PublishAmerica

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PublishAmerica is a Maryland-based book publisher founded in 1999 by Lawrence Alvin "Larry" Clopper III and Willem Meiners. It has been the subject of controversy as it claims to be a "traditional" advance and royalty paying publisher but is accused of being a vanity press or author mill by many writers and authors' advocates.[1] PublishAmerica pays a nominal US$1 advance to its authors, but leaves it up to the author to perform of a number of services traditionally handled by publishers, including marketing the book and providing copies to interested reviewers. Other complaints include allegations that they sell copies of books without the right to do so, don't pay royalties that they owe, provide poor quality editing, have high prices, and routinely fail to place their books in bookstores.[2][3]

The Better Business Bureau of Greater Maryland, Inc. has declared that "based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau due to a pattern of complaints. Complaints generally allege lack of promotion of authors' books and inaccurate record keeping with respect to books sold and commissions due. The company has responded to most complaints but has not responded to others. The number of complaints increased during 2004."[4]

The current executive director of PublishAmerica is Miranda Prather.

In December 2004, PublishAmerica agreed to publish the novel Atlanta Nights, which was later revealed to be a hoax designed to illustrate PublishAmerica's low quality standards. It was not the first such hoax either; a previous author had submitted a manuscript with the same 30 pages repeated ten times, which PublishAmerica had accepted.[5]

In August 2005, PublishAmerica was sued by Encyclopædia Britannica for trademark violation over PublishAmerica's PublishBritannica imprint. The matter was settled out of court.[6]

In late-September 2005, PublishAmerica announced that its books would, starting in October, be returnable by the bookseller if they failed to sell, a standard practice among commercial publishers. The announcement stated that this applied to "all" of its books, though it noted that there would be "a few exceptions initially" and that the offer would apply to United States booksellers only.[7] While returnability is considered important by book stores, many authors have complained that it has been accompanied by a reduction of the level of discount offered to bookstores to 5%, a figure which is exceptionally low. Book retail information databases (e.g. the one provided by Book Manager[8]) can be searched for PublishAmerica titles to confirm this figure.

In December 2005, and again in January 2006, PublishAmerica found itself in arbitration with two of its authors. In both instances, the authors prevailed. In the first hearing, the case of author Philip Dolan who had spent US$13,000 promoting his book[9] only to find that no book stores were able to order copies of it, PublishAmerica CEO Willem Meiners admitted that the main thrust of their sales are targeted at selling to their authors and that those provide the majority of the company's income. Mr. Dolan was awarded an unspecified amount in compensation for PublishAmerica's breach of contract, and his contract was rescinded.[10][11]


[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05022/446283.stm
  2. ^ http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA481863.html
  3. ^ https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/archives/confirm.htm?StoryID=48811
  4. ^ http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/pebp.htm
  5. ^ http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire2005/index.php?category=0&id=30389
  6. ^ http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6252581.html
  7. ^ http://www.publishamerica.com/return/index.asp
  8. ^ http://www.bookmanager.com/tbm/?
  9. ^ http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/publish.html
  10. ^ http://www.freewebs.com/pozkin/legalwatch.htm
  11. ^ https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/archives/confirm.htm?StoryID=56535

[edit] External links

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