The Old Neverending PublishAmerica Thread (Publish America)

They obviously have experience hiring rent-a-cops. I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure real cops have to show their badges when asked, especially when they're not in uniform.

James D. Macdonald said:

I have a question: How did anyone get any police department interested in "literary fraud" in the first place?

Click to expand...

Around here, it's hard to get the cops to come out for a burglary. Now I know the trick. Next time I see an accident, I'll dial 911 and yell "Literary fraud in progress at Sixth and Pine!"

Fake cop?

I know a little bit about law enforcement. A city police officer would not likely be dispatched to a residence for such a complaint. Dispatch would refer the complaint to the appropriet agency, or some other. Cops show up in color (uniform), present full I.D. with picture and Badge (immedietlly), arrive via a marked unit, so on, so on. No plain-clothes detective or inspector would be likely dispatched.

However, you can retain a Private Investagator for about a $500.00 minimum charge to go out and do just about anything because they are not bound by oath and are not sworn Peace Officers. I've done that myself. Now if this person identified himself as a law enforcement official, but did not show I.D. and was infact a private citizen, he's guilty of impersonating a law enforcement (under color) officer. Real bad rap.

Just a guess, think you got a P.I. there.

Triceratops

DaveKuzminski said:

I must admit, I'm curious about at what point it would be valid to call a business a scam.

Click to expand...

The problem is that "scam" is not a legal term. And some scams can be legal: for instance, the display site. You pay them to display your work and that's what they do. Lots of fee-charging agents stay within the law by sending out your work. But both practices are a scam because, though they do what they are paid to do, their clients do not get any value from that payment.

Funny you should say that Tri

My husband, who was cop for 13 years, had the same hunch.

Chacounne

Heck, if you took out the ellipses and dashes from any Barbara Cartland novel, you'd end up with a book half the size. I read one in the 1980s just to say I had read one. I've since learned her earlier ones were much better, before she became a "formula machine." I wish her novels had been as interesting as she was.

I used to just worry that the Barbara Cartland heroines were terribly asthmatic.

I only read about three of her novels, because the dopey heroines bugged the hell out of me.

...................

"Atlanta Nights" is now listed on Amazon...

....and the link be right here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1411622987/qid=1108527681/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/002-5128368-6868051?v=glance&s=books

Does this mean I'm like an investigative reporter now?

If this entire -- and apparently endless -- thread was to be saved off to file (removing the wacky headings perhaps), and then given some form of massage (say changing the name details or such into ' name said, " '... so that it appeared to be a lot of dialogue.. (and some additional narrative and description)

would it be publishable by PA?

Hey Marty, pleasure having you here...

...with us. To best answer your question, my suggestion is to either purchase or download a copy of "Atlanta Nights." It's for sale on lulu.com, and there are also free downloadable copies on the internet. I think you'll find, once you look at a chapter or two, that PA would publish just about anything, as they offered a contract for this book. Remember - PA isn't into publishing books for readers, they are into printing overpriced books for authors to shill off on their family and friends.

Speaking of Atlanta Nights...

That which is not spoken of has fallen to third place on a search for publishamerica, but it has fallen behind something about Atlanta Nights.

It has also risen to second place on a search for Publish America (no quotes), which is good since that's what most people probably search for anyway.

You could just run it through gizoogle.com first.

http://sites.gizoogle.com/?url=http://absolutewrite.com/

I'm not a professional editor but...

Ed Williams said:

-snip-

And direct off the PA "About Us" page:

Among their list of titles there are many genuine gems of high literary quality, which has been recognized by professional reviewers in literally thousands of reviews.

Click to expand...

-snip-

Click to expand...

Isn't this grammatically incorrect?

Kevin Yarbrough said:

Hi Chris. I'm not new to this board, just been off for a long time because of a move and no internet hook up. You can add me to your list of unhappy authors. Nice to see Renee, Singer and a few other people from PA I knew over here....missed you guys/gals.

Now, Atlanta Nights may have proved that PA is a vanity publisher but I just want you guys to remember I did the same thing...only I had the police come and pay me a visit and a bogus fraud charge placed on me.

Glad to be back...missed the boards.

Kevin

Click to expand...

Hey, it's nice to see ya again! I didn't realize that it was you who set the trend. Terrific job! I can't believe they showed up at your house. I missed the part as to how they realized your MS was *ahem* not up to PA's standards. Oh, I almost choked myself typing that. Who had to tell them? I'm sure they didn't actually read it themselves.
I stayed away from all the boards for a long time. Just found this place. It's really nice to see a lot of familiar names. Glad we all came to the same realization about that place. Oh and I want to say hi to Diana! I didn't know you well, but recognize your name from the old boards. Kevin, I didn't know you well either, but feel as if we all have been through some drama together. I didn't speak out much there, but they'll tell you that I don't shut up here.


Dawno- I believe it is grammatically incorrect. Perhaps PA's editors edited or didn't edit it or......

XNav: Gizoogle cracked me up. Thanks!

KEVIN!



For so long, I've wanted to contact you. When you were on our old boards, I didn't know what you had gone through with the (probably-not-a-real) cop, and I always wanted to apologize for not realizing that's what was happening with you. So glad to have you back. You're an inspiration. You're like the guy in Old School whose picture hangs on our wall.

I see I'm going to have to stop confusing people and go back to using my own pic as an avatar. Bye, Anya... I'll miss you and your bunny ears.

Otherstuff and the real HB

Kevin, Great to see you here!

Renee, You too!

Lynn, My pretzels were not stale...

To Everyone associated with Atlanta Nights, congratulations!

Jenna, Your real pic is better than the Anya one anyway. BTW, I do like this board better...to me it looks friendlier...

HB has been a frequent subject of this board. I am one of the handful of of people here who have actually met him. He is vastly different in person than he is on the internet. I got a fair dose of the real HB last year at the PA Convention. You may be surprised to learn that the man appears painfully shy in person. I attended the last part of his "comedy workshop" and from the back of the room he was barely audible with a microphone. He mumbled uncomfortably. I thought, okay, the guy isn't any good at public speaking. Later, he bought Kevin and I drinks at the tiny hotel bar. Though he did put his arm around me and mugged for a photo, most of the time he was very nervous and akward. I don't think he knew of my defection from PA at that time, so I felt like I was getting the real HB. In real life he is not a loud mouth cult leader (he looked as miserable at the PA banquet as everybody else did). Later, at the booksigning, he was more comfortable with his wife (who was very nice) and his daughter (who was adorable), sitting next to Lynn Barry. He seemed to lose his confidence when people stopped at his table and looked at his books. Howard is not the guy he likes to pretend to be from the safety of the internet. I thought that since he is an oft talked about subject here, you may be interested in what the real Howard B. is like.

He did, however, write something obscene in the copy of his book he gave me.

Diana

Renee, you good lookin' thing...

...they're askin' about ya over on the PA boards...note the below:

Message:
Where are:

The Herndons
Roger Harrington
Amo
Cheryl Gray
Melody
Renee

Anyone seeing or hearing from the above please post information...A prize of my book The Jade Chalice goes to the best information "whereabouts" and "whatsup with them" post...You may also add your own missing persons list here...No prize for information on your listing...hand out your own book!!...Sky

Click to expand...

Le thread is right here: http://www.publishamerica.com/cgi-bin/pamessageboard/data/lounge/7817.htm

**Dawno - surely you jest re PA posting something ungermattical on their website, clearly everything on that website is designed to resonate with prospective authors - don't use that tone on this board again!

**Amo - if you're out there, you are welcome here, along with any other PA authors who have simply had enough.

**From the "About Us" page, do y'all think that Moe-randa, Larry, and Curlem think that being traditionally published is impossible?

They figured that, if they did it right, they could over time maybe serve as many as a thousand new authors who, without them, would have no serious shot at getting their books published the traditional way

Click to expand...

**Uncle Jim, didn't know if you'd seen this from "Infocenter":

CIP numbers have never been necessary for libraries to stock books. We have seen this suggested before, but it is a very unusual rumour, and PublishAmerica easily proves the opposite.

What is necessary is for publishers to have accounts with the book wholesaler that libraries use.

PublishAmerica deals directly with the most common wholesaler that libraries use. PublishAmerica has had an account with this wholesaler since our very first day.

Although libraries typically stock only a small percentage of new books published, PublishAmerica books are ordered by libraries each week, both through wholesalers and directly from PublishAmerica.

Although libraries typically stock very few new books, PublishAmerica is proud to have many hundreds of titles stocked in libraries across the nation, and we have many librarians as our authors.

Click to expand...

The thread: http://www.publishamerica.com/cgi-bin/pamessageboard/data/main/11653.htm

*******And last, but certainly not least, I now seem to be speaking in a foreign tongue on an earlier posting, and I think this warrants a translation. From the party responsible (who I happen to esteem greatly, but she doesn't need to know that). I don't know if I'm doin' good or my post simply didn't resonate with the AW audience!

InfoCenter Gets It Wrong -- Again

Ed Williams said:

**Uncle Jim, didn't know if you'd seen this from "Infocenter":


The thread: http://www.publishamerica.com/cgi-bin/pamessageboard/data/main/11653.htm

Click to expand...

Saw it, snickered at it, demolished it. What a crock of hooey.

Kelly S., Sorry, I didn't see your post. Hi right back at 'cha. Were you on the PA board back in my day? Forgive me, it's been awhile...

Diana

Happy Authors

I think the 11,000 number is entirely reasonable. They've got around 8,000 in print right now. At the rate they're releasing them, they hit the 11,000 mark in October.

Has PA put out a letter begging its authors to buy their own books since November? Isn't it about time for another?

bikrpreacher said:

That is so...OUT THERE that PA might send someone who is not a cop to pretend to be one, to scare you...and this was pretty recent then wasn't it, I remember reading the boards during that time but wasn't posting yet. Wow, what a story.

Click to expand...

Isn't impersonating a police officer in order to intimidate someone a felony?

Sheryl Nantus said:

I'd still pursue it, Kev - think of it this way: either PublishAmerica paid a cop to do something illegal (as in, harass a private citizen over a civil matter) or paid someone to impersonate a cop and do the same thing.

Click to expand...

Actually, I know a number of small-town cops. This way this went down, I'm wondering if simply wasn't a case of the cops really not wanting to do anything except say to PublishAnything, "Yeah, we sent a guy over there to take care of it. There's nothing more we can do about it. So stop calling."

If you don't mind me asking, how enthusiastic was the kid and how long did he keep you?

On the other hand, the PI thing makes sense as well. That should be reported.

James D. Macdonald said:

Has PA put out a letter begging its authors to buy their own books since November? Isn't it about time for another?

Click to expand...

I haven't gotten anything, which surprises me since it's time to ante up for royalty checks.

Diana Hignutt said:

Kelly S., Sorry, I didn't see your post. Hi right back at 'cha. Were you on the PA board back in my day? Forgive me, it's been awhile...

Diana

Click to expand...

Yes, I was Ksing. I remember when you were on a talk-show, I think. I don't think it was a radio talk show, but now I'm not sure.