PublishAmerica

Yellow Rose

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Well, my friend told me about PA after researching on this site. Sadly too late for me, my book is almost static although, luckily, I can still buy from them and personally sell. I've been asking many questions of them via email - why can't I get a book signing, why no shops want to know, why Barnes & Noble don't reply to me -and guess what, NO REPLY from them! Ashamed I guess. And how come on their site, people are supposedly getting book signings with B&N? I got drawn in by their acceptance and signed a contract for 7 years, 4 1/2 to go!
******
Offering my second book to PA a couple of weeks ago, I got this included in their email:
Author must reside within the United States or Canada.

I wonder why! Has anyone else tried to get a second book published, and in particular, from the UK? Not that I was going to use them again - I'm trying proper literary agents this time.
 
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LexiCan

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Don't feel bad, Yellow Rose, there are several of us here who fell into the trap. That's what makes us so mad and that's why this thread is here. We're trying to help prevent others from suffering the same heart break and be there to support the ones who already did (like me). Don't let this one thing discourage you from writing. AW is a great place to learn and grow. The writing forums are really great.
Welcome! Hope you stick around!
 

Thump

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*hugs* It's gonna be all right! The important thing is that you realized your error and now you can write another, better book and do it right. It'll be that much more satisfying :)

Welcome to AW.
 

kct webber

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You're not alone here, certainly. There are quite a few PA authors here. I got lucky and stumbled upon Writers Beware, Preditors and Editors, and AW before signing with them.

And you're not alone with the questions to PA, either. Read the other threads here on PA. Lots of people went through the same crap.

Write your next book. And spend some time here. You'll find plenty of valuable info, a lot of support, and a lot of friends. :)
 

Yellow Rose

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PublishAmerica responses

I think you may all be interested in the two different responses to my worried questions: any feedback would be gratefully received!!
Dear Jessi,
I just can’t understand it. After all this time, and doing everything you advised me to do, I still can’t get into the media except for local interest stories, I've written to many, many newspapers in the States, I’ve written to Barnes and Noble, and even emailed a couple of chat show hosts there. I can’t get my book into bookstores in either continent. No-one replies, and even for book signings anywhere no-one wants to know. Nothing has come of all the business cards I’ve given out over there in the past two years and here in England, it must be well over a thousand.
It’s a great book, the reviews I’ve had from friends, relatives, and even strangers via my web site who have read it via their friends, have really enjoyed it. Having heard that I’ve written another, they’re desperate to read it. I’m really confused and upset – can you tell me what it is that’s going wrong? Please can you help?
Susan Haven
*********
Dear Susan Haven:
Thank you for your email. No publisher guarantees book sales to bookstores. Major chain bookstores have no policy against stocking non-returnable books. PublishAmerica books are found in brick and morter bookstores, as stated on our website. Barnes & Noble is our largest retail customer. Thousands, each and every week, of PublishAmerica books are sold in bookstores across the nation. Bookstores buy books from us each and every day. The PublishAmerica message board is overflowing with testimonials from our authors about their books being stocked in bookstores. Hundreds of bookstores across the nation stock our books.
PublishAmerica books have the same chance of making it onto a bookstore shelf as do the books of any publisher. It may be of interest that less than one percent of all authors ever see their books stocked by bookstores at all. For bookstores to stock all books published would mean adding 15 feet of new shelf space each and every day.
Therefore bookstore managers must be selective, so they decide based on what that they think will sell. If they do think it will sell, they will stock it, and vice versa. So, if your book is romance and the store's shelves are overflowing with romance novels, the odds are they won't stock it. And, if your book is a history of agriculture in Yazoo County, Mississippi, the bookstore manager in Seattle may feel the same way.
Bookstores will generally stock a book that they think will sell, regardless of whether it is returnable or not, and regardless of whether it is printed on digital or offset presses.
Please do not judge a bookstore's corporate policy by what one local manager or one letter tells you. You can find stories on our website about, for example, two Borders locations in one town: one manager insists that he cannot carry a book, the other orders 40 copies. Bookstore managers are human, they have strengths and weaknesses like all of us, they can make good judgment calls and bad ones. One will like your book, the other may not.
Thank you and have a good day,
Jessi,
PublishAmerica Support
Dear Susan Haven:
Thank you for your email. Your question is very important to us at PublishAmerica, however, it has reached the wrong department. In order to assure that you get the proper answers, we ask that you visit http://www.publishamerica.com/support, where you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions.
If you do not find the resolution to your specific question, please fill out the brief form at the bottom of the web page so that the Author Support Team may contact you personally.
Thank you,
Denise
Acquisitions Department
PublishAmerica
www.publishamerica.com
*********
At 08:33 AM 3/27/2009, you wrote:
Dear Lori,
I sent Jessi an email yesterday but didn't get an answer to below:
I just can’t understand it. After all this time, and doing everything you advised me to do, I still can’t get into the media except for local interest stories, I've written to many, many newspapers in the States, I’ve written to Barnes and Noble, and even emailed a couple of chat show hosts there. I can’t get my book into bookstores in either continent. No-one replies, and even for book signings anywhere no-one wants to know. Nothing has come of all the business cards I’ve given out over there in the past two years and here in England, it must be well over a thousand.
It’s a great book, the reviews I’ve had from friends, relatives, and even strangers via my web site who have read it via their friends, have really enjoyed it. Having heard that I’ve written another, they’re desperate to read it. I’m really confused and upset – can you tell me what it is that’s going wrong?
Please can you help?
Susan Haven
 

Annayna

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PA is a horrid company... :cry: I have one book through them that they killed... never again
 

Cyia

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Okay all of those "if your book is" comments make me mad. :rant: That is so obviously a form letter that they can't be bothered to personalize!

(I'm sorry your book got hung up with them YR :( )
 

Yellow Rose

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Reply

You're not alone here, certainly. There are quite a few PA authors here. I got lucky and stumbled upon Writers Beware, Preditors and Editors, and AW before signing with them.

And you're not alone with the questions to PA, either. Read the other threads here on PA. Lots of people went through the same crap.

Write your next book. And spend some time here. You'll find plenty of valuable info, a lot of support, and a lot of friends. :)

Great, thanks for all the support, getting the hang of the site now, and this time I'll go through a legit Agent!
 

merrihiatt

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:welcome:Welcome Yellow Rose!

I, too, signed with PA and I thought I knew who and what they were. I was dead wrong. ** sigh ** There is life after PA, though, and I'm really glad you found AW. Come in, check out all the forums (I know it's a big place!), and keep writing. One thing PA cannot take away from us is the joy we find in our creativity. Breathe deeply and keep writing.
 

Yellow Rose

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Well, I may be tied in with them for a few more years of contract, but I believe in getting up, dusting myself off, and having learned the hard way, having another go!!! Lovely to get such support and to know that I'm not alone. Thanks guys!
 

merrihiatt

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"Author support" is a complete joke at PA. It's all fun and games until you have a legitimate question or concern and then you start getting stone-walled.

You can find stories on our website about, for example, two Borders locations in one town: one manager insists that he cannot carry a book, the other orders 40 copies.

PA's form letter is all BS, but I couldn't let this sentence go by without a comment. What bookstore would order 40 copies of an unknown authors book? Seriously? Forty copies. Five, maybe. Ten, well, maybe. Twenty, unlikely. Forty, come on!! If you're going to stretch the truth, at least try and make it plausible.
 

CaoPaux

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Welcome, YellowRose. :Sun:

To keep the thread proliferation to a minimum, I'm merging this with your first one. Be sure to check out the Index at the top of the forum to see how other folks have dealt with PA.
 

merrihiatt

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Merri - the order of 40 could have happened. However, they could have been online orders by all the friends and family the writer could muster . . .

PA refuses to be bogged down in details . . .

Ah... I hadn't thought of that. That would make that scenario make sense. Or friends and family could have gone to one bookstore and said they wanted to purchase the book, it wasn't on their shelves, and the bookstore placed the order based on all the people who wanted to purchase it. And, if they were wise, they would have had them pre-pay.
 

Yellow Rose

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Ah... I hadn't thought of that. That would make that scenario make sense. Or friends and family could have gone to one bookstore and said they wanted to purchase the book, it wasn't on their shelves, and the bookstore placed the order based on all the people who wanted to purchase it. And, if they were wise, they would have had them pre-pay.

I actually bought a lot of books once published, around 80, some for good friends and relatives, the rest to promote and sell for myself. Through P.A. I managed to sell less than a dozen! I think that the price also stopped anyone in the States and the UK from buying. Doesn't say much for them if they can't sell any, does it! That's when warning bells began to ring and my friend sussed them out over this AW site.
 

DaveKuzminski

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Unless a store admits doing so, I don't think it can be proved either way. Of course, I suspect that store didn't do it twice.
 

Khazarkhum

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Two Borders in one town?

That has to be a big population area to support 2 Borders. It's possible, I suppose, but since PA says so I doubt it.
 

megoblocks

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PublishAmerica books have the same chance of making it onto a bookstore shelf as do the books of any publisher.
Yes, I never see books from places like Random House or Penguin in book stores. They all get rejected equally :)
 

scully931

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If my business had to have a FORM letter to send to disgruntled clients, I'd be in big trouble. If I get even the suggestion of unhappiness from a client I worry all night about it and can't rest until it's resolved.
 

Tora

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James... has ANY bookstore ordered 40 copies of a PA book?

I've hosted signings for a few local authors who went with PublishAmerica, but I've never ordered the books from Ingram. With the substandard discount that PA gives bookstores on its titles, and the returnability issue, the only way I can really afford to do it is by taking the books as consignments. Which is the pits, because it means that the author's the one who has to pay for the books up front. :rant:

I know for a fact, however, that the manager before me did order PublishAmerica books through Ingram for signings. He never ordered more than 10 at a time, but I'm still finding them scattered through the store. Some of them have been there since 2004.
 

Ulee_Lhea

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Welcome to AW, Tora!

I don't envy you being the one to gently tell the PA authors that their books don't get the same treatment as commercial pubbed books. Ouch!