Let the games begin!
This is a rather complicated email. I have broken down our
original May 20, 2004 letter to PublishAmerica demanding that
our contract be terminated. The paragraphs ****** before
and after are paragraphs or bullet points of our letter,
followed by the response from PublishAmerica. Because I know
so many people read this board I have also rebutted in several
instances the falsehoods of Pa’s responses. That rebuttal
is separated by ########.
Here we go.
*************************
Opening paragraph of Brian Hill’s and Dee Power’s demand for
termination of contract with PublishAmerica sent by fax and
US Postal Service Priority Mail with delivery confirmation.
This was NOT sent by email
Dear Mr. Meiners:
We are extremely displeased with our experience with Publish
America LLLP, in regard to our novel OVERTIME, which you
published in 2003. We entered into a contract with
PublishAmerica based on assurances, from material on your web
site and through e-mail correspondence from your company, that
you were a “traditional publisher.”
The bullet points contained in the letter are below with PA’s
response after each point.
***************************
PublishAmerica’s response
“Again, the tone of your letter is way out of place. Soon we
will sell our one millionth book! Neither your fax nor your
registered letter reached the intended recipient. Future
paper letters from you will be discarded unread.
“If, after reading our bulleted refutations below, you still
wish to end your contract, please renew your request, using
[email protected] as your sole point of contact.
“None of it what we say is nonsense, and all of it is exactly,
completely accurate. What is nonsense is your tone, your
drama, and your whole escapade. There is no drama, no problem,
no attorneys in New York, and no issues at all. What there
appears to be is a simple request for contract termination.
We will deal with that request without any special
consideration at all.
“You do not need baseless jabs, drama, or a lawyer to request
termination of your contract. We will consider your request
at our next review meeting, to be held at our leisure,
probably within the next month or so. Our decision on your
contract will be made with disregard for your tone and
ridiculous and baseless accusations. Your communications with
us will not be made known to the committee making the
decision, and your untrue statements will not be considered.
“Your statements are so naive, so false, and so totally
baseless that it is difficult to even respond to them, but
we'll make a brief attempt.”
##########################################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
There is a real attorney in New York, experts in the
publishing and entertainment industry. This was no bluff on
our part and we are proceeding. Although going through legal
channels can be so d@mn frustrating because you have to wait
an appropriate amount of time before going to the next level.
********************************************
Our Bullet Point
Your no return policy has made it impossible to get bookstores,
particularly the large chains to order the book, despite the
fact we contacted numerous bookstores with personal letters
that included the excellent reviews our book has received.
We do not understand how you can represent your company as a
traditional publisher when you do not conform to one of the
basic standards of the publishing industry, which all
legitimate publishers follow.
********************************************
PublishAmerica’s answer
“- Return policy: Your statement is incorrect. Our returns
policy does not make it "impossible to get bookstores,
particularly the large chains, to order the book." Actually,
large chains order and stock our books all the time. Our
policy of accepting returns is in the experimental stage.
Non-returnable books may present some challenges, but are
becoming increasingly standard. Please see our message board
for testimonials by hundreds of authors whose books are
stocked in stores. There are hundreds and hundreds of
contradictions to what you say.”
############################################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
The contradictions are authors who have placed their books
in bookstores on consignment, meaning the bookstore has not
ordered the books and if the book sells they will pay the
author a percentage of the sales price usually 60%. The best
discount PA offers is 55% and the author must pay shipping.
So the author gets very little profit from a bookstore sale
on consignment.
Non-returnable books are only becoming increasingly standard
in PA’s mind, not the industry.
The message board is policed by PA and any and all negative
posts about difficulties with bookstores, reviews, anything
negative about PA are deleted and in most cases the author
banned from the message board.
##############################################
**********************************************
Our bullet point
When we contacted the sales director for a chain about having
book signing events at her stores, she said that PublishAmerica
books do not appear in their computer systems and thus they
could not order them.
***********************************************
PublishAmerica’s response
“- Sales director: Your statement is incorrect. The sales
director you mentioned is wrong. All bookstores have access
to Ingram's computer system, and all of our titles may be
found there. Additionally, all bookstore managers know this.”
##################################################
This happened to us at two chains. Additionally after
agreeing to schedule an event, one of the chains cancelled
it after realizing the book was by PublishAmerica. The only
reason, I believe the event was scheduled in the first place
was because the Community Relations Manager had done an event
for us previously concerning our business books.
#################################################
***************************************************
Our bullet point
The fact you do not discount the books with amazon.com has
made it extremely difficult to sell our book there, as
consumers expect to receive the discount, and traditional
publishers offer that discount as a matter of course.
**********************************************
PublishAmerica’s response
“- Amazon discounts: Your statement is incorrect. We do
discount books with Amazon.”
##################################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
Of the nearly 4000 titles listed on amazon.com in the
beginning of June 2004, only six were discounted. And yes I
looked at every single one.
#################################
***********************************************
Our bullet point
We paid Amazon.com for a special promotion of OVERTIME to
coincide with the football season, but when the promotion
ran the book was on a 5-7 day delivery status because you
did not make the books available, which effectively ruined
the promotion. In paragraph 3 of our contract with
PublishAmerica it states that “to cause copies so printed to
be bound, from time to time, in sufficient quantities to
supply purchasers of the said literary work therewith.” You
did not do that.
**********************************************
PublishAmerica’s response
“- On Amazon and availability: Your statement is incorrect.
“Yes, we did do that. Obviously our books are available in
any quantity. To suggest otherwise is just laughable. We've
sold upwards of a million books.”
######################################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
PA says “Yes they did do that” But what? Not provide the
books?
PA was notified of the promotion and failed to provide copies.
The book went from 24 hour delivery to 5 to 7 day delivery in
less than a day. No doubt many sales were lost.
######################################
***************************************
Our bullet point
You do not provide a catalog description to the Library of
Congress, and thus libraries will not order the books.
Traditional publishers do that as a matter of course
**************************************
PublishAmerica’s response
“- Libraries: Your statement is incorrect. Yes, libraries
order our books all the time. And yes, our books are listed
in the LoC.”
########################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
Only three PublishAmerica titles were included in the LoC as
of the end of May 2004.
*********************************
The incredible volume of titles you are now publishing is
giving your company a reputation in the industry as a publisher
that will accept almost anything, whatever the quality, and
that negative reputation has now reflected on us. You represent
your company as a legitimate publisher but yet you do not attend
the BEA convention, as all other publishers of any size and
industry reputation do. When the number of submissions you
receive, as stated on your website, is compared to the number
of books you publish, it is clear your acceptance rate is about
60%, when with traditional publishers the acceptance rate is
less than 1%
*************************************
PublishAmerica’s response
- Reputation: Your statement is incorrect. No, we have no
such reputation at all. We're in the news constantly, all
over the country, and it's all good.
###################################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
Notice that PA never really addressed the concerns merely
danced around them.
I did a google search and other than one news article couldn’t
find PA in the news anywhere.
###################################
*************************************
Our bullet point
As part of your contract you demand that authors supply you
with 100 names of “friends and family” that you can send
announcements to when the books is published. Brian Hill’s
name was misspelled in the flier you sent. That was
inexcusable
*************************************
PublishAmerica’s response
- Direct Mailing: Your statement is incorrect. No, it is
not part of our contract, and no, we do not "demand" that
authors supply "100" names of friends and family. We only
suggest a list of acquaintances, out of popular demand for
this service, and it is entirely optional. About 90% of
our authors supply this list.
######################################
Rebuttal – not presented to PA – but may be of interest to
readers of this board.
Actually PA is correct in that the demand is not in the contract
but part of the materials that must be sent with the final
manuscript. And it is demanded. They also never apologized for
the misspelling.
######################################
Okay that’s enough for today, the letter goes on with lots of
propaganda. I will continue with the rest of the letter tomorrow.
Except for one little point
PA said:
“PublishAmerica continues to grow faster than any other
traditional publisher, and today we are apparently the most
popular publisher among new authors. More than 50 new authors
contact us every day, hoping to join you as a PublishAmerica
author. That's more than 12,000 hopefuls per year. At
least 80 percent of them never make it to the "published
author" status, because they don't pass our acquisitions
process, but that does not seem to discourage anyone from
submitting their work to us in ever growing, and frankly
astonishing, numbers. We read every single submission before
we accept or refuse.”
They have been contacted by 12,000 “hopefuls” and they decline
80%, which would mean that they would publish 2400 books a year
or 200 a month. They published more than double that in June and
are on that same level for July.
Dee Power
www.BrianHillAndDeePower.com