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June 13, 2005 There is something I do not understand. When a company produces a product they want to sell it, right? That is the American way, right? The idea behind creating an item, service or anything marketable is to announce it to the public through media outlets, right? Returning a product is not a Right of the consumer, it is a service that a company offers in order to retain a satisfied customer base, right? In addition, a company, which produces a product, makes every effort to price the item, which is concurrent with comparable items sold by competitors. The idea is to price that item for sale, right? Unless I have been sleeping under a rock for the past fifty years, marketing 101 has not been drastically revised. The main thrust of a company’s motivation is to sell the product and make a reasonable profit, right? It does not take a Rocket Scientist to understand these principles, right? There is a very small publishing house that produces trade paperbacks for public consumption. Following the same business model of mainstream publishing houses, this very small publishing house accepts manuscripts and produces a book at no cost to the author. This small publishing house then reverts to a POD (publish on demand) business model and publishes the book as it is ordered. The merits of employing two publishing business models would appear kosher and would benefit the publisher and its authors. However, this small publishing house – PublishAmerica is the epitome of an anal retentive business. Throwing Marketing 101 in the trash, PublishAmerica does not promote its authors, they over price their books, and have a no return policy. Sure, you can buy direct from its bookstore and save five dollars. However, the savings are absorbed through shipping and handling charges. Can you find PublishAmerica’s books shelved at national bookseller chain stores? No! Brick and mortar booksellers refuse to carry the books due to PublishAmerica’s no return policy, the high price of the book, poor editing and printing quality of the books. Typical PublishAmerica authors must buy his or her own books at a less than desirable discount and must consign the book at the bookstore. Yes, if you are a local author – the bookseller will capitalize on that fact and order a few books to see if they sell. However, that is where the ball stops rolling. The other sad fact is that if a consumer orders a PublishAmerica book through a bookseller, it takes between one to four weeks until the book arrives at your doorstep. The only benefit to having your book published by PublishAmerica is the fact that friends and relatives will buy the book. After that pool has been drained, PublishAmerica leaves the book to die on the vine. PublishAmerica does not spend any funds to advertise or market their books or authors. They also take a dim view of authors who continually ask why PublishAmerica does not change its business practices. If you are an aspiring author who believes that they have written a marketable book – stay away from PublishAmerica. They will lock-down the book in an iron clad seven year contract, and a once modest savings bank account will be ravaged by marketing expenditures, which will not be compensated or offset by royalty payments. I have been there, done that. When an individual has a book published, they expect that it will be read. The author expects that the publishing house will make every effort to market the book, and utilize every distribution channel to have that book shelved – somewhere. An author expects that a publishing house will give the book a fighting chance to make some sales, and not have the book quickly die due to neglect. An author should not be an author in his or her own mind. An author’s book should be made available to the general public to be purchased at a reasonable price. PublishAmerica – please go to your local community college and sign up for courses, which will educate you on current business marketing practices. Oh, yeah. You may have to purchase some textbooks not published by PublishAmerica. At least the authors of those textbooks will be earning a decent royalty payment… ------------ Email Argile Stox: argilestox@gmail.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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