DeePower said:
We have a thousand authors who have not had one book printed. That goes to prove we take the same risk in publishing anything as every other mainstream publisher." huh?
- Status
We have a thousand authors who have not had one book printed. That goes to prove we take the same risk in publishing anything as every other mainstream publisher." huh?
bikrpreacher said:
The publicity surrounding Atlanta Nights and PublishAmerica has not caused the publisher to change anything, Clopper said. "We have nothing to apologize for," he said. "There are people out there who say things about people who enjoy enormous success. We don't call people names. That's not just all of what we're about. We're about honesty and integrity."
WHAT? LOL Yeah, honesty and integrity...we believe you, really, we do.
DeePower said:
Pardon me while I visit the vomitorium. Anyone care to join me?
BTW, if PA had a Publicity Dept., they would be handling the press not Clopper, don't you think?
bikrpreacher said:
Chris,
These are highly emotional and frustrating times; I empathize with your plight. I think it is great that you had the courage to think, and ask, before leaping. Ultimately, you have chosen to take the high road instead of breaking down and fighting cafeteria-style. I'm proud of you.
Actually, it's not a bad idea. Just go on there to promote your book. Just be truthful when you're interviewed about how little your publisher did for you. Be sure to mention royalties, if you know you're due any, and how your publisher failed to pay those promptly despite receiving customer payments before product delivery.
You don't have to denigrate any other books by PA authors. In fact, you can even point out how some of them are actually quite good, but can't find a market for readers because PA won't assist in placing their books into stores anymore than it will yours because of its non-return policy, low retailer discounts, poor editing, high prices, and rotten service.
It wouldn't hurt to also mention how you and others were banned for asking reasonable questions and making suggestions in the PA forum and how some others were banned from PA's forum for carrying on discussions in other forums.
You don't have to denigrate any other books by PA authors. In fact, you can even point out how some of them are actually quite good, but can't find a market for readers because PA won't assist in placing their books into stores anymore than it will yours because of its non-return policy, low retailer discounts, poor editing, high prices, and rotten service.
It wouldn't hurt to also mention how you and others were banned for asking reasonable questions and making suggestions in the PA forum and how some others were banned from PA's forum for carrying on discussions in other forums.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2005
- Messages
- 207
- Reaction score
- 114
- Location
- Schenectady (really)
- Website
- www.sff.net
The timing and dates clearly contradict this assertion -- there was no rejection until after the hoax was announced. Period.
And there were problems in the very first chapter. Didn't they read that?
Right. Name some names. And I'll bet those will be acceptances by a long-established writer handing in a manuscript he had been contracted for (and they'll read those, anyway). No mainstream publisher is going to make an offer to buy a manuscript by an unknown writer (like "Travis Tea") unless they have read the entire thing.
Now wait a minute. Doesn't that mean they have a thousand writers who have signed contracts but their books haven't gone into production yet? Is that what he's trying to say? Or does he mean he has a thousand authors who haven't sold a book because there is no interest for that book--but I thought at least two books had to be printed because author's copies were mandatory.
This guy is as nebulous as the Crab Nova. Can't figure that reasoning. Chris is with Christine on this one!
Tri.................harder, Clopper.
This guy is as nebulous as the Crab Nova. Can't figure that reasoning. Chris is with Christine on this one!
Tri.................harder, Clopper.
When I posted up that internet radio thing...
..re HB, I thought there might be some genuine interest in it. I am going to try to listen if I can. The email link was there because there are legitimate questions that could posed to HB. I am quite sure the questions will be vetted before HB goes on the air, so I have little concern that someone is going to slip something in there that could really embarrass or put him on the spot. I don't want to see HB or anyone put in that situation, but I think it's entirely fair to ask reasonable questions of someone who has put themselves out there as the chief cheerleader for PA. This man has been personally responsible for misleading more than one person, and he should have to answer for it.
Re the Clopper response, PA should seriously look into hiring a professional spokesperson for themselves, Larry is not helping the cause at all...
..re HB, I thought there might be some genuine interest in it. I am going to try to listen if I can. The email link was there because there are legitimate questions that could posed to HB. I am quite sure the questions will be vetted before HB goes on the air, so I have little concern that someone is going to slip something in there that could really embarrass or put him on the spot. I don't want to see HB or anyone put in that situation, but I think it's entirely fair to ask reasonable questions of someone who has put themselves out there as the chief cheerleader for PA. This man has been personally responsible for misleading more than one person, and he should have to answer for it.
Re the Clopper response, PA should seriously look into hiring a professional spokesperson for themselves, Larry is not helping the cause at all...
Last edited:
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2005
- Messages
- 25,582
- Reaction score
- 3,785
- Location
- New Hampshire
- Website
- madhousemanor.wordpress.com
I don't think there's any reason to cause problems or unhappiness for any author. Nor is there any need to turn that radio show into a forum on PA. Let the man have his fun and find his spotlight. Life in general will take its own toll without any help from anyone here.
Meanwhile, poor Larry ... from that Sci Fi Wire article:
"Our model is so totally anathema to a vanity press. ... We have a thousand authors who have not had one book printed. That goes to prove we take the same risk in publishing anything as every other mainstream publisher."
That's like the boss at Caesar's Palace saying "Thousands of people who walk through our doors never put a dime into a slot machine. That proves we aren't a casino."
No, Larry, you and your pal Willem came up with the moderately clever plan of allowing authors to talk themselves into buying their own books. Just like the casinos, you're playing the house percentage. For every author who didn't buy even one copy, someone else bought two hundred copies of their own book, right? Rather than talking about a thousand authors who didn't buy any of their own books, why don't you tell us how many books the average author buys? Then tell us how many books, total, the average title sells.
Here's how we can tell you're a vanity press: No marketing. No editing. No selectivity. Sales are primarily to the author, the author's friends, and the author's family. Book prices are jacked up by the vanity press fee.
Oh, and you detected the Atlanta Nights hoax yourselves? Just a weird coincidence that you failed to withdraw the offer until after it went public, right?
Oh, Larry. It hurts when the truth's against you.
I'd comment more about your obvious unfamiliarity with publishing, but ... why bother?
Meanwhile, poor Larry ... from that Sci Fi Wire article:
"Our model is so totally anathema to a vanity press. ... We have a thousand authors who have not had one book printed. That goes to prove we take the same risk in publishing anything as every other mainstream publisher."
That's like the boss at Caesar's Palace saying "Thousands of people who walk through our doors never put a dime into a slot machine. That proves we aren't a casino."
No, Larry, you and your pal Willem came up with the moderately clever plan of allowing authors to talk themselves into buying their own books. Just like the casinos, you're playing the house percentage. For every author who didn't buy even one copy, someone else bought two hundred copies of their own book, right? Rather than talking about a thousand authors who didn't buy any of their own books, why don't you tell us how many books the average author buys? Then tell us how many books, total, the average title sells.
Here's how we can tell you're a vanity press: No marketing. No editing. No selectivity. Sales are primarily to the author, the author's friends, and the author's family. Book prices are jacked up by the vanity press fee.
Oh, and you detected the Atlanta Nights hoax yourselves? Just a weird coincidence that you failed to withdraw the offer until after it went public, right?
Oh, Larry. It hurts when the truth's against you.
I'd comment more about your obvious unfamiliarity with publishing, but ... why bother?
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire2005/index.php?id=30435
Clopper claims he knew Atlanta Nights was a hoax and rejected it before it went public...
He clearly forgets time stamps on emails prove otherwise...
LOL!
Laura J. Underwood (A Little Bit of Travis Tea--My ATLANTA NIGHTS can poke out your EYE OF ARGON any day!)
DRAGON'S TONGUE forthcoming from Meisha Merlin in the Summer of 2006. Preview a copy at http://www.embiid.net.
Clopper claims he knew Atlanta Nights was a hoax and rejected it before it went public...
He clearly forgets time stamps on emails prove otherwise...
LOL!
Laura J. Underwood (A Little Bit of Travis Tea--My ATLANTA NIGHTS can poke out your EYE OF ARGON any day!)
DRAGON'S TONGUE forthcoming from Meisha Merlin in the Summer of 2006. Preview a copy at http://www.embiid.net.
I'm a newbie to PA. Got my free books, booking coming out in March and I have been fighting PA since day one. I was suckered by PA but it didn't take me long to do the math. I feel sorry for anyone that thinks PA has our best interest at heart. I couldn't find out how much my book would be sold for until it was all said and done. Who is going to pay $19.95 for a 162 page softcover? NOT ME!
Good luck Mr. Lewis....
Good luck Mr. Lewis....
There are main stream publishers who reject books from page one...
Laura J. Underwood (A Little Bit of Travis Tea--My ATLANTA NIGHTS can poke out your EYE OF ARGON any day!)
DRAGON'S TONGUE forthcoming from Meisha Merlin in the Summer of 2006. Preview a copy at http://www.embiid.net.
Laura J. Underwood (A Little Bit of Travis Tea--My ATLANTA NIGHTS can poke out your EYE OF ARGON any day!)
DRAGON'S TONGUE forthcoming from Meisha Merlin in the Summer of 2006. Preview a copy at http://www.embiid.net.
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2005
- Messages
- 6,704
- Reaction score
- 1,315
- Location
- Far from the madding crowd
- Website
- www.victoriastrauss.com
The latter. He admitted it in the Washington Post article--PA has 1,000 authors who've never sold a single book.triceretops said:
That makes PA REAL similar to commercial publishers. Oh yeah.
- Victoria
If we all had dimes for everything...
....that Larry has forgotten, we could all be out in Vegas watching Celine Dion right now!
(I threw that in as a gratuitous plug for your current project, oh great, wise, and highly esteemed leader....)
....that Larry has forgotten, we could all be out in Vegas watching Celine Dion right now!
(I threw that in as a gratuitous plug for your current project, oh great, wise, and highly esteemed leader....)
Aside from all the other comments about this particular remark, how does Larry think this statement is a defense of PA? Admitting that 9% of their authors never get their books printed would make me run away as fast as I could, even I didn't know about the other problems.
Dave, I am a newbie and you will be waiting a long time for PA to listen. Unless of course you ask them a question about how they run PA's operations and then they will listen. (By taking you off the message boards) Do the math Dave, they do not have our best interest at heart!
keltora said:
I really hope that everyone knows what he's saying here. I mean everyone who reads what the man said, I would never believe that publishers wouldn't read something and consider rather it would sell or not before offering a contract to publish. It's maddness that anyone even signs with them now at all, once you realize that they don't edit, oh yeah, I'm the one with three books...but all that aside, I found a slurpee!
I am constantly amazed that Clopper goes on about the over 1000 books that haven't sold a single copy as if that's a good thing. Why not simply say, "Well, yeah, if you don't buy your own books and sell them yourself, we sure ain't gonna do it and here's 1000 books as proof. Those rotten authors refused to pony up so we ended up stuck for two author copies -- the swine." Right...maybe they should say that in the acceptance letters. They'd end up with a lot fewer honked off writers.
gran
edited because I'm old and I can't type sometimes
gran
edited because I'm old and I can't type sometimes
Last edited:
"We have a thousand authors who have not had one book printed."
Uhmmm, has he lost it? How does that make PA look? We ofered contracts for a thousand books and they never sold a copy. How many new authors are going to see this and say.... "Could my book be one of those? Why didn't they sell? It says in the contract that PA will, to the publishers extent, promote and advertise the book. So if those didn't sell a copy do they actually promote their books?"
Larry, you need to think before you speak out loud. It might help you in the long run.
Uhmmm, has he lost it? How does that make PA look? We ofered contracts for a thousand books and they never sold a copy. How many new authors are going to see this and say.... "Could my book be one of those? Why didn't they sell? It says in the contract that PA will, to the publishers extent, promote and advertise the book. So if those didn't sell a copy do they actually promote their books?"
Larry, you need to think before you speak out loud. It might help you in the long run.
Wow, sorry folks, this message board confuses me....I reply to someones comments then no longer see it or I am way off the net somewhere else. Mr. Lewis, wherever you are....good luck with your book but I am going to fight to get my book out of the hands of PA. I didn't spend 20 years researching for this book to have it sit on the shelf of PA for seven years. They no longer have my permission to market my book and I will fight tooth and nail before I let them screw me over. Not on my watch!
And Lo, Chris found a Slurpee! *g*
Yeah, even at first reading, I could see the flaws in his argument.
BTW, did anyone else notice that in that photo of him with the AP article, he is in a Very Clean Room.
I have never seen a Real Editor with a Very Clean Office...
Where are the stacks of manuscripts?
Oh, wait--there are no manuscripts...
So where are the books? (Two points to anyone who identifies the movie that line is from...)
Laura J. Underwood (A Little Bit of Travis Tea--My ATLANTA NIGHTS can poke out your EYE OF ARGON any day!)
DRAGON'S TONGUE forthcoming from Meisha Merlin in the Summer of 2006. Preview a copy at http://www.embiid.net.
Yeah, even at first reading, I could see the flaws in his argument.
BTW, did anyone else notice that in that photo of him with the AP article, he is in a Very Clean Room.
I have never seen a Real Editor with a Very Clean Office...
Where are the stacks of manuscripts?
Oh, wait--there are no manuscripts...
So where are the books? (Two points to anyone who identifies the movie that line is from...)
Laura J. Underwood (A Little Bit of Travis Tea--My ATLANTA NIGHTS can poke out your EYE OF ARGON any day!)
DRAGON'S TONGUE forthcoming from Meisha Merlin in the Summer of 2006. Preview a copy at http://www.embiid.net.
cwgranny said:
I find myself spending way too much time wondering just how long his nose is by now.
Sher2 said:I find myself spending way too much time wondering just how long his nose is by now.
That's am interesting image.
Laura J. Underwood (A Little Bit of Travis Tea--My ATLANTA NIGHTS can poke out your EYE OF ARGON any day!)
DRAGON'S TONGUE forthcoming from Meisha Merlin in the Summer of 2006. Preview a copy at http://www.embiid.net.
- Status