Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Screw you, Amazon and Publish America

Don't bother trying to buy my book on Amazon.com anymore. The bungholes no longer sell it or anything else from Publish America, a pseudo self-publisher that prints authors' books on demand for free and gives them a tiny cut of the proceeds. In theory Publish America was a nice option for people like me, who couldn't break down the doors of the publishing mafia but still wanted to make a go of their project without having to plop down thousands of dollars with a true self-publisher.

This really sucks for me, because the opportunity to sell the book on Amazon was the main reason I stopped trying to shop it around and went with Publish America. I think this development violates the spirit, if not the letter (although it hopefully does violate the letter - I need to check) of the agreement. Publish America, which makes most of its money by having writers buy their own stuff in hopes of reselling it, makes you sign on for a seven-year contract.

Both greed-mongering parties are definitely at fault in this mix-up, but I place more of the blame on Publish America. Amazon is the big dog in the yard and can dictate its own terms.

At least "Stormin' Mormon" is still for sale at Barnes & Noble.

3 comments:

Shtetl Fabulous said...

Damn! I was gonna buy the book on Amazon the next time I did an Amazon purchase. It was on my Wish List and everything.

Unknown said...

Generally, PA authors have found that consistently writing a letter to PA stating that you won't buy any of your books or advertise them, and you want your rights to the story back, will get them to comply. It may take repeated letters (just ignore any of the BS they send back to you and restate that you want to end the contract), but eventually you should get it back. If you decide you want to get away from PA, this is probably your best bet.

Anonymous said...

Yes, the author is the principal customer for PublishAmerica. I'm writing and writing to them to get my rights to print back. I am seeking a lawyer to sue if they don't comply and now that they have Amazon issues I think they are in breach of contract because they list Amazon as one of their outlets. Amazon is going to not carry PublishAmerica's books just to expose their neck to lawyers? Gods, I hope so. I want to see blood and so do thousands of deceived authors. They are a Back-End Vanity press.