How Can I Get Out of a PublishAmerica Contract?

Nightflyer · May 10, 2010

Dear Friends,

Like most of you on this board I'm the latest victim of PA. Unfortunately I signed the contract last year. At the moment I'm stalling for time. I told the production design team I would be looking for an independent editor since PA doesn't edit their own books. Crazy huh! That was my last contact with them. For all I know they may be publishing my book as I type this message to you all. I certainly hope not. Does any of you out there have any tactics or whatever to poke them enough to break the contract? If so please share. I would be eternally grateful. This whole ordeal with them has driven me into a sump of depression.

All the Best,

Nightflyer

M.R.J. Le Blanc · May 10, 2010

-Be straight to the point. Don't give them any indication of your frustration or anger. I hear they like that.

-Tell them you won't be buying any of your own books, no one you know will be buying any of your own books and that it would be in their best interest just to release you since they won't be making any money off of you.

-Be polite. That may sound weird considering this is PA we're talking, but the angrier you come across the longer they seem to dangle you.

-Be repetitive. Just send them the same letter over and over everytime they send you a reply of some sort. You might be able to bore them into releasing you since they won't be getting any money or amusement out of you.

-Keep writing and send future works to real publishers with real experience. The best revenge is success, and I can think of at least 3 PA victims such as yourself who went on to see real success with commercial publishers. It's possible. It can happen for you too. Just don't give up

James D. Macdonald · May 10, 2010

We have a lot of information in this sub-forum. You might want to check out the index.

My best advice would be to write a new, different, and better book. Sell it to a real publisher.

If PA won't let your book go, just forget it and them for seven years. Don't buy any copies, don't tell your friends to buy copies. Just let it sit there costing them whatever fractional money it costs for them to keep it on their hard drives. At the end, you'll get it back anyway.

merrihiatt · May 10, 2010

Welcome, Nightflyer. :welcome:

I agree with the two responses you've already received. Good luck! There is a wealth of information at AW, so check out the other threads here, too.

DaveKuzminski · May 11, 2010

And check your contract in case you have to notify them before the contract ends that you do not want to renew it. Some of their contracts renew automatically for another seven years.

Josh1971 · May 15, 2010

I sent them a tactful, polite, respectful email regarding the release from my contract, and so I'm interested to see how that goes. I've indicated that the sales have run their course, I'm not buying any more books, and everyone I know that would buy them already has. I also indicated I'm tired of trying to explain to the tax guy about them, and that I don't want that to be a problem anymore for me or PA.

In the end, I just want out of this mess. I think the two books that I sent them are good, but I'm also smart enough to know that they probably need a bunch more editing, different titles, re-writes, and to be shopped to other agents/publishers with no mention ever that they were ever published by PA.

I'd say at first, polite and respectful is the way to go. Heck, one of mine can't even be found on their website anymore.

JB

overfiend · Jun 1, 2010

I wanted to get out of my contract but after a long battle it boiled down to buy 50 copies of your book at normal price and we release you.I said what would i do with 50 copies of my own book which is poorly edited.Then they said..pay 300 $ and then you get released. I nearly took it then i said no way.Pa will not budge now even on threats.Courts, they will tell you bring it on. For the rest they will tell you it is your fault since they spent around 600 $ on the process of making your book publishable so you owe them. I'm waiting out my contract. By the way i tried the "will not buy my book" and "not encouraging anyone buying" thing. And Wrote them over 100 emails and even two registered letters before that. No dice it seems.

merrihiatt · Jun 2, 2010

Sorry, overfiend. I know it's frustrating. Really frustrating. Five more years for me until my contract is up. Feels like an eternity. PA won't even allow me to buy my way out. They enjoy watching me squirm and ignoring my release requests. There will come a day when I will be free of them. It can't come soon enough for me.

overfiend · Jun 7, 2010

I got 4 left on my contract. 300$ is not much considering but it is the principle of the matter that puts me off. I hate to see the scammers get one cent out of my pocket. In any case i was not really convinced in that as they said "send us a cheque for 300 big ones and we will try to release you". "Try" did not go down well with me as well. I have moved on .I am writing part 2 of the book published by PA in the mean time and i am thinking if i can get that one into some publisher's door and he asks me for part one, i can always go and buy it back. I was actually comtemplataing a rewrte of the whole thing with name changes and so on but i gave up on it because i put some many great things in the original version that to change something would simply destroy the story intended for publication.

DaveKuzminski · Jun 7, 2010

If they even suspect you need it because a sequel has been purchased, don't be surprised if the price goes up.

Sora · Jul 9, 2010

Anyone ever gotten out of their PA contracts before? If so, how was it done? I want to take my book over to a few others publishers like The Wild Rose Press, Paladin, Virtual Tales, Writers-Exchange, and eHarlequin. I have spoken with these publishers, and felt better to go to them.

DaveKuzminski · Jul 9, 2010

Yes, but there's no rhyme or reason to what works to get a termination though one author received one by taking PA to arbitration/court.

Sheryl Nantus · Jul 9, 2010

Sora said:
Anyone ever gotten out of their PA contracts before? If so, how was it done? I want to take my book over to a few others publishers like The Wild Rose Press, Paladin, Virtual Tales, Writers-Exchange, and eHarlequin. I have spoken with these publishers, and felt better to go to them.

Write another book - leave this one behind.

Sora · Jul 9, 2010

I was actually going to do some work on the book to change it up, and make it better than before.

James D. Macdonald · Jul 9, 2010

Sora said:
I was actually going to do some work on the book to change it up, and make it better than before.

Not the best plan. The amount you'd have to change it to make it a new work is more trouble than writing a whole new book from scratch.

Write a new, different, better book, using what you learned from writing this one to make you a better author.

Jersey Chick · Jul 9, 2010

Until you get those rights returned, this book is DOA. It doesn't matter if you change it, or tweak it or anything - PA legally holds the rights to it and if you try to sub it somewhere else, they can come after you for breach of contract and they will be in the right, as awful as that is.

Not to mention, no legitimate publisher will touch a ms that is currently under contract with another publisher.

Forget this book. Write something newer and better.

Gravity · Jul 9, 2010

Sora said:
I was actually going to do some work on the book to change it up, and make it better than before.

You'd have change well over half of the work, and even then you're in a gray area until you get your rights back. Truth? This one's dead for the next seven years. Forget it and move on.

ETA: what Uncle Jim and Jersey Chick said.

Sora · Jul 9, 2010

I don't want to kill it, though. I was planning to do the work to change it. I took me about five to six months to write it, and I'm willing to take the time. And I've already spoken to others who said they would take it, if I changed it, and got my rights back.

Jersey Chick · Jul 9, 2010

IF you get the rights back - which you haven't done yet, and which may not happen. Would you rather spend those six months fighting with PA or writing a new, better book?

No legit publisher will offer you a contract on a book you have under contract somewhere else.

Sora · Jul 9, 2010

I'll fight with them, and work on my book at the same time. I've got plently of time on my hands.

And I've spoken with Paladin, Virtual Tales, Writer's-Exchange, and The Wild Rose Press, and they all told me to get my rights back, and they'll take a look at my book.

James D. Macdonald · Jul 9, 2010

If you get your rights back. Right. That's a big if. And "look at" is a far cry from "buy." But they'll also look at your manuscript if you write a new book.

You'll want to write another book in any case. Take it from your genial uncle (who has seen a lot of writers come and go), re-writing your book isn't a good idea.

Sora · Jul 9, 2010

But it's my first, and I'm willing to rewrite it. Belive me, I live in a small town with nothing much to do, really. I still have the manuscript saved as well. It is entirely my choice to rewrite it, and then go from there.

And I've heard that PA does let some go scoot-free. I don't plan to pay anything to get out of my contract. Besides, I have no money.

Marie Pacha · Jul 9, 2010

PA returned my rights to me over two years ago for two books (one poetry and one fantasy.) Both those books still show on Amazon as published by PA, even if they are not actually available.

No legitimate publisher would consider publishing them under those circumstances, even if I thought they were worth the effort. Knowing what I know now about publishing, the fantasy that I submitted to PA and which they accepted, is no more than a novelette.

I was naive. I was trusting, and I was exactly what PA wanted; except for one thing. I had no intention of paying them for a book I wrote.

In nine days, a book I co-authored (104,000 words and 284 pages), will be released by a small and very reputable press.

Write a new book.

Sora · Jul 9, 2010

I figured that's what I'd do with my first book. I was going to rewrite it, and add more to it then there was, because there was alot of questions in the book that I knew no one would understand. What better to hopefully get my rights back, then trash that one, then rewrite a newer, better one than that one.

Though they just wrote me back, saying that the answer was no, and that was their final answer. I'll continue being persistent.

Sora · Jul 9, 2010

They won't release me. I think I will go and rewrite everything, change up alot of the storyline, change names and looks, and everything else. Technically, I never described any of the places in detail, and I could switch up the looks of the characters, along with their storylines. I can get away with that, as well as changing the storyline. If the story is different, and does not keep to the origional idea, then I am free to go to whomever, and be published there.

I'm going to head over to another of your forms while I get research done of different demons. Most of what you may see from me will be dark, traditional vampire stories. Sorry, but my vampires are not fairies and they do not sparkle. Plus, my lycans are smaller than Twilight wolves, and stick to more natural wolves, like the ones from True Blood. I dunno, I like the normal size of wolves, lol.

Arigato guys, I feel so much better. I know now that I will NOT be using PubliSHAMerica again.

How Can I Get Out of a PublishAmerica Contract?

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