MY latest Email from PA

overfiend

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Dear Author,
What do Olympic gold winner Latasha Colander Clark, Vanilla Fudge musician Bill Pascali, Walker Texas Ranger actress Marcia Miles, Rockabilly Hall of Fame member Ronnie Sando, rock group The Myriad musician John Schofield, founding father of house music Jesse Saunders, five time Emmy Award winner Sid Feders, Broadway actor Ronald Smokey Stevens, Sound of Music celebrity Agatha Von Trapp, Disney animator Glen W. Hill, Pulitzer Prize Winner William Coughlin, and others have in common? They are some of your celebrity peers at PublishAmerica.

There appears to be a trend in writers land lately for achievers who have been famously successful in other ventures to come and join you as a PublishAmerica author. We welcome this trend, and we welcome these authors. They come here because they know that being published by PublishAmerica is the real deal, that it comes with quality exposure, and that they join a true legion of other high achievers such as yourself.

On that note, your February royalty statements are in the process of being finalized. They will be dropped in the mail by Friday. Depending on where you reside, and on the US Postal Service, you may expect yours on your doorstep between sometime next week and two weeks from now. If you have not received your statement/check by March 15, please contact us at that time at [email protected].

Finally, here is February's special offer for those of you who want to keep copies of their book on hand.
* To those who order between 5 - 50 copies: we offer 40 pct discount, plus AGAIN we pay royalties;
* 51 - 100 copies: 45 pct discount, plus we pay royalties;
* 101 or more copies: 50 pct discount, plus we pay royalties.

Phone orders only, at 301 695-1707, between 9am - 8pm EST. Offer expires February 29. Sorry, hardcover books excluded, but fullcolor books are included!

Thank you.

PublishAmerica Author Support Team


I am wondering if all these people haven't a clue what PA is really to join in like that... a Pulitzer prize winner,come on that really makes you question his credentials.
 

Jersey Chick

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Is this the same Pulitzer Prize winner who didn't win, but worked for the paper that won? A paper that won for something un-literary related, and something he himself had no hand in? Wait... let me go look...

ETA: Okay - Hmm... If the guy PA calls the Pulitzer-Prize winner is this one they are, once again, twisting facts to suit themselves. Scroll down the list of criteria.
 
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overfiend

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I was thinking what could he have done to merit joining PA and now you have answered. Praise be PA for knowing how to twist and turn things into their favor
 

allenparker

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Has anyone verified...

the list of celebrities to make sure they did what PA said they did and that they are in fact a cheery bunch of PA authors?

Just a thought... Allen
 

James D. Macdonald

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Check this out


Dear Author,
What do Olympic gold winner Latasha Colander Clark, Vanilla Fudge musician Bill Pascali, Walker Texas Ranger actress Marcia Miles, Rockabilly Hall of Fame member Ronnie Sando, rock group The Myriad musician John Schofield, founding father of house music Jesse Saunders, five time Emmy Award winner Sid Feders, Broadway actor Ronald Smokey Stevens, Sound of Music celebrity Agatha Von Trapp, Disney animator Glen W. Hill, Pulitzer Prize Winner William Coughlin, and others have in common? They are some of your celebrity peers at PublishAmerica.

Most of those "celebrities" aren't celebrities, they're answers in Trivial Pursuit. The exception is Agatha von Trapp, who used PA to reprint her previously-vanity-published book.

The newspaper Mr. Coughlin edited won a Pulitzer for public service back in 1990.

Here's the citation from pulitzer.org:
PUBLIC SERVICE Washington (N.C.) Daily News
[SIZE=-1]For revealing that the city's water supply was contaminated with carcinogens, a problem that the local government had neither disclosed nor corrected over a period of eight years.[/SIZE]

There appears to be a trend in writers land lately for achievers who have been famously successful in other ventures to come and join you as a PublishAmerica author. We welcome this trend, and we welcome these authors. They come here because they know that being published by PublishAmerica is the real deal, that it comes with quality exposure, and that they join a true legion of other high achievers such as yourself.

Being famously successful in other ventures doesn't mean you can write a readable book. Nor does it mean you're particularly savvy about publishing.

On that note, your February royalty statements are in the process of being finalized. They will be dropped in the mail by Friday. Depending on where you reside, and on the US Postal Service, you may expect yours on your doorstep between sometime next week and two weeks from now. If you have not received your statement/check by March 15, please contact us at that time at [email protected].

If your royalty will allow you to buy a Happy Meal, consider yourself lucky.


Finally, here is February's special offer for those of you who want to keep copies of their book on hand.
* To those who order between 5 - 50 copies: we offer 40 pct discount, plus AGAIN we pay royalties;
* 51 - 100 copies: 45 pct discount, plus we pay royalties;
* 101 or more copies: 50 pct discount, plus we pay royalties.

Phone orders only, at 301 695-1707, between 9am - 8pm EST. Offer expires February 29. Sorry, hardcover books excluded, but fullcolor books are included!

Here's the vanity press part of this PA letter. Authors, buy your own books!

Remember, kids, if a publisher's target market is their own authors, they're a vanity, no matter what they claim on their website.

Thank you.

PublishAmerica Author Support Team

Do any of your guys have names? Was anyone on the "Author Support Team" working there a year ago? Will any of you be working there a year hence?

I am wondering if all these people haven't a clue what PA is really to join in like that... a Pulitzer prize winner,come on that really makes you question his credentials.


His credentials as a newspaperman? Nothing. His credentials as a novelist? He doesn't have any.
 

overfiend

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Got my royalty check today and surprise surprise it is 0.00 $.My father was happier to see the check of course but not the amount citing that i was at fault.I kept him out of the loop about PA's reputation of course but he said "Son, you did do nothing PA told you to do with your book"
"You mean take a cardboard box and a begging posture to plea with the bookstores" I answered
I didn't go on anyway because what was the point.i know what PA is and until you don't write a book and get it locked down by a PA contract you won't get it.
 

BarbJ

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Yanno, if people recognize one of the "celebrity peers" and buy a copy or two of his or her book, or if a bookstore - or even two! - stocks the book, what exactly does that provide a non-celebrity aside from eventual discouragement over their own unknown status?

This baffles me. These are minor celebrities; the big guns are being picked up by big houses. (And probably being forced to hire ghost-writers.:tongue) The letter may give a temporary boost ("I'm published with the famous! Or ... not so famous. :( Wonder if these guys are selling anything either.") I imagine some PAers are quietly closing their checkbooks and slinking away. Hope so.
 

overfiend

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Well a few guys who i met on the borads are very down by the cheque the got in the email form PA.Now they are rethinking their situation(which i think means trying to break free from PA).Sorry Dave kuzminski,I can't scan the cheque and send to you.Who knows,may be you might be a PA moderator or else (I hope you take no offense to that).I can send it to you if you want but i will cut off the revealing details to my identity if you want since I am still under contract with PA(trying to get out without any scandal) and have acess to their borads for now.so i hope you understand my cautious move.Curious question: Why do you want to see the cheque?There is nothing there of value(in the true sense hahahaha)
 

Captain Morgan

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Is this the same Pulitzer Prize winner who didn't win, but worked for the paper that won? A paper that won for something un-literary related, and something he himself had no hand in? Wait... let me go look...

ETA: Okay - Hmm... If the guy PA calls the Pulitzer-Prize winner is this one they are, once again, twisting facts to suit themselves. Scroll down the list of criteria.

Ahhhh. A week ago I scanned the PA home site and saw mentioning of William Coughlin and I was wondering what was a Paulitzer prize winner doing at PA.

Thanks for clearing this (twisted advertising) up.
 

Marie Pacha

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During my arbitration I did a great deal of research and contacted a number of individuals and businesses; including Pulitzer. While I congratulate Mr. Coughlin and the newspaper for which he was editor for doing a fine job this is what Pulitzer had to say about that particular prize (cut and pasted in its entirety from my received e-mails.)

Dear Ms. Pacha:

One of two Pulitzer Prizes in Public Service awarded in 1990 went to
the Washington (N.C.) Daily News "For revealing that the city's
water supply was contaminated with carcinogens, a problem that the
local government had neither disclosed nor corrected over a period
of eight years." The prize was awarded to the newspaper, and not an
individual, as is always the case in the Public Service category.
Mr. Coughlin was the editor of the Washington Daily News at that
time.

Sincerely,
Claudia Weissberg

--
Claudia Stone Weissberg
Website Manager
The Pulitzer Prizes
Columbia University
2950 Broadway
Mail Code 3865
New York, NY 10027 USA
212-854-3841
www.pulitzer.org

***

Marie
 

CatSlave

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Didn't PA toot the horn for signing a Pulitzer prize winner, who turned out to be a man with the same name who wrote an engrossing narrative about hot dogs?

ETA: Ah, yes, here it is:
All-American Frank: A History of the Hot Dog
Robert W. Bly
 
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IceCreamEmpress

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Didn't PA toot the horn for signing a Pulitzer prize winner, who turned out to be a man with the same name who wrote an engrossing narrative about hot dogs?

ETA: Ah, yes, here it is:
All-American Frank: A History of the Hot Dog
Robert W. Bly

That's not Robert W. Bly, the famous poet (and author of Iron John), but it is Robert W. Bly, the very widely-published author of The Copywriter's Handbook and other books about advertising and marketing.

I'm not sure why Mr. Bly (usually known as "Bob Bly" to distinguish him from the poet, who is always called "Robert Bly") chose to publish the hot-dog book with PA; he's published many books with mainstream publishers.
 

scully931

So you're suggesting what? Bigfoot?
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Well, not to downplay anyone - but is being a Disney animator really a claim to fame? I mean, I like Disney as much as anyone with kids can bear, but I don't know one of their animators from another. :D

Only if he is writing a book about the backstage scandals at the company. (of which there have been a few... and let me tell you, they are the tip of the iceberg. I used to work at Disney World. Ugh.) :rant:

Back to lurking.