Gee, ya think that LSI sent back new copies so PA would have to pay taxes on them under the rules brought forth under Thor Power Tools v. IRS?
The Newer Never-Ending PublishAmerica / America Star Books Thread
- Thread starter James D. Macdonald
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That's always been the best Wiki page. My fav part is the:
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No, I think that LSI sent back new copies because that's what the contract said they'd do.
I'll bet that the contract says that for every return, PA would receive a book, not that they'd get that same returned book.
IOW, PA didn't read their contract.
Got a question about this book:
It's a nice cover, done by a real illustrator for the author. My question is about the seal on it. Supposedly, this book has won some type of "reader's favorite" award. Is this an award PA hands out? Considering the trouble PA gives authors who want to adjust their covers after the fact, that seal would have to have been part of the original design - as in before it was read by anyone.
?????
It's a nice cover, done by a real illustrator for the author. My question is about the seal on it. Supposedly, this book has won some type of "reader's favorite" award. Is this an award PA hands out? Considering the trouble PA gives authors who want to adjust their covers after the fact, that seal would have to have been part of the original design - as in before it was read by anyone.
?????
Settled!
Process is now under way.
Letter typed, printed and placed in envelope - to be sent certified with delivery verification.
Informing PA of my intentions to withdraw my permission for contract renewal - upon reaching the renewal date.
Also - respectfully requesting they release said contracts since I have sold no books, will no longer promote said books, and recommending to family and friends to not purchase said books. Also noted was the "withdrawal" from "in stock" by Amazon.com
Should be interesting to see what their initial response will be.
God Bless
Bill
Process is now under way.
Letter typed, printed and placed in envelope - to be sent certified with delivery verification.
Informing PA of my intentions to withdraw my permission for contract renewal - upon reaching the renewal date.
Also - respectfully requesting they release said contracts since I have sold no books, will no longer promote said books, and recommending to family and friends to not purchase said books. Also noted was the "withdrawal" from "in stock" by Amazon.com
Should be interesting to see what their initial response will be.
God Bless
Bill
I know PA posts a lot of 'awards' on their forums, not sure how legitimate or worthwhile they are though. Could have been one of those.
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The author wrote herself a press release here:
http://www.send2press.com/newswire/2010-02-0209-005.shtml
which discusses the award:
And here's the website for Readers Favorite: http://readersfavorite.com/
It is interesting that though the blurb above says "over the years", the website was created in August 2009, and 2009 awards seem to be the only ones listed on the site.
Whether the book cover was created with the award in place, or whether the author paid whatever PA chose to charge to change it...no guess. However, they do accept manuscripts in the contest, so that might be how it was done.
ETA: The contest charges $85 to enter in one category, and $65 each to enter the same MS in up to two more categories. So, let's say a PA author pays $215 to enter their manuscript in 3 categories and comes out of it with a gold medal (the "winner" medal, though there are 4 colors and they all say the same thing). How long do you think it will take the average PA author to show a profit for that investment by earning $215 MORE in royalties than they normally would have?
Answers that address climatic conditions in Hades are not acceptable.
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How do you feel about answers involving self-levitating swine?
I checked that site and there are PAGES of "winners" in each category. I wonder how many weren't declared a winner in some capacity with those kinds of numbers.
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To be fair, I think the long lists of books are the book reviews--it says reviews are free, though as we've seen the contest is quite expensive.
ETA: One last bit of snarkiness. Click on the contest winners (http://readersfavorite.com/2009-readers-favorite-winners.htm) and read the partial blurbs about each book to get an idea of how high the bar was set for this contest.
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Okay, that makes more sense. I thought that link was a header and that all those books were winners. It's weird, looking through that list, that in categories where there were 1 or 2 entries, a gold wasn't always awarded. Not exactly a ringing endorsement if it's not the gold winner in a category with no competition.
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Yow, some of those blurbs are really painful. I guess this is what reading slush is like. Did you catch the cheesecake cover of a romance novel about a neonatologist? She saves premature babies...topless!
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So the winners get a "digital seal" for up-coming editions and 500 metallic-looking seals for current editions? So what they are really doing is buying seals. The winner doesn't even get cash. And I'll bet the winners have to pay all their own expenses to go to Las Vegas.
Yeah, in terms of prestige value, this award ranks right up there with being a semi-finalist in the International Library of Poetry.
Yeah, in terms of prestige value, this award ranks right up there with being a semi-finalist in the International Library of Poetry.
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Well, if the award is real and acknowledged, sometimes the seals themselves can be worth quite a lot of money in boosted sales*. In this case, however, they are probably just buying worthless stickers as you say.
*Assuming you have distribution.
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QFT
I've heard school librarians tell the kids to look for the books with the seals (usually Newberry and Caldecott).
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Yep, I quite often tell customers to look for the seals, too, when they are unsure what to buy in MG. If I imagined that any of the Readers Favorite winning books would get into actual bookstore distribution channels, I would certainly have to start modifying that advice to "look for Newberry and Caldecott seals." Not that it's beyond possible that a RF book might be good; but the odds are bad, so one couldn't make a blanket statement.
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I feel this thread is slowly drifting into the "diss PA authors" mode.
We don't want to do that.
Let's keep our focus on the despicable practices of PA itself, okay?
Just my take on it...
We don't want to do that.
Let's keep our focus on the despicable practices of PA itself, okay?
Just my take on it...
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If I'm not mistaken, aren't publishers the ones who generally nominate their authors' books for major awards (although there are a few where authors can nominate themselves)?
Has PublishAmerica EVER nominated one of the books for an award, either major or minor? (Doesn't a Pulitzer nomination only cost $50? Several years ago, a PA author nominated his own book, IIRC).
What does it say about PA if, with 40,000 books published, PA doesn't think ANY of its books is worthy of nomination for an award?
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There've been a couple awards posts that Infomonster has put up on PAMB to alert their customers authors. Most of the self-nominations required the purchase of 2 to 5 additional books if they weren't just lying around the garage or in the trunk of the car, many of them were regionals that not everybody would be eligible to enter, and a good deal were for awards the publisher had to provide the nomination.
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Certified and on the way today.
Interesting note - had opportunity to visit Barnes and Noble this morning - just for chuckles I asked the clerk to plug in my book. Clerk found my book is now "out of print" and unavailable, however he noted they did have two (2) used ones available.
The interesting part of this is - according to PA - my book sold not a single copy. Wonder who is lieing, PA or B& N. I know where I would put my bets.
I have a feeling that my quest to retrieve my contact with PA is going to be a lengthy one, however they will find I will be a real thorn in their paw until they release me....
The process has started -------
God Bless
Bill