I was as surprised as anyone that PA/America Star has apparently scaled its operations back. Then I looked at their
Facebook page. They're still working hard at the same old thing. To judge by posts going back as far as April, they're hitting the event circuit, representing authors at the
LA Times Festival of Books, the
Book Expo America in Chicago (with
mention of a young author who came all the way from Australia to attend), and the
American Library Association Annual Meeting in Orlando. In all cases, I've only linked to posts for the first day of each event. Having no knowledge of these events, I can't say how appropriate this representation is, or how legitimate the events themselves are. It appears in many cases that they're giving some authors a chance to occupy a booth for some amount of time (the most specific slot being
2.5 hours). They haven't said how these authors earn the privilege, but I'm afraid we probably have a fair idea.
Other items of interest are
book trailers—the phrase "exciting piece of cinema" giving me occasion to grimace—and, most notable in my eyes,
the launch (hi, Wilhelm!) of
Paperback Radio, which is "owned and independently operated by World Wide Words, LLC, a Frederick, Maryland based media company." A cursory Google search for this LLC turns up only worldwidewords.org (which I assume in not affiliated) and the Paperback Radio site. Of course, the "radio" show appears to spotlight America Star authors. The Facebook page also updates its cover photo with author titles (
example) and as with their radio station, I wonder what they charge for this service.
Based on the spokespersons we see on Facebook, I believe PA is still running enthusiastic young employees through a wringer. An extended look back in time and continued monitoring of their page might reveal just how quick turnover is. I believe there was a magic date on which PA traditionally cut its junior staff loose... In sum, PA have finally discovered the convenience of social media, which is why their hosted site is a ghost town. I clicked through every category on their page and found that most of them were empty. For example, you'd think the
Fiction section would have something in it. Where did it all go? If you look at their Facebook posts, you'll note that they promote most books with direct links to Amazon (
example) or to the author's own Web site (
example). This seems to explain the shift away from americastarbooks.net.
I can still hang onto the hope that their volume of authors has been reduced, that authors who come to dislike PA's services can get away more easily, or that these people receive better treatment in general. These are scant hopes, sad to say.
