The Newer Never-Ending PublishAmerica / America Star Books Thread

Cyia said:

(they get points for spelling Stephenie right, though).

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You just know Miranda's a Twihard.

And now PA seems to be offering a crack at the Pulitzer Prize.

(Stephen King is so ten minutes ago in PAland)

Gillhoughly said:

OMG....I'm sending a mention of this to Mr. King's contact addy. It's not his real email, just goes to the webmaster, but I hope someone there will think it's as shameful as I do!

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I would LOVE to hear the reaction of Mr. King's contact.
I hope they file a 'cease and desist' order against PA.

ETA: Oops! I just got my reading caught up and see that they responded.
GOOD MOVE!

It would make the basis of a good short story: the recluse writer locked tight in his cabin in the woods with a gun and ammunition,
firing at the UPS truck drivers collecting in his driveway to prevent them from unloading truckloads of unwanted books.

*snork*

CaoPaux said:

I suppose it'd be too much to hope for PA to try this crap with Harlan Ellison[SUP]TM[/SUP].

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Not a fan of the guy, but I'd love to see some sort of video clip of his response on YouTube, provided PA's that stoopid...

Yeah, I can see it now over in PALand: "Hi, happy family! I just heard from from Stephen King, and he said my book was a 'crackling good read'!!!"

It was s-s-s-s-smokin'!

Could you imagine the initial reaction of Mr. King, Ms. Meyer, or any other big name author receiving copies of different book titles and different author's with the same stock image cover?

LexiCan said:

Hey everyone,

Just back from holiday break and catching up. Whew!
I don't think anyone has posted this one yet.
Here's where I really feel like they can't be sending these books. The authors (notice they mention Stephanie Meyer as an alternative) would surly have their people...because these kind of authors have "people"...on PA to cease the mailings.


Dear Author:

PublishAmerica will submit your book to Stephen King!

How about giving America's number one bestselling author (over 350 million books sold) a whiff of your own book? Stephen King is not only hands down the best selling suspense author in the history of books (Carrie, Cujo, The Shining, etc.), he also wrote a classic on the art of writing, On Writing, A Memoir of the Craft.

PublishAmerica will donate your book to the Stephen King. We will send it for his review, two copies, so that Mrs. Tabitha King, herself an author of nine books, can take a look as well.

Here's how we do it:

If you want to have books on hand, order now, and we will donate two copies
to author Stephen King. And you receive a 45 pct discount!

We ship Stephen King's copies the same week we ship your books to you. And we'll let your local news media know that we did!


Go to www.publishamerica.net, find your book, click on it, then add to cart, indicate quantity, and use this coupon: Stephen45. Then click Recalculate and finish the transaction. Minimum volume is 14 copies.


In the Ordering Instructions field, just write: "Media Yes". Our PR department
will automatically contact you for names and addresses of your local news media.
By using the coupon you are authorizing us to donate the books
to Stephen King in Bangor, Maine. You may also request that we ship the two
FREE books to you instead, or to blockbuster author Stephenie Meyer in Arizona.

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I hope both authors have a great recycling program. Can you imagine all the books they would have mailed to them.

I think Willem should personally deliver the books in his Hellocopter.

Gillhoughly said:

He'd either want the lion's share of the money or sue their arses off.

Since he's not a PA writer he could litigate and no problem.



It is silly to assume PA would ever print the "donated" books, much less send them.

There's no proof that a single title arrived at Oprah's operation or to the other names PA has been dropping.

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Hey Gill, any chance you could contact Oprah's webmaster? (after all, you got a quick response from King's) Maybe she'll want to disavow, too. Maybe tell us if they actually received anything. It might take awhile for them to find out, but it would be interesting if they would know.

David

Dhewco said:

Hey Gill, any chance you could contact Oprah's webmaster? (after all, you got a quick response from King's) Maybe she'll want to disavow, too. Maybe tell us if they actually received anything. It might take awhile for them to find out, but it would be interesting if they would know.

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It *would* be interesting. I've been watching to see if any free PA books arrive at our bookstore (we have a middling-to-large crop of PA authors in this area) from that previous offer, but so far nothing.

James D. Macdonald said:

Maybe Mr. King will appreciate the books. Winter can be brutal in Maine, and PA books are the perfect size for the wood stove.

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Gravity said:

Yeah, I can see it now over in PALand: "Hi, happy family! I just heard from from Stephen King, and he said my book was a 'crackling good read'!!!"

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Jersey Chick said:

It was s-s-s-s-smokin'!

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It was totally on fire!

Dhewco said:

Hey Gill, any chance you could contact Oprah's webmaster?

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I forwarded this mess to the contact addy at her website weeks ago and only got a form "thank you." It's not like I watch her show.

(Okay, two episodes, one had the Harry Potter cast and the other had Sidney Poitier, and he is The Man, so I just had to!)

When it comes to King and Oprah, the two live on different planets.

At least King is still here on good old Earth.

BenPanced said:

It was totally on fire!

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The narration crackles and pops with incendiary wit -- Rent.

It was better than Cats. I'm going to see read it again and again.

A fool and his money are soon parted

Queen of Swords said:

And now PA seems to be offering a crack at the Pulitzer Prize.

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After following this link, and reading some of the entries on the PA Facebook page from an earlier link, I am reminded that we cannot save fools from being foolish. Some will believe the horse-hockey PA puts out no matter how outrageous it gets--and it seems to be getting more outrageous by the week. All we can do is try to help those who are willing to listen.

Don Davidson said:

After following this link, and reading some of the entries on the PA Facebook page from an earlier link, I am reminded that we cannot save fools from being foolish. Some will believe the horse-hockey PA puts out no matter how outrageous it gets--and it seems to be getting more outrageous by the week. All we can do is try to help those who are willing to listen.

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You're absolutely correct.

Frankly, my bucket of sympathy for the majority of PA authors overflowed a long time ago, which is part of the reason I refrain from posting in AW's PA threads.

A small amount of online and/or offline research would have disclosed that the Oprah/WalMart/You Name It offers were an absolute waste of money and just another ploy by PA to pry money out of the wallets of their authors/customers.

I can understand a newbie writer not comprehending how real publishing works and falling for PA’s baloney, but I start to lose sympathy when something as simple as a phone call to their local WalMart would have confirmed unsolicited books would never have been given shelf space. A bit more research in their own PAMB threads would have disclosed PA stating in the past that they would not deal with WalMart due to copyright concerns, yet now they are willing to send them free books?

I feel for PA authors who are being ripped off and spending money they probably don’t have, but eventually they have to take responsibility for their actions and start facing the truth about PA. Hopefully sooner than later.

~brianm~

brianm said:

I feel for PA authors who are being ripped off and spending money they probably don’t have, but eventually they have to take responsibility for their actions and start facing the truth about PA. Hopefully sooner than later.

~brianm~

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Well said. I think, in general, there is a lack of personal responsibility in the world. PA is scum, yes. But, it isn't like the 'old days' where it was much more difficult to connect with other people and gain information. Do a three second search. If you don't, my sympathy level goes to about half.

Ignorance or Innocence?

scully931 said:

Well said. I think, in general, there is a lack of personal responsibility in the world. PA is scum, yes. But, it isn't like the 'old days' where it was much more difficult to connect with other people and gain information. Do a three second search. If you don't, my sympathy level goes to about half.

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I cannot disagree with a word you say.

But my sympathy remains.

There are undoubtedly some victims in the PA net who might be held responsible for their own actions, possibly even a dangerous belief in their own 'entitlement' which eroded any common sense they may have had in the beginning. But there are others.

Some are elderly. Google-fu is not the second nature to them that it is to us. Neither, more importantly, is the world-weary cynicism that automatically triggers a search for 'PublishAmerica scam'.
I'm a Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator, and some of the nicest people on my patch are elderly. These are the ones targeted every time by distraction burglars who gain access by pretending to be from the gas board, or even by claiming to be in distress and needing a telephone or a glass of water. And these people let them in. Not because they're stupid, but because they belong to a generation where people automatically trusted and helped their neighbours. Some, heaven help them, still leave their doors unlocked because when they were children that was the norm. It doesn't make me feel superior when I hear of these things, it makes me feel ashamed. Theirs was a better, more gracious world, and I for one mourn its passing.

Some are simply innocent. Without criminal intentions themselves, it is very, very hard for them to believe predators such as PA can even exist. The most vulnerable are those who have a touching belief in their own government and their own laws. They see something boldly stated on a website and think 'it must be true, it it weren't they'd be breaking the law.' We know these victims. Those are the ones who end up here saying 'but surely we can take them to court', 'surely there must be a law against this.' It's not their fault there isn't. In the UK we have laws against misleading advertising which would slam that unholy trio behind bars where they belong, but in the US it seems to be all right as long as it's not an actual lie. In the UK a victim of a vanity-publishing scam is a 'consumer' with rights, but in the US they're part of a 'business to business' transaction. Who knew? Ignorance maybe, but it stems from a quality of innocence and a trust in humanity I would be sorry to see disappear.

These people aren't stupid. One of the most innocent people I ever knew was my father, who was a Cambridge Doctor of Letters (equivalent to senior Professor at Harvard). He was a scammer's dream. He'd look at me with wide bewildered eyes and say 'But they can't do that, can they?' and it broke my heart to smash his world and say 'I'm afraid they can.'

These are the people who need saving. They may not last much longer in the vile world we inhabit now, but as long as they do we will need people like Victoria Strauss, James MacDonald, Dave Kuzminski, Ann Crispin, yes and Gillhoughly and Queen of Swords and everyone else who gives their time to post here, because they think like Clarice Starling and hope to save 'just one'. One day the law will change and PA will disappear, and then, please God, we can all of us rest peacefully in the silence of the lambs.

But not until.

Please keep posting. Let people know this is a safe place to come where they will meet with neither condemnation nor ridicule. Let there be one place at least that is safe for the innocent.

Louise

Swordswoman said:

. . . One day the law will change and PA will disappear . . .

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Unless it is the laws of human nature that change, vanity- and credulity-exploiting scams will continue unabated. If PA goes away, then the money-up-front vanity presses will expand into the vacuum, or a new version of the PA vanity-publishing dodge will emerge, or both. Too many people without knowledge of how real publishing works but with aspirations and a manuscript will assure that it is so.

--Ken

I can only speak for myself and my experience; however, it took me a long time to understand that PublishAmerica was really a glorified printer, not a publisher. I couldn't wrap my head around the concept that a "publisher" wouldn't want to have their authors' books in bookstores and do whatever they could to make their authors' books the very best they could be (editing, cover art, competitive price, etc.). I kept placing PA in the "publisher" category, when they simply aren't a publisher in the truest sense of the word. Once I realized (in large part to folks here at AW -- thank you!) that having a book "published" with PA was about as meaningful as going to Kinko's and printing up my own manuscript and trying to hawk it, it all began to make sense and I began to see PA for what and who they really are. It's hard to see with clarity of vision when you are in the midst of the PA misleading double-talk. I have incredible empathy for anyone who regrets signing with PublishAmerica, for whatever reason.

ResearchGuy said:

Unless it is the laws of human nature that change, vanity- and credulity-exploiting scams will continue unabated. If PA goes away, then the money-up-front vanity presses will expand into the vacuum, or a new version of the PA vanity-publishing dodge will emerge, or both. Too many people without knowledge of how real publishing works but with aspirations and a manuscript will assure that it is so.

--Ken

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As long as they are upfront about what they do, it would be OK with me.

It's the PA deception that I can not tolerate.

spike said:

As long as they are upfront about what they do, it would be OK with me.

It's the PA deception that I can not tolerate.

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Exactly.

Yet another promotion, oddly similar to the Walmart one. Sadly, the results will also be similar.

Dear Author:

PublishAmerica will put your book in your local Target store!

We will donate your book to Target. As many copies as you determine. Imagine shoppers finding your book there!

Our recently developed donation program is wildly successful. Almost forty thousand books have found their way to bookstores, Walmarts, churches, work offices, and other addresses, in less than two months. Authors love this opportunity, and so do their readers!


As always, we're not going to be passive. We're not waiting for Target to order your book. We're donating it to them, as many copies as you choose. They may put up your book for sale any way they want, highlighting you as a local author.

Here's how we do it:

If you want to have books on hand, you may now order any number of books
you need, and PublishAmerica will match the order. We will donate the
exact same number of books to your local Target store. In fact, we won't
even charge Target for the shipping!
And you receive a 40 pct discount!

Example: you order 20 copies, we print 40. We ship your 20 copies to you, and the same week we ship an additional 20 books to your local Target, for FREE.


Go to www.publishamerica.net, find your book, click on it, then add to cart, indicate quantity, and use this coupon: Target40. Then click Recalculate and finish the transaction. Minimum volume is 12 copies.
Want fewer books? Then use this coupon: Target30. No minimum volume requirement here. This will give you a discount of 30 pct, and we'll still donate as many books to Target as you order for yourself.

In the Ordering Instructions field, be sure to indicate the name and address
of your local Target store. We will ship your books there the same week
we ship your order to you. By using the coupon you are authorizing us to
match your order and donate the books. You may also request that we ship
the FREE books to you instead.


U.S. stores only. Full-color and hardcovers excluded. Be quick: Offer expires this weekend on Sunday night.

Thank you,
PublishAmerica Author Support Team

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