Return of a Man Named PAMB and its Quotes

amergina said:

And the poster was befuddled by that when she came back. So she asked again.

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. . . and receives an answer from another author:

Holy Cow! Yes, You are right. Mine just went up five bucks a copy. Why? I don't know.

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Maybe PA is doing this (1) so the next special will seem even more enticing (2) so when they put the price back to what it originally was they can claim they're lowering prices (3) because they think they can get away with it (4) all of the above.

PVish said:

(3) because they think they can get away with it

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And they probably can, too.

All of the above.

http://bb.publishamerica.com/viewtopic.php?t=32482
EDITING:

I haven't visited PA message boards for a long time, but as a published writer (three novels, numerous magazine stories, and newspaper articles) I would like to offer some advice from my experiences. My first novel (redacted) published with PA, is a mess, with numerous punctuation and grammerical mistakes. The feedback on the story was gratifying, but the mistakes were mentioned often.(example, misuse of "your" instead of "you're" and "yea" instead of "yeah") You need to go through your manuscript very carefully or have someone else, who is proficient do it for you. DON'T RELY on "spell check" or the PA editor assinged to you, he's probably doing four manuscripts a day and he may not be very proficient himself. Editing is your most valuable tool. If your work is full of mistakes, you won't be taken seriously. imo, this is the most common rookie mistake.

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Wonder how long this one's going to last?

A PA loyalist responds:

Excellent advice. This subject comes up quite often on these boards. Careful editing makes everyone involved look better. Anything less will always wind up embarrassing you down the road. Speaking from experience, poor editing is generally seen as laziness and the mark of a novice, and will usually be treated as such. It's very hard to change anything once it's published.

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But still none of them think it's their publisher's job to ensure a quality product?

And another response.

Pa states very plainly to proof your manuscript, and you are given several opportunities to do this, from first submission to final draft. I did, I know I read my manuscript at least six or seven times, from front cover to back. But reading it is not proofing it, and there is a grand difference. The final draft came to me along with my cover, which by the way was perfect. I, thinking I had done my best possible proofing job, almost sent it back. At the last minute, I decided to proof it once again, only this time I didn't just read the manuscript, I critiqued it, slowly and thouroughly. I found 17 errors, in what I thought was a perfect manuscript. PA very politely corrected all of them for me, for which I thanked them profusely. I learned a very valuable lesson. Don't just read your manuscript, critique it.

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Is it me, or is the whole "thank them profusely" atmosphere getting thicker over there? So many of the recent posts seem borderline scared. It's sad

Who wouldn't be scared? They're noticing the deleted threads and posts, I'm sure many feel like they're walking on eggshells every time they post.

Ooooooooooo, topic went *poof*. Wonder why (not really).

PA very politely corrected all of them for me, for which I thanked them profusely.

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How do you correct an error politely? "I'm so very sorry, Monsieur Typo, but I'm going to have to move that apostrophe a bit to the left ... there we are, sorry for the inconvenience."

I tend to become more and more childish and irritable the longer we work on the same manuscript, so I might not be the best example either, but I can't imagine actually thanking my publisher for correcting errors I found in the manuscript before publication.

"Anyone else getting leg humped by PublishAmerica??" so ain't gonna last.

A newbie asks:

I`ve been solicited about 50 times in the last month to buy my own book. I took advantage of one discounted lot of books and the shipping costs were outrageous. It ended up being $96 for 24 books to ship. What a joke. Anyone else having issues??

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and another newbie replies:

I think there are a ton of problems lately. Obviously with 2-3 offers a day to buy our own books while PA can't get our books available from on line sites there are issues. I just received an "offer" to make my book available on Amazon if I buy a certain amount! PA should be doing these things as our publisher not because we buy a certain amount of our own titles. How many months has it been that our titles were actually available on any site other than PA's? There is more to being a "traditional publisher" than simply having a book printed. I know I am responsible for much of the leg work but so far PA has not lived up to their responsibilities towards their authors. If PA was honest they would do all they could to get our books out there to be sold and not try to sell them only to their authors. I did not renew my contract for my first book and I have requested a termination of the contract for my second but have been ignored. I have been with PA since 2002 and they have only gotten worse over time. I can no longer defend them. I know this with be deleted and I will be banned which is their typical reaction to criticism.

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and another replies:

I too have submitted a request to terminate my contact with PA but have been ignored. I'm going to continue moving foward toward that objective by other means if needed. It would be nice to hear something from PA other than their bombardment of "deals."

When I signed, my book was made available to Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and the like. Now it hasn't been for some time. I can have the book at Amazon, just as long as I buy a few more copies of it. Wow. Next week my book we'll be made available again at BN.com, just as long as I buy a few more copies myself.

I'm not buying my own books again.

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They're seeing the light. . .

Edited to add this post from the first newbie:

I hear all the good compliments about this company but I want to share my experience. Since waiting for my book to release, I e-mailed the company about my list of contacts. Not one person on my list got e-mailed. I had to forward my own e-mails and never did I get a response back from PublishAmerica. I have since been hounded to buy my own book approx: 50 times in the past month. I get about 3 e-mails a day on the average and most of them don`t accept hard covers and full color. The shipping costs were outrageous. My phone calls wouldn`t be returned within 48 hours as stated on the voicemail. My proofs were messed up and little typos popped up mysteriously. Cut and paste clip art was offered and the quality was less than desirable. I mean...come on. Anyone else having issues??

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The above newbie also posted this under the heading "We want your book, not your money"...YEAH RIGHT!!:

Since being a new published author, I have received nothing but solicitations to buy my own book. Outrageous shipping charges followed. I get 2-3 e-mails a day with new offers and most do not accept hardcovers or full colored books. I get e-mails like "if you want your book on Amazon.com you`ll have to buy some copies of your own book". This is all the marketing we get? Seems as though authors buy their own books and that is how this company is able to survive. Talk about false advertising. Their catchy slogan is nothing more than a misguided lie. It should state "we want every penny we can get from our authors". Anyone else getting bombarded to buy their own books??

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Still there as of 5:30pm Pacific time. Shocking!

One of those replies was from a loyalist and the other from someone who's been with PA since 2002. Camel's back, you have just met the last straw.

One author's out-of-stock book is priced at $29.95 and another author's two books are not available through Amazon at all. Finally, it looks as though the author who started the three threads has a children's picture book which came out in April, is priced at $24.95 and doesn't even have a cover image on Amazon - where of course it's not available.

But there'll always be a loyalist struggling to do damage control.

For what it’s worth, my book was published by PA in August of 2004. Like many, I read and understood my contract before signing. Publish America did a fantastic job with publishing the book, and have fulfilled the contract to a ‘T’.

Since then, I’ve done extensive research on other publishing companies and successful authors. Perhaps I had visions of grandeur in thinking that all that was required was to write a great, marketable book and the publisher did the rest. How wrong I was. You won’t find a better deal from any publisher.

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If this is the case, why are King and Rowling and Meyer with other companies? Why aren't bestselling authors hurrying to sign up with PA?

Every successful author today does the legwork through marketing, public appearances and advertising in various ways.

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The difference is that other publishers pay for the advertising, handle the marketing and get the books distributed.

Even the ones that are tremendously successful, while they enjoy great success because of their name, it’s constantly being in the public eye that keeps fueling their success.

Don’t be discouraged. Believe in your writing, write to the best of your ability. Also, step out of your comfort zone, learn to market, be persistent in setting up book signings and speaking engagements. Do whatever it takes.

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Nice try. I don't think the rest of the crowd are really buying it at this point.

a PAMB Loyalist said:

Do whatever it takes.

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Well, I don't think the loyalist mean quite this, but the PA authors who're working to get their books out of the clutches of PA are making a start. Learning how real publishing works should help, too. Glad to see some PA authors starting to question the party line. Yep, they are the ones starting to do what it's going to take.

You won’t find a better deal from any publisher.

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Um, I did. The very small publisher who published my last book (and who has a distributor, so when I went to Saturday's book-signing, my books were already on the table waiting for me) gave me a box of books and several thousand bookmarks, sent 500 cards to various bookstores and other venues, gave me a royalty check that is much better than the average PA check (and pays a better royalty than PA), gave me a poster and stand, etc. And I didn't have to pay one penny to be published.

Those posts are still there, which is a shock. I wonder if there's a shortage of staff playing Infocenter lately. No one's watching the message board. It certainly seems like the veneer is cracking faster than they can patch the holes.

All three threads were just deleted.

All gone now. Except the in defense of our publisher thread.

Since then, I’ve done extensive research on other publishing companies and successful authors. Perhaps I had visions of grandeur in thinking that all that was required was to write a great, marketable book and the publisher did the rest. How wrong I was. You won’t find a better deal from any publisher. Every successful author today does the legwork through marketing, public appearances and advertising in various ways. Even the ones that are tremendously successful, while they enjoy great success because of their name, it’s constantly being in the public eye that keeps fueling their success.

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If he had extensively researched just a weeee bit more he would have found out that many if not most of these author with "other" publishers are promoting their books not exclusively on their own dime. Their publishers foot, if not all, part of the bill. Certainly he doesn't think for a second the mega authors with the mega publishers PAY their own plane fare, their own hotel accomidation during a book tour.
Then there are the paid readings and author visits at schools and libraries, where these "other" authors pick up a cheque at the end of the day, not pack up and lug home boxes of books they have had to put on their MasterCard and worry about how to pay for at the end of the month. (oops, wrong, the MasterCard bill was obviously due months BEFORE the books finally arrived... guess the worry is how to pay off the bill AND the interest)

Even the ones that are tremendously successful, while they enjoy great success because of their name, it’s constantly being in the public eye that keeps fueling their success.

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Talk about getting it backwards. I'm fairly certain that successful authors enjoy great success because of their work, which is associated with their names, not the other way around. Sure, we all buy the latest books by our favourite authors; but they became our favourite authors because they wrote books we enjoy, not because we saw a name on a cover and went, 'Ooooo, I must buy that book and every book by that name.'

And, with some notable exceptions, it's their work, not their presence in the public eye, that fuels their success.

You won’t find a better deal from any publisher. Every successful author today does the legwork through marketing, public appearances and advertising in various ways. Even the ones that are tremendously successful, while they enjoy great success because of their name, it’s constantly being in the public eye that keeps fueling their success.

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The thing that this PA author is missing though is that where authors do organise their own events, they do so with the full support of their publisher. An author I know who's published by Bloomsbury does not have to buy copies of his own book to take to the school visits or book store signings that he organises - instead he gets his publisher to supply the stores direct (at no cost to him) and the stores know that they can return unsold stock if they have to. That same author has a tonne of marketing material - bookmarks, posters etc - all of which was paid for and supplied by Bloomsbury's marketing department, not by him.

Another author I know who's published with Harper Collins, has a website for their books that's owned and operated by Harper Collins at no cost to her at all.

I only know one author who was sent on a book tour by her publisher (and as I understand it, they're a rareity these days). However all the costs of the trip were met by the publisher, not by the author.

I do know of a couple of people who were paid to go out to the Frankfurt and Bologna Book Fairs - again, all costs picked up by the publisher.

Somehow, I don't think that PA would do any of that ...

And of course, the biggest thing about those authors and their sales is that their books were available within bookstores and in some cases, the store paid to have the books in the all important 3-for-2 table displays, which helped to increase sales. Another thing that PA would not do for its authors.

MM

Any news on how the book expo in NY went for PA?
How many books did they display?

Don't forget the personal notes to John Grisham and Condoleezza Rice.

I was at an SF convention over the weekend. Virtually every author there was published by a commercial press. Some of the publishers were small presses with no decent distribution. Yet, those authors didn't have to show up with a box of books to flog. Their publishers made sure books were available in the dealer's room.

I attended BEA. PublishAmerica was not my primary concern, but I did go past the booth once, midday Thursday. When I got there, one gentleman was looking at the books on the table. They seemed to have several dozen displayed. He didn't buy any. No one else stopped by there during the five minutes or so I was in that area.

Miranda Prather and a young woman were staffing the booth, standing behind the table. It was a small booth.

I didn't walk up to the table, but stood across the aisle in the opposite stall, eyeing the display, and reading the nametags. When Miranda Prather read my name tag (I was at least 10 or 12 feet away, she had to squint), she seemed unsettled and annoyed. She took out her cellphone and took my picture as I stood there quietly.

Wonder if I'll get a "cease and desist" from old Victor C? Heh, heh.

-Ann C. Crispin
Chair, Writer Beware
www.writerbeware.com

Clearly you were purposely there breathing her personal air from across the room! You owe her an immediate apology!