I feel so evil now

Captain Morgan · Oct 17, 2008

Alright, I did something I feel bad about. I finally broke down and purchased an over-priced PA novel from Amazon (gasp!).

In my defense, I happened to come across a novel that seems very, very close to something I am currently writing myself. And after searching for reviews, I found absolutely zero anywhere on this book. Furthermore, since there is no page inclusion due to PA's rediculous policies, there is no way I can actually tell if this book is even written in non-ESL!

Curiosity finally got the best of me, and at under 30$ for a softcover novel, I broke down and put in the order last night. Now I have to wait perhaps 2 months for a copy to print off the presses and be shipped around.

I just don't know, should I still feel ashamed? I remember my girlfriend told me recently she would freak if she ever caught me purchasing a PA book. But has anyone else here ordered one through similar circumstances?

BenPanced · Oct 17, 2008

I wouldn't have bothered. There are so many books that are similar in theme and plot, it would take forever to research everything. Just continue writing yours.

Ol' Fashioned Girl · Oct 17, 2008

Gosh... I hope it wasn't mine. I'd've given you an ecopy for free.

Cybernaught · Oct 17, 2008

I couldn't ever imagine paying $25 for a paperback. How do these people sleep at night?

Ol' Fashioned Girl · Oct 17, 2008

Very comfortably, I imagine.

Cybernaught · Oct 17, 2008

Ol' Fashioned Girl said:
Very comfortably, I imagine.

Haha, I'll bet.

Captain Morgan · Oct 17, 2008

I suppose, I could have done a much worse thing. I'm not sure how much the authors get per book anymore, but if they see someone bought a copy from Amazon, it may get to their heads. It may give some people a false sense of hope that finally they are just about to take off in exponential growth of sales.

Anyhow, it's only 200 pages but perhaps the print is very small, ahah!

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #6,257 in Books
Now is that rank BEFORE or AFTER I put in the order. Hmm..... And how good/bad is that Rank, I don't really know how it's scaled anymore.

Captain Morgan · Oct 21, 2008

Well, my order went in on the 16'th of Oct. I also put in a purchase for an iUniverse book at the same time. The later has replied back to Amazon making a confirmation, yet still no word from PA.

Alphabeter · Oct 21, 2008

Given Amazon's new monopolistic tactics regarding POD, you'll probably still be waiting for your PA book when iUniverse goes legit.

Those crickets are real---its that far ahead!

Stlight · Oct 21, 2008

I bought a friend's PA book once long ago. Yes the print is very very small and was put in the center of the page with something like a two inch margin all around it. Not reader friendly at all.

Friend went into a I-survived PA and am pissed group. don't know if she's on this board or not and I've lost tract of her. Such unfortunately is life. But she would never PA again.

S

Captain Morgan · Oct 22, 2008

Hmm.

22 of Oct. now and still nothing, I guess trying to get any word before Halloween will be asking for too much. Ahah!

I happened to notice a post on the PA site, which actually isn't good news for me, or PA, or even Amazon. I'm not too sure what it even is saying actually.

PublishAmerica Confronts Amazon

Frederick, MD March 27, 2008 - As it continues to revolutionize the book publishing industry, PublishAmerica finds itself confronting Internet retail giant Amazon.com due to that company's strong-arm tactics.

Recently, Amazon presented the Frederick, Maryland based publishing company with an ultimatum, demanding the right to print each of PublishAmerica's almost 30,000 titles via their recently acquired in-house digital printing facility, BookSurge. If PublishAmerica does not comply, Amazon said it will retaliate by disabling the "Buy" button on all of its PublishAmerica listings. This demand would force PublishAmerica to submit 60,000 separate book files (text and cover), and redo each of them in order to conform to Amazon's complicated technical specifications.

Additionally, Amazon is also demanding a larger profit-per-book amount of each P:ublishAmerica book that they sell. This move would result in dramatically lower royalty payments for PublishAmerica's family of authors who sold books through the Internet retailer. When it attempted to increase its charges at earlier occasions, Amazon representatives suggested that any such extra expenses be passed on to authors. This is a suggestion that PublishAmerica executives find unacceptable.

In a letter issued to the company's authors, PublishAmerica's management said, "Not surprisingly, PublishAmerica refuses to be swayed by anyone's strong-arming tactics, big name or otherwise, especially given the fact that budging would mean an additional expense on the publisher's side of tens of thousands of dollars, on top of the unacceptable royalty losses for our authors. PublishAmerica never charges its authors as much as a single penny, ever. We are not going to change this winning policy under the threat of anyone's intimidation, nor are we willing to involuntarily accept any royalty cuts on behalf of our authors."

PublishAmerica will not comply with Amazon's ultimatum, and will not allow that company to dictate who will print PublishAmerica's books, and at what conditions.

Each of PublishAmerica's titles will continue to be available to Amazon, as will future releases. Amazon may access to PublishAmerica books in the same manner it has in the past through at least four separate venues. One of those venues is Lightning Source, a daughter company of the world's largest book wholesaler Ingram, which prints PublishAmerica books for retailers. PublishAmerica prints its additional sales volume in its own in-house digital printing facility, also located in Frederick, Maryland. PublishAmerica will continue its strong relationship with other retailers including Barnes and Noble, Borders, Waldenbooks, Books-A-Million and many other chain and independent bookstores, plus other major online vendors such as BarnesandNoble.com.

PublishAmerica is the home of 30,000 talented authors. PublishAmerica is a traditional publishing company whose primary goal is to encourage and promote the works of new, previously undiscovered writers. Like more mainstream publishers, PublishAmerica pays its authors advances and royalties, makes its books available to all bookstores in both the United States and Europe, and never charges any fees for its services. PublishAmerica offers a distinctly personal, supportive alternative to vanity presses and less accessible publishers.

DaveKuzminski · Oct 22, 2008

"PublishAmerica is the home of 30,000 talented authors," many of whom were sent to their rooms.

Deb Kinnard · Oct 22, 2008

If this is the confession-thread, I must own I bought a LightSword book. Never again. I didn't even get the novel I thought I was getting--so badly was it described on LSP's web site. It wasn't a novel at all, so naturally I feel deceived. My lesson, at the cost of $25 or so for a trade PB.

I've never bought a PA and this info makes me that much more determined never to do so. Dave, go in peace.

DreamWeaver · Oct 22, 2008

PublishAmerica will continue its strong relationship with other retailers including Barnes and Noble, Borders, Waldenbooks, Books-A-Million and many other chain and independent bookstores

I work at one of the above mentioned chain stores, and here's our 'strong relationship': we are not allowed to order PA or other POD books into the store*. We could do a ship-to-home order, where the customer pays in advance and the book is shipped directly from the warehouse--but for some reason, PA books come up in the system as ship-to-store only, not available for ship-to-home. So, it's Catch-22 and we effectively are not allowed to order PA books at all, even as special orders for customers.

Yep, that's a 'strong relationship' for sure. [/sarcasm]

*I believe this is a direct result of the former tactic of POD/vanity authors getting friends and family to special order their books, then never pick them up in order to force the store to shelve them. And who says there's no karma?

Captain Morgan · Oct 22, 2008

*I believe this is a direct result of the former tactic of POD/vanity authors getting friends and family to special order their books, then never pick them up in order to force the store to shelve them. And who says there's no karma?

You may be on to something. I remember watching a couple beginner writers on TV mention how they'd call every bookstore in town asking for copies of their books, then doing repeat calls at different hours.

That MAY work by getting books on shelves, but can't the store send them back if they don't sell? Or are they STUCK with them after that.

Anyhow, I checked my Amazon shipping status, actually some good news (I think).

Items not yet shipped:
Delivery estimate: Nov 5 2008 - Nov 13 2008

One of my other books doesn't even have a delivery date yet so... things could be worse.

brianm · Oct 22, 2008

Captain Morgan said:
You may be on to something. I remember watching a couple beginner writers on TV mention how they'd call every bookstore in town asking for copies of their books, then doing repeat calls at different hours.

That MAY work by getting books on shelves, but can't the store send them back if they don't sell? Or are they STUCK with them after that.

It does not work to get shelf space, as this is an old tactic that the bookstore managers are well aware of and they do not look upon it kindly. It is but one of the reasons POD books have received some rather bad notice and why some bookstores will have nothing to do with POD books.

Deb Kinnard · Oct 22, 2008

brianm said:
an old tactic that the bookstore managers are well aware of and they do not look upon it kindly. It is but one of the reasons POD books have received some rather bad notice and why some bookstores will have nothing to do with POD books.

Does this hold true for small-press titles (not vanity/subsidy) in your experience also? I know this is somewhat OT, but should I not be able to go into B&N or Borders and order anything that Ingram or B&T lists as available through them?

Several times I've gotten "we can't order it" or "it's no longer available" on new(er) releases that I know are orderable 'cause folks in other cities have done so. Is this something extraordinary, or simple laziness, or a glitchy computer-stocking system?

Alphabeter · Oct 25, 2008

Ask priceless1 of Behler Publications. They are a small press which uses POD though they have a big distributor.
My mother works at a bookstore and she had no problem ordering a Behlar book on bipolar children through the store (though it will be delivered to her house).

jamiehall · Oct 25, 2008

brianm said:
It does not work to get shelf space, as this is an old tactic that the bookstore managers are well aware of and they do not look upon it kindly. It is but one of the reasons POD books have received some rather bad notice and why some bookstores will have nothing to do with POD books.

It's a tactic that is older than POD. I remember reading about it before POD ever existed. Furthermore, if I remember right, the author who was writing about it claimed to have done these calls to bookstores across the country, always claiming to be a local fan, in the days before widespread caller ID, so that the stores would never wonder why they were receiving such out-of-state calls.

Captain Morgan · Oct 29, 2008

Damn.. checked the order and it STILL hasn't even shipped yet!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

The suspense is killing me here, I don't know if I'm getting that hidden best seller waiting to get known... or another copy of Atlanta Nights!

cynrad22 · Oct 29, 2008

Alphabeter · Oct 30, 2008

I predict the stock market (US Dow Jones Industrial Average) will be at 9600 before you get correct information about the status of that book.

Captain Morgan · Oct 30, 2008

Good news everyone! The JOY of the LORD must be on my side, because I have just witnessed a MIRACLE! Yes, mountains can be moved over night, and I will never doubt a guy called Mosses again!

Greetings from Amazon.ca!

We thought you'd like to know we shipped this portion of your
order
separately, to give you quicker service. You won't be charged any extra
shipping fees, and the remainder of your order will follow as soon as
those items become available.

You can track the status of this order, and all of your orders,
online by
visiting the Your Account page at http://www.amazon.ca/your-account/.
There, you can:
* track order and shipment status.
* review estimated delivery dates.
* cancel unshipped items.
* return items, and do much more!

The following items were included in this shipment:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Qty Item Price Shipped Subtotal
---------------------------------------------------------------------
1 The Ace of Spades: A Poker No CDN$ 26.39 1 CDN$ 26.39
Sold by Amazon.ca, Inc - taxed
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Item Subtotal: CDN$ 26.39
Shipping & Handling: CDN$ 0.00

Total tax: CDN$ 1.32

GST: CDN$ 1.32

PST: CDN$ 0.00

Total: CDN$ 27.71

Paid by Gift Certificate: CDN$ 27.71

Man, and to think, I ordered an IUniverse paperback on the same day, and PA seems to be winning the shipment race, LOL. Can PA hold on the race a little bit longer... and come home a winner?

Stay tuned for more... same bat-time, same bat-channel

---

Attention! We break into the current scheduled programming to bring this special bulletin announcement.

---

Status: In transit
Estimated Arrival: Nov 4 2008 (Note: it shifted down a day, yahhh!)

Track your package
Date Time Location Event Details
Oct 30 2008 03:28:00 PM MISSISSAUGA ON CA Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit
Oct 30 2008 02:21:00 PM MISSISSAUGA ON CA Arrival Scan

Alphabeter · Oct 31, 2008

: is watching the stock market avidly.

Seriously, it just opened. If it hits 9600, I'm officially buying Mac a new server for AW.*

And I did say "correct information" so we'll see if the email accurately predicts the arrival of the book.

*Offer expires at close of USA Stock markets on 31 October, 2008.

Captain Morgan · Oct 31, 2008

OMG!!!

It arrived today at the door-step.

Thank you Canadian Post Office!!

And it's not even Nov 1 yet!

I'm too busy setting up halloween stuff right now, but did a look for a second and all 200 pages are there, I can also read the solid-ink good enough that there are no problems.

I'll get back to you all after I start reading it this weekend.

I feel so evil now

Captain Morgan

BenPanced

THE BLUEBERRY QUEEN OF HADES (he/him)

Ol' Fashioned Girl

Hand? What hand?

Cybernaught

Decker

Ol' Fashioned Girl

Hand? What hand?

Cybernaught

Decker

Captain Morgan

Captain Morgan

Alphabeter

Player of the Letters

Stlight

ideas are floating where they will

Captain Morgan

DaveKuzminski

Preditors & Editors

Deb Kinnard

DreamWeaver

Shakespearean Fool

Captain Morgan

brianm

Brian Boru

Deb Kinnard

Alphabeter

Player of the Letters

jamiehall

Bereaved Snarkling

Captain Morgan

cynrad22

Alphabeter

Player of the Letters

Captain Morgan

Alphabeter

Player of the Letters

Captain Morgan