Return of a Man Named PAMB and its Quotes

PVish

Cat hair collector
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Messages
1,641
Reaction score
263
Location
slightly off center
Website
peevishpen.blogspot.com
I have been waiting for over a year to hear something about setting up a book signing. I, too, have sent (numerous times) the info requested for help on securing book signings.
Not wanting to wait around and do nothing, I went to the stores and asked for a signing and I always get the same response. They tell me my books are not available. To date, my new book, <title> released, December, 2009, has never been available to any book store.
Not available to implies they can't even special-order it, so I wonder if this was an early casualty of PA switching distributors. On Amazon the book is "temporarily out of stock".

This is interesting: The author's previous PA book, published in 2006, is available from Amazon, although it "usually ships within 1 to 3 weeks."

So why isn't her new book available from Amazon? Gotta be a glitch in the distributor switch.
 

DreamWeaver

Shakespearean Fool
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 11, 2005
Messages
2,916
Reaction score
403
So why isn't her new book available from Amazon? Gotta be a glitch in the distributor switch.
There is some rumbling that the Baker & Taylor Textstream formatting is very picky and requires a lot of little adjustments to get an MS into their system successfully.

Since it's unlikely PA has put out the money to hire extra computer-savvy folks to work the conversion of the MSS of 40,000 Happy Authors from Lightning Source format to Textstream format...expect delays. Oh, right--we already have delays. Months of delays.
 

PVish

Cat hair collector
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Messages
1,641
Reaction score
263
Location
slightly off center
Website
peevishpen.blogspot.com
http://bb.publishamerica.com/viewtopic.php?t=32296&start=15
I published my first book through PA and its the first of a four book series. The second is finished and I'm half way through the third and I want to get the second published through PA but I have some concerns, My first book was published In April of last year and when the royalty check came in it said only the books that were bought through PA would be on it and that made sense to me knowing that bookstores had X amount of time to report sales. My concern is that I received the same statement in February and I know that many of friends and family bought the book when it was released and I have yet to see them reported. I also want to know that when I finish the series and have them all published (hopefully through PA) can I rewrite them as screen plays, hire an agent trying to get them turned into movies?.

If the first book printed through PA isn't working, why consider PA for others?

Doing more of what doesn't work won't make it work any better.
 

Marian Perera

starting over
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 29, 2006
Messages
14,333
Reaction score
4,578
Location
Heaven is a place on earth called Toronto.
Website
www.marianperera.com
Possibly because commercial publishers won't accept the manuscripts and the author hasn't done enough research to realize that there are cheaper options when it comes to self-publishing.

Ironically, in October 2009 he stated,

I have been with PA for about a year now and have found them to be very honist with me

And here's the latest promotional idea, this time from an author:

I have come up with an idea for a completely new promotion. I’ll buy 6 and PA sends 30 to Amazon so I have a chance to sell them. This printer’s snafu has gone on long enough.

Over four months and counting. I can only imagine what the next round of royalty checks will be like.

All my marketing & links on my web site, bookmarks, business cards are no good if people can’t order my books. I do enjoy the discounted specials but I can’t afford to be my own customer. I can’t turn my garage into a bookstore;

I thought one of the selling points of POD was that authors wouldn't need to fill their garages with stacks of their own books.

I’d need to accept credit card purchases, set up shipping etc…. There seems to be no publishing problem for me to obtain my books, just for the major sellers. So, instead of sending my books to some unknown entity that ignores unsolicited books send the extras to Barnes and Nobles, Amazon, or Books-A-Million. Like I said just an ideal.
 
Last edited:

Gillhoughly

Grumpy writer and editor
Absolute Sage
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2006
Messages
5,363
Reaction score
1,761
Location
Getting blitzed at Gillhoughly's Reef, Haleakaloha
I can’t afford to be my own customer. I can’t turn my garage into a bookstore;

But that's exactly what PA wants from you and all the others!

There seems to be no publishing problem for me to obtain my books, just for the major sellers.

That is a great big fat CLUE they are not a real publisher. The major sellers have my books in the stores. PA can't and won't. You are their only real customer. Marketing to you is as much work as they want to put in on things.

You've been had. The coffee is ready when you are.
 

Marian Perera

starting over
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 29, 2006
Messages
14,333
Reaction score
4,578
Location
Heaven is a place on earth called Toronto.
Website
www.marianperera.com
Book signing, the sequel

This is from one of PA's long-time cheerleaders, and even it doesn't sound that cheery.

PA is considered a Print on Demand publisher by certain stores or people think that we are self publishers. I get asked quite often online if I am self published but I never see myself or my work in that light.

Believe me, if you were self-published - really self-published - you would make more money and your books would have more availability.

Plus, stores don't like it that the books are not returnable. For a while they used to be. I remember getting an email a few years ago stating that they now made their books returnable. But, not that long ago on here I read a response from infocenter stating that the books returnability status is on hiatus. In addition with the switch over from Ingrams to Baker&Taylor the books appear out of stock in some online sources. I found one of my books stated as being available and the other as out of stock. However, I have also found my books listed on web sites as far away as India and The Netherlands. So I guess it is questionable.

It doesn't cost much to list a book for sale. And it gladdens the heart of the author to believe that some poor factory worker in India might spend Rs. 1400 to own a copy of her book.

By the way, if PA has so much difficulty getting stores in the States to pay up, can you imagine how long it might take for a shop in India to do the same? The mind boggles. No wonder PA's contracts are for seven years.

Maybe if you offered these stores to bring your own supply of your books for the book signing

Because bookstores are happy to let people use their premises to sell their own books?

and even leave a few there on consignment if the store allows. You could give a free book to the stores manager to read so he or she will know the quality of your work and maybe on the merit of it the person might want to do a book signing of your book or stock some copies.

"Merit" apparently trumps returnability, discounts and store policies.

When you hear back again from book signings I hope Charley is handling book signings for you. Last year he did a good job with me and my book. He called several places for me and got back to me about the results. It was just a pitty that to my knowledge hardly any of them got back to him.

Um. If hardly any of the stores got back to him, what were these "results" that he reported to the author?

I want a store to really like my work and show emthusiasm for it because if the store likes and believes in my work they will do a better job selling it. The store that did a book signing of my book really botched it up. There was no announcement or advertisement for the signing put in the paper here. My alloted time was taken up by someone else for a while, the manager placed the books I left on consiignment where they would be obscured from sight and only two were out when I left five and the other three were not even on display

It's interesting that when PA is criticized for lack of distribution, one of the defenses is that bookstores can't shelve every book that's printed because then they'd need hundreds of feet of extra space.

But this author expected five of her books to be displayed? You hardly even see five copies of bestsellers on the shelves, unless the store is doing a promotional event. Why would the store need to shelve all five?

and there was no sign out saying local author here. I believe if her attitude was that she really liked the book and not that she was doing me a " favore" she would have really tried to sell them. So next time around I want a store to sell the book that really believes in the work and not just doing me a favore.

Sigh. It's not about "believing in the work". It's about having a marketable product.

The next author's response is,

I've been with PA since '06 - I have 2 novels with them now, and 2 more I'd like to submit.

This seems to be a common theme - that despite the problems, the authors want to send more books to PA. Unless they're saying this in a fruitless attempt to get PA to pay attention to them: "We're still loyal customers! We could still make you money!"

I have yet to hear of them setting up a signing for me. I think when they set up signings it helps the company's credibility

Apparently donating money to the Haiti victims didn't accomplish this.

and would lead to many more books being sold and authors being recognized as authors.

Again, I think everyone needs to work as a team and communication is very important. There are issues that need to be resolved.

I received my initial email from Brandon stating that he was in charge of setting up book signings for me. After months of not hearing anything even though I sent numerous emails, I received and email fom Kristen stating that she is working on my list but hasn't had and success yet. That was in May.

With all the bad press and complaining from people about PA we need to work together, get some good loud press and turn things around.

If there are any NJ authors out there- perhaps we can do a group signing somewhere? Let me know.
 

Cyia

Rewriting My Destiny
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 15, 2008
Messages
18,616
Reaction score
4,029
Location
Brillig in the slithy toves...
http://bb.publishamerica.com/viewtopic.php?t=32473

No idea what was edited out of this with the [...]


Have any fellow PA authors noticed their books are shown authored by Karen S Gibbs on worldcat.org?

As of this morning, there are 370 titles attached to her name, one of them being my new book I Just Am, You Just Are due for release June 9th. I'm not the only author who's books show written by Karen S Gibbs.

[...]

I'm curious as to why my work has another authors name and as I've not heard from PA, thought maybe some of you may be able to clear this up for me?

How long do you think it would take Little Brown or Random House to get a non-author's name off one of their books?
 

Cyia

Rewriting My Destiny
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 15, 2008
Messages
18,616
Reaction score
4,029
Location
Brillig in the slithy toves...
If it's listed like that in the PA store, then it has to be a corrupt file on PA's end, not the other site. Very weird.
 

M.R.J. Le Blanc

aka Sadistic Mistress Mi-chan
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 26, 2008
Messages
2,195
Reaction score
271
Location
At the computer
Woah. Just...woah.

EDIT:

I think Karen S Gibbs is a PR person or a media analyst.... thats all I know about her....I hope that helps somewhat. Have a wonderful day!
 

Cyia

Rewriting My Destiny
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 15, 2008
Messages
18,616
Reaction score
4,029
Location
Brillig in the slithy toves...
Apologies will run you $9.95. If you actually want to receive them, that's an additional 3.99 S&H. ($4.99 if you want it by email because that takes tech support.) It can be framed for $19.95 (S&H separate) and the gold seal is only $1.99 if you order 3 of them, to be shipped separately. Of course, a convenient buyout of $300 or 50 preemptive apologies will ensure you're never insulted again until the next time.
 

Marian Perera

starting over
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 29, 2006
Messages
14,333
Reaction score
4,578
Location
Heaven is a place on earth called Toronto.
Website
www.marianperera.com

tlblack

nothing simple here
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
824
Reaction score
129
Location
In Buzzardville!
All of the books listed are PA books, too. There's a Karen S. Gibbs listed as a co-author for a PA book called Timeless Jewels.
http://www.publishamerica.net/product90728.html

It's weird, whatever's going on.


I went through them and noticed that all of those titles with Karen S Gibbs as the author were shown as being published in 2010. She is listed as the author of 370 plus the one as co-author.
 

M.R.J. Le Blanc

aka Sadistic Mistress Mi-chan
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 26, 2008
Messages
2,195
Reaction score
271
Location
At the computer
Seriously, the 'oh it's probably just a ___________, no worries! Everything's fine!' mentality is just worrisome. I can't imagine ANY writer being THAT okay that someone else's name was on their work. Irregardless of their publisher.
 

Marian Perera

starting over
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 29, 2006
Messages
14,333
Reaction score
4,578
Location
Heaven is a place on earth called Toronto.
Website
www.marianperera.com
Seriously, the 'oh it's probably just a ___________, no worries! Everything's fine!' mentality is just worrisome.

That honeymooner previously posted to say that she was "horrified at all the negativity about PA online" so she "decided to keep an open optimistic mind". I'm guessing her reply is an example of that philosophy. She wouldn't want to add to the negativity by acknowledging that there is something wrong about that situation.
 

Cyia

Rewriting My Destiny
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 15, 2008
Messages
18,616
Reaction score
4,029
Location
Brillig in the slithy toves...
Who wants to lay odds that Ms. Gibbs is a disgruntled "designer" who decided to leave her mark when she was let go?
 

kaitie

With great power comes
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 10, 2009
Messages
10,994
Reaction score
2,525
This is a little behind in the conversation, but I've got a thought here, too. A lot of people go back to PA for second or third books (or more) in spite of all the problems they list. I wonder if that's because they would either have to admit to themselves that their publisher was a problem (breaking the denial and admitting they've been taken in), but also if it's because somewhere in there they know what's going on and they're afraid commercial publishers won't accept the work. If you thought you'd been picked up because you were good enough, particularly if you had a host of rejections after that, I could definitely see how it could be more devastating than usual to receive rejections from agents and publishers after the fact.

I could see how it's a lot healthier for some people's psyche to be able to give their work to someone who they know will accept it than face rejection that might also undo their previous "success."
 

M.R.J. Le Blanc

aka Sadistic Mistress Mi-chan
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 26, 2008
Messages
2,195
Reaction score
271
Location
At the computer
I'm not sure I agree that it's healthier. To me, it's more avoidance than anything. You have to deal with things eventually, and avoiding admitting you made a mistake only prolongs the problem. It doesn't benefit. I'm not saying it's easy to admit that PA was a mistake and get over that, but in the long-term I think it would in fact be healthier to admit and learn from the mistake rather than avoid admitting you made one.
 

Cyia

Rewriting My Destiny
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 15, 2008
Messages
18,616
Reaction score
4,029
Location
Brillig in the slithy toves...
I think some hope the situation will improve once they have more than one book to their name. The ones that truly discover the disadvantage of their first contract generally go with Lulu or Create Space for book 2 unless they try for commercial publication.
 

kaitie

With great power comes
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 10, 2009
Messages
10,994
Reaction score
2,525
I'm not sure I agree that it's healthier. To me, it's more avoidance than anything. You have to deal with things eventually, and avoiding admitting you made a mistake only prolongs the problem. It doesn't benefit. I'm not saying it's easy to admit that PA was a mistake and get over that, but in the long-term I think it would in fact be healthier to admit and learn from the mistake rather than avoid admitting you made one.

I don't actually think it's healthy. I'm saying more that I can see how some people see it as the better option, even subconsciously. Or consciously. I'm all for seeing one's shortcomings and learning from mistakes. I worded that badly, I apologize.