Meet the Real PublishAmerica

 

(Please note that I have no control over the advertisements which may appear on this site, nor does their presence imply endorsement on my part.)

If you type "PublishAmerica" into any search engine, you're likely to find a whole lot of pages devoted to it.  PublishAmerica (or "PA") tends to create strong reactions among those who have any familiarity with it. 

Some sites support PublishAmerica and show great appreciation for the service it provides.  Many others provide scathing accusations and an alarming level of hatred.  Either way, the rhetoric flies.

My name is Betsy Markman, and I am a PublishAmerica author.  If you're interested in knowing more about my book, please check out my other website, http://www.freewebs.com/dying_for_answers . 

I did not research PublishAmerica thoroughly before submitting my manuscript to them.  I took my information strictly from PublishAmerica's own website.  After my contract was signed and my book was well into the publication process, I decided to do a Google search just out of curiosity.

I soon found myself confused and frightened by the negatives I encountered.  I really didn't know what to think.  Had I made a mistake by contracting with PublishAmerica?  How was I to really know? 

Did PublishAmerica's supporters suffer from a dangerous level of naivete' and ignorance?

Did PublishAmerica's detractors ruin their credibility by their excessive rhetoric?  Were their complaints merely the "sour grapes" of authors with unrealistic expectations?

My book came out in late December, and I am thrilled with it.  So far, everyone who has read it seems to feel the same way.  But I have begun to experience some of the same sorts of concerns that PublishAmerica's detractors had warned about.  Do these concerns prove the detractors right, or do they simply represent a little "bump in the road" that I need to get over? 

I don't want to be a "knee jerk" kind of person.  I want to be reasonable and open-minded.  I also want to be helpful to other authors, giving them the facts they need to be able to make informed decisions for themselves.

And so this site was born.  I intend to put no rhetoric on it whatsoever.  I want to offer something different, so here's what I'm going to do.  I am going to copy all of my correspondences with PublishAmerica from now on, and post them here for anyone to see.  I will not editorialize.  I will not embellish.  I will simply display what I wrote to PublishAmerica, and will post their responses verbatim.  In this way I can inject no bias one way or the other.

I sincerely hope that this site will provide a voice of reason in what has become a very impassioned debate.

(For the sake of clarity, I will post my writings in this color, and PublishAmerica's responses in  GOLD.)

March 8, 2006

(Sent to Author Support)

Hello,

First let me tell you that several people have commented on the wonderful book cover that you designed for Dying for Answers.  I love it, and evidently others are impressed as well.

I am hoping that you can alleviate some concerns that I have.  I recently made an attempt to set up my first book signing at a bookstore, but I was immediately and forcefully rebuffed.  The manager had some very disturbing things to say, and I’m hoping you will prove them wrong.

He said that he had done a PublishAmerica author’s book signing before, and that it was a very painful experience which he will never repeat.  He said that PA will not sell to bookstores inexpensively enough to make it worth their while.  He said that “no bookstore takes PA seriously,” and even said that PA was “impossible to deal with.”  He also said that the high cover price would deter buyers.

I would like to write his comments off as some sort of “sour grapes,” but unfortunately I have read postings by other PA authors who experienced the same difficulty.  And I have had some potential buyers express shock at my book’s cost, even though I’m selling it at well below cover price, so I know that the price really is an issue.  All of this has left me wondering what to do.

I’m hoping that you can allay my concerns (and those of the store managers I approach) by answering the following questions:

 

-In what ways do you help authors conduct successful book signings?

-How much of a discount do bookstores receive from PA?

-I just went and looked through the PA site again, and I read that,

 “Our books are returnable. This means that a bookstore can return an unsold book to his wholesaler. There are a few exceptions to this rule, such as full-color picture books…” 

The term “such as” implies that there are other exceptions, but I couldn’t find a definitive list of exceptions on your site.  Perhaps I just overlooked it.  Could you give me the definitive list?  I think store managers would be more willing to hold signings if I could honestly assure them that they could return unsold copies of Dying for Answers, and that it is definitely not an exception.

-Is the bookstore’s discount the same if they purchase through Ingram?  If not, what is it?

 

Armed with a list of reassuring, thorough, and clear answers to these questions, I would feel much more confident approaching bookstores to set up signings.  I look forward to your response in the hopes that, by working together, PA and I can really give my book the “chance it deserves” (as you said in your acceptance letter.)

Thank you,

 

March 13, 2006

 

(Sent to Author Support)

Hi there,

I sent you an e-mail entitled, “Questions and Concerns” back on the eighth.  Since I have yet to receive any response or acknowledgement, I was concerned that the e-mail might have been lost in cyberspace.

In case it was lost, I’m pasting a copy of it below.

(I inserted a copy of the letter here.)

 

 

(From Author Support)

Dear Ms. Markman:

Thank you for your e-mail and kinds words (I have forwarded your message to your cover designer).

We do have purchase order agreements with retailers such as Barnes and Nobles, Borders, Waldenbooks, Amazon.com, etc., so we deal with them on a daily basis.  We have no control over the opinions of any particular regional manager, but if you know of any party interested in your book that has experienced any difficulties, please have them contact us (301-695-1707) and we will try to help them out to the best of our ability.

We help our authors with book signings by making our titles available through the distributors Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Bowker's Books in Print, and Brodat (as well as the aforementioned purchase order agreements we have with certain retailers).

PublishAmerica offers retailer discounts starting at 40 percent.

Our titles are available through Ingram, but we do not have any control over what discounts they set (they are their own company).  Also, your book is listed as returnable in their records.

If you have any other questions, comments or concerns, feel free to contact us back.  Have a great day.

Thank You,
Mike
Author Support Team
miked@publishamerica.com

###

04/09/06

 

(Sent to Author Support)

Hello again,
I received your response to my queries a while ago, and I've taken the time to digest your comments.

(At this point my original letter to PA contained some information which identified a particular bookstore.  I have removed that information at the request of the bookstore.  I was happy to do so, as the information has no bearing on the issues addressed in the rest of the letter.)

In the meantime I have shown your response to a few other authors who have more experience in these matters than I have.  Each has expressed some concerns, and so I'm writing you again.  The major area of concern that I wish to address right now is the question of book signings.  I had asked in what ways PA helps authors conduct successful book signings, and your response was:

"We help our authors with book signings by making our titles available through the distributors Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Bowker's Books in Print, and Brodat (as well as the aforementioned purchase order agreements we have with certain retailers)."

This seems to imply that PA's only contribution is to make the books available for purchase.  Does this mean that the author is 100% responsible for setting up the signing, publicizing it, and providing the books?  Other traditionally-published authors have told me that their publisher took care of all of those details for them, so I just want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly.
Thank you in advance for clarifying this issue.
Sincerely,
Betsy Markman

 

 

4/10/06

 

(Sent to Author Support)

Hello again,

I know I just wrote you yesterday, but I wanted to take a minute and update you today.  It turns out that the manager of the bookstore never received the letter that I mentioned in my previous letter.  Perhaps that was simply meant to be. 

I did have a separate opportunity to speak to a store manager today, one with whom I had never spoken before.  He helped me to clarify what concerns I might want to ask you about.  He said that there were several reasons why bookstores would be reluctant to stock my book and/or host a book signing.  He explained that PA requires the books to be purchased prior to sending them, and he will not buy them up front.  In some cases the author chooses to purchase books himself, but that doesn't really solve all of the problems.  If an author purchases books and wants the store to stock them, those books still have to justify the shelf space that they use up, which means they have to sell well.  In the same way, if the author purchases books and brings them for a signing, the books have to sell well enough to justify the time and effort involved.  In his experience, the books do not sell well enough, largely because the price of the books is prohibitive.  In the past he had spent a great deal of time on the phone trying to iron out issues with PA in an attempt to accommodate some PA authors, and he simply didn't have that kind of time to spend.  I certainly understand.  He has a business to run.  We also discussed the issue of re-stocking fees, which the bookstore must absorb if they return books.  With all of these factors to consider, he said he simply will not deal with PA (or with any other POD publishers).

Now that I have a clearer understanding of the issues at hand, I feel I can present my questions to you a little more intelligently.  What can PA do which will address the bookstore managers' very real concerns about price and marketability and time constraints, and increase my book's chances of actually showing up on bookstore shelves or at a signing?

I look forward to your reply.

Betsy Markman

4/12/06

 

(From Author Support)

Dear Ms. Markman:

Thank you for your e-mail.  The criteria for any particular book signing will depend on each retailer -- each store will simply have their own guidelines and rules for obtaining copies of the book.  If you do know of any retailer with any questions about your book or ordering it, we will be more than happy to talk with them on the phone or in an e-mail.  The time table for setting up the signing will be up to you and the store (you'll be operating on your own schedule, after all, as will the store).

If you have any further questions, please contact me back.  Have a great day.

Thank You,
Mike
Author Support Team
miked@publishamerica.com

 

 

4/13/06

 

(From Author Support)

Dear Ms. Markman:

We make our books available to retailers at discounts starting at 40 percent off.  We always quote a two to four week shipping time; if there is any consideration a retailer would like us to make, they only need to call us to make the request (301-695-1707).

Retailers may also check through distributors such as Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Bowker's Books in Print and Brodart for purchasing consideration.

It is always up to each individual retailer to stock a book (and since they only have so much shelf space, they must, of course, be selective with what they choose to buy).  Please have any interested retailer call us if they have any questions, and we will answer their queries to the best of our ability.  Have a great day.

Thank You,
Author Support Team
support@publishamerica.com

 

 

April 26, 2006

 

(Sent to Author Support)

 

This week I have been in touch with a library that wants very much to stock my book.  This is what they have told me:

 

“I asked the supervisor in charge of fiction the other day about your book.  She said she ordered it in Feb. but has heard nothing more.  So, since I really would like to see it in the library, is there any way you could send a copy to the library, along with a bill or purchase order that she can make a payment for?  It seems she is unable to get the book from anywhere else.” 

 

She mentioned later in the letter that Amazon was one of the places where the library had unsuccessfully placed an order, but she didn’t tell me what other places they had tried.  This sounded very troubling to me, so I wrote back and asked where else they had attempted to purchase the book.  The library replied:

 

“[We tried] Brodart Co., Baker & Taylor and BWI.  None of them had your book available.”

 

As I said, this has been the situation since the first order went out in February, and now it is nearly May.  Please explain to me why the library cannot find my book available in any of the places mentioned above, especially in light of what you told me previously (and I quote):

 

“We help our authors with book signings by making our titles available through the distributors Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Bowker's Books in Print, and Brodat (as well as the aforementioned purchase order agreements we have with certain retailers).”

 

Two of the sources the library mentioned are also on your list of distributors.

 

I confess, I cannot understand why the library would have to contact the author in a desperate attempt to get a copy of a book that is “available in print.”  This library would not even have been able to contact me personally if I had not known some of its employees.  I cannot help wondering how many other institutions and/or individuals have tried to buy my book and have simply given up.  I am at a loss.

 

I trust that you can understand my frustration.

 

My second question regards the issue of book pricing.  I remember my shock when I first learned that my book would be priced at $24.95.  At the time I wrote to PA and asked (very politely) why the price was so high for a paperback book from an unknown author.  I wish I still had a copy of PA’s response, because it was very belligerent and belittling.  I was so upset by it that I deleted it, and now I wish I hadn’t.  Your answers have at least been polite, and I appreciate that.  I trust that I can also ask you about pricing issues and receive a cordial response.  Can you explain why the price is so high?

 

My third question once again addresses the issue of the discount that booksellers receive.  You have told me that your discount starts at 40%.  Can you tell me what the other end of that continuum is?  Does it start at 40% and go down or up?  I don’t mean to be rude with that question, but I’m confused because booksellers have told me that PA provides books at short discounts. 

 

I’ve done some research, and here’s what I’ve learned on the subject.

 

According to your distributor Ingram’s website, they give booksellers a discount commensurate with the discount that they receive from you.  If you give Ingram a favorable discount, they pass it along to wholesalers and retailers, and this helps with placing the books in stores.

 

Ingram’s LSI arm, which is the part that distributes PA’s books, has this to say:

       

“A standard trade discount of 55%, with a 'returnable' status allows for the widest availability through our wholesalers and retailers.” 

 

However, LSI goes on to say:

 

        “While LSI accepts short discounts as low as 20% off of list price, setting a short discount significantly limits the distribution of a title in the retail market.  Some major chain retailers and wholesalers will not order a short discount book.”  (Emphasis mine).

 

As I said, booksellers have told me that PA provides books at short discounts.  Is this true?  If it is true, then my book’s distribution is significantly limited by that fact.

 

I have also been told that the re-stocking fee, which bookstores must absorb if they return unsold books, is high enough to negate the bookseller’s discount.  This causes the bookseller to lose money in the transaction.  I have been told that this makes PA’s return policy unworkable.  If this information is incorrect, please tell me how things are.  I really do want to keep an open mind despite the setbacks I’ve experienced.  I’m sure you can understand why this is so important to me, and why I am hoping that PA’s practices are not the same ones that “significantly limit the distribution of a title.”

 

I love my book.  It is a great source of joy and fulfillment for me, and I want it to get “the chance it deserves” (as the PA acceptance letter says).

 

I have some very important questions about my royalty statement as well, but I will send those separately to the address on the back of the statement.

 

I eagerly await your reply,

 

 

 

 

4/26/2006 (2nd letter for this date)

 

Sent to the royalties department)

 

I have four very important questions, and I hope you can help me out.

 

1.  Paragraph 12 of my contract says, “The statement shall indicate…the breakdown indicating the royalties attributable to specific kinds of sales.”  I do not see any such breakdown on my royalties statement.  My statement only tells me the sales price, quantity sold, royalty percentage, and the royalty amount.  Can you clarify this for me, please? 

 

2.From the FAQ’s on the back of my statement:

“Sales which occurred during the past three months may not yet be included as bookstores/wholesalers have up to 90 days or longer to pay PublishAmerica, in which case PublishAmerica would not yet have received payment.  Such sales will be included in your next royalty statement.”

Nowhere on the statement do you tell me how many (if any) books are in this state of limbo.  I looked at a sample royalties statement from Tyndale House, and they provide that information in detail.  In fact, everything about their statement is more detailed by far.  Does PA have any plans to make their statements more informative?  Could you please tell me how many (if any) of my books are in this limbo as of now?

 

3. Paragraph 12 also says, “Author may, upon giving sufficient notice of no less than seven days, examine Publisher’s records and accounts to the extent that such records and accounts are relevant to the publication of the said literary work, which shall be done at Authors expense.”

 

To what “author expense” were you referring?  Does that simply refer to the postal fees for mailing a copy of the records to me, or are there other costs involved? 

 

4. If I choose to go over those records, I will need an accountant with me because I wouldn’t know what to look for.  Am I correct in assuming that that would not be a problem?

 

Thank you,

 

 

 

5/01/2006

 

(From the royalties department)

Dear Ms. Markman,

1 - Please consult an attorney for clarification of your contract.

Our statement information fully abides by our contract obligations. "Specific kinds of sales" are listed.

2 - We have no plans to change our statements, as there is no way that we could possibly know what books are in this state of "limbo". We do not include the books that have not been paid for as the information about these books has often not been provided to us. As soon as the information is provided, we include it on the upcoming royalties statement.

3 - If you are interested in examining our records, this would involve visiting our offices.

All costs involved would be yours.

4 - That is correct. It would be our pleasure to welcome you and your accountant to our office.

Our accounting staff will be happy to display the sales records and accounts pertaining to your book for your examination.

Before you come, however, we want to make it clear to you that what you will see in our office is essentially the same information that you have seen in your last statement.

You should know that information concerning who bought your books will not be provided. Such information is not recorded at all by anyone, including bookstores, and we therefore are not, and could not, be given this information. As for purchases made directly through PublishAmerica, we list the quantities, but we do not have the information to divulge who made the purchases. No book publisher is capable of doing that.

Please remember that you will not receive royalties on any purchases that you make yourself, as stated in paragraph 5 of your contract, unless we are running a special that explicitly states otherwise. Also, the statements will only show sales from that royalty period for which we have been paid. Some retailers and distributors have a grace period of 30, 60, or even 90 days. Any sales not shown on one statement should certainly be included on the next.

In keeping with the spirit and the letter of the contract, what we would provide to you would be copies of our listings of what distributors purchased your book, when they were purchased, and the quantity.

Thank You,

Jessica

Accounting Department

Royalties@PublishAmerica.com

 

5/01/2006

 

(Sent to the royalties department)

 

I’m afraid I’m more confused after your response than before it.  While I don’t mean to be a pest, I’m sure you can understand that whatever affects the success of my book, and my personal success as an author, is very important to me.  I truly need to understand these things, so please bear with me.

 

You wrote:

“Please consult an attorney for clarification of your contract.  Our statement information fully abides by our contract obligations. ‘Specific kinds of sales’ are listed.”

 

Certainly I do not need to go to the expense of hiring an attorney for this rather simple question.  As I said in my letter, my statement only tells me the sales price ($19.96), quantity sold (4), royalty percentage (8%), and the royalty amount ($6.38).  In light of this, please explain what you mean by “Specific kinds of sales are listed.”  As it would not be possible for PA to keep accounts without more information than what I was given, I know that you must have more details available to you.  I would like to have access to more information on my royalty statement, so that I would not have to hire an accountant and fly to Maryland to find out.

 

You wrote:

“…there is no way that we could possibly know what books are in this state of "limbo". We do not include the books that have not been paid for as the information about these books has often not been provided to us. As soon as the information is provided, we include it on the upcoming royalties statement.”

 

I am confused as to why this information is not available to you, when other publishers seem to have access to it.  Lightning Source (Ingram’s distributing arm that handles PA’s books) provides a web interface to allow publishers up-to-date information on sales.  This sample Thomas Nelson Royalty statement https://business.thomasnelson.com/Information/RoyaltyStatement.jsp clearly shows that they have access to such information and provide it to their authors as a matter of course.  (In my earlier letter I mistakenly said that I had seen a royalty statement from Tyndale House.  The statement was from Thomas Nelson.  I apologize for this error.)

 

You wrote:

You should know that information concerning who bought your books will not be provided. Such information is not recorded at all by anyone, including bookstores, and we therefore are not, and could not, be given this information.

 

I may not have made my question clear.  If that is the case, I apologize.  Of course I do not expect to know the names of individuals who bought books from bookstores or ordered them directly from you.  But I would like to know how many were bought by brick-and-mortar stores vs. direct from PA, etc.  This information would help me determine where my book sells most successfully, which is important marketing information.  Since PA is quite proud of the number of books that Barnes and Noble orders every day, I’m certain that you have records of those numbers and others like them.

 

As for purchases made directly through PublishAmerica, we list the quantities, but we do not have the information to divulge who made the purchases. No book publisher is capable of doing that.

 

I refer you again to the sample Thomas Nelson statement. 

 

As I explained, I don’t wish to know the names of individual buyers, but some sort of breakdown would be nice.  Since PA authors are expected to take a very active role in marketing our own books, I’m sure you can understand why that information is important to me.

 

You wrote: 

Our accounting staff will be happy to display the sales records and accounts pertaining to your book for your examination.

Before you come, however, we want to make it clear to you that what you will see in our office is essentially the same information that you have seen in your last statement…In keeping with the spirit and the letter of the contract, what we would provide to you would be copies of our listings of what distributors purchased your book, when they were purchased, and the quantity.

 

I am afraid that this response confuses me as well.  If I go to the trouble of hiring an accountant and flying out to Maryland, you will provide “copies of our listings of what distributors purchased your book [and] when they were purchased…”  My statement did not tell me what distributors purchased my book or when they were purchased.  Therefore, I am not certain what you meant when you said that a personal audit of your records would give me “essentially the same information that you have seen in your last statement.” 

 

Since PA clearly has to have detailed accounting information in order to run a successful business,  I am uncertain why an accountant who came to perform a personal audit would not have access to all of that information.

 

I appreciate your patience with my questions.  I’m looking forward to gaining a better understanding of these very important issues.

 

Thank you,

 

 

 

5/03/2006

 

(From the royalties department)

 

Dear Ms. Markman,

Thank you for your additional questions. We are happy to answer them.

>>In light of this, please explain what you mean by "Specific kinds of sales are listed."

Had other types of sales taken place, with different percentages, they would have been listed.

>>As it would not be possible for PA to keep accounts without more information than what I was given, I know that you must have more details available to you.

No, we do not. We give you all that we have.  Publishers are simply not given any additional information by their wholesalers.

>>I would like to have access to more information on my royalty statement, so that I would not have to hire an accountant and fly to Maryland to find out.

Other than the name of the wholesaler, there is no other information. Again, we plan no changes to the format of our statements.

>>I am confused as to why this information is not available to you, when other publishers seem to have access to it.

Perhaps they have access to part of it, but their information would always be at least somewhat outdated. We choose not to track sales that are in "limbo".

>>But I would like to know how many were bought by brick-and-mortar stores vs. direct from PA, etc.  Since PA is quite proud of the number of books that Barnes and Noble orders every day, I'm certain that you have records of those numbers and others like them.

Yes, we have reports about a certain limited number of retailers that show the books in "limbo", to use your word, but we do not provide these reports as they do not necessarily accurately reflect the number of books that were actually paid for. But we track only the totals; we do not track this information for each book.

To do so would be time prohibitive.

As for purchases made directly through PublishAmerica, we list the quantities, but we do not have the information to divulge who made the purchases. No book publisher is capable of doing that.

>>I refer you again to the sample Thomas Nelson statement.

Again, no publisher, including the ones you mention, could possibly be providing information on who made the purchases. They can't possibly know, for example, who walked into a bookstore and purchased a book. The buyer, quite simply, may have paid in cash and not left his name with the store.

>>My statement did not tell me what distributors purchased my book or when they were purchased.  Therefore, I am not certain what you meant when you said that a personal audit of your records would give me "essentially the same information that you have seen in your last statement."

It would be "essentially the same information", but would include the entity, such as the wholesaler, that made the purchase. Perhaps the other publishers that you mention have a different reporting arrangement with their wholesaler(s).

>>Since PA clearly has to have detailed accounting >>information in order to run a successful business, I am uncertain why an accountant who came to >>perform a personal audit would not have access to all of that information.

We have all the detail given to us by those making the purchases, and are happy to provide all that we have. Again, we are simply not given any additional information, and neither is any other book publisher that we are aware of.

Thank You,

Jessica

Accounting Department

Royalties@PublishAmerica.com

 

 

5/06/2006

 

 

(Sent to the royalties department) 

I have taken some time to go over your replies, and it has been a slow process because I have found so much that seems confusing and contradictory to me. I do not consider myself a particularly dense person, and I am frustrated by the fact that I still cannot understand how PublishAmerica is taking care of my royalties, even after all of our correspondences.

I guess I must be asking too many questions per e-mail, because we have had some miscommunications.

I had written:

"Of course I do not expect to know the names of individuals who bought books from bookstores or ordered them directly from you."

You replied:

"Again, no publisher, including the ones you mention, could possibly be providing information on who made the purchases. They can't possibly know, for example, who walked into a bookstore and purchased a book. The buyer, quite simply, may have paid in cash and not left his name with the store."

You protested that you could not answer the very question that I said I was not asking. I guess at least that gives us something we can agree on!

I went on to explain:

"I would like to know how many were bought by brick-and-mortar stores vs. direct from PA, etc.  This information would help me determine where my book sells most successfully, which is important marketing information."

You replied:

"Yes, we have reports about a certain limited number of retailers that show the books in "limbo", to use your word, but we do not provide these reports as they do not necessarily accurately reflect the number of books that were actually paid for. But we track only the totals; we do not track this information for each book. To do so would be time prohibitive."

I am confused as to how you can know how much to pay out in royalties for individual books if you do not "track this information for each book."

I am surprised to hear that you believe that your distributor’s reports "do not necessarily accurately reflect the number of books that were actually paid for." Since Ingram is a huge name in the publishing world, it seems strange that they would be unreliable in their dealings with PublishAmerica. Other publishers seem to trust Ingram’s reports, as evidenced by the fact that they pass along those reports in their royalty statements.

I am also unsure how this form of tracking could be "time prohibitive." I thought that computers tracked and reported these sorts of things as a basic part of inventory control. I thought that companies routinely kept track of things like "accounts receivable" even before computers made it fast and easy to do so.

In short, I don’t feel very confident that my royalty check could possibly be accurate when PublishAmerica tells me:

-We don’t keep track of ordering information for your book

-We don’t trust our distributor to give us accurate information

-We don’t believe that other publishers keep track of these things (even though a quick glance at Thomas Nelson’s statement clearly shows that they do)

-The only thing we know about your book is that we sold four at $19.95 each. Everything else is a complete mystery to us, and we cannot possibly get more information even if you ask for it.

I have many other questions but, as I said, I feel I have been asking too many at once. That may be contributing to our communication breakdowns. I’ll stop here and hope you can ease my concerns about these few points.  Then I'll feel free to deal with some other issues.

Thank you,

 

5/06/2006

(Sent to Author Support)

I sent a list of questions back on April 26^th. As it is now May 6^th and I have received no reply, I thought I ought to send it again. Once again, I eagerly await your reply.

(I inserted a copy of the 4/26/04 letter to Author Support.)

 

5/08/06

 

(From Author Support)

Your contact in the library is clearly mistaken. Please provide us with her contact information so that we can contact her about this issue.

Thank You,

Jessica

Author Support Team

Support@PublishAmerica.com

I forwarded your response to the library in question.  The fiction editor called your implication “interesting,” and said she stands by her statement.  I am strongly inclined to believe her.  I doubt that an experienced librarian could be “mistaken” about having tried for months to order a book.  The library does not wish to discuss the situation with you.  Since I have sent them a copy of the book myself, I intend to let this matter drop.

 

I still await your responses to the remaining very important questions that I asked back on the 26^th.

Thank you,

5/25/06

You sent me a certified letter stating that you have terminated my contract.

 

At no time did I request contract termination.  All I did was express concern over PublishAmerica's practices, especially those which make it impossible for me to market my book in any meaningful way.  I gave you many opportunities to explain.  I hoped you would work with me to remove the marketing hindrances which PublishAmerica created.  I asked only legitimate questions about very legitimate concerns. 

 

Your answers were evasive at best, written by employees who didn't even sign their last names.  Those responses served only to confirm everything that your detractors have been saying about you.  In the end you simply ignored my questions altogether.  Then you sent me a registered letter informing me that you were terminating my contract.  And here is the supreme irony.  In response to my attempts to deal with your marketing hindrances, you claimed to have terminated my contract because there was "not enough market demand" for my book.  That's the excuse you gave.

 

If you had truly been concerned about marketing issues, wouldn't you have worked with bookstores to make my book more interesting to them?  Wouldn't you have given them a meaningful discount?  Wouldn't you have implemented a return policy that removed the bookstore's financial risk instead of adding to it?  Wouldn't you have lowered the retail price so that the bookstore's customers would be willing to buy it?

 

Yes, there is a lack of market demand, but it has nothing to do with my book and everything to do with PublishAmerica's policies.  We both know that "market demand" had nothing to do with your unilateral decision to terminate my contract.

 

You terminated my contract because you knew I was posting your completely unsatisfactory responses on the web.  You don't want others to see how PublishAmerica really operates.  If you had been able to provide any answers befitting a legitimate professional organization, my site would have given you a great opportunity to prove your detractors wrong.  Instead you chose to wash your hands of me in the hopes of shutting me up.

 

You terminated my contract because you never intended to "give my book the chance it deserves," no matter what you said in your acceptance letter.  You wanted to sell a hundred or so copies to my list of friends and relatives, and hopefully a bunch more to me.  After that, you had no use for it.  In order to sell to a wider public, you would have to clean up your business practices, including your accounting practices.  You have no reason to do that when new authors come knocking on your door every day, charmed by your empty promises, unaware of what they're really getting themselves into. 

 

You tell authors that there's a big conspiracy out there.  You say that the "traditional" publishing world is a scary monster that's out to put good authors down.  You say that PublishAmerica is the champion of the common man.  You say that you thumb your nose at the elitist publishing industry, and that that industry is quaking in its boots for fear of the inroads you're making into their profits and their power.  You boast of thousands of happy authors and thousands of book sales, hoping that no one will do the math and realize that those numbers average out to a mere 75 to 100 sales per book, TOTAL.

 

I am ashamed to be one of the naive, trusting people who believed you.  Even worse is the shame I feel because I went around and sang your praises for a while, back when I didn't know better.  I know of two authors who chose PublishAmerica because of my recommendation.  There's nothing I can do to cancel those mistakes, but I promise you that I will do everything I can to make up for them now.  My website will stay up.  I will warn people to the best of my ability, every chance I get.  My site promises "No rhetoric, just reality," and that's what it will continue to provide.  If you can truthfully refute anything I've said here, please do.  Here's your chance to restore your good name on my website, if you can.

 

Dying for Answers has gotten wonderful reviews from the very limited number of people who have heard of it and read it.  Now Dying for Answers is dead, killed by its own publisher in the cruelest of ironies.  Yes, the book is now out of your clutches.  It is now free from your active hindrances.  But I have been assured that the PublishAmerica stigma will dog this book and probably doom it just the same.  I have learned the painful truth that, despite the dire warnings on your site, the legitimate publishing world does NOT stigmatize unknown authors.  But it definitely DOES stigmatize former PublishAmerica authors.  That's not because of any elitist conspiracy.  It's simply the painful reality of guilt by association.  Few publishers are willing to take on previously-published works, and even fewer are willing to accept works published by a company with PublishAmerica's negative reputation.  Far from giving my book a chance, you have effectively killed its chances.

 

The legitimate publishing world is not shaking in its boots, but it is shaking its head in disgust at the harm you do to authors like me.  Now I am doing the same.

 

I doubt you've read any of this.  You've gotten rid of me, written me off, washed your hands of me.  You don't have time to let me distract you from your "thousands of happy authors."  Not that you spend your time actually helping those authors, but you do spend a lot of time crafting evasive answers to their questions, trying to cover for yourselves when the truth begins to come out. 

 

You do spend a lot of time censoring unhappy comments from your message boards and banishing the authors who dared to post them.  Of course you don't censor out all of the hundreds of suggestions on those boards which tell people to buy their own books in huge quantities.  After all, thanks to your policies, they're just about the only people who ever will.   You don't censor the people who tell authors to hang around parking lots and try to sell their books out of the backs of their cars, or to slip them onto bookstore shelves without the store managers' permission, or to give them away outright.  You don't censor forum entries which counsel authors to set up buying circles ("I'll buy yours if you'll buy mine"), to invest hundreds of dollars in bookmarks and door hangers to distribute, or to keep trying to talk their way into book signings despite all of the bookstore managers who have already told them they want nothing to do with them or any other PublishAmerica authors.  Nor do you censor those who insult authors who refuse to resort to such pitiful methods.  No, you spend a lot of time convincing authors that such "marketing strategies" are merely "pulling their own weight," and are the norm for people published by "traditional publishers."

 

In light of all of that, I'm not surprised that you don't have time to be bothered with authors like me.  There's plenty of fresh meat getting tangled up in your web.  You've fed on my dream and left me holding the empty carcass of it, wrapped in a canceled contract.  What more use could you possibly have for me?

 

Shame on you.