The Scam of The Century, Publish America

People that read my articles or know of me and my books might well also know my feelings about a certain publisher.  My first publisher was a self publisher site called Lulu.com.  I then signed on with an agency and was then swayed to opt out of the agency and sign on with Publish America.  As with many other thousands of unhappy authors that fell into this scam, I am very disgruntled.  They are very kind to you and tell you nice things about your book and useful information about the business.  A lot of which is fact.  They also make you think that they want to sell your books to thousands of readers through outsourced online bookstores and even celebrities.

The fact remains that no matter what is said to get you to sign, their contract covers that and protects their company from keeping any promises they may have used to entice you into signing.  I signed the contract without fully understanding it for not just my first novel but a second within weeks of the first.  I was impressed with the cover design of my first novel but quickly realized there was no editing process.  They had published the raw manuscript as a book.

Now I was very angry but let’s be honest, I should have read my contract and had a lawyer look it over first.  No matter how angry I am to date, I am at fault for falling for their scam.  Now the sad thing was this.  After my first book was released, nobody was nice to me anymore and I didn’t know why.  I met other disgruntled authors on their forums and was kicked off for no reason at all because I had never posted anything derogatory.  I had mentioned that my first book was with a senior editor because an email stated that and a gentleman representative on the forums told me that Publish America does not edit our books.  At which time I had met about three others before a fellow friend was first kicked off and then me.

This publisher makes their money selling copies of your book(s) back to you and to people you know that you give them access to.  In fact they also ask you for local media that they can also harass in “your name.”  Read the contract.  It states that they have permissions from you to use your name and likeness for promotional purposes and that means a lot of people are going to know your name and think ill of it by the time Publish America is through.

I have been attempting to get out of my contracts for some time and had even hoped to resolve issues with Publish America but that was asking too much when I asked them to perform the tasks of a publisher and not a scamming company.  They send out emails daily to their authors trying to entice them to purchase copies of their own book(s).  They claim if you order a set number of copies at a discounted price that they will make sure people like Oprah, Tom Hanks, and God knows who else they will use later will get copies of your book(s) for review.

If you don’t believe me, check out this copy of an email I have saved in my archives:

“--- On Mon, 2/22/10, PublishAmerica Author Support Team wrote:

From: PublishAmerica Author Support Team
Subject: Your Book Goes To Tom Hanks!
Date: Monday, February 22, 2010, 11:23 AM

Dear Author:

PublishAmerica will submit yourbook to Tom Hanks!

We will send your book to one of Hollywood's most awarded actors, so he can read it for optional movie adaptation just like other Hollywood actors have done with other PublishAmerica books. We will submit two copies of your book, in case he wants to share one copy with a Hollywood production company or anyone else he chooses.

Tom Hanks is not only an actor, he is also a major movie producer (e.g. My Big Fat Greek Wedding).

We're basically donating your book to Tom Hanks; he can do with it what he wants. And we will let your local newspaper, radio, or TV know that your book is being submitted to this generation's most successful Oscar winner. So they can put the spotlight on you as a local author, who deserves a shot at having their book turned into a Hollywood movie.

Here's how we do it:

                If you want to have books on hand, order now, and we will donate two copies

                to Tom Hanks, or more if he asks for more. And you receive a 55pctdiscount!

Go to www.publishamerica.net, find your book, click on it, then add to cart, indicate quantity, and use this coupon: TomHanks55. Then click Recalculate and finish the transaction. Minimum volume is 12 copies. Need fewer books? Use TomHanks45as your coupon for a 45 pct discount, no minimum volume required, and we'll still send your book to Tom Hanks.

                In the Ordering Instructions field, just write: "Media Yes". Our PR department

                will automatically contact you for names and addresses of your local news media.

                By using the coupon you are authorizing us to donate the books to actor Tom Hanks

                in Concord, California. You may also request that we ship the two FREE books

                to you instead.

Full-color and hardcovers excluded. Offer expires this weekend on Sunday night.

Thank you,

PublishAmerica Author Support Team”

This and many other emails are still sent to me and thousands of authors that have fallen victims to this scam.  Now the fact remains if they really wanted to make money and had access to these resources, wouldn’t they just make it happen anyway in order for them to make more money?  No.  They have no access to these resources.  They make all their money from you.  If they had access to these resources don’t you think that they would have access to your local media?  Why do they need you to submit the information of your local media to them every time you release a book through them?

Publish America reported I have only sold (5) five copies of Dark Athyx, my first ever novel in a six month time span.  Now I have spoken with nearly (20) twenty people that claim they purchased copies and have been sending me proof such as credit card statements that show Publish America lied about how many copies I sold.  They also sent a letter stating that copies sold through their former printer were not counted as they are currently suing their former printer for money(s) owed and those royalties will be on our next statement if we have any.  This is irony at its best here because their former printer was Ingram and they say they had problems with Ingram and switched to Baker & Taylor.  This was when I published Dark Athyx and it was never sold through Ingram.

All copies sold from their site are printed by Publish America and not an outsourced printer.  Copies purchased through other online bookstores such as amazon.com are printed by their outsourced printers though and I know this because their employees made it a point to tell me when I complained about why it took so long for them to get me my orders.  At first they blamed it on the switch which would not be accurate because they print the orders I made.  Lie after lie was told to me.  I have every single email to back this up and if any attorney wants to make a buck off of my story, I know a bunch of other authors in my same situation that will share too and we want out of our contracts and maybe a little compensation for damages and pain and suffering.  So this would be most profitable for an attorney wanting to bring a bad company to its knees and make millions if possible.

Books take months to get out and sometimes they are printed backwards or cut wrong.  Some bindings are faulty or upside down.  If you can imagine it, it has been done by PA for ill manufactured products.  In fact Publish America sent me an email stating they would let me out of my contracts recently if I purchased 50 copies of each of my books at 50% off the price.  So $600 each, plus $4.99 shipping per book is far too much for me.  Someone pointed out an article that holds a link on Publish America’s website that allows you to purchase back your rights at the mere price of $99.  Do they sound crooked to you yet?  Wait there is much more but too much for one author alone to write about.  They even offer to allow you submit edited content and revised content for a price.  Here is the email from them:

“Dear Kevin Davison:

We have received your request to terminate your book's (Assassins of the Longest Night) contract. As a
general rule, publishers are not in favor of that. When a publisher
agrees to contract a book, it is done with an expectation of entering
into a profitable venture. This is why we enter into contracts with a
seven-year lifetime, which affords the book ample opportunity to turn a profit.

If your request was granted, PublishAmerica would be denied,
prematurely, any hope of recovering its expenses. This is why we would
prefer to finish production of your book, keeping the contract in
place until its expiration date.

Therefore, if you were to persist on wishing to relinquish your status
as a published author, we can only grant your request upon a purchase
of 50 copies of your book, by either you or a third party, at a deep
60 pct discount, which will help to offset some of our losses. Please
let us know if you want to proceed with termination on these terms. If
not, we will both understand and applaud your decision. As said, we
prefer to keep the book under contract.

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Advertisement: PublishAmerica recommends "Southern Justice" by Rosemary Warner, about the grisly treatment of former slaves following the Civil War. Buy it here: http://www.publishamerica.net/product24936.html.
---------------------

Thank you and have a good day,
Hannah
PublishAmerica Support
hannah@publishamerica.com “

Here is the link to their product code for purchasing back your rights:

http://www.publishamerica.net/product94552

This is exactly how crooked this company is.  Just google them and you will find nothing but horror stories. Just last month they sent out emails asking authors to volunteer to do book reviews for them.  Not a week went by and a second email states if we purchase a set amount of copies of our own book(s) Publish America will have two reviews done on our book(s) by fellow authors.  So we volunteer to do a job that they are going to be paid for.  Is this legal?  Yes, I have every email saved to back up my story so bring it on Publish America.  This is not slander.  It is truth.  Attorneys out there if you think we have a case, I want out of my contracts and only 20% of whatever you can get me.  The rest will be yours for taking on such a monster as Publish America.

Article by Kevin C. Davison

“I write to entertain, and for a cause.”