PublishAmerica has been known by several other names
By Reverend Sinthyia Darkness
Part one: A Dream Come True or the Beginning of a Nightmare?
If you Google the words “PublishAmerica scam,” your search will return a plethora of results regarding PublishAmerica LLLP. You will hear from some very unhappy authors. The accusations range from poor book quality, formatting issues, lack of editing, books not sold in brick in mortar book stores, books only being sold to the author and their friends and family, royalties not paid for books sold, nasty and unprofessional emails sent to authors who raised any issues about this company, police being sent to their homes, breach of contract and on and on. There have been numerous complaints filed with RipOff Report.com the Better Business Bureau and the Maryland Attorney General. Even the Washington Post did a story about the questionable practices of this company.
As a journalist, I was contacted by many of these authors who felt that PublishAmerica had dashed their dreams of being a published author. Many have explained to me that once the elation of being accepted by this publisher wore off and reality sunk in, they realized they had made a terrible mistake.
PublishAmerica’s rebuttal in a nutshell has been that these authors are disgruntled, vengeful or just flat out lying. I was inspired by that 2005 article in the Washington Post. The Washington Post article was an as told to piece and I felt this should be taken a step further. I felt there was a valuable story and so I along with fellow journalist, Thomas Myers went undercover to see if any of these claims were true.
I have spent a large portion of my life as a fashion model, and journalist. There are certainly no shortage of modeling scams and have played a role in blowing the whistle on some of those scams and shutting down some pretty shady agencies. I have always had disdain for those who prey on aspiring artists. Just like my undercover work in the modeling biz, I was to blend in and become one of them to find out what was really going on at PublishAmerica. Let me be clear. There was no deception on my end. PublishAmerica did receive a quality book and published it under my legal name. Its not my fault if they didn’t know who I am.
Publish America has made claims that their location is in Baltimore. That is not true. Their location is in Frederick Maryland and actually they are using several addresses. First is the P.O. Box, 151 Frederick MD, 21705-0151. We trace that to 111 E. Church Street 21701, the registered agent according to Maryland’s tax assessment property records is Victor Edward Cretella III, an attorney who worked for just over ten years with the Gordon and Simmons law firm, only to leave his full time position to serve as counsel for PA, a publisher which he had a relationship with for years before leaving the law firm.
The address at 111 East Church street is an apartment complex owned by Murphy and Tobiah LLC. The owners address is listed as 2646 point of Rocks Rd Knoxsville MD 21158-8905.
From there we discover that PA is also using the address of 230 E Patrick Street . Now we’re getting closer to the truth. Its like peeling back layer after layer to get to the bottom of this. This building is a townhouse and was purchased in March of 1998 by Lawrence A. Clopper III and Donna Piazza. Despite the fact that its zoned for residential use, it is being used for commercial purposes and not only by Publish America. All of this information is public and can be found at the Maryland Secretary of State’s office.
PublishAmerica is owned by two parties: Larry Clopper III and Kirk Monroe. Willem Meiners is the president and Miranda Prather the executive director. Miranda Prather is in a league all her own and is no stranger to controversy and scams. In 1997, she gained national attention after having been arrested for faking a hate crime at Eastern New Mexico University. Another article about the incident can be found here . I do believe that this information is relevant to this article as it demonstrates a history and pattern of deception.
Recently, the publisher has attempted to become even more enigmatic by giving a very vague location as per their Facebook page. “Location crossroads of I-70 and I-270, just outside the Washington, DC and Baltimore metropolitan area. Washington DC.”
Why wouldn’t PublishAmerica simply list their mailing address on their Facebook page, instead of opting to give a vague general vicinity? Be that as it may, the address the company refers to is 230 E. Patrick Street, an address it shares with the Artisan’s Cache LLC. Their address is located near the Frederick Airport and is certainly not in Washington D.C.
There are several phone numbers listed for this company.
240-529-1031
301-662-8607
301-695-1707
302-631-9073 (fax)
Nevermind any of that. The only point of contact these authors will ever need to know is support@publishamerica.com. Very little, if any of their business is ever done off of the Internet.
This Exposé spans 4 1/2 years and began in September 2005, when I first contact them about my manuscript “Into The Darkness.” On October 1, 2005, I emailed them a copy of my manuscript and biography. At no point did I ever attempt to hide the fact that I am a journalist and model. In short, my biography was that of a person quite accomplished and not any sort of “unknown.” I signed the query letter with my real name, Sinthyia Darkness. On November 10, 2005, I received the standard Dear Sinthyia Darkness: PublishAmerica has decided to give your book the chance it deserves. We are offering to publish “Into the Darkness”. I had heard all about this letter and its wording would cause an author who had faced numerous rejections, to let go of his or her better judgment.
PublishAmerica raised an issue with the validity of my name, stating that the contract needed to be signed in my legal name. It was time to start creating some legal issues to see just how this company would respond to them. I asserted my name to be Annmarie Crawford which they accepted without question. Considering that this entire process was done by exchange of emails and not so much as a telephone call, you would think that a legal contract would require providing a form of identification. In fact, I was known in the modeling business under that name and although it was not my real name, had they done their research this was further evidence that they were not dealing with an amateur or unknown. Every clue I could have possibly provided them was there. Everything was out in the open.
I signed their ridiculously long 7-year contract for “Into the Darkness,” a collection of short stories about various haunted locations and poetry. I thought no way would any publisher mingle poetry with non-fiction but they did and threw it in the “horror” category. You can view a copy of that contract in the slide show below. Nobody in the industry holds onto these books for anywhere close to 7 years. If a book is going to turn a profit, it would do so within the first few years and thus, standard contracts are only written for 2-3 years. If it takes a publisher 7 years to turn a profit, something is terribly wrong. Because PublishAmerica is a Print on demand publisher, they have virtually no overhead. They haven’t invested much more than an ISBN number, that when purchased in bulk as they do should only cost a few dollars.
I was sent an “author questionnaire” . Its the questionnaire that really raised my eyebrows. I was asked to prepare in spreadsheet format a list of my contacts.
“Please prepare a list (names, and addresses,) of people who know you well enough to be interested in your success as a writer: personal friends, colleagues, relatives, etc., to receive a book announcement. If you would like a copy of the flyer sent to you at the time of the mailing, please don’t forget to include a self addressed label. Please furnish as an e-mail attachment for our files, or print the addresses on white address labels for our direct-mailing use. We will inform your contacts about the upcoming release of your book.
Please limit your list and your labels to a maximum of 100 contacts. Also, please do not include businesses or organizations of any kind, including bookstores, media contacts, or government organizations. Include friends and associates only.”
I did provide them with a few names and email addresses. These were not contacts of friends and family, but instead were accounts we set up specifically to intercept any PublishAmerica announcements. This was done because so many authors have stated that this company never sent out their announcements to the names on their lists and our investigation reached the same conclusion.
It becomes very clear just after signing the contact, just who the target customers are- the authors themselves. However, the way this is worded makes it sound as if these are to be the recipients of the press release, which they are and mind you, the only ones who ever receive one from this publisher. So when you see PublishAmerica boasting on their website about the authors who have gotten media attention, you would think that the publisher had something to do with it-don’t believe it. Those authors who have gotten that far, did so entirely on their own by sending out their own Press Releases. I wrote my own press releases. In 2006, I landed a newspaper interview and a speaking engagement as a result of the press releases that I sent to local papers.
The first speaking engagement was a Halloween event called Nightmare Theatre. However, the event was advertised as a presentation of haunted tales and a book signing. This gave us the chance to investigate some author’s claims that they had to order copies of their own books for book signings and or the books they ordered never arrived. In this particular case, the book signing never happened because PublishAmerica never sent the books that were ordered for the event. Incidentally, my book at it’s release in June 2006, retailed for $16.95. Today, its is being sold on PublishAmerica’s website for $24.95! Would you pay $24.95 for a paperpack that came out four years ago?
Fellow journalist, Thomas Myers who took part in this investigation and who will be writing his articles about PublishAmerica, also experienced life as a PA author. His novel, Avalon’s Eclipse published in 2007 has always been sold for $24.95.
Book tours are arranged by the publishers. Signings are also arranged by the publisher. The only time that these tasks fall to the author is if they are self-published. This offers you proof that PublishAmerica, despite their claims to the contrary, is not a traditional publisher.
Writing your own back cover is mandatory at PublishAmerica. They give you no input with writing this crucial sales pitch. Accept to point you to one of their web pages
“Please prepare back cover text (no more than 150 words for synopsis and 50 words for biography). For examples please visit www.publishamerica.com/blais.html and have a look at the titles there.”
There is only one title there. Interestingly, take a look at the logo on the back cover, this says it was published by AmErica House. This was an old name that PublishAmerica used and ruined. AmErica House was located at 4510 Metropolitan Court Frederick, MD 21704 The PublishAmerica name will probably follow suit and be replaced by their new incarnation Independence Books .
Question Number 12, of this questionnaire asks unseasoned authors how their books should be categorized, sort of like the blind leading the blind.
“Is your book Fiction or Non-Fiction?
In order to place your book in the appropriate category on our website and the other websites, please choose just one of the following more specialized genres:
1. Adventure
2. Children’s
3. Christmas
4. Cooking
5. Education
6. Family
7. Fantasy
9. Gaming
10. Health
11. Historical Fiction
12. Historical Non-Fiction
13. Horror
14. Humor
15. Inspirational
16. International Authors
17. Law Enforcement
18. Mystery
20. Philosophy
21. Poetry
22. Romance
23. Science
24. Sci-Fi
25. Self-Help
26. Short Stories
27. Southern Fiction
28. Southern Non-Fiction
29. Spiritual
30. Suspense
31. Thriller
32. Western
33. Young Adult
34. Other (if not listed)
35. Sports
36. Full-Color Books
37. Drama
38. Autobiography
39. Memoirs
41. African American
42. Business
Number 13 states, ” Please send as hard copy 3 glossy black and white or color prints (5×7″) of a recent photo of yourself. The pictures do not have to be all of the same pose. Be sure the photographer allows reproduction without fee. Please be aware that these photos will be used for the back cover and promotion of your book. These should be quality photographs. You may email these pictures at 600 DPI saved as Tiff, or Jpegs.”
Hard copy of course means a physical copy, but in the same paragraph, PublishAmerica states these may be sent by email and notice they make the point of saying they’re not going to give a penny to any photographer! Thus, a professional photographer would expect compensation if this is to be used for commercial purposes. My two photos were taken by Judi Schira (as noted on my back cover and biography page). Ms. Schira is a professional photographer. PublishAmerica never asked me to produce any releases from the photographer nor had they requested any contact information from Ms. Schira to verify that permission was granted to use her work. Those in the fashion industry are sticklers about that. Absolutely nothing goes to print without signed releases. For all that it mattered to PublishAmerica, I could have simply plucked an image from the Internet and emailed it to them.
To maintain integrity, I informed PublishAmerica back in 2006 that my legal name is Sinthyia Darkness and no attempt was ever made to amend the contract. In order for any contract to be legally binding, it must contain your legal name. Again, I was never asked to provide any identification and although our contact was signed to publish a work by “Annmarie Crawford” called “Into The Darkness” they have been publishing “Our Lady of Darkness” by Sinthyia Darkness.
I received two free copies of my book and was absolutely shocked at all of the typos and errors in it that I hadn’t made.
There is much more to this story and thus necessary to divide this into several parts. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, I was not the only journalist to go undercover for this investigation. I urge you to subscribe to my column so that you will receive news alerts by email when the following segments of this report are published.
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PublishAmerica: The Undercover Investigation- Part 2
Sinthyia Darkness
By Rev. Sinthyia Darkness
and Thomas Myers
Part 2: One For The Money, Two For The Show
You can always tell a great deal about the morals of a company from the morals and actions of its CEO. Willem Meiners is the founder and owner of PublishAmerica. Meiners wrote a website in Dutch to keep his family and friend in Holland updated on his life here in America. He also owned a website written in English called “Hellocopter.” This post on the Dutch blog, does demonstrate Meiners’ lack of respect for our country and those who work for him. This partially translated post made August 21, 2008, offers a glimpse into the true personality of the man behind PublishAmerica and as you can see there is a sharp contrast between the real Willem Meiners and the one represented in his book, “Thank You”
“What, how it is that I man behind desks to eleven o’clock in the morning mn blog to write about? Because there is nothing else to do in the office. I have in the last sixteen months the workforce reduced from 80 to around 55, but since I am not by busier. Rather, more people mean more communication. Fewer people are often more efficient. We have thirty thousand writers under contract and on a beautiful day I thought: you know what, that may itself be a little more so. So now all those correct themselves their new book. Only if they are really a mess of it, we intervene. Scheelt all in all a man or twenty to editors.
For a staff of 55 here we have an unusually large publishing house. Every day hundred to sign new authors, we accept there twenty, and every day we give twenty new books. It is one oiled machine, with its own printing plant. Tampering after nine years still rarely required. Actually the only time where I lost the daily flow of threats of lawsuits in which the lawyer now and then a directive. Welcome to America. It is a country of carriers and complainants. The carriers are world champion. The complainants in the dressing room at either end. They have the effect of flying at a renpaard. A zwaai with the tail does half disappear, the rest remains behind once the race started.
It is obvious a great country. Nowhere else can I collect what I have now in our pockets. A miljoenenwinkel. Two houses, one with its own runway. Four antisocial cars. Private helicopter. Duplicate wereldrecordhouder (triple actually, we also hold the world record books since we sign five years ago a complete shopping mall filled). Three women, although not simultaneously. Oh, and the Yankee cat, Larry the vuilbekgoudvis, and a John Deere tractor grasmaai.
All opschepperij, you say. That’s true, that you learn here soon enough. But it is not a sin if the facts are true. And importantly, it’s all nothing compared to what is still in the barrel. That’s it. Aanvangerscursus. Tipje of the veil: an orphanage. Packed with children where you vadertje and mother may come into play. There are 140 million orphans in the world. Of Alice and I go there to begin a thousand under the arm.”
The content of the English Blog site, Hellocopter.org was diligently removed from the Internet after Meiners was reported to the IRS and investigated for non-profit fraud. Apparently Meiners “donated” $200,000 from himself to himself. Neither our source or we could find out whatever became of this investigation. However, Meiners’ websites did disappear and he stopped soliciting donations.
This is another excerpt from the blog written by Meiners, in which he remarks that staff members actually enjoy being fired by him because of his “cute” foreign accent.
“I have been speaking Dutch with an English accent ever since, like all Hans Brinkers’s who move overseas. We just can’t wrap our mouths around the fat R’s and the meowing Wow’s.
If anything it has generally worked to my advantage; people like foreign accents, they find me sounding cute when I don’t mean to sound cute. Staff prefers to be fired by me because it sounds better (I had one actually hugging me after I gave her the boot), stuff like that. I have stopped overhearing myself a long time ago, I’m never conscious of my own sound anymore, even when in the helicopter you hear your own voice in the headset all the time. Until this video tape. Who the heck wants to listen to this?”
According to the articles of Incorporation, PublishAmerica Inc. was formed by an attorney named William L. Haugh, Jr., located at 30 West Patrick St. Frederick, Maryland 21701 on the 16th of February, 2000. Interestingly, it wasn’t Meiners, nor Larry Clopper who first coined the term “traditional Publishing.” It was in fact Attorney William L. Haugh Jr, who wrote it into their incorporation documents.
“FOURTH: The Corporation is formed for the purpose of carrying on any lawful business, including, but not limited to performing electronic and traditional publishing services for authors, copy writing and establishing web pages.”
“EIGHTH: The number of directors of the corporation shall be two (2)…. The name of the directors are Larry Clopper and Willem Meiners…”
The remainder of the document is just basic legal speak that is compliant with the laws of the state of Maryland.
Mr. Meiners and Mr. Clopper formed Publish America, Limited, Liability, Limited Partnership. Within these documents, they put Publish America, Incorporated in the driver’s seat by listing it as the General Partner of PA LLLP. Therefore, PublishAmerica Inc in the parent company or owner of PublishAmerica LLLP. Neither Meiners nor Clopper according to the legal documents hold any position whatsoever at PublishAmerica LLLP. However, it is obvious that this was a legal strategy to protect Meiners and Clopper from any personal liability that has arisen from their questionable business practices including its debts. One of their debts was to the finance company that owned the “groundbreaking” Print On Demand printing equipment that is at the heart of this publishing company. Last January, their lease was terminated by the finance company for PublishAmerica LLLP’s refusal to pay them and the printing equipment was removed from the building.
This left PublishAmerica in a precarious position indeed because at this same time Lightning Source Inc. Canceled their contract with PublishAmerica leading to court litigation. You can view the legal documents here . Exactly who is publishing their books is anybody’s guess. Makes you wonder what the PublishAmerica author who bought the field trip to the PublishAmerica printing presses for the ” thrill of a lifetime” at the tune at 19 copies of their book.
Lawsuits are nothing new for PublishAmerica. Several authors have sued them through arbitration. Only one that we are aware of won arbitration against PublishAmerica, Mr. Phillip Dolen.
To the person from the PublishAmerica office who pointed out that this is a paranormal column, the bizarre antics of this company does include fear of demonic entities and therefore is worthy of mention in a paranormal column.
PublishAmerica is notorious for sending out “tone” letters to its authors who dare to ask “show me the money.” One of the authors interviewed for this report, stated that his efforts to view his sales records took a very strange turn. He was having an email exchange with the publishing house as a result of being “shorted,” on royalties he had earned. The rep from PublishAmerica further explained to this author that their accounting practices are very vague and not in keeping with standard accounting practices, therefore, the claimant (author) would not see anything that would prove if the royalty statements were correct or not.
“I was offered the chance to audit my records at PA but advised that I would be looking at nothing more than what they sent me in my royalty statement,” said our source. “At that I stated I would have an accountant as my representative audit my records. PublishAmerica via a ‘Shawn’ denied that anyone other than me could audit my records.”
The Arbitrator determined otherwise and said that contract law any representative of the author could audit the records. Mr. Meiners and Victor Cretella admitted the refusing to allow this author’s accountant access to the records was wrong. After a break, attorney Cretella returned with an old Oxford dictionary, mended with tape. He opened the dictionary and argued the definition of “short.” In the definition, there was a reference to an obsolete Old English usage of the word and argued that the word “shorted” may have some vague demonic connotation and Cretella argued that employee Shawn may have viewed the word shorted as being demonic and became so frightened by the author’s use of the word that his refusal to allow this author’s accountant access to audit the records, was the result of his terror. Therefore, it was argued that PublishAmerica should not be held responsible.
The Arbitrator stared at him in disbelief and finally said, “move on.” With that Mr. Cretella waved the dictionary in the air and stated, “Well, there it is if anybody wants to see it.” He placed the book on the floor and that was the last that was heard of PublishAmerica’s demonic defense.
If the PublishAmerica story and its wacky antics ended here, that would be newsworthy enough but it does not end here and neither does its string of lawsuits.
A Florida authors sued PublishAmerica and although losing this case, PublishAmerica’s attorneys went on record to define the legal purpose of the PublishAmerica contract:
“The main purpose of this Contract was to secure an economic advantage, i.e. Revenues from sale of the book for PublishAmerica and royalties for Plaintiff;it was not life or death like a contract for surgery with a doctor, nor do his claims concern a contract to obtain matters of personal enjoyment, e.g. a contract to marry. Since all of Plaintiff’s claims, even the ones purportedly based upon fraud, are based upon the performance or breach of the Contract, emotional distress should not be recoverable. Plaintiff has also failed to allege any claims against the owners of PublishAmerica.
“It Is clear that a shareholder is a separate legal entity from the corporation. . . . As a general principle, this separation of identities is to be respected.” Bitar v. Wakim, 456 Mich. 428, 431, 572 N.W.2d 191, 192 (Mich. 1998). Since Plaintiff’s claims against Lawrence Clopper and Willem Meiners are based upon their ownership of PublishAmerica, and not their participation in any torts committed by their company, Plaintiff’s claims are defective.”
In part three of our investigation, we will be taking a look at the financial issues that PublishAmerica authors have raised, sales solicitations under the guise of “donations,” and more about Meiners’ charity work.
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undercover investigative special report- part 3
PublishAmerica: reporters go undercover to investigate author’s allegations
By Reverend Sinthyia Darkness
and Thomas Myers
Part 3: show me the money
PublishAmerica authors have repeatedly raised the issue of nonpayment of royalties earned. Does PublishAmerica really treat authors “the old fashioned way?” Do they pay them? The conclusion we reached as a result of this investigation is no. Firstly, PublishAmerica books are way too expensive to compete with others of the same genre and the same quality. My book for this investigation was 171 pages in length, was printed in paperback format and contained one black and white promotional photograph of myself at the front of the book. At its release, my book retailed for $19.95 and today sells on PublishAmerica’s website for $24.95.
Thomas Myers’ book, Avalon’s Eclipse was placed under contract on July 31, 2007 and released October 13, 2008, contains 223 pages, is also paperback, has no photos of any kind in its pages and has always been sold at an unbelievable $24.95. With PublishAmerica’s business model, the only one profiting is the publisher. If books at this price were ever available at discount outlets like Wal-Mart sitting beside similar books costing less than half the price, how many copies do you think would sell? When you consider that the cost of producing each copy is equal to or slightly below what PublishAmerica currently charges to ship a single copy, you will see the enormous profit they are earning from every sale.
Neither reporter involved in this investigation feels cheated. Our only expectation when going into this investigation was uncovering deception. No sour grapes here. This mission was a success. We are glad to do this and hope that some good will come of it.
During this investigation, we encountered people who truly deserve to be authors. They deserve to have a good publisher. Some authors documented horrific life events in their books. This was supposed to be their triumphant moment. Others overcome their obstacles and went on life’s journey to help others. PublishAmerica has published books by many ministers who will not be able to spread the word of God as far as they had hoped. PublishAmerica has affected the lives of those who come from many backgrounds, professions, ethnicity, religion and thus I am not only an investigative reporter but also a minister called by God called to help others. If you have been to my website, then you already know about my reports on various Internet scams written as a public service.
Many authors complained about amateurish looking book covers. However, to PublishAmerica’s credit, I felt my book cover and design looked great. As for the quality of Thomas’ book, he will discuss that and much more in his upcoming article.
By far one of the biggest complaints about this publisher is not that the books are not selling but that PublishAmerica cheating them out of royalties that the authors know they have earned. It is one thing to give these books the “chance they deserve”. It is another matter to give the author the credit that he or she deserves and has earned.
Since 2006, my book that was offered for this investigation, only sold 3 copies according to PublishAmerica. Oddly enough, 50 copies were ordered for the Halloween event and never arrived. Right now, new and used copies are being sold on the Internet.
In March 2009, I announced my candidacy for mayor of Miami-Dade. This made national news and was quite the novelty since I was the first known paranormal investigator to run for public office. One news outlet in particular, stooped to an all time new low, proclaiming that I was running for “goth” mayor, rather than accurately reporting that a Native American was a mayoral candidate. Nonetheless, this all added to the buzz and sensationalism of the story.
It was only then that I was contacted by telephone from an employee of PublishAmerica. They expressed interest in arranging book signings. I was and still am on the “Up In Lights” page on the PublishAmerica website, listed as one of their “celebrity authors.” I provided PublishAmerica with a list of a few contacts who might have been interested in a book signing. There was of course no mention of exactly who would pay for these books but make no mistake, it wasn’t going to be me. From a business perspective, why waste manpower to arrange for a book signing for a book that supposedly only sold 3 copies within two years and two months?
Nothing ever came of this and I was informed that either they were unable to reach management or declined. That’s pretty bad if nobody wants to hold a book signing for a mayoral candidate in a city as large as Miami. When we visited booksellers and inquired about PublishAmerica (none of which stocked PublishAmerica books on their shelves) the booksellers said that they did not hold author events for self-published or POD authors.
We tested these finding three times for this report. I submitted a second proposal to PublishAmerica which they accepted. Why would any publisher agree to publish a second book by an author whose first book only sold three copies? A letter to PublishAmerica asking these questions was never answered. Invoking paragraph 24 of the contract also received no response. There is something to be said for the fact that their contact clearly states that if public demand no longer warrants the production of a book, that the publisher may discontinue publication and revert the rights back to the author. One would think three copies sold in 4 years, more than merits the discontinuation.
Just how are PublishAmerica’s royalties handled? This is a good indication. One of PublishAmerica’s former employees, has a blog here . Darcy was an employee for about three years and although PublishAmerica demanded that she remove this blog, and apologize, her post was archived and referenced for this report.
“Darcy’s Place
Yet another journal-type place for Darcy to rant, rave, and/or recuperate from the world.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Job Rant, etc.
My situation stands thus:
I was originally hired in my current company’s customer service-like department. This was okay, but I did not enjoy the phone work.
One of the two IT people at the time resigned from her job, so I volunteered to take on some of her duties, which made the job more interesting and me more enthusiastic about coming to work.
I was then moved out of the customer service department, and kind of straddled two different departments–the Public Relations and IT departments. I kept the tasks that I’d volunteered for, didn’t have any phone work, and was given PR work to do as well. This situation was also good to me, so I was perfectly okay with that change.
After a while, the IT department became more full-fledged, and the PR work was taken from me. In addition, the person who created and managed our author and royalties databases (I work in a book publishing company) resigned his position to go back to school.
I “inherited” the administration of those two databases when he left. This worried me, since I had minimal knowledge of the software (SQL Server and MSAcess), and do not know how to troubleshoot some of the more complex issues that may pop up (and sometimes have popped up).
I’m almost certain (it’s been at least a year and a half since) that when I was asked to take over the author and royalties databases, I mentioned my lack of confidence that I could do that work, but my boss asked me to take the work anyway.
We pay royalties out every six months, in February and August, and the calculation process takes two days working in MSAcess if I put all of my other tasks on the back-burner.
The first time I went through the process by myself (the previous person had shown me how to do it six months before, and left documentation for the process–which is not a perfectly-programmed process by any means) I had to re-do it due to errors. I did not mind this, since I was not certain I had gone through the process properly.
Six months later, the process went through without a hitch, but due to the poor design of the author database, we have had problems with our calculations for the 1099s which were to be sent out. All through this extremely frustrating calculation and re-calculation of the 1099s, one of my bosses (I have three) kept saying things (for which I have documentation through e-mail) like, “It’s not rocket science,” and such. When I suggested that, before this years 1099s are due in January 2010, the author and royalties databases/procedures should be completely re-designed in order to streamline the process and ensure accuracy, I was shot down.
This month, when I went through the process the first time, starting February 1st, I followed the instructions exactly, but there was an issue due to price mark-ups we had had in September–the sales reports we’d received from our distributor had the price for the product during the month it was sold, but the royalties database only shows the current price–the discount percentages were incorrect on the statements made through that process.
In order to correct the error, I suggested that the discount percentages be re-calculated to reflect the new prices, and my bosses agreed, so I went through the two-day process again last Monday and Tuesday. At the end of the process, I always run a query to figure the total amount of royalties paid. Due to my missing a query (and not knowing which one at the time, so I couldn’t go back to fix it easily), and the realization that there was a set of data from Great Britain in August 2007 in there, when what was really needed was from August 2008, I needed to start that process again, even though the total royalties came to a number that the bosses had expected.
So, I went through the process a third time, last Thursday and Friday (yes, twice in one week), and everything seemed to go without a hitch. I even checked a few of the results against the raw data, and the calculations were correct as far as I could tell. But the total was nearly twice the one I’d given my bosses the second time I went through the process. To me, this was expected, due to the price mark-up and the number of new books we’d put into print in the last six months. However, they declared it “unacceptable,” and decided to send the royalties statements from the second run instead of the third, pulling all of the statements for books that had had sales in Great Britain to be fixed separately.
Since I’ve done a two-day, labor-intensive process three times in the last two weeks, I have been completely stressed. This is only one example of the tasks I’m expected to do, but simply don’t have the advanced training for.
I’ve attempted in the past, with increasing desparation {sic} , to find a new job for which I actually have the skills but will at least pay the same amount as I currently make, but have come across some road blocks:
I need to make at least $30,000 per year in order to be able to keep paying my bills. I’ll even settle for exactly $30K, since that’s $500 more per year than I make now.
I do not have a college degree, but do have a lot of the other skills required listed on some of the job postings I have read which require college degrees.
I am not sure when I would be able to go to an interview for a new job–my current employers require at least 10 days’ notice to take vacation time, but I have no way of knowing in advance when (or even if) I’ll be contacted for an interview, and have no intention of telling my current employers that I’m going for interviews (or anything like that) until I’ve actually got a new job lined up.
If I do manage to schedule and attend an interview, and am then offered a job, I will have to give two weeks’ notice at my current job, and therefore will not be able to start the new job until two weeks after it is offered. I’m not sure that prospective employers would agree to wait two weeks to have someone fill the positions they’re offering.
My current job has not been a good fit for me for over a year, but in my current job search (since it’s not smart to quit without another job lined up), I basically feel trapped where I am. I don’t know what to do, but I just cannot stay in my current job and go through another royalties calculation period.”
After PublishAmerica got wind of this public post, Darcy was made to apologize and she did in her “Un-rant,” dated February 23, 2009
“Man, was I wrong about what I wrote earlier. I’d had a crappy day — make that a crappy week, and off the handle I went. Happens to the best of us, especially when you have to also squeeze in your sister’s wedding, as I did…”
“I’m still not comfortable with these databases, which is why I’m going to ask my bosses to give me something else to do, and I’m actually pretty confident that they’ll honor that, as they always have in the past. Case in point, when I first mentioned my reluctance a year ago, they hired a PhD consultant to help get me on track.”
A PhD consultant at PublishAmerica? Clearly, we see evidence of PublishAmerica’s damage control. This was a drasticlly different image of the company than the one she painted in complete disarray just five days prior.
Darcy was terminated from PublishAmerica on Monday September 14th 2009. No word on if she hugged Meiners after listening to him say “you’re fired” in his self-proclaimed “cute foreign accent.”
Over the years, email boxes have been flooded with solicitations to purchase copies of our own books. There have been “donations” to Tom Hanks, Stephen King, Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Wal-Mart, Barnes and Noble, unnamed military personnel, the Haiti disaster relief fund, the Get Caught up reading literacy program, the ASPCA (for which they would call the news media over a $2 donation), the field trip to the PublishAmerica office ” It is the thrill of a lifetime” would cost authors 19 copies.
Of course in order to qualify for any of these “donations” you must purchase copies of your own book. Retail stores are not charities by any stretch of the imagination. As for the bone-fide charities, why didn’t publishAmerica just go ahead and make a donation to the literacy fund, to Haiti or to the military? Why indeed, that wouldn’t equate to more book sales for PublishAmerica.
The Get Caught Reading campaign of the Association of American Publishers included adding your work to an anthology titled “Why We Wrote,” that founder Willem Meiners authored the introduction to about what inspired you to become an author. PublishAmerica authors were invited to purchase an E-file of the introduction at .99 for inspiration. That link was found here but has since been removed. Authors were told not to expect any compensation for their work.
“By submitting your essay you irrevokably {sic} authorize PublishAmerica, LLLP, at its sole discretion, to include it in the book “Why We Wrote” without compensation for you in any manner at any time, and to include it in any and all promotional activities and/or publications in any form or format that benefit the book and/or literacy advocacy and/or PublishAmerica who reserve the right to refuse or edit for spelling, grammar, or size.”
We wondered why authors were not receiving any type of payment and this does tell you that this company targets those who they feel are satisfied with merely seeing their name in print.
PublishAmerica justified not paying the 1,000 authors who offered use of their work believing that this Why We Wrote set, was being used to generate money for charity.
“For each sold copy of Why We Wrote a donation will be made to the Get Caught Reading campaign of the Association of American Publishers, of which PublishAmerica is a long-standing member. “
Our investigative team responded by asking PublishAmerica exactly how much of a donation were they making to the literacy campaign. By the way, it is a charitable tax deduction for PublishAmerica so in the grand scheme of things, PublishAmerica is earning 100% profit from these “donation” sales incentives.
This was their response:
“Thank you for your email. Please be advised that we do not provide the donation information.”
We responded by saying ” You should provide the donation information. The authors who are making these purchases and lending their work are going to want to know exactly how much of the money is going to this fund. Considering they are involved in the project, it is their legal right to know.”
We received no further response about the matter.
Furthering our investigation, we contacted Ms. Tina Jordan, Vice President of the Association of American Publishers to verify whether or not PublishAmerica has in fact made any charitable donations per every book sold, as they told these authors there would be. Ms. Jordan had this to say,
“Publish America has not donated to Get Caught Reading and we have not heard from them.”
Nonetheless, the entire four volume set of “Why We Wrote” is now for sale on the PublishAmerica website for $39.95 plus shipping or $24.95 per copy plus shipping.
” Product Description
All 4 volumes for only $39.95!
This is the world’s first representative survey of what makes Main Street writers tick. As in: really tick.
A thousand authors answered four simple questions:
*Why did you write?
*How did it change your life?
*How did it change the life of others?
*What about people who can’t read?
In four volumes of this book, regular folks who over the years joined almost fifty thousand other PublishAmerica writers to become a published author, open a thousand windows into their minds and hearts.
Together they issue a uniquely inspiring message of dreams, drive, and determination.
Over the span of only one decade, PublishAmerica’s authors have touched a million lives, and then some. They are the ABC’s most effective advocates. What they’re saying is that America’s Main Street readers and writers can, and do, change a world.
Willem Meiners, co-founder of PublishAmerica.”
Conspicuously missing from this webpage is a mention, even as sales incentive, that any portion of the sale will be donated to a charity. Why wouldn’t this be made public knowledge?
We confirmed that Get Caught Reading has never been contacted by PublishAmerica and this raises the question: Do any of these charities ever receive any benefit and furthermore, does PublishAmerica readily donate to any real charities? The conclusion that we arrived at, as a result of this investigation says no. As part of this investigation, PublishAmerica’s Executive Director, Miranda Prather was contacted about arranging for celebrity book reviews and possible donation of books to charities.
“M.N. Prather wrote:
Good morning, Ms. Pennington: We do entertain media review copy requests as well donation requests
for charitable organizations. Can you please let me know a bit more about the charities you and your brother currently support?
Thanks,
Miranda
Miranda N. Prather
Executive Director
PublishAmerica
www.publishamerica.com”
The requester’s response did provide a list of legitimate charities including bone marrow research, a literacy program, a couple of children’s hospitals and a request for a book donation to a church. The requester stated that a celebrity wanted to read some of PublishAmerica’s books. This requester never heard from anyone at PublishAmerica again.
If you have considered entering a contract with PublishAmerica, you must also have read some author’s complaints about not being paid for books sold or that the publisher does not promote their authors. Author’s also claim that they have spent in some cases, thousands of dollars to promote their own books.
PublishAmerica sends frequent sales pitches to their authors, incentives to get them to buy copies of their books, such as “donations” to Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Wal-Mart and the list goes on. But is any of this true? Many are sceptical. Perhaps the scepticism comes from PublishAmerica again selling copies of books to their authors to qualify for a submission to the New York Times Book Review ! Minimum size order for the slim chance of this review was 12 copies.
” We will ship your books to you, and we will donate an EXTRA up to five copies to the New York Times Book Review , at no cost to you or the New York Times. “
Since when are review copies called a “donation?” Good luck trying to charge the New York Times shipping fees on unsolicited books.
PublishAmerica blames the failures of its books on its authors. Whenever an author complains PublishAmerica defends the allegations by saying the authors are either lying or failed to promote their work. Authors whom we have interviewed say they have spent hundreds even thousands of dollars on marketing their books and are asking PublishAmerica show me the money. PublishAmerica brags about the media attention its authors receive, its reviews, the celebrities who request their books but is the truth? We wanted to see what happens when the news media comes knocking on their door.
What happens if a reviewer actually contacts this publisher about a particular author or a media inquiry in general? Let’s face it, media coverage can make or break a writer’s career. It appears that few author’s published with this company are well reviewed. Reviewers have refused to review a book published by PublishAmerica. Despite this, I genuinely enjoy shining the spotlight on an aspiring writer and thought about all of the authors on the PublishAmerica message board who are asking fellow aspiring authors for review. I hold true to my belief that many authors contracted by PublishAmerica do deserve to be authors.
Our investigators visited their website for their review policy and found a statement pertaining to reviews on their website here.
Does PublishAmerica provide complimentary review copies?
Can bookstores receive them? PublishAmerica provides complimentary review copies to legitimate media reviewers who submit their request in writing. As per contract, this is done at our discretion. Please have any potential reviewer e-mail support@publishamerica.com or fax 301-631-9073 with his or her request. If you have any e-mail correspondence with a reviewer, you may also forward that to the above e-mail address.
PublishAmerica responded to the following issues on their website:
“PublishAmerica does publicize and promote individual books in many different ways, including sending free copies to reviewers, magazines, newspapers, television, and radio programs. We also do direct mail campaigns, make announcements to major national reviewers and their organizations, attend trade shows, etc, and conduct workshops and discussion groups at these events.
These efforts have helped to generate hundreds and hundreds of feature articles and/or reviews about our authors and their books, some of which are posted on our web site.”
We were sceptical and as a part of our investigation, PublishAmerica was contacted by myself as a reporter hoping to review and interview some of their authors. Every author deserves a break and as a member of the news media contacted support@publishAmerica.com about worthy candidates for an interview.
I sent them a letter of inquiry and I did receive a very polite response from Shawn Street from the PR department with an offer to send me several author’s Press Releases. Of these, I chose to review for my column, a book that looks most promising titled ‘The Order of Spirits by Dr. Larry A King D.B.S. I was looking forward to reading this book, reviewing it for my religious and spirituality column and sharing it with my congregation. Mr. Street, sent me this reply:
If you would be so kind, please send your request for a review copy to our Author Support Team at support@publishamerica.com. That department handles all orders, including review copies.
Have a great day.
Shawn Street
Public Relations
PublishAmerica
shawns@publishamerica.com
Despite this confusion within their company, I again contacted support. The next day, I received, to my utter most surprise this letter:
“Thank-you for your request. At this time we are unable to approve your request for a complimentary review copy of the title ‘The Order of Spirits’ by Dr. Larry A King, D.B.S. If you would like to place an order for this book please visit our online bookstore at www.publishamerica.net or call our author support team at (301) 695-1707.
Have a nice day,
Kristen
PublishAmerica support
kristen@publishamerica.com
When I could finally lift my jaw up off the floor, I responded to this shocking email. I asked why they were denying books to the news media and reminded them (as they are already fully aware) that reviewers do not pay for their books to review. Author’s shouldn’t either. The impression I was given is that this publisher does not care about having their books reviewed and is unwilling to make an investment in their authors, but more than willing to sell copies to reviewers and authors. This is why you never seldom see PublishAmerica books reviewed by those other than fellow PublishAmerica authors. Our investigation teal was left wondering if authors were willing to buy 12 copies of their books, if this publisher would arrange for a “donation” to the news media.
PublishAmerica does make misleading statements like this one:
“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 in both the United States and Europe through all bookstores. PublishAmerica offers a distinctly personal, supportive alternative to vanity presses and less accessible publishers.”
As this article demonstrates, they do not promote their authors. In fact, denying them the chance for media coverage is sabotage. Notice their careful wording here “through all bookstores,” is much different than in all bookstores.
Part 4 in this series will examine more charity work involving Helicopter Explorers for Life Partnerships, Advanced Helicopter Youth Foundation and the helicopter crash that has impacted the PublishAmerica empire and much more.
___________________________________________
By Rev. Sinthyia Darkness
The real face of PublishAmerica. What they are and what they are not
It is widely accepted that Larry Clopper and Willem Meiners had incorporated PublishAmerica. Let's examine who owns PublishAmerica and who does not. In this report, before we go any further into the bizarre world of PublishAmerica, we're going to take a peek under the corporate veil.
The phrase "Traditional publishing" was coined by William L. Haugh, Jr, by way of PublishAmerica's original incorporation documents, in article number four. As of the date of incorporation, Mr. Haugh's address is listed as 30 West Patrick Street, Suite 330, Frederick, Maryland 21701. Although Haugh was hired to create PublishAmerica, he is still the creator and owner of the corporation. Mr. Haugh is also listed as the registered agent.
The name of the corporation is " PUBLISHAMERICA, INC., " a close corporation.
"The corporation is formed for the purpose of caring {sic} on any lawful business, including, but not limited to performing electronic and traditional publishing services for authors, copy writing and establishing web pages."
Traditional publishing services is not the same thing as traditional publisher and was most certainly was not meant to be used in the manner in which PublishAmerica uses the term today. These terms are not interchangeable. By using the phrase "Traditional publishing services" Mr. Haugh is simply making the distinction between electronic publishing services and all other types of publishing services. This means all publishing services that are not electronic. He makes this distinction by calling the other publishing services "traditional publishing services."
PublishAmerica however, has gone on to distort the original phrase and the company has been using the term "traditional publisher" thus creating the illusion in everyone's mind that their services are not Print on Demand and that they are in the league of publishing houses like Random House. Everybody is familiar with that name even if you aren't savy about publishing. Haugh is clearly saying "traditional publishing services" and those include commercial publishing, vanity publishing and all other publishing methods that are not electronic. He could have chosen another word besides "traditional" and probably should have.
Nonetheless, performing publishing services for authors is not the same as being a commerical book publisher either. This looks like from the very beginning, PublishAmerica was created to print books for authors. A Vanity Press is defined as "...a commercial publisher's intended market is the general public, a vanity publisher's intended market is the author." There is no word or phrase in PublishAmerica's incorporation document, that establishes this corporation as a commercial publisher.
One author interviewed for the report was told personally by Meiners that their intent was to sell books to authors. Meiners said that the on-line sales were "just gravy" but it soon turned into a nightmare of accounting problems as evidenced by Darcy's blog posts.
A commercial book publisher would never say that they are providing printing or publishing services for authors, but Kinkos would. Thus, when you look closely at PublishAmerica's own articles of incorporation, their business is described as a vanity press.
If you Google the term "Vanity Press" you will find descriptions that match that of PublishAmerica's definition of their company in their incorporation documents.
How do Meiners and Clopper fit into the PublishAmerica picture? They were named as directors.
"...name of the directors who shall act until the first meeting or until their successors are duly chosen and qualified are Larry Clopper, whose address is 1080 West Patrick Street, Suite 200, Frederick, Maryland 21703 and William Meiners, whose address is 208 Crestview Court, Frederick, Maryland 21702."
Behold the corporate veil in article Eleven.
A CLOSE CORPORATION
ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION
OF
PUBLISH AMERICA, INC.
THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT:
FIRST: The undersigned, William L. Haugh, Jr., whose address is 30 West Patrick Street, Suite 330, Frederick,
Maryland 21701, being at least eighteen (18) years of age, does hereby form a corporation under the general laws of the State
of Maryland.
SECOND: The name of the corporation (which is hereinafter called the "Corporation") is: PUBLISHAMERICA, INC.
THIRD: The Corporation shall be a Close Corporation as authorized and regulated by Title 4 of the Corporations and Associations Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland.
FOURTH: The corporation is formed for the purpose of caring on any lawful business, including, but not limited to performing electronic and traditional publishing services for authors, copy writing and establishing web pages.
FIFTH: The address of the principle office of the corporation in this State is 208 Crestview Court, Frederick, Maryland 21702.
SIXTH: The resident agent of the corporation is William L. Haugh, Jr., 30 West Patrick Street, Suite 330, Frederick, Maryland 21702. The resident agent is a citizen of and resides in the State of Maryland.
SEVENTH: The total number of shares of stock which the corporation has authority to issue is One Thousand (1,000) shares at One Dollar ($1.00) par value per share.
EIGHT: The number of directors of the Corporation shall be two (2) which number may be increased or decreased pursuant to the bylaws of the corporation, and so long as there are less than three (3) stockholders, the number of directors may be less than three (3) but not less than the number of stockholders, and the name of the directors who shall act until the first meeting or until their successors are duly chosen and qualified are Larry Clopper, whose address is 1080 West Patrick Street, Suite 200, Frederick, Maryland 21703 and William Meiners, whose address is 208 Crestview Court, Frederick, Maryland 21702.
NINTH:(a) The corporation reserves the right to make any amendment of the charter, now or hereafter authorized by law, including any amendment which alters the contract rights, as expressly set forth in the charter, or any shares of outstanding stock.
(b)Except as otherwise provided in the charter or by the bylaws of the corporation, as from time to time amended, the business of the corporation shall be managed under the direction of its stockholders, who shall have and may exercise all of the powers of the corporation.
TENTH: No holders of shares of any class shall have any preemptive right to subscribe to or purchase any additional, shares of any class; provided, however, that the stockholders may, in authorizing the issuance of shares of stock of any class, confer any preemptive right that the stockholders may deem advisable in connection with such issuance.
ELEVENTH: To the maximum extent that Maryland law in effect from time to time permits limitation of the liability of directors and officers, no director or officer of the corporation shall be liable to the corporation for money damages. Neither the amendment or appeal of this Article shall apply to or effect in any respect the applicability of the previous sentence with respect to any act or failure to act which occurred prior to such amendment, repeal or adoption.
IN WITNESS WHEROF, I have signed these Articles of Incorporation and acknowledge the same to be my act on this 16th day of February 2000.
William L. Haugh, Jr.
MY AUTHOR, MY CUSTOMER:
Many of you recall that our investigative report left off at part three. Shortly thereafter, the Examiner received a Cease and Desist letter signed as Victor Cretella written on PublishAmerica letterhead. Any attorney should know that the Examiner cannot be held legally responsible for anything that its reporters publish and in fact states so on the news outlet's website. We have never received any communication from PublishAmerica or Mr. Cretella outside of what was forwarded to me by the Examiner News. The documents they received included a copy of our contract along with my Social Security number. One would think that no attorney would conduct themselves in this manner and the letter was obviously not worded in the manner in which an attorney would have written it. I have been in touch with an attorney about this matter, and as a result cannot say anything else publicly about the matter at this time. I can say that I still do write for the Examiner News.
The only direct contact we have with PublishAmerica are the "dear author" letters that continue to pour in.
"Dear author:
One day only. Final deep discount sale this summer.
All softcovers 65 pct off.
Go to www.publishamerica.net, find your softcover, use this discount coupon: SixtyFive. Minimum order volume is 2 copies. Use the coupon on your softcover only. All non-softcover orders under the SixtyFive coupon will not be processed, so you'll be wasting your money if you try.
Be very quick, this is the time to stock up on cheap books. Offer expires tomorrow.
Thank you,
--PublishAmerica Bookstore"
There was another recent solicitation that ended with "so you'll be losing your money if you try."
One can only infer from these statements that the customer {the author} would neither receive the books they ordered nor any refund. Most online stores have a system where their sales coupons expire so if you attempt to use them, they will be automatically rejected before the order goes through. That doesn't sound like that is the case with PublishAmerica. This sounds like take the money first, worry about everything else later. This ad is only for those who did not pay them to make the "PAperbacks" available. I just saw that they jacked the price of my "softcover" book up to 29.95! For a 171 page paperback that was released four years ago.
T.R Myers who participated in this investigation, authored a book which is also jacked up to 29.95. There is no way anyone can justify charging that much for a cheap paperback. They offer the authors this 65% off discount coupon that knocks off $38, but then they tack on an outrageous shipping charge of 7.98! (international 24.00). So the total for what sounds like a great deal, buys you two cheap payperback books for $28.94. Just for the record "softcover" and "paperback" means the same thing in the publishing world. If you compare these books side by side as we have, you will see that there is absolutely no difference. There is no way that these authors can possibly compete at these prices. Its not like they can ever sell these for more than what they paid and under this business model, the only one profiting is PublishAmerica.
That was the way that it was designed to be as we just learned from their articles of incorporation. PublishAmerica has parted the curtains but it is up to the authors to take a good long look at what's behind them. PublishAmerica continues to stay afloat due to the authors who who refuse to look. PA never intended to sell books to anyone other than their authors. Why would they, when they made no money from retail sales and would have had to handle all of those orders.
Even selling books to just their authors poses a problem for PublishAmerica. They sell books to authors and instead of printing and sending the books, they use the money for themselves. Then they run a new gimmick, the "dear author" letters and use some of the money generated from the new letters to print and send the old outstanding book orders. That's why many authors complain of the long wait time to receive the books they have ordered. This was a recent complaint on the PA message board. Most likely this has already been removed or the thread closed.
"Has anyone had issues with receiving a book order? I have ordered over 100 books-this is week nine since I've placed the order and I have no book yet? I have discussed the issue with representatives at author support-they instruct me that they are looking into it and i should call back in a few days to see what the status is. Can anyone tell me their experience?"
Any company who owes you a product that you paid for nine weeks ago, should be making every effort to call you back and not the other way around. That's proper customer service. Authors who don't complain never receive their books. Those who do complain are usually ignored or banned from the PublishAmerica message board. If it takes this publisher nine weeks to fulfill a book order, that speaks to the current status of this company.
In a public Corporation Disclosure Statement PA stated: "Publish America, LLLP has no parent corporation. Its partners include America House Publishing Company, LLC, Book Publishing, LLLP and Publish America, Inc. Its general partner is Publish America, Inc."
In 2006 America House Publishing Company, LLC donated $100,000 to Helicopter Explorers for Life Partnerships, Inc.{HELP}, a nonprofit organization. This money helped finance the HELLOCOPTER trip around North and South America. One of Meiners' companies donated $100,000 to Meiners' nonprofit organization whose work has been only to the benefit of Meiners or so the documents indicate.
Where would America House Publishing Company, LLC get $100,000 when they do not carry on any business? Since Meiners could not legally donate money to himself it could not have come directly from him. Someone had to give or pay America House Company, LLC. The only logical conclusion that can be drawn from this is that the $100,000 came from PA.
Last year the IRS did audit HELP and thereafter it ceased to function. During such examination, the IRS would have followed the donations back to the source. And it would be of great interest to the IRS as to how the donors handled this money on their own tax returns.
Late in 2009, after things seemed to start to disintegrate at PublishAmerica, Meiners merged America House Publishing Company, LLC into America House Publish Company, Inc. Considering this, it would come as no surprise to learn PA has found themselves in a tax trouble. Meiners abrupt departure from the company could indicate that he became the sacrificial lamb because he created the whole mess or that he bailed while he still could.
Contrary to public opinion the IRS does not want to send tax cheats to prison, their goal is to get them to pay the taxes owed plus interest and penalties. Usually, when people are sentenced to prison for tax issues, its usually because they are involved in other crimes that the government cannot prove.
In part 5 of our continuing series about PublishAmerica, we will take a closer look at Willem Meiners HELLOCOPTER and Helicopter Explorers for Life Partnerships charities.
