The Old Neverending PublishAmerica Thread (Publish America)

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Banned-Aide

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I believe the literary group needing assistance and receiving the money was Willie and the Clapper.

BA
 

MadScientistMatt

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AnneMarble said:
I used to work for a company that had scripts about how to answer the phone politely. Maybe PA has scripts of how to answer e-mail rudely.

Or maybe they're using "Author Response Mad Libs."
:Hammer:

I just had a twisted thought: a Random PA Author Support Response Generator! Might make a fun page for a site like PASucks. You just click on a button and it randomly pastes together an assortment of their stock phrases, such as, "Your message is barely coherrant," "Do not address us in such a tone," rants on how many happy authors they have, assorted claims that the complainer is all alone, and, of course, everyone's favorite InfoCenter line, "We are darfing them."

On second thought, if anybody coded such a thing, the Author Insult Team might find it, and start using it to save time writing their own emails.
 

LV Dutton

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I am serously beginning to believe that there isnt anyone at those offices that its just automated. lol. I swear I damed near get the same messages daily. I've asked different questions. I get different answers from the same person. Its either automated or they are not looking before they answer, one told me to wait and then in the next email said not to.

I dont know what's going on over there. But the book has been given up on and I am on to more productive things, planning a wedding, doing my flowers, oh and working on three brand new stories :D see I can keep myself busy
 

aruna

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I have already written an article; I'm going to send it off to the Telegraph, Independent, Guardian and Times today. Even if they don't print it (it's difficult to get in there) they are welcome to take the idea and have their staff write their own story.
 

aruna

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I would not address those letters to the tabloids. It's the intellectuals, book readers and writers, who would be intersted in this story.
Here are some addresses:

The Daily Telegraph:
1 Canada Square,
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5DT
Tel 020 7538 5000

The Guardian
119 Farringdon Road
London
EC1R3ER
tel. 020 7278 2332

The Independent
Independent House
191 Marsh Wall
London
E149RS
Tel 020 70052000

The Times
1 Pennington St
London
E98 1TT
Tel. 020 75385000

And all those papers have a Sunday edition as well, the Guardian's being the Observer.
I don't have their emails, but anyway I think a letter is probably a bit more serious.

And don't forget (they are already interested):
Writers' News and Writing Magazine
1st Floor
Victoria House
143-145 The Headrow
Leeds
LS1 5RL
UK
Submit a story for Members' News
tel: +44 (0)113 200 2929
fax: +44 (0)113 200 2928
 
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aruna

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engrose said:
Anyway their newspapers which people read thats the main thing isn't it? .

No, engrose; the Sun and Mail readers aren't generally people who would be interested in this story, so their editors won't care. We have to target a more intellectual readership, papers with books and reviews sections.
 
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mdin

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aruna

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XThe NavigatorX said:
We should probably roll out the welcome mat for "Twoclots" from the PA board. He is a tad upset about only getting royalties for 8 books when he knows he's sold quite a bit more.

He'll probably be more upset once he tries to deposit a $9.00 check into a UK account. He's made two threads about it, sure to be gone before most of you read this:

http://bb.publishamerica.com/viewtopic.php?t=5732

http://bb.publishamerica.com/viewtopic.php?t=5733

Yes,, they will go soon. Thank goodness for the UK time difference!
Here are the posts:

(twoclots) The cheque arrived yesterday, extremely upsetting. We have known email and personal contact from over 70 people including friends, relatives and colleagues. We have a $60 monthly advert in the UK's largest selling (1,000,000+) magazine and we monitor the sales charts in all the big internet retailers. We are selling books regularly.
Release date 14th March, many books were pre ordered.
Our cheque, $9 and change, 8 book sales??????
We must be very very unlucky if all the other sales fall outside the pick up dates. Even if you allow all the retailers July, June and May still to pay up, it still seems a long way off the mark to me!
I shall wait until the February Cheque to see whats going on, off course that will not include the christmas sales. One could think the timing is designed to keep the money in PA's coffers for as long as possible (good business practice)?
And NO I'm not PA bashing before anyone kicks off on that old chestnut again, just disappointed.
icon_cry.gif


_________________
Steve and his wife Linda are the authors of the humorous travel travel book Two Clots in a Camper'
For lots more travel titbits please visit, www.twoclots.com


and:

Out of curiosity has anyone received a reasonable cheque, for hundreds or even a $1.000 plus???
Is PA's best seller still only a mere 5200 books.
Can Amazon or Barnes & Noble supply authors with quarterly sales figures if requested?
Is there an authority in the states that monitors the industry?
It'll be a long wait until February!
icon_wink.gif

Cheers
Steve
 

aruna

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This guy is getting wise:
TismeselfLeo



Joined: 23 Aug 2005
Posts: 6
Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 8:26 pm Post subject: Anticipation of a big royalty check

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After intensive checking of my book sales ranking throughout the past 2 years on Amazon, and Barnes and Noble the rankings can disillusion you. Example, if you have no ranking on Amazon, go purchase one or two of your books and you will see "as I did your ranking go from the one or two million mark all the way down to 236,000, giving one the impression that they sold hundreds or thousands for that matter, thereby you get excited that you will have a rather large royalty check.

Leo Byrne
The Flats and Paddy's Last Chance
_________________
Life is grand
 

aruna

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Twoclots gets an answer, and the thread is still up, two hours later. That gives UK PA people a good chance at reading it. It's 9.30 am here.

Just curious, wouldn't a more appropriate place for this post be on the private boards, or more directly, to email PA privately? Just my thoughts.
 

engrose

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i have emailed them because i can't post on the board. but i told him how he can check his sales and it wouldn't be long before his posts are removed. its 9.45 am they are still there please excuse any errors feeding the baby while typing.
 

aruna

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engrose said:
i have emailed them because i can't post on the board. but i told him how he can check his sales and it wouldn't be long before his posts are removed. its 9.45 am they are still there please excuse any errors feeding the baby while typing.

Engrose, may I ask how DO you check sales in the UK?

I am also wondering what good our UK campaign will do besides warning aspiring writers (which is an excellent aim in itself). Since PB don't have an office here and don't pay taxes here the Trading Standards or any other govt watchdog can hardly go after them to change their website wording or close them down. Can they complain to the US authorities?

And the thread is still up!
 

Richard

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No, engrose; the Sun and Mail readers aren't generally people who would be interested in this story, so their editors won't care. We have to target a more intellectual readership, papers with books and reviews sections.

And readers who can.

(Yes, yes, very elitist, I know...)
 

engrose

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aruna said:
Engrose, may I ask how DO you check sales in the UK?

I am also wondering what good our UK campaign will do besides warning aspiring writers (which is an excellent aim in itself). Since PB don't have an office here and don't pay taxes here the Trading Standards or any other govt watchdog can hardly go after them to change their website wording or close them down. Can they complain to the US authorities?

And the thread is still up!

No they don't have an office in the UK but they state they do. Thats illigal. Thats like me saying i'm american when i'm not i'm half scottish and half english. Ok its not illigal me saying that but they are advertsing themselves to have offices in the UK thats false advertisment which is illigal. Does that make sense?

We can do the same as everyone else. Phone B&N, Amazon and any other place that has our books up for sale like Ingrams etc and ask for monthly statements to be sent to us of our sales and the price they are retailing at. We have may have to pay for them to do this or the postage i'm not sure. Then we can see when PA are fiddling us. Also as they have to pay for the books before they are ordered PA's 90 day excuse is bogus.

Trading standards can't touch PA over here as far as i'm aware but we could ask them i guess because they are advertising over here as being here. That might be helpful to phone and see what they say. As for telling all the papers. The more people that know about them the word will slowly get out and slowly very slowly the number of people that sign PA's contracts will lessen. Along with that if PA see we mean to stir trouble for them, getting to close to their fire with a bucket of water then they might just release us to keep are mouths shut.
 

Duncan J Macdonald

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Trouble with Time Zones

aruna said:
I can't believe that that thread has been up almost all morning! Are PA sleeping or what? It's now 11 am!
Yes, but that's 6:00 in the morning in Frederick, MD. Poor admin needs his sleep you know.
 

aruna

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Duncan J Macdonald said:
Yes, but that's 6:00 in the morning in Frederick, MD. Poor admin needs his sleep you know.

I know; but on other days they do delete within half an hour, even in the wee hours. They NEVER sleep - and the post is STILL there.
 

AnnaWhite

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aruna said:
I can't believe that that thread has been up almost all morning! Are PA sleeping or what? It's now 11 am!
11am here is only 6am in Maryland, I believe.

I would urge anybody in the UK (whether published by PA/PB or not) to post a complaint about PB at:
[font=&quot]http://www.consumercomplaints.org.uk/

Main things to focus on:
1) Misleading advertising (what wording did you find misleading, how it affected you, how you think it could affect other people).
2) If you are a PB-published author, any unfair or misleading clauses or wording in your contract.

When posting your complaint, I suggest using the address on the PB contracts, ie:
[/font][font=&quot]6 Precedent Drive, Rooksley, Milton Keynes MK13 8PR[/font]
[font=&quot]
It doesn't take long to post a compaint on this site. For any further info, send me a PM.
[/font]
 
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engrose

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ok i have done the following this morning.

I have written to trading standards. I have sent an email to all these news papers. sorry can't tell you all there names they were on the website that some put the link to on this site.
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

My Subject title was: A Story about Publish America/Britannia

Please email them with your story and a simular subject title even if you don't think it would help we won't lose anyhting by sending these emails but we might gain something. Its worth a try you only have to typr up your story once adn then copy past it into all the other emails with the same subject title as your first.

Good luck and let me know when you have done it so we can all see how many peopl ehave sent them. Americas you can send your stories too the more stories they recieve britsih or american the better a chance we have at getting the UK to know what these people are.
 

AnnaWhite

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engrose said:
Good luck and let me know when you have done it so we can all see how many peopl ehave sent them.

Done!

Thanks heaps, Patricia, that was a spectacular job you did there, providing all the email links. It only took a few minutes to send all the emails off!

NB: I just discovered that there are laws in the UK not only against false advertisements, but also against misleading ones. There is also legal protection against unfair or misleading contracts. And this doesn't only cover consumers, but any type of ad which may lead people to part with their money or property under false impressions.

I don't want to post too much information here, since PA reads this thread, but if anybody is in contact with a lawyer, this seems to me to be the appropriate strategy.
 
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engrose

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AnnaWhite said:
Done!

Thanks heaps, Patricia, that was a spectacular job you did there, providing all the email links. It only took a few minutes to send all the emails off!

NB: I just discovered that there are laws in the UK not only against false advertisements, but also against misleading ones. There is also legal protection against unfair or misleading contracts. And this doesn't only cover consumers, but to any type of ad which may lead people to part with their money or property under false impressions.

I don't want to post too much information here, since PA reads this thread, but if anybody is in contact with a lawyer, this seems to me to be the appropriate strategy.

hehe i have been in contact with a lawyer from the beginning she read my contract before i signed it but without knowing what i know now and what she knows now the contract looked pretty standard. but after all this came out she re- read it and she couldn't believe what she was seeing she could see the breech in clause 17 just be reading it becasue they contritict themselves in it. its rather funny and sad all at the same time it was under my nose my lawyer looked at the contract and she missed it until WIlliam contacted me and i started digging then it all became BOLD and in CAPS
 

engrose

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a newpaper reply

Sorry to make a 3rd post but as it was slightly different so i thought i better make a new post rather than tag it on to one of my other's
i have had a reply form one of the newspapers. They have sent it to the news desk. so i'm guessing i sent it to the wrong part and they have forwarded to the right part. or its going to the newsdesk to be printed but i don't think i'm that lucky. But its a start
 

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engrose said:
hehe i have been in contact with a lawyer from the beginning she read my contract before i signed it but without knowing what i know now and what she knows now the contract looked pretty standard.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is why it really matters what kind of lawyer looks over your contract before giving it the green light. Many lawyers and authors assume a contract is a contract is a contract, but publishing contracts are specialized beasties, and your lawyer needs to know both law and publishing to be able to vet them.
 
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