The Old Neverending PublishAmerica Thread (Publish America)

Anyone familiar with history would not be shocked by what happened. Just think back to the Mariana's Turkey Shoot. Same principle in action. Just different targets.

Wouldn't surprise me if it goes back even farther in history with some sailor steering a burning ship into an enemy fleet even though he knows he won't get out alive.

With that in mind, don't worry about giving terrorists ideas with your writing. The ideas are already out there.

Dawno said:

The post of a letter from Neo Cantu is upthread
He never confirms the number of books sold, how many he bought himself, etc. He only says

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Thanks for looking that up, Dawno. You got me interested again.

I just skimmed the excerpt on his website. Two paragraphs in and I've found two typos. The writing's a little purple, too. In a couple of places, it looks like he went through a thesaurus, using words almost at random ("the rope snapped tight behind him and he fell supine". Supine? That clearly calls for prone.). Very awkward phrasing in several places. I don't need to elaborate further (ahem, no concept of pacing, leaves actions unstated, insufficient description, implausible scenes, use of cliches).

I think it's more telling that their best-selling author will not be using them for his next book.

I believe it was Frank Weaver and his Crab Cakes and Pepper that also did well. I think he sold a lot of books, but also bought many of them, and he admitted to spending thousands on promotion.

I always liked him--he was a sober board elder at PA sometime ago. But he completely disapeared off the face of the earth, and I have not heard anything about him since. He would be an interesting "tell" and case study in regard to a herculean sales effort i.e., doing everything that PA suggests to do. We also have here at AW a plethora of past PA authors who have made Don Trump look like a lemonade salesman, in regard to their stupendous efforts.

Tri

latichever said:

So far lightning has definitely not struck. The top selling book has sold around 5k copies, a break even garden variety number for a low print run novel with a real publisher.

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I totally agree, but there's PA authors already out there testing those particular waters.

Check out www.warrenadler.com and you'll see what I mean.

I'm not suggesting it ever will happen, just that it's not entirely an impossibility.

Some are even attempting to wheel and deal with Mr Adler if he'll agree to act as their agent - an offer he politely ignores or declines (can't remember which).

It's so long a shot that it's just about over the horizon and out of sight, but then again.... nothing ventured....

For any inclined to follow the link in my previous post, I should have included the following.


log in, then on to 'author bio', and then to Selling Books to the Movies.

triceretops said:

I believe it was Frank Weaver and his Crab Cakes and Pepper that also did well.

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His book came out last autumn, and shortly afterward he was in one of the New York Times ads. I know that he said that he'd bought a thousand copies at one point -- I don't know if that was the total or just one order.

I do know that he vanished off the PAMB shortly after royalties time last February (his first royalty check). I do hope he's okay.

triceretops said:

I believe it was Frank Weaver and his Crab Cakes and Pepper that also did well. I think he sold a lot of books, but also bought many of them, and he admitted to spending thousands on promotion.

Tri

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I always liked the Crab Cake guy myself. I thought if there were ever someone who could break the glass ceiing at PA, it would be Crab Cake.

One of our board collegues says that he caught up with CC lately and he was about to sell out of his 1,000 books that he bought. Another case of good book, good author, bad publisher.

triceretops said:

I believe it was Frank Weaver and his Crab Cakes and Pepper that also did well. I think he sold a lot of books, but also bought many of them, and he admitted to spending thousands on promotion.

Tri

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Tri,

Frank (Scoop) does post now and then. His last post was the 13 of Sept. See it here.

http://bb.publishamerica.com/viewtopic.php?t=5892

LloydBrown said:

--snip--tight behind him and he fell supine". Supine? That clearly calls for prone.). Very awkward phrasing in several places. I don't need to elaborate further (ahem, no concept of pacing, leaves actions unstated, insufficient description, implausible scenes, use of cliches).

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Prone and supine are pet peeves of mine (14 years in the health care industry). I just finished reading The Bourne Supremacy, an excellent book, but Ludlum evidently didn't know or confused the two. He had several scenes with them misused, my personal favourite had one guy "supine" while Alex Conklin applied his foot to the middle of the "supine" guy's back. Holy sh*t!! Musta been some twisting going on there!! I think he just liked the sound of "supine", so it can happen even to the best authors and publishing houses.

Here's a lapb (local author publishes book) story. Nothing too noteworthy other than the line:

The company, Publish America, did not respond to requests for information about the book’s release.

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Way to help your authors promote, PA.

A little article in the UK trade magazine The Bookseller: (extracts)


"The number of new books published so far this year has hit 114,000, an increase of more than 11% on the same period in 2004, despite attempts by trade publishers to cut back lists.
Statistics fromn Nielsen BookData show that for the first seven months of 2005, 114,669 new titles were added to its database, up from 104,00 last year. NBD editorial director Michael Healy is predicting upwards of 200,000 new titles by the end of the year.

Healy said POD technology was a significant contributor to the explosion: "Organisations such as Lightning Source are big contributors to us in terms of new titles. it's now so inexpensive to become a publisher - although it may not be profitable."
.....

Retailers have been critical of the sheer volume of titles hitting the market. Jon Howells at Ottakar's pointed to a rise in niche academic and professional titles from small and self-publishers, but questioned whether the books were finding their way into bookshops.
Large trade publishing houses ruled out the suggection that they had exanded their lists....
Peter Bowron... at Penguin added: "The big publishers seem to be reducing their lists but that doesn't stop everyone under the sun publishing. A lot of people won't get their books anywhere near a bookshop."
.... "Some publishers have said they are reducing their lists and most do show a reduction, but this isn't affecting the overall trend, which is upwards."
.....

here we go:

Can any UK author advise me where they cash in their dollars royalty cheque? As far as I can see it costs me to put it in the normal bank, so wondered what others did.

Thanks
Jill Divine

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Well, it looks like Shelagh's Author Forum is trying now to exclude all comments coming from anyone they consider to be a basher. This appears to have come about because she posted that a family member pointed out to her that there were comments about problems with PA all over the Internet. Of course, she considers all of the "bashers" to be responsible for how poorly her book is doing in making sales. In other words, she's going through a typical rage transference.

Anyway, my guess is she's finally at the point where she has to decide to become Shempette or wise up. I hope she opens her eyes.

DaveKuzminski said:

Of course, she considers all of the "bashers" to be responsible for how poorly her book is doing in making sales. In other words, she's going through a typical rage transference.

Anyway, my guess is she's finally at the point where she has to decide to become Shempette or wise up. I hope she opens her eyes.

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Hands up all those who, before they buy a book, go and research its publisher?

She thinks that the PA "bashers" are doing so out of spite and sheer meanness - because thier books didn't sell, they want other PA books to fail.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

It can't be PA's fault, they're the publisher-printer, they wouldn't want to hurt my wittle book. No!! It's them, those bashers!! Yeah, let's blame them!!

Grow up!!! Think, please, the truth will set you free. Regardless of what you do to sell, it won't happen. PA does not want you to succeed, they want your credit card. Do not leave home without it-ever!

Every ex-PA author who has received their rights back (to date, there are at least 10), PA continues to sell those books w/o paying royalties to the author. This is a fact. Facts do not lie. Facts are the truth. If you try to get bookstores to buy your books and do not buy any, they will most likely drop you. They are not making money off your sweat and tears. The bookstores get way more of a discount then you do, that is why.

Further: bashers kill baby seals. Bookstores are completely aware of PA's scam including the insane over pricing of their books. Go to a bookstore and compare the price of yours to another, you will notice the other is roughly 8-10 dollars cheaper. And that would be by a known author, w/ professional art work, not copy/paste from public domain sites.

'nuff said

I kind of had the feeling that's where Shelaugh was headed. She's at the point she needs to decide which path she'll take. As the old knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade counseled, I hope she'll "choose wisely." PA really doesn't need Shemp in drag...nor do we, Lord knows.
:::shudder:::

John

I'd love to get to know this notorious Shemp. Any links?

Shelagh is very bright, but she's also very stubborn. I'll tell ya what, though, once reality finally sets in for good, she's going to be PA's worst nightmare.


*chuckling at the thought*

Rose colored glasses said:

Shelagh is very bright, but she's also very stubborn. I'll tell ya what, though, once reality finally sets in for good, she's going to be PA's worst nightmare...

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and maybe realise she has a lot more friends than she thinks.

"Bashers" do not cause low sales. Low sales cause "bashers."

Ahh poor Shelagh,

Dawn will eventually break over her dark horizon. PA books don't sell because of the bad reputation and busines practices of the publisher and the poor unedited quality of the publishers product.. my own PA book included.

It just takes longer for some than for others. She'll finally get it and realize she's been made a fool of by her publisher. The sad thing is; the longer it takes to realize the scam, the harder it is to admit you've been fooled. In this case, being stubborn is quite the detriment.

aruna said:

I'd love to get to know this notorious Shemp. Any links?

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Go to the TIO board and do a "search this thread" with Shemp as the keyword and you'll get lots of hits. I recommend starting here.

aruna said:

I'd love to get to know this notorious Shemp. Any links?

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That's H* B* M*a*r*c*u*s. Plenty of stuff in this backthread as well as the Overflow and at least one other thread in TIO.

Shemp was never my favorite Stooge.

Just promise you won't call any of the PA Three "Curly", because I love him, and it would sully his good name.

Plus he'd have to do one of his famous 360s in his grave.

Getting way off-topic. Take it outside, folks.