PublishAmerica and Reaganville

newmillguitar

Registered
Joined
Mar 16, 2008
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Hi Everyone,

As another scammed author, and as a new author and not a businessperson, I signed a contract with PA.
I am well read and literary, I write in a very musical style as I am a classical music composer, and see form differently than a writer, so my novel, Reaganville, is not grandma's memoirs or a soldier's tale, cookbook or how to plumb your own house on a homeless person's budget. It is a literary novel.
I wrote a novel so poetic in the prologue and elsewhere, that on a website devoted to mystery writers, they yelled and screamed at my excerpt, said it was unreadable and forced me off. This is a testimony to the cogency and revolution of the metaphor and language. As I said to them, men yell at it; women want to seduce me when they read it. The prologue is called "A Man's Heart is like a Metropolis."
Five years of diminution went into this novel. I shrank from life in a way. I was married and became not. I lost my job, I Internet dated to fill in the void, I culled the past, I dug into my upbringing, I invented legend, there were times that I ate pills to read what I had written, it was a something that I never expected since music was my language, but I realized that, in music, you can't say things like "I want to die in a way that is natural and in the color of velvet."
With my Reaganville I began to try to get agented. As a first time writer, with no connections I got no answers to my requests that someone just read the god damned thing, and god did damn me to write it. So here was PublishAmerica, as they contend, "just like a traditional publisher." You know the rest of the story.
I will be suing them for a slew of things you all know about, crackhead editing and them not using the proper PDF, deception, fraud and the possible ruination of my first novel. Have an attorney in Maryland now and we begin.
I want to warn you people considering PA and hello!
 

Mel

Never be completely back to normal.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 30, 2006
Messages
2,075
Reaction score
575
Location
Lovely, large cave
Hello and Welcome to AW! :welcome:

Check this link PublishAmerica. You will see, as you scroll through, there are other threads that warn against PA.
 

Khazarkhum

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 10, 2005
Messages
725
Reaction score
100
That's where darned-near every author you've ever heard of started.

Here's what to do:

1) Send it out 'til Hell won't have it.
2) Write more.
3) Repeat.

I'd also add: Look at the small press listings, as they don't all require agents. And be prepared to wait. A lot.
 

IceCreamEmpress

Hapless Virago
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 2, 2007
Messages
6,449
Reaction score
1,321
Well, I applaud you for taking action against a business that you feel treated you shoddily. Good luck with that.

And what James D. Macdonald says is true: almost every successful novelist lacked "connections" when he or she began. The Carol Higgins Clarks, Joe Hills, and Andre Dubus IIIs of the world are the exception, rather than the rule (and all three are fine writers in their own right as well!)
 
Last edited:

DaveKuzminski

Preditors & Editors
Requiescat In Pace
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
5,036
Reaction score
859
Location
Virginia
Website
anotherealm.com
Be sure you let other writers on this board know the name of your attorney. Some may want to provide evidence or testimony, particularly those who reside close by. Others may even want to use his services, especially when you win. ;)

If your attorney needs more evidence, have him contact me at [email protected].

Hi, Vic. Just helping you with job security at PA.
 

CatSlave

Mah tale iz draggin.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
3,720
Reaction score
620
Location
Paradise Found: Bradenton, FL
:welcome: Welcome to AW, home of the free, the almost-free, the wanna be free and the brave.

Hope you find what you're looking for.

And I expect there will be a number of folks here that will want to know the name of your attorney.
Keep us posted, please.
 
Last edited:

JimmyD1318

THE POPCORN MONSTER!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2006
Messages
902
Reaction score
174
Location
Memphis, TN
:welcome:Hi there! Welcome to AW! This is a wonderful place to learn and hang out. Everyone here can tell you that I am the POPCORN MONSTER and the first bag of POPCORN here is on me. Here you go!:popcorn: Enjoy! Keep us posted on what happens.
 

overfiend

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 4, 2008
Messages
77
Reaction score
7
Can WE Start Another Project

Welcome to the club and be aware that the nightmare known as PA ends someday soon for everybody.
 

Bajangirl

Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2008
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
I would love to hear our the suit goes. I am about to enter into a legal suit with Pa myself. PLEASE someone shut the down ASAP, so that my book can be release from captivuty. Good Luck!!!!
 

Sparhawk

Jenna's Cabana Boy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 18, 2005
Messages
1,071
Reaction score
450
Location
in the state of Delusion
I will be suing them for a slew of things you all know about, crackhead editing and them not using the proper PDF, deception, fraud and the possible ruination of my first novel. Have an attorney in Maryland now and we begin.
I want to warn you people considering PA and hello!

Uhm... not to be a downer... but if you signed with Fortress Frederick are you not bound by persuing Arbitration? I thought this was the reason wronged PA authors couldn't sue right away. I do remember that one clause in my PA contract. It was a few years ago so maybe they've changed things.

Anyhow, welcome to AW and I'm sorry for what you've been through with PA. You are not alone.
 

Sparhawk

Jenna's Cabana Boy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 18, 2005
Messages
1,071
Reaction score
450
Location
in the state of Delusion
Be sure you let other writers on this board know the name of your attorney. Some may want to provide evidence or testimony, particularly those who reside close by. Others may even want to use his services, especially when you win. ;)

If your attorney needs more evidence, have him contact me at [email protected].

Hi, Vic. Just helping you with job security at PA.

Dave, dude....

You must be giving Vic ulcers. That guy must have a P&E dartboard in his office.
 

CACTUSWENDY

An old, sappy, and happy one.
Kind Benefactor
Requiescat In Pace
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
12,860
Reaction score
1,667
Location
Sunny Arizona
Welcome to AW. Hope you enjoy your stay with us.

How do you like your popcorn?
 

Khazarkhum

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 10, 2005
Messages
725
Reaction score
100
Hi Everyone,
I wrote a novel so poetic in the prologue and elsewhere, that on a website devoted to mystery writers, they yelled and screamed at my excerpt, said it was unreadable and forced me off. This is a testimony to the cogency and revolution of the metaphor and language. As I said to them, men yell at it; women want to seduce me when they read it. The prologue is called "A Man's Heart is like a Metropolis."
Five years of diminution went into this novel. I shrank from life in a way. I was married and became not. I lost my job, I Internet dated to fill in the void, I culled the past, I dug into my upbringing, I invented legend, there were times that I ate pills to read what I had written, it was a something that I never expected since music was my language, but I realized that, in music, you can't say things like "I want to die in a way that is natural and in the color of velvet."

Realistically, if you were an agent and this crossed your desk, what would your reply be?

A I gotta have it!

B No thanks, not for me

C Looks like someone's off his meds again

D I need a drink. Pass that gin, Miss Snark!
 

IceCreamEmpress

Hapless Virago
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 2, 2007
Messages
6,449
Reaction score
1,321
The "show don't tell" maxim also applies to how impossibly great and world-changing one's book is.
 

Khazarkhum

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 10, 2005
Messages
725
Reaction score
100
Not just great, but so great as to alter the course of grammar itself!

How does one die in the "color of velvet"? :Shrug:
 

newmillguitar

Registered
Joined
Mar 16, 2008
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
agents and stuff

Realistically, if you were an agent and this crossed your desk, what would your reply be?

A I gotta have it!

I have to read it beyond the samples of a book I take. It doesn't conform to a book found at Target.

B No thanks, not for me

Sure, I got this when an agent read it and it didn't conform to a book found at Target

C Looks like someone's off his meds again

If I was medicated I'd be writing genre fiction

D I need a drink. Pass that gin, Miss Snark!

Who is Miss Snark? A catch person for some kind of publishing behavior?

Legally, in the State of California, if a resident of CA has been defrauded then a case can be filed in CA. I have a legal service and am taking the course that is recommended by a "head." I did speak to a contract guy and this is not the way to go.
Since I spoke of legal action many PA authors have contacted me asking if I was still getting together a class action. No. I'm just wanting my rights to print back. Mine, not theirs. I am not without sympathy for them, hell I know what they're going through.
I won't blame this in my wife but she was adamant that I get a publisher now (then). I knew my novel was so groovy that it didn't matter. Cursory examination of PA did attest to their "traditional publisher" moniker. Good enough for a literary genius such as myself.
I am my favorite moron!
 

newmillguitar

Registered
Joined
Mar 16, 2008
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Die in an odor

How does one die in the color of velvet?

You can't in genre fiction but in literary fiction you can die in the color of odoriferous.
 

newmillguitar

Registered
Joined
Mar 16, 2008
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Over a month with no return and no discussion in any other threads. I'm afraid this one's a drive-by book-pimping, folks.

Don't buy my ficking book! People have lives. So I don't post until I've cleaned up my wife's sub-prime loan, as much as I can, get some compositions finished, write on my next two novels, feed and take care of my children everyday, wipe my arse with quality responses like this, go to whatever job I can find in Bush's America and then I'll respond.

If you buy my book, as long as it is published by PA, you'll be doing me a great disservice. I MEAN THAT LIKE I MEAN TO LIVE! Are you a mystery writer or watch Law and Order re-runs? Boy, don't say those kinds of things when you don't know who you're talking to or you might be construed as a political pundit/hack. Things aren't what they appear and as much as I like the quality of the posts here, I don't flatten my ass surfing the Internet for anything until I'm doggedly onto something. And today, for an hour, I'm at Absolute Write, probably the best place to be until your post.
 

Bartholomew

Comic guy
Kind Benefactor
Poetry Book Collaborator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 2, 2006
Messages
8,507
Reaction score
1,956
Location
Kansas! Again.
Here's hoping you win your lawsuit. May you become the new owner of their fire InkJet printers.

NewMill -what sort of music do you write? I'm always looking for someone to do duets with.
 

Momento Mori

Tired and Disillusioned
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 25, 2006
Messages
3,389
Reaction score
802
Location
Here and there
Hi, newmillguitar and welcome back to AW.

newmillguitar:
Who is Miss Snark? A catch person for some kind of publishing behavior

She's an NY-based agent who used to run a blog that gave advice on the publishing industry, how agents worked and what they did and she also used to give fantastic critiques of query letters sent in by those brave enough to take her snark. She was very 'no holds barred' and since she decided to hang up her keyboard, she is missed by a lot of people.

Her blog is still available for perusal here and I think it's well worth the time taking a look through it.

MM