The Newer Never-Ending PublishAmerica / America Star Books Thread

Then again, Amazon may be recognizing that PA is really just a printer.

They do NOTHING that a real publisher does.

They just skim the vast majority of the money off that the writers should get since the writers do 99% of the work (anyone can run spell check and slap a photoshopped image on a book - seriously).

Crunch numbers.

How much do Kindle and Smashwords pay in royalties?

35%-70%-80%

How much for CreateSpace and Lulu?

The author sets that by setting his own price.

I can attest I'm making a 25% royalty on my 300-page, $14.00 trade size book with one of them. (3.50 per sale)

That same book at PA would be priced at 29.00-31.00 and get an 8% royalty. (2.32-2.48 per sale--if there ARE any at such a high price.

I forget what the PA royalty is for their ebooks, but it's not going to be much compared to Kindle, Smash and PubIt!. PA ebooks are often the same price as the print versions.

So from a business point of view, a writer is better off avoiding PA altogether.

Gillhoughly said:

. . . That same book at PA would be priced at 29.00-31.00 and get an 8% royalty. . . .

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Eight percent of what PA sold the book for, last I heard, which might be discounted from list, and ordinarily zero percent on author's own purchases.

--Ken

Yeah, on the royalty statement PA can say it sold for any amount they name--what's to prove otherwise?

If they are dishonest about one thing (claiming to be a publisher), they will be dishonest about others.

Tell us, Larry and Miranda--is ol' Willie still pricing yachts and claiming they're reasonable if you know where to shop?

amergina said:

. . . I wonder if that means they'll not be doing ebooks? Or what?

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No matter what they say at any given moment, they will do anything that helps them extract money from their victims.

--Ken

ResearchGuy said:

No matter what they say at any given moment, they will do anything that helps them extract money from their victims.

--Ken

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Yeah, didn't they do something like this a year or two ago? Stopped publishing some format, only to offer it again to authors as one of their "special deals"?

PA lies like a politician after a vote.

Or a hooker who says you're sexy.

At least a hooker gives value for the money, which cannot be said about PA or politicians.

amergina said:

...Huh. Found this on the PA FB, but it is more of a NEPAT thing. Looks like PA is switching formats again:



And Infomonster answers:



I wonder if that means they'll not be doing ebooks? Or what?

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What about the authors who paid to have their books made into e-books? Will those e-books simply disappear?

More likely as to why PA is only doing hard covers "supposedly" is they have probably switched printers once again and the printers only do hard covers.

merrihiatt said:

What about the authors who paid to have their books made into e-books? Will those e-books simply disappear?

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I know one who paid for an e-book version that never appeared. (She paid a year or two ago and crowed about her e-book and rubbed her hands in glee -- literally! -- over anticipated revenues. But there was NO e-book edition; she refused to believe me, though, pointing to where one could have found it if it DID exist, as though that settled the question.) I have to assume she was not the only one.

--Ken

Wow, Ken. I don't suppose she got her money back, or even complained? ** sigh **

Obviously they're not into the minutiae of using correct prepositions.

DreamWeaver said:

Obviously they're not into the minutiae of using correct prepositions.

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Or of making much sense.

--Ken

It's obvious that the author's first language is not English, so it's not a bad effort!

The 76-page paperback version is $19.95, though. Been out since November and doesn't have a ranking yet.

Doesn't The Elements of Style cost about $3.95 in any bookstore?

In used stores. And it's free on the Net.

But of course Elements of Style has nothing to do with how PA does things, which is make it up as you go or ignore it altogether.

I wonder which of those clowns is responsible for this joke: Willie, the English as a second language speaker, Larry the failed writer or Miranda whose tone letters are sterling examples that she slings words and punctuation with the same accuracy as horse shit when she's mucking out stalls.

Or perhaps they passed this one off to one of those hapless temp students.

DreamWeaver said:

Doesn't The Elements of Style cost about $3.95 in any bookstore?

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Ugh, get that crap out of here. I'm in the business of storytelling, not minutiae. I hate minutiae!

Unimportant said:

Did I sleep through it, or has PA not yet started promoting their own style guide to their authors?

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Actually, after not receiving a solicitation from PA for over 3 years, I got inundated with 9 email solicitations in two days, November 29-30, 2011. Two of them were for the PA Style Guide, only $19.95. They also offered to send my book to a Hollywood screenwriter, foreign literary agents, the U.S. Consul General, and Random House in Mexico--each for a small fee of $39.00, of course. I've posted all 9 emails on my web site if you're interested. I immediately unsubscribed (again) from PA's email solicitations, and haven't gotten anything else since.

Don Davidson said:

. . . Two of them were for the PA Style Guide, only $19.95. . . . .

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You can download my style guide for free. Granted, it is several years old, dated in some respects, and pertains primarily to research reports . . . but still: $0.00.

(Google Umbach CRB Style Guide and the pdf is at the top of the list. And I see pirated copies posted online too. Well, no harm done in that, in this case.)

--Ken