The Old Neverending PublishAmerica Thread (Publish America)

Re: LOL

I'm betting the "contact" was NYT's reply to a request to buy advertising space. :b

Anyway...do we have this logospeak logged yet?
-----
shadowfax

7/23/2004
17:43:26
Subject: royalties and reports information

Message:
We have posted this email from Publish
America's helpful staff member, Jessica, in
case any writers here are wondering the
same thing we were...

"The sales report we send out is sent with the
royalty check. As per paragraph 12 of your
contract, royalty checks and statements are
issued in February and August. The February
statement will reflect sales from August
1 to January 31, and the August statement
reflects sales from February 1 to July 31.

You will not receive royalties on any
purchases that you make yourself, as
stated in paragraph 5 of your contract, unless
we are running a special that explicitly states
otherwise.

Also, the statements will only show sales from
that royalty period for which we have been
paid. Some retailers and distributors have a
grace period of 30, 60, or even 90 days. Any
sales not shown on one statement
should certainly be included on the next.

Royalties are calculated from the sold price of
the book, or the price that PublishAmerica is
paid. For example, if a customer buys your
book from our website for $16.95, you will
receive your percentage of that amount. If
Amazon purchases that same book from us at
a 40% discount off of the retail price ($11.97)
and sells that book for $19.95, you will receive
royalties from $11.97."


We wish to publicly thank Jessica, for
continually being such a great help!

Lillian & Dave
ISBN#141372581X
www.sunshinecable.com/~drumit
-----

Shades of Bly

Do y'all suppose it's the right New York Times? Maybe there's a New York Times in New York, Iowa (or someplace similar).

- Victoria

Re: NYT?

I thought it was the New Yankee Tribune

doing da math...

from the horse's mouth:

"Royalties are calculated from the sold price of
the book, or the price that PublishAmerica is
paid. For example, if a customer buys your
book from our website for $16.95, you will
receive your percentage of that amount. If
Amazon purchases that same book from us at
a 40% discount off of the retail price ($11.97)
and sells that book for $19.95, you will receive
royalties from $11.97."

meaning, folks - you get 8% of $11.97 per book.

That's 95 CENTS a book.

and if they buy them off of the PA booksite?

8% of $16.95 = $2.11 per book. Of course, usually a book on the PA website is discounted from $19.95 down to $16.95 so that you feel you're getting a deal. Meanwhile, you're trying to flog books at $19.95 out of the back of your car. You've probably bought them at a 40% discount from PA in order to get the maximum discount which means that you've bought forty or so books for $15.96 each. Plus shipping, of course, since PA doesn't give that away for free. Gee, might as well just pay the $16.95 off the PA website and get royalties on that, since author purchases are invalid for royalty purposes.

So now you've got 40 books and spent $638.40 on. And if you sell each and every one of them at the $19.95 price (hard to do, since PA overprices them to start with) you'll recoup $160 profit. Phew. And that's going to have to pay for your bookmarks, gas, flyers, publicist...

and if a bookstore purchases ten or twenty? At less than a buck a book you ain't gonna be retiring anytime soon, folks. In fact, with those numbers you won't be retiring at all on your writing.

'nuff said.

Re: LOL

<I can't wait to see how this works out. Is it going to be another Bly fiasco or what?>

Good question, Kevin. I fail to see any possible way in which PA & the NYT could "partner."

The remainder of The Big Announcement e-mail read as follows:

Since this calls for celebration, and it's almost August, royalty
month, we've put together a special offer that includes royalties.

Authors who choose to buy copies of their own book will receive a
special discount, PLUS we will pay royalties on those books. Since
all royalty checks will go out by the end of next month, the rewards
will come in quickly. Our offer breaks down as follows:

50-100 copies: 40 pct discount + royalties
101-150 copies: 45 pct discount +royalties
151-200 copies: 50 pct discount + royalties
201 or more copies: 55 pct discount + royalties

Full-color children's books are excluded. The offer expires July 30.
Please call us at 301-695-1707.


IMO, it's nothing in the world but (another) sales pitch.

Re: RE:15 per day?

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Lynn and Kevin,

What was Meiners girlfriend's name? Was it Lynn Comer - the infamous letter writer and hit woman??? Now THAT would be a team! LOL!<hr></blockquote>
No, Nancy, Lynn is married, but to someone else. She's a no-nonsense young woman who doesn't take guff from anyone. I don't mean that in a bad way. She looks like she's 12 (Lynn Comer) but she's actually in her 30's and really tore the young ones around.

No, Meiner's girlfriend was the same nationality as he.

Re: LOL

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>I fail to see any possible way in which PA & the NYT could "partner."<hr></blockquote>
I'm with you on this one. How does a publisher contract a partnership with a newspaper? I mean, our little company is fortunate to be meeting with Sam Tannenhaus, the new Book Review Editor at the NYT in August, but I'm hanged if I understand how or why a newspaper would contract anything with a publisher. Makes no sense. My 'ignernce' must be showing...best go have it hemmed. <img border=0 src="http://www.absolutewrite.com/images/EmoteShrug.gif" />

Re: Hmmmmm

To do an expose on themselves for the NYT?

Re: LOL

I'm betting the "contact" was NYT's reply to a request to buy advertising space.

Click to expand...

I'm willing to put a fiver on the table that it does have something to do with advertising. NYT has a very aggressive marketing team who do a whole lot of prospecting. PA makes a lot of money. It was inevitable they'd meet. NYT is also one of the most, if not the most, expensive newspapers in the world to advertise in.

I suspect the catch will be something like "Sell 700 books and we'll put a picture of your book in our 1/4 page ad."

NYT

I would say the partnership is more along the lines of PA getting a cut out of filling a weekly or montly page in the paper where PA sells it's authors what amounts to advertising space in the NYT, NYT considers it a full page ad, and the paper and PA both make money off of author's trying to get the word out about their book and being willing to spend their money for what the publisher should be doing.

Re: RE:15 per day?

As if that will ever happen more than once. If PA operates true to form, they'll do it once for one author and then use that as a carrot for all the other authors who will then struggle to make those sales only to have the bar raised as soon as any approach it.

I noticed in the PA letter excerpt that someone posted that PA is claiming now that they'll give royalties on discounted sales to authors. Obviously, the refusal by many authors to purchase their own books is having an effect.

Hmmmm

As I knew would happen, the stepford authors are all thinking now that PA is going to get them reviewed by the NYT Bestsellers list. The little blurb about the NYT being the host to the NYT BSL got them. It was good wording on PA's part. Now what will happen? All the authors will tell their friends this and they will rush to PA with their books. We will not hear anything for awhile and after an influx of new writers PA will come out and say....

"The partnership is going to be an ad for new writers to come to PA."

or

"The partnership will be an ad for people to read our new release page."

This, alone, would be enough to cover their asses for not promoting our books. It won't help with old authors, but will keep their butts out of trouble with the newbies.

Kevin

Re: LOL

Sadly, I can foresee this turning into something worse. It's not beyond reason that a newspaper might agree to do a review in exchange for a publisher taking out an ad.

On the bright side, someone at PA will have to read the books first in order to find one that won't embarrass them in a review so that they can obtain a fresh influx of writers as a result. Of course, they'll have to create a new letter template to email to their authors that explains why some of them have not been selected for reviewing.

Do any of ya think that HB even stands a chance of being selected?

I don't even think PA would let....

...HB hold the door at the entrance of the Times for the potential PA book reviewer to enter the building. Imagine if they actually reviewed HB and he didn't like the review - he'd probably call the editor and challenge him/her to fight, or duel with swords or something. Wouldn't that build PA's reputation in the literary world?

Seems to me the PAvidians should be careful about getting all excited about this New York Times thing. A few weeks ago they were all hyped up over a well known, nationally published author coming into their midsts, and we all see how that worked out. Personally, I'd bet a dime to a thousand bucks that this "partnership" will benefit PA, but wanna bet on how much it's gonna benefit their authors?

PA and NYT

If, and I mean IF, it just happens to be a partnership for reviews PA will probably make it like their IB imprint. "If you sale 600 books then we will send your book to the NYT for a review, but your story has to be about a person overcoming incredible odds." Or somethig along that line. This way PA could be selective in who they send in for reviews.

I don't see anything good coming out of this for PA's authors. Only PA itself. This is just a push to make their authors think they are doing something for them. After all, when did PA do anything for its authors? Publishing the book wasn't one, in the end they get the most money.

Kevin

Re: PA and NYT

<If, and I mean IF, it just happens to be a partnership for reviews PA will probably make it like their IB imprint. "If you sale 600 books then we will send your book to the NYT for a review, but your story has to be about a person overcoming incredible odds." Or somethig along that line. This way PA could be selective in who they send in for reviews. >


I have my doubts whether this so-called partnership has any benefit to PA's writers at all. It's possible it's something along the lines of what you described above, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that all it is, is some kind of advertising advantageous to PA. Certainly, there's nothing in the (online) NYT Books section yet. There is, however, an ad for "poetryamerica.com." I've never heard of it, and their site doesn't give any information about who or where they are. Anybody ever heard of it?

Poetryamerica.com

Here's what their web site says about them:

Who we are:

The American Poets Society has one mission...to discover extra-ordinary poetic talent in ordinary people. We are here to give ordinary people like you the opportunity to have their poems published. Not all who write poetry can be published or attain recognition through the general media. In the United States of America we believe in the freedom of speech. At the American Poets Society, we too believe that everyone has the right to freedom of speech; that everyone deserves the chance to have their poem considered for publication. If your poem is published, you have the same chance of attaining the same recognition that the famous writers achieve. APS gives you this opportunity. Who knows, you may even be good enough to join our poetry society. All you need is the confidence in yourself and..a poem.

Our Future Plans:

We are proud to say that we have recieved more than 75,000 poems since we started 2 1/2 years ago! We are working right now on redesigning our web site to make it a portal for amatuer poets all around the world. In addition to our free online amatuer poetry contests, we currently provide many inspiring and enjoyable poems for your reading pleasure. We will be posting more and more as time goes on.

Resources:

Check out our poetry tips page for an extensive list of ideas to get your mind into gear for writing great poetry.

We are working hard to bring you links to many other poetry resources, so stay tuned...

Our Sponsors:

Please patronize our sponsors. They wil be a major part of helping us grow and continue to provide you with the greatest anthologies and poetry resources that are available. Thank you.


© 2004 American Poets Society


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

I don't know about you, but I get bad vibes from this. For one thing, they REQUIRE a valid mailing address in order to tell you by US mail you won... an online contest?? Huh??? (Only open to US suckers - err, poets, by the way.)

What are the chances that they really want your address so that they can mail you stuff? Like a notice that your poem was SO WONDERFUL that they want to publish it in a book that you can (surprise!) order a copy of, at ___________?

And their web site encourages you to partronize their sponsors - which I could find no trace of. Not one.

And I read several of the poems they say won their "poem of the day" contest, as well as other random ones they have posted as great examples oof what they think is good poetry. Ummmm. They were pretty bad. I'm no prize-winner in poetry, granted, although I have been published a few times, but I've read hundreds of poems by acknowledged poets like Frost, Wordsworth, Arnold Adoff, Nikki Grimes, and James Wendell Johnson, and these - aren't even close. By about a million years.

Sadly, it smells to me like yet another incarnation of the famous poetry scam that has fooled and embarassed so many people over the years.

Re: doing da math...

just a fyi - they offered the same promotion last year where if you purchased a lot of your own books, you would receive royalties on that purchase.



so it's not exactly a sign of them going belly-up...

double

Poetryamerica.com

<I don't know about you, but I get bad vibes from this. For one thing, they REQUIRE a valid mailing address in order to tell you by US mail you won... an online contest?? Huh??? (Only open to US suckers - err, poets, by the way.)>


Yes, and I noted that they provided NO information about how to contact THEM.

I saw no "sponsors" to patronize, either.

Re: doing da math...

<just a fyi - they offered the same promotion last year where if you purchased a lot of your own books, you would receive royalties on that purchase.>


And the drones are eating it up like it was the Gospel. All the talk about taking the windfall royalty checks and investing in more copies of their own books is just sickening to me. I mean, for heaven's sake, do you see Sue Grafton or Harlan Coben or Dennis Lehane running around robbing Peter to pay Paul in order to finance buying THEIR OWN books?!

Re: doing da math...

Ah, thanks, FM, for that information about a previous discount with royalties. I didn't know about that one. Then again, I've never been on their mailing list. Well, that is, not that kind of mailing list.

Re: Hmmmmm

well, I'm off theirs since I didn't receive the Grand Offer.

sob, sob.

however, I DO think that some of us are getting through to the masses - the PA announcement thread about NYT is seeded with plenty of skeptical posts from people demanding more information as well as being somewhat dubious about attaching this "sale" to the bottom of it.

slowly but surely folks... the truth shall set you free.

Re: Hmmmmm

I noticed that too, FM, and the skepticism is not just from the usual sources. Which of course begs the question as to when it will reach critical mass and the logo will reply and/or pull the posts.…

Re: Hmmmmm

But by and large the NYT discussion is an amazing lesson in the power of desire. How else would you interpret "working with The New York Times to bring a new era of marketing services to our authors" to mean "PA has persuaded the NY Times to review its books"? It's sad, really.

I wonder how many of these folks have ever seen the NYT Book Review.

- Victoria

Re: Hmmmmm

Speaking of which: www.publishamerica.com/cg...e/5115.htm
-----
Rita

7/24/2004
16:57:00
Subject: How Books Make it to the NY Times bestsellers list

Message:

Here is an interesting article online at MidWest Book Review. The article is how books make it to the NY Times bestsellers list, written by Dan Poynter of Para Publishing. It is really an eye-opener.

www.midwestbookreview.com...stlist.htm

Rita
-----
marti2003

7/24/2004
18:43:14

Message:

Great article! Thanks. I guess that lets us out then since our books are not in bookstore chains. Oh well.
-----
Joyce Ann

7/24/2004
19:00:38
Message:

I don't think PA would sign anything that would not
benefit them and their authors. Bottom line--they're in a
business to make money. We need to hear from them
just what this means, and we don't know this yet.

Maybe it will benefit us; maybe some policies will
change, e.g. the return policy, etc. I don't think this is
the end--just the beginning.

I can't help but think they are well aware of our
problems in getting our books into bookstores.

Just my opinion.

Joyce Ann
thelisteningtree.net
-----
Heh.