The Old Neverending PublishAmerica Thread (Publish America)

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afanofthetruth

Re: Advice to writers from

Chris-
Oh I see, ignoring me..lol..kidding. No, they know but they don't know yet..but any second now it will be discovered. Oh well! I will not hide.

Ed-
Gotcha! Talk to ya soon!
 

afanofthetruth

Re: A PA author asks about royalties

ByGrace-

Your last comment I totally agree with.
 

Risseybug

Ask Victoria

Honestly, I think it is a conflict if Miranda were to publish a book through her own company. Or, at the very least, a shady deal.
The editor in chief of my own publisher is also a writer, and although you can purchase her books on the publishers site, her company is not the publisher. She has said that this will never happen. Heck, that would almost be vanity in that instance, I think.

Well, heck, we'll ask Victoria - you don't publish your own books at Behler, do you? I don't think she does. What is your view of that?
 

bikrpreacher

Re: Here's a good one...

PA spends a lot of time talking bad about the other publishers, and the other publishers have business to attend to,and they don't act the way PA does. PA ought to be attending to their business and they would have more time to try and do something to salvage what has become of their company.
To say that someone doesn't know about publishing because they can't write is so stupid, they are getting lame. (I know, I know, they already were, but I mean more so by the second.)

Here is another post to watch.
www.publishamerica.com/cg...s/2759.htm
 

aka eraser

Re: Miranda's writing

Granny, I've been reading your posts for a number of years now and respect your opinion greatly. I don't always agree, but I always carefully weigh what you say and have re-thought a position more than once as a result.

This thread has become a juggernaut. I liken it to a snowball rolling down a giant hill. It mostly stays on course but along the way it hits a bump and veers one way or the other - but for the most part rolls the way it's supposed to.

I dislike over-moderated boards as much as I do unmoderated ones. For the most part, posters here do a fine job moderating themselves. Occasionally, on any thread, things might get a bit out of hand or off topic. In those instances, as we've seen in the last hour or so, folks chime in with their pros and cons and "life" (and the snowball) goes on.

Egregiously off-topic or offensive posts will be moved or removed. I prefer to let borderline ones remain and let the readers/posters make their own judgements.

Ms Prather has become the spokesperson and most visible figurehead of PA's hierarchy. She represents what many consider to be an odious company. I suspect she OK's, if not actually issues, those notoriously bullying and belittling "Don't take that tone with us" emails, sent to questioning PA authors. She's become, whether she likes it or not, a public figure and by making her work accessible to the masses, has to take the lumps along with the accolades.

That said, I hope we can mostly keep the focus of this thread where it belongs - exposing PA for what it is, supporting its disillusioned authors, and preventing as many new ones from signing on as we can.

Disclaimer: The above is only my thinking and does not necessarily reflect Jenna's or Victoria's or any of the other mods.
 

Ed Williams 3

You know, I'm starting to be amazed...

...that PA even bothers with those message boards at all. No real publisher of any note has them, and with their author pool growing, more and more comments are going to get in there that they forget to delete or that at least will be allowed to stay up for too long.

Know something else? If the AP article says what I think it will say, HB will use it to rally the troups, as it will be portrayed as yet one more example of how the "traditional" publishing world is fighting hard against the grand and mighty pirate ship.

P.S. Wonder if there's any reason you don't hear about all the pirate related stuff over there anymore? Could it be that it was cutting a tad too close to the truth?

:p :evil :rollin :evil :p
 

Whispering Bard

Re: Re:Barnes and Noble

As one who has a book in the clutches of PA, I was very happy to find this board several months ago and to see the good work you were trying to do. Now, I'm very much afraid that the good work will be undone.

I've been following this thread for a long time, and watching it degenerate into something worthy of the PA boards is heartbreaking. There is a meanspiritedness seeping into this discussion that wasn't here even a month or two ago. Please don't lose sight of your original goals and intentions, and beware those who have personal agendas and are using this board to grind them in public.
 

Sher2

Re: Ask Victoria

Honestly, I think it is a conflict if Miranda were to publish a book through her own company. Or, at the very least, a shady deal.
The editor in chief of my own publisher is also a writer, and although you can purchase her books on the publishers site, her company is not the publisher. She has said that this will never happen. Heck, that would almost be vanity in that instance, I think.

There's no doubt in my mind that they ARE shady up at PA, which is a vanity even if they do get their money after the fact rather than before. Willem Meiners, by the way, has "published" two books through PA.
 

Undergroundauthor

What PA says about bookstore sales

Miranda Prather replied to a question about bookstore sales and returnable books on January 4, 2005

It's a sad fact that bookstore sales are on a decline. Authors and publishers cannot rely on them to make the bulk of sales....
She also said:

While we do offer returnability for our most marketable books, we cannot currently afford to do so for all of our books. Also, it would not make good sense for your books if we were to do so. The biggest factor in a bookstore manager's decision to stock or not, is whether they think it will sell or not. If they do not feel it will make a return for them on their investment of stocking it, they will not buy it regardless of the returnability issue though that issue is a convenient excuse to tell authors about why they will not stock. I do expect big changes to come with bookstores though as more and more publishers utilize digital printing and as the technology advances. We are not so far away now from having a machine print books in the store.

We revist the returnability issue on a regular basis as we discuss our business. We will continue to do so, should it become feasabile, we will of course do so. Just a bit of history on the issue - returnability was not always the case in the book buying world. It first came into being during WWII. At that time, it was offered on a limited basis. In 2001, PMA put out a white paper on the issue. The simple fact is that returnability is costing the book world (publishers, book stores, etc) billions of dollars each year. A change will have to come in order to curb this lost money eventually.
 

Kate St Amour

Re: Here's a good one...

140 words? Did I read that correctly? 140 words isn't even a pamphlet.
 

HapiSofi

Re: In regards to editing by PublishAmerica

CWG, the point wasn't that it was bad poetry. That's unremarkable. Bad poetry is part of the background noise of the universe, like radio emissions from long-dead stars picked up by the array at Arecibo, or letters from Miriam Abacha.

What fascinated me was that one of the core PA staffers should so obviously be a hopeless yearning wanna-be writer, on such mediocre terms with the language that she murders "whom," and uses words like "forebearers." It's a spooky and suggestive detail. It makes me wonder what she understands her place to be in the Willem Meiners universe.

Do I know yet where it fits into the overall picture? I do not. But I know better than to ignore an evocative and deeply weird detail just because I don't yet know what to do with it.
 

Sher2

Re: In regards to editing by PublishAmerica

What fascinated me was that one of the core PA staffers should so obviously be a hopeless yearning wanna-be writer, on such mediocre terms with the language that she murders "whom," and uses words like "forebearers." It's a spooky and suggestive detail. It makes me wonder what she understands her place to be in the Willem Meiners universe.

I was struck by that aspect of the situation as well. Because she IS one of the three PA Big Cheeses, it's a reasonable expectation that she should lead by example. One simply does not see that with her.
 

bikrpreacher

conflict of interest...oh well

I never said I knew these things, oh well. I should probably mention here that it's not something I really care about, I doubt I'll ever be in that position to need to know that information, but you never know. Sorry, didn't mean to start a debate, as I say, I don't know, just to me it doesn't seem a conflict but if it's normal business practice not to publish with your own publisher, then Miranda did a good thing, at least one thing, by the rules...hooray for her.
Okay, you all post too fast, who was this posted to, now I forget...LOL:rolleyes
 

FM St George

Re: Here's a good one...

heck, my book was 41 pages, no illustrations and priced at $12.95!

I felt ashamed to ask more than ten for it - and that was just to break even with the "discount" that PA gave me!

:(

fact is, you can have a great book on your hands despite the best efforts of PA's editors and it's priced way out of the market of the average buyer.

... that is, if you even GET it on the shelf beside others in the genre - and no, I ain't buying the argument that more books are sold online than off, thank you very much.
 

DaveKuzminski

When will Miranda appear?

Personally, I'm already anticipating the day that Miranda shows up here as another refugee. The money they pay her at PA might be significant, but I'll bet that her conscience isn't comfortable with how PA fits into her life.
 

James D Macdonald

Re: Here's a good one...

I ain't buying the argument that more books are sold online than off, thank you very much.

Figures for 2003 (most recent year available) were 57% in bookstores, 11% on-line.
 

astonwest

Re: Advice to writers from

Hapisofi quoted Prather:

"I would be willing to bet that Stephen King could release all of his future books on the Internet or mail order only and forgo being in bookstores and still reach the sales goals his books currently do."

Didn't King try to sell a book (by installment) on the internet, and it tanked royally? Or am I mistaken?

As for the "140 words", I'm betting someone meant 140 pages...that would be about right, $19.95 for a 140-page PA book...my book was 109 pages, and it came out to $16.95 (oddly, another book I know was 108 pages, and ran $12.95 (yet, continued attempts to lower my price went for naught)...go figure)

I see no conflict of interest with Prather not signing a contract with PA...I imagine she knows the problems firsthand. It's hard to overlook all of those problems when it would be your OWN book out there (as many of us know).

I AM probably mistaken on this one, but didn't Meiners himself put out a book or two through PA?

Big Daddy West
:hat
 

Whachawant

Re: Here's a good one...

I ain't buying the argument that more books are sold online than off, thank you very much.
---"..no.. and even if you could buy it, ..you'd probably pay too much..."---

Where did you get those statistics James?
Just curious...

heck, my book was 41 pages, no illustrations and priced at $12.95!
--hmm.., James, remember the run it with Profitable Publishing. I floated on their sight for a while, one book was 46 pages at 9.95. Another was maybe 70 pages at $19 something. Pretty sure it involved illustrations through out the book.

With regular (large scale) publishers, does the cost go up if they print illustrations through out a book?
A full page of literature, I would think, would have more ink than a gray-scaled or even B/W image.
 

RaechelHendersonMoon

Wait, which is it?

Miranda Prather was quoted as writing:

he biggest factor in a bookstore manager's decision to stock or not, is whether they think it will sell or not. If they do not feel it will make a return for them on their investment of stocking it, they will not buy it regardless of the returnability issue though that issue is a convenient excuse to tell authors about why they will not stock.

So are bookstore owners refusing to stock PA books because they are non-returnable or because the owners don't think PA titles will sell? And if it is because they don't think the books will sell shouldn't the authors be wondering why that is? Maybe it's just because the day is late but her reasoning just falls apart for me.
 

Lisamaliga

Re: Willem's book at Amazon

www.amazon.com/exec/obido...ce&s=books
Yes, here it is in all its glory – THOSE WHO WIN ARE THOSE WHO THINK THEY CAN by Willem Meiners. It’s also offered in the Icelandic language.

The hardcover edition of this 181-page book is only $29.95 but has been discounted to about $28.00.

The popular paperback edition is listed at $14.95 but has a nice 15% discount lowering it down to a mere $12.71. Eight copies are in stock so hurry on over and purchase soon!

This book has been reviewed 3 times and boasts 3.5 stars.
Sales might be a bit slow over on Amazon as the ranking is currently 2,603,826.

Edited to try to shrink that link so that side-scrolling won't be necessary to read posts.
 

vstrauss

Re: Ask Victoria

>>Well, heck, we'll ask Victoria - you don't publish your own books at Behler, do you? I don't think she does. What is your view of that?<<

Me? I'm not connected with Behler.

- Victoria
 

vstrauss

Re: Miranda's writing

My theory of board moderating is pretty much the same as Frank's. I also agree about Miranda Prather--by posting her work in public she opens herself to comment, and must take her lumps.

- Victoria
 

astonwest

Re: Willem's book at Amazon

Now that's funny...Meiners' 181 pages in paperback runs $14.95...whereas the same number for any of their other authors would run $5 more...I guess Meiners doesn't really listen to his own propaganda...remember, price really doesn't matter...heh.

If memory serves, Uncle Jim previously mentioned that PA basically adds a $5 vanity fee into the price of their author's books (instead of asking for the fee upfront)...

Coincidence???

Big Daddy West
:hat
 
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