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Dec. 14, 2005 Final Segment: PublishAmerica is a notorious “author mill” that makes promises to its victims/”authors” than it has no intention of keeping. Their ambiguously worded contracts are some of the most one-sided in the publishing industry. When it comes to paying their authors, they simply breach the contract knowing that most don’t have the financial resources or knowledge to proceed with a civil case. I have called for other authors to join my efforts to initiate a class action suit. (For details go to http://www.publishamericasucks.com/authors.html). Below is the third and final part of my story. When my friends heard I was having a book published, they were overjoyed, so you can imagine the ecstatic feeling that was flowing through my frame. And after just five months after signing the first contract with PA, I submitted to them a second manuscript. It was a crime novel about twins with uncommon beauty and a mutual hatred of one another. The story centered around envy, egotism and economics and was titled, “The Malice of Cain.” I received the following missive just six weeks before “Tempest In The Stone” was scheduled to be released: Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 08:10:40 –0500 To: stellbread@sbcglobal.net From: “Publish America Acquisitions”(Her e-mail address was inserted here) Subject: The Malice of Cain Dear Mr. Stelly: “As this is an important piece of email regarding your book, please read it completely from start to finish. “I am happy to inform you that PublishAmerica has decided to give "The Malice of Cain" the chance it deserves. An email will follow this one with the sample contract attached for your review. If you do not receive the email with the attached sample contract in twenty-four hours, please contact me, so I can resend the document via another method. “I will be happy to answer any questions you may have concerning the contract and to guide you through the contract negotiations phase. Please note that once you have requested that we send the official contract, we cannot further amend the contract. “Upon receiving your e-mail in acceptance with the terms, we will forward the final contract documents to you via regular mail for your signature. Along with your e-mail acceptance please include your legal name, current address, telephone number and title of work as you would like it to appear on the final contract.” The letter spelled out the terms of the contract and was signed by the appropriately named “Tania Grab.” Now I would be promoting not one, but two books in the same year! My name would certainly get around and I didn’t care whether reviewers (the few who opted to critique a POD book) were kind or not, just as long as I could prove that the first time was no fluke. But reality would soon kick me in the teeth, for around this time I discovered several critics of PA. They were not all, as PA suggested, “disgruntled” authors. Some were people who had been published by PA and were displeased with the editorial quality of their books. Several others changed their minds after reading PA’s “one-sided” contract. Still others thought the general appearance of the book was sub-par. All had received the exact acceptance form letters as I. Furthermore, the complaints had a common theme: The duplicitous wording of the contract, the failure of PA to promote their books and the measly one dollar advance, which as I mentioned on the PA message board was, “just enough to buy two stamps and a pack of gum.” I did not return my contract for “Malice” to PublishAmerica until March 11, 2005. I made a few changes in the contract and initialed them. The first change I requested was five free copies of my book. I knew from reading on-line sources that most major houses offered between 8 and 20 copies to their authors. I didn’t think my request was asking too much. My second and last request was for a $250. Advance, which was measly by industry standards. If PA balked at my request, then that would be proof positive that they wouldn’t even provide $250 worth of promotion. This meant they only wanted to sell enough to recoup their investment, They would “promote” to the people on my mailing list. And if they outright rejected my counteroffer, it wouldn’t be much of a loss to me. I could always shop my manuscript elsewhere. However, there was a problem. My websites and press releases had already announced that the book was due in the fall of 2005. I rethought my position and decided that I would go ahead with PA publishing the book. As with “Tempest,” the real promotion would be left up to me. Second, I would have to rely on “second tier” review services. Knowing that, I vowed that PA would never see another of my manuscripts. On March 15, I received the following response from Tania Grab of PA’s Acquisitions Department. “Dear Mr. Stelly, “We received the signed contract, however, we cannot accept the changes hat you have made on it. As I said in my first email to you, once you have requested that we send the official contract, we cannot further amend the contract. “All advances are monies paid against future royalties. Therefore, any advance is deducted from the future royalties until the total advance amount has been repaid. We prefer to use a symbolic advance, so that the author will begin receiving royalties quickly. “You are free to decline our offer to produce your book. Please email me back with your decision.” As I mentioned earlier, I thought things over and decided to give PublishAmerica the benefit of the doubt. I wanted the second book to reach the public as quickly as possible. If all went well, “Malice” would be on Internet sites less than a year after “Tempest” was released. But I was unsure as to whether or not this was a good thing. I knew I didn’t want to wait twelve to eighteen months to see results from another company, especially with my having already submitted an anthology (“Coming In Threes”) and with a third novel, “Darker Than Blue” ready for submission. Two days later I received another missive from Ms. Grab: “Dear Mr. Stelly, “I will send you another contract, please sign it and send it back to our office. The writings on the one you sent make it invalid.” I decided that I would from now on, advise anyone signing with PA to change the initial contract, especially if it were their first book. On June 26, I received a letter from PA stating my new novel, “The Malice of Cain”, could be available as early as the first week of September. Being that I didn’t have Photoshop on my computer, again I left the cover design to PA’s graphic arts department. Again, the result was a mediocre cover that could have been designed by an eight grader on crack. I made some changes in the coloring of the type and insisted they spell my name the same way on the spine of the book as they had on the front cover. (They had left off the “Sr.”). When my first royalty payment was due, (per the contract, in August), I was surprised by the convoluted system of lies PA came up with for NOT paying me “quickly.” The following exchange of e-mails expresses my frustration and their practicing of the fine art of lying. When August rolled around I never received my ropyalty check, nor an accurate accounting of the number of books sold. I was told that process would take up to ninety days and that if I did not receive a check by November 30, to contact the royalties department. I assumed one of three possibilities: This outfit did not have an accurate method of tracking book sales; I had sold such a paltry amount of books that they felt they could keep me hanging (possible); or I had sold more books than they anticipated and they didn’t have enough money to pay me (possible; for according to a representative from their royalties department, they had “4,999 other checks to mail out…about 10% of which were undeliverable.”) CONCLUSION PublishAmerica—A Colony of Vampires PublishAmerica is made up of vultures who take advantage of writer’s dreams of being published by a “legitimate” publisher. They call themselves a “traditional” publisher, but they are just a half-step above a vanity publishing company. Their books are not placed in national bookstores because of their POD (Print On Demand) reputation. Let me reiterate that the average “author” at PA sells a measly 71 books, with the all-time high being 5,000. While I didn’t expect to sell five thousand, I figured with my extensive advertising campaign I could sell at least 20% of that. That still wouldn’t amount to much, but it would be 1,000 opportunities for people to recognize my name and my work. Then I could submit my stronger works to legitimate, mid-size publishers who might be more inclined to give me a break. They would see what I could do with both hands tied behind my back and perhaps ask, ”Why not?” I should have been paid on time and when I wasn’t, I chose to declare war on PA. I would seek financial recompense for my time wasted, request the rights to my book revert to me immediately and that PA refrain from selling or “promoting” either manuscript. In this way I could rewrite the manuscripts and submit them to a different publishing houses. Second, a victory would keep my name in the news, on the internet and gain me some much-needed publicity. After being bamboozled by this outfit I vow to do all I can to force this "author mill" to do write by its authors, and if they go out of business, so be it. If you have a similar horror story about PA, I’d like to hear it. I want to spread the news. I am seeking authors who wish to participate in a class action case against the blood suckers at PA. ------------ About the author: Timothy Stelly is a 46-year old California native with a wide variety of interests-from fishing to politics, which have a lot in common: Both require you to deal with worms and most of your time is spent idling. He is a former Democrat, believing that Party represents outdated ideas. He is officially registered as an Independent, choosing to keep his options open. Timothy is also the author of more than 80 screenplays and novels, two of which have been "published": "Tempest In The Stone" and "The Malice Of Cain", both available through PublishAmerica. He defines his writing style as "Hip-hop fiction; a cross between Richard Pryor and Richard Wright." His UK columns is written in a hard-edged style, but he is not yet a curmudgeon or a conservative. (Is that redundant?) After all, one of his favorite movies is "The Adventures of Milo and Otis." stellbread0.tripod.com Email: stellbread@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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