PublishAmerica : Interesting Response

Such a professional response. Oh yes, I forgot, this is a representative of PublishAmerica. Sounds about right.

PublishAmerica employees are not permitted to compose their own correspondence or think for themselves.
However, they can be forced to sign their names to correspondence that is written by Miranda and Larry.
Refusal to do so is grounds for being fired.

IMO the author of that response is either Miranda or Larry.
I guess it came from Larry based on the vicious attack on the 'Mom and Pop' publishers.
It's typical of Larry's writing; Miranda isn't that imaginative.
I suppose he's bitter about his own failure as an author, and it shows.

Rebecca, if you see this, wake up and find a real job if you haven't done so already.

They have such "nice" people working at PA.

CatSlave said:

I suppose he's bitter about his own failure as an author, and it shows.

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He should have submitted his books to PA. I'm sure they'd have given him the chance he deserves.

The spelling is too good for Miranda, and there was no demand for an apology.

How amusing it is to see that PublishAmerica's standard of professionalism hasn't changed one tiny bit!

Let's get this right.

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Oh, yes! Let's! It will be a nice change for you.

You had one book published by a mom and pop outfit that's run by a freelance writer in her spare time, and you dare call that "published by a true publisher"?

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Compared to PublishAmerica, oh, hell yes, that's a true publisher. YOU are a printer.

Even Ingram doesn't know who you are.

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One could say the same for you, since your lack of distribution is an industry joke.

What planet are you from? Who are we kidding here? What credibility do you bring to the table?

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Back-atcha on all three questions--especially the last one. You owe me a new keyboard, I was laughing so hard I spritzed my coffee.

How can you claim to know anything at all about publishing,

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And again, back-atcha!

much less traditional publishing,

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It's called "commercial publishing." That's when publishers sell books in stores all over the country. You may have heard about it before you found out there's more money to be had selling overpriced copies to your own writers.

when your only writing credits are a booklet for teens that has been glued together by a self-publishing, self-printing, self-binding

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Kind of like that machine you have that spits out badly glued-together books in exactly the same way?

Pot, meet kettle.

I'm sure the book was edited, too. PA tends to screw that up. You're (in)famous for it!

bible thumper six years ago, and a host of embarrasing posts on Internet message boards?

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Awww, and I thought you guys loved Jesus since you're quick to present your bunch as "Christian friendly" -- the same way Nero was Christian friendly!

Hit the spell checker, there's another 's' in embarrassing. You should stop now. Your slip is showing.

Please do not submit any of your products

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What, you think it's Amway? It's a book. Spelled b-o-o-k.

to PublishAmerica until you get serious about writing and, equally importantly, until you grow courageous enough to identify yourself.

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Considering that one person who annoyed your lot had a scary guy show up at his house pretending to be a cop, I applaud the anonymity, and see it as a necessity.

In the meantime, try to get a life in (town redacted).

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You're making this too easy: back-atcha! In Frederick!

I can understand why you're so thin-skinned, though.

You must beat yourself up every day for not giving Atlanta Nights and Crack of Death the chance they deserved.

Oh, wait--you DID. Only the writers decided you weren't the right venue for their work. Not professional enough. No distribution, shoddy product, and oh, never mind, you know your own standards--or lack thereof.

Happy 2010, PA. May you match the success of your writers--er--customers--er--victims.

.

Queen of Swords said:

He should have submitted his books to PA. I'm sure they'd have given him the chance he deserves.

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Ooooh, the irony is delicious!

Imagine, if you will, the life of "Rebecca." The people who trawl the message boards are probably not the people who make the money there is to be made at a scam like PA. Probably, this is someone who works in a cubicle, doesn't get benefits and gets paid relatively little to act like this. Imagine how corroding it must be, day after day, nothing but nastiness, aging under the fluorescent lights, doing a job that you know is vicious ripoff, lurking around message boards reading very nasty, very true things about your employer, day in, day out. If "Rebecca" still had a soul, I could pity him/her/it, but let's face it: that got sold a long time ago. And probably for less than $20 an hour.

Rather cheapens the disdain, doesn't it?

Wow. PA is very professional. *not an eyeroll smiley big enough*

Please do not submit any of your products to PublishAmerica until you
get serious about writing and, equally importantly, until you grow
courageous enough to identify yourself. In the meantime, try to get a
life in (town redacted).

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The bolded part jumped out at me.

Gillhoughly said:

Considering that one person who annoyed your lot had a scary guy show up at his house pretending to be a cop, I applaud the anonymity, and see it as a necessity.

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O.

M.

G!

Hey, who let the two year old into the room?

The sad thing is "Rebecca" believes she is building a publishing career. I pity her the day she tries to apply for a REAL industry job and HR laugh her out the door.

Get out love, and never tell anyone you started out at PA.

I'm sure "Rebecca" is a minimum-wage drone that Larry and/or Miranda is hiding behind. The snark expressed about not providing a name is doubly funny in that context.

Unless Rebecca gets fed up and quits first, she will be fired just about when automatic raises are due to go into effect.

If any employer asked me to sign such a piece of crap, I'd have quit before I shoved the keyboard up their arse, but that's just me.

Unless, of course, Larry/Miranda is using Rebecca's name without her permission.

Remember, we're NOT dealing with nice normal people at PA. The stooges have had a decade to turn the company into a real publishing operation. They've heard the derision, noted the contempt, but so long as money is to be made, they will continue to accept and print the slush pile to sell to their own writers.

Their only defense is to insult and shout down all detractors and hope customers and future customers don't notice or look too close.

stormie said:

No traditional publisher would (a) even bother with a ms. entitled thusly and (b) no traditional publisher would ask twice, since a no response the first time shows the publisher that the writer cannot be depended upon.

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While I'm not at all defending PA, I just wondered about the above statements. I don't think they're true, or should be taken as a sign of "not a real publisher."

1) Titles can be easily changed, and are changed all the time. I'm sure many good books are submitted with less-than-stellar titles.

2) Emails go astray, and if an editor wants to see a ms, I don't see why it's impossible that they would follow up once. I've had agents email me again after I never got their first request, and they had no idea if I just didn't send it or never got the email. I don't see why editors wouldn't do the same, particularly as it sounds like a lot of time has passed since the initial contact.

Just a guess, but imagine it something like this:

A nasty letter is penned, but neither of TPTB at PA want to sign their names, so they need to use a nom de gare plume.



Hit a red spacer and the author gets an offer of buying 50 books to be let out of the contract. Hit a green spacer, they get an offer of paying $300 to be let out of the contract. Hit the bulls-eye and they get released without further hassle.

Gillhoughly said:

I'm sure "Rebecca" is a minimum-wage drone that Larry and/or Miranda is hiding behind.
The snark expressed about not providing a name is doubly funny in that context...

Unless, of course, Larry/Miranda is using Rebecca's name without her permission. ...

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1. Absolutely.
2. That's entirely possible. Remember, Miranda CONTROLS all the outgoing mail.

stormie said:

The title is rather strange, too.

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I'm curious why you keep referring to the title of the book ('What's up, Doc?') being relevant to the acceptance/non-acceptance. Perhaps you're not aware that it's the title of an extremely popular book (at the time) that was made into a film in the early 1970s?

In the PublishAmerica universe, the acquisition 'editor' is instructed to accept a partial manuscript (several chapters and a synopsis are enough)
and offer a time limit to the author to complete the work, say six months.
This 'completion date' is written into the contract and the author is obliged to send the completed manuscript by that date.

PA doesn't deal with the title until after they have a signed contract.
The title is not considered during the acceptance phase.
After PA has a signed contract, they can and will change the title if they deem it necessary.
The author may offer alternate titles, but PA has the final say.
It is part of the signed contract.

The point is, if they can get you to sign with them six months before your book is finished, fine and dandy.
It's not that your book is so awesome that they are eager to get it.
No, no, no!
They don't care how good or bad it is, they just want your signature on the contract, and the sooner they get it, the better --
before you find a site like AW that exposes the scam that they are, and you refuse to sign.

Your signature is money in the bank to them -- either now or later.

Very sad