PubliSHAMErica- SHAME is our middle name!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Contact with the Journalists
Today the internet is buzzing from the news that two journalists managed to join the ranks of PublishAmerica authors to investigate the publisher and author's claims that PublishAmerica has been less than honest with them. I have invited both Sinthyia Darkness and Thomas Myers to this blog and our new website at publishamerica.webs.com, in hopes of interviewing them. It is doubtful that they will make any statements until the conclusion of their news report. As one commenter pointed out, Rev. Darkness was named as one of the "celebrity authors" PublishAmerica boasts about. I remember this. I think her book is still up there on the "Up in Lights" page too. Wonder how many copies she sold? Wonder if they paid up?
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8 comments:
Great blog! Thank you. As I said elsewhere, PA can put perfume on the polecat, but it stinks just the same.
May I suggest you lighten the background color on your page since some old ladies find the text is difficult to read.
Keep up the good work.
Howdy. I changed the text color. Let me know if this is easier for you to read.
Here is my 2 cents worth. First of all if you are a first time author like me and you do not have the money to have your book printed, then like me you may want to go with Publish America (for that reason)
If you know how to sell anything on your own and you believe in your project then who better to pick up the phone and call book stores than the Author themselves. I have done it with Borders and it works believe it or not.
As well if you have any creativeness to you at all you can think of other markets in which your book should be advertised (For Free) and get on the internet writing press releases, sending emails and also calling small book stores.
There are a TON of things an Author can do if they are not "Too Good or Too Lazy" to put their finger to anything besides writing the story itself. I am doing it so I know. On my facebook alone I have sold many books just this week!
Sometimes in life you have to "Take The Reins" and make things happen. Or you can just sit on your couch writing more and more books that may never even get to the printing process, all for what? To look at them in a box all of your life? Having done nothing with them!
I had NOTHING to loose. Yes they send emails about this promotion and that but guess what? I IGNORE THEM and go about MY BUSINESS of selling my books my way.
At least I have a book in print to buy!
There are pros and cons about every publisher. If you know anything about publishing at all, you would know that NO PUBLISHER will give your book extra attention until it has SOLD 5000 copies. So that means that YOU have to get on the horn, get on the net and do what you can to sell those 5000 copies. I have known a Literary Agent for over 15 years who is hooked up with Random House, Doubleday, and many more places. He represented MANY HUGE books such as "Let's Roll" a New York Times Best Seller and guess what he told me to do?
To either Self-Publish or go to a small house like I did with Publish America and be writing another book while I am selling 5000 copies of this one. Once I have sold those copies, then present my new book to a larger publisher with the success of my last book, then they will take notice. Or I could come back to him and let him represent me at that time.
Then he went on to tell me a title he has for a book, asking me if I wanted to write it with one of his writers and pay $5000 for him to represent HIS OWN BOOK TITLE that I WOULD WRITE! THIS MAN IS A HUGE PERSON IN THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY!
I declined and took his advice to go with a small publishing house.
So far Publish America has done all they have agreed to for me and I am happy with them. But then again I do NOT have any extra expectations from them because I do know how to sell and market my own book for free. All I really need is for them to print it.
So once again if you can not afford to have your book printed but you believe enough in your own project that you can convince others to buy it once it's printed, then I would say go with Publish America and be in control of your own destiny and work your way up like Stephen King did.
Anonymous, I notice that you chose not to use your name and I don't blame you for that, especially when making comments like these. PublishAmerica claims not to be a vanity publisher and therefore cannot be compared to self-publishing. If they were up front about the nature of what it is that they do, that would be one thing. Problem is they don't. You may THINK you know PublishAmerica, but it is obvious that you really do not. You also know nothing about publishing. I suspect that this poster is really somebody who works for this publisher. The wording is a red flag.. down to the famous name drops..Random House, King..Its also written in the same abusive and goofy language as the letters that come from this printer.
As for Borders, you're right. I do not believe it. They do not carry books printed by PA, nor does Barnes and Noble.
Go blow smoke somewhere else.
Regardless of your sales skills, there is no way that you can compete in this market with absurdly overpriced books. I would never pay 24.95 or higher for a paperback and would never suggest that anyone else do so either.
Calling authors "too good or too lazy" is an absolute disgrace and you know it.
By the way, it is not always necessary to pay to have your book self published, Lulu.com does not charge you anything to self-publish through them. Prices are much more reasonable. I would recommend them over PA any day.
After you have been published by PA, your work is tainted. You cannot use that as a legitimate publishing credit to increase your chances of being published with a major pubishing house, or even a small press for that matter.
Thank goodness I have the opportunity to take over this website-PA's sockpuppets would never dare post garbage like this on my website.
One other thing I wanted to address that was brought up in this anonymous comment; I would like to ask anonymous just how much their product is currently selling for. My guess is, about 24.95 or perhaps higher. How long does it take for you to recieve these sold copies? Why would I ask that? You know, as should we all that PublishAmerica is known by several other names including Independence Books and perhaps the one they made the greatest attempted to disguise ownership of, Publishers Printing House.
Right there on their own website, publishersprintinghouse.com, it states
" Our super low prices are typically based on page counts. For instance, we print a 200-page 6x9 or 5.5x8.5 perfect bound paperback for well under $4. Turnaround time is between 24-48 hours, or within 12-24 hours if required."
So PublishAmerica has the ability to provide its services to authors not contracted by them to print a paperback aka softcover (yes, they are exactly the same) for under $4 and can do so within 12-24 hours.
Still feel good about the product you are selling now??????
Forgoing publication with this publisher does not mean that any author is wasting their talent. On the contrary. Most of the books published by this publisher are not ready to be in print.
Nice try PA. Any real author would have given their name and the title of their book, if for no other reason, the FREE advertisment that you spoke of in this comment. Major phail!
Hello, Anonymous! It's wonderful that you feel so highly about PublishAmerica, and obviously their numerous breaches of contract, which they are being successfully sued for, by the way, are of no nevermind to you, since your book is selling so well (hopefully they are paying you). I just wondered if you know that Willem Meiners, founder and CEO of PublishAmerica, according to his own blog, thinks that people like you are idiots for giving him your books and that you are so very easy to steal from. Yes, Mr. Meiners has a million "winkle" in his pocket because we Americans are so stupid. Us dum-dum Americans are actually stupid enough to support his scams. He describes us as easily fooled and manipulated. This is his opinion of fools like you. I hope you enjoy it.
By the way, Anonymous, my only expectation was for them to pay me and honor my contract. They owe me two books, as per my contract. They, at the very least, owe me royalties on the 17 books I know have been sold, because they were my family and friends. They have stopped selling my book on their website and on their affiliate websites, in violation of my contract, and have refused to relinquish publishing rights to me as a result of having stopped selling, IN VIOLATION OF MY CONTRACT. How the hell are these "extra" expectations?
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