book title.
I thought this one was particularly interesting:

$39 bucks. But note that you have to choose a shipping option and they state that authors will get a full refund of the activation fee if the book isn't selected.

Wanna bet the 3.99 isn't refunded? Yeah.
How much you wanna bet that everybody's books get chosen to be shown at the fair and gets discarded donated afterwards?
 

aliceshortcake

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The Literary Club is an exclusive, invitation-only community of published authors who discuss their own work and that of others.

Yes, PA authors, by all means get together to discuss your own work...because only you, your family and friends know your books exist.

I have to wonder if PA is reduced to ludicrous money grabs like this because Lulu and CreateSpace are siphoning off their potential customers.
 
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Sarashay

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I have to wonder if PA is reduced to ludicrous money grabs like this because Lulu and CreateSpace are siphoning off their potential customers.

I think Kindle Direct Publishing and Smashwords have probably siphoned off more potential customers than anything, since all you need to do is upload a file and BAM you have a book for sale online that you can point your family and friends to. (Or, ya know, people who click links in signature lines. *cough*)
 

Friendly Frog

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So you get invited to this super-special club, pay your membership (or the other way around, frankly, I don't know which is worse). So far, so usual. But then they also expect you to write enough for them to fill their bi-monthly magazine for free?

So exactly what do those happy, literary, 'exclusively invited' people actually get for all that money and work?