The Newer Never-Ending PublishAmerica / America Star Books Thread

tlblack

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Reality starts to set in when that first royalty check arrives in the mail. Until then anything goes as they think they have been commercially published by a new and up coming publisher with a vision for the future in POD technology.
 

brianm

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Seriously, that's just a question of sending the book to Oprah. Some of her staff will put their hands on it while carrying it to the dumpster.

Exactly. Here's what it says on the Book Club forum.

Nov 21, 2009 7:03 AM
[FONT=&quot]
Please be advised that "The Oprah Winfrey Show" no longer accepts unsolicited packages or fan mail. Due to Harpo Legal Policy, we do not accept unsolicited manuscripts or books. Scripts or manuscripts will not be read, reviewed or returned.


Thank you,
HarpoBear, Oprah.com Community Producer
[/FONT]
 
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ChristineR

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I'm curious, and I AM NOT suggesting that anyone try this at all EVER.

What's to stop someone from opening say 15,000 Yahoo email accounts and sending in 15,000 junk MS (things that are auto created or cut and paste jobs of the same book with the chapters in a different order) under pen names. And taking the 15,000 $1 checks?

Would the computer catch the same physical address being used so many times or something?

PA only does something like 5000 books a year, so they'd notice a four-fold increase in volume, and certainly they'd notice if three-quarters of their new books had the same street addresses. If you used false names and personal information and tried to cash the checks, that would be a problem in itself.

I've also heard that they reject second books if you don't buy any copies of your first book, so they must have some sort of check in place.
 

kaitie

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The only Oprah fantasy I have is exposing PA for who and what they are on national television.

Now THAT would be fantastic!

In fact, I've got a very serious idea going here. They're actually using her to scam their authors now. I'm going to write an email to the show (they have a contact page), and I encourage everyone else here to do so as well, informing them of the scam, what PA is, and how they're now using Oprah as a way to bilk even more money out of their unsuspecting customers. She must get thousands of emails a day, but if there are enough of us writing about this, maybe someone will notice, and I can't imagine her being okay with a company doing something like this.

Adding link: https://www.oprah.com/plugform.jsp?plugId=220
 
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LexiCan

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now using Oprah as a way to bilk even more money out of their unsuspecting customers. She must get thousands of emails a day, but if there are enough of us writing about this, maybe someone will notice

I was thinking the same thing, Katie. When I received the email from PA yesterday I was wondering if there was any way to let the Oprah production people know about this. Would be so great if she did a show about vanity presses and the various scams they use to bilk the authors out of their money...many who can't afford it, but dream that they will be able to live off the profit of their book. No even just PA but Fletcher and his crowd too.
 

Cyia

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Using Oprah in schemes is nothing new. She's one of the "As seen on" testimonial claims that goes around with that "legal" chain letter scam where you're supposed to mail out hundreds of copies of said scam, but ask the person to go on your "mailing list" or some such.

You're "guaranteed" X amount of dollars (6 figures, IIRC) every 3 months.

Here, you're pretty much guaranteed that while no one at Harpo has to pay to order or receive your books, they'll still never see them.
 

DaveKuzminski

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When you send the email, give it a subject title that catches their attention such as Reporting Scam Using Oprah's Name.

Attention Legal Dept. might also get through.
 
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PVish

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I was thinking the same thing, Katie. When I received the email from PA yesterday I was wondering if there was any way to let the Oprah production people know about this. Would be so great if she did a show about vanity presses and the various scams they use to bilk the authors out of their money...many who can't afford it, but dream that they will be able to live off the profit of their book. No even just PA but Fletcher and his crowd too.

Perhaps the best way would be for those receiving the e-mail to alert LOCAL media—maybe the local CBS affiliate—about PA's offer to get your books to Oprah. If a reporter interviews you, ask the reporter how it is possible for Oprah to get your book this way because Oprah's policy is not to accept unsolicited books.

Also, if this PA e-mail is posted on blogs and other social media, it could get spread around quickly.
 

LexiCan

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I can't believe that there is NO chatter going on over at the PAMB about this (unless it's all on the private board), too bad we can no longer access their Twitter feed. Would be interesting to see what pops up there about this ridiculous Oprah scam.
 

Cyia

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PA hasn't tweeted since they realized that they couldn't control it like they can PAMB. They can't delete their entries there.

(Sept. 22 was their last Tweet - they never blocked my Twitter account.)
 
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Colts442

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Well, its official. I opened my e-mail this morning and there was the e-mail about Oprah. I guess I spoke too soon last night. LOL! I can't remember but, did anyone post this e-mail on here for everyone to read? If not, let me know and I will. If it helps any, and I can remember how to log in, I can still get into the PAMB. As far as I know, I'm still in good standing with them, at this time at least, LOL. I'll see what I can find.
 

LexiCan

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I can't remember but, did anyone post this e-mail on here for everyone to read?

Yep, I posted the whole thing yesterday at 3:46.
 

Colts442

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Ok, I wasn't for sure. It's hard to keep up with everything on here. There's so much to read! LOL. And all of it good. I was able to get into their message board. I'm reading through some of them now, in the private ones.

If anyone can think of something spacific to look for, let me know.

I found one from a lady back in March saying that no one would answer her e-mails and how her manuscript had all of these errors in it. PA posted back that it had been seen by the right person.
 
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Colts442

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I found another one about books not being in book stores. I am so glad I found AW! The stuff this guy is spinning and the reasons the books are not being sold in books stores is unbeleiveable. I want to post the real reason so badly! I know if I do though, PA will just lock me out. This is horrible!

I don't know if it will help though, it's from 2004. It makes you want to find a way to get ahold of these people and ask them how their PA experience has been. What their doing now.
 
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Colts442

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I just posted on their message board asking about what was going on with the free author copies. It seems that if you want a quicker response to something, this is the way to go about it. They have an infocenter watch dog that moniters everthing being said. Now I just have to watch it and see how fast they respond. This should be interesting, LOL!
 

Cyia

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Careful, Colts. Baiting the Infocenter is the quickest way to the cornfield and/or bannination. And since they monitor THIS board, too - you've most likely just outed yourself as a dissenter.
 

Colts442

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Well, it was worth a try. I'm willing to take the chance. I do have a contract through them, I just want some answers, right?
 

Colts442

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Actually, I just got a reply back already. This is so funny! I want to post the reply but I'm afraid that if I do, I won't get my copy!

You know, come to think of it, it's really sad that we have to be afraid of what we say. Being in this situation really sucks! :( I wished I hadn't been so gullible.
 
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BenPanced

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Well, Oprah had better hurry and reply to all of those PA emails, considering her show's going off in 2011!

</sarcasm>
 

Don Davidson

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Writing Oprah

I'm going to write an email to the show (they have a contact page), and I encourage everyone else here to do so as well, informing them of the scam, what PA is, and how they're now using Oprah as a way to bilk even more money out of their unsuspecting customers.
Thanks for the link. I have sent Oprah a message about PA.
 

entropic island

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Oh...wow...This is a little late, but a long, long, loooong time ago I submitted my ms to PA and they offered me a contract. I found this site, and ignored them. They just now sent me an email that "I have been assigned an editor"...can they do that without a signed contract?