Royalties from PA

After my rights were returned and with Arirang no longer listed at Publish America, I have received a check from Publish America for royalties for two books sold at $12.23 each.  That's quite interesting since they never sold the book for less than $25.00 except on their "hook the author" special for authors only.

Anyone else get any?

Not I.  I have seen the used books advertised on Amazon and wondered if PA was listing my books as "used, New quality"
I really would not put that past PA to do such a thing and then print one and send it out.  I do have a suspicious mind, though.  I see Wooffer sold as used, as new, as almost new, from one cent to 100 something. 
If I ever see it as hard cover, I will know, and buy it my self.
Love,
Betty

A lot of bookseller use a database to post books, usually the prices are insane. It's automatic. If anyone is dumb enough to order a $100 book from them, they would get a copy to send the suck--er, buyer.

My last check came to $7.91, for eight books sold for between$11 and $13. The Feb check was for $5 something for I think 4-5 books. Odd, since Amazon's Bookscan shows at least 15 during the time period, and Bookscan doesn't catch all sales Ah well, Can't really complain. The book did well for the first five years, and is doing well in reprint.

It's amazing how much more an author makes per book through self-publishing. If only we could find better ways to promote and reach our audiences.

And twm, the last asking price for A Myth in Action, before it finally died from online offers, was a bit over $9,000 - and I had thought $2100 was ridiculous. I guess it's too bad I never bought many books from PA, and just relied on online sales.

I asked for, and received, all of my rights back from PA in February of this year, as this was 7 years and the contract was up on both books. Just a couple of days ago I noticed that one of them is still offered for sale on Amazon. I'm not sure what they're doing, but I honestly don't believe it's in the best interests of their authors. They lived up to their contract with me, but the fact is that publishing through them was useless. I do much better now. Rebecca Buckley has published a few of my books, and Flint River Press the rest, and earn more through Amazon and Smashwords now than I ever did with PA.

9/9/2013

                        They keep sending me E Mails, if you want you rights back $100.00
                        I ignore it, I can wait for my two other books..

                                                       Cheers...Joe........

I waited until I received my rights for free. That's how it should be once the sales begin slipping.  Seven years was too long for a contract.

E. Don Harpe wrote:

I asked for, and received, all of my rights back from PA in February of this year, as this was 7 years and the contract was up on both books. Just a couple of days ago I noticed that one of them is still offered for sale on Amazon. I'm not sure what they're doing, but I honestly don't believe it's in the best interests of their authors. They lived up to their contract with me, but the fact is that publishing through them was useless. I do much better now. Rebecca Buckley has published a few of my books, and Flint River Press the rest, and earn more through Amazon and Smashwords now than I ever did with PA.

Not to be a troll, but this is the first time I've heard this from a PA author. In what way did they fulfill the contract? Did they do anything you couldn't do in your own?

They produced for me a beautiful book, well-edited and formatted with no errors.  I had no cost.  They  set me on the learning path from which I gained a lot of info from their PAMB and found interesting people to commiserate with.  They met their contract obligations.  I had greater expectations that were not realized that they intimated would occur, but they were not contractual.

However, we have had this debate in other threads.  My thread here was simply to inquire whether others had received royalties after their rights were returned.  I was surprised that their copies of my books were still "out there" and that they would send me any royalties...

I think that these checks are connected to the booksellers right to return books to the distributor and publisher.  They have 60 days, I think to return books, so they can hold off on paying royalties for that long.So those of us who got our rights back in February probably had not been paid for any sales from the previous 60 days.

I was ready to get my rights back.  Publishing has gone through major changes during the last seven years.  As for what was available in 2007, PA was a viable option for quite a few authors who went into the deal with their eyes open.  I was one of those, but as DK said, there are many older threads that dealt with that topic extensively.

Your are right, Ann. The check stub says, "February 2012 through July 2013."  I didn't think about delay. Thanks for solving my mystery!

TWM, I read and understood the PA contract before I signed it. I didn't expect them to do anything more from me than what the contract states, and they didn't. They also didn't do any less. Most of the people who complained about PA all of the time and everywhere were those who thought they'd written the next great American novel, and had to have someone to blame when it didn't turn out that way. The truth is, as far as I can tell, that PA would publish just about anything, and a large percentage of the books weren't any good. It's very hard to get an author to admit that, however, and so many got mad. Again, they mostly used PA as their scapegoat. I think DK summed up pretty well what we learned from PA, and how they actually helped us out, so I'll just agree with her assessment. PA has a very author unfriendly business model, and it's one that means they sell mostly to their own authors. I never bought a single copy from them, unless I already had it sold. That did turn out to be several, but again, I knew it going in. There were, and I suppose still are, a good many would be authors that are taken in by PA because they don't understand the contract. The truth is, PA sends it to you to sign, and they hope you don't understand it, because that's how they stay in business. A few have filed suits against them and a few won I think, but it is still my belief that the reason so many were so angry, is that so many couldn't write, and never even thought about blaming their own lack of skill.

And BTW, you'll get a lot more response, and a lot more respect, from many of us if you post your name, and something you've written. I hardly ever reply to a person unless I know who they are.

I wasn't passing judgement, just honest curiosity and thank you for your reply.

E. Don Harpe wrote:

And BTW, you'll get a lot more response, and a lot more respect, from many of us if you post your name, and something you've written. I hardly ever reply to a person unless I know who they are.

Unless your name is LC, then you just have to take those in the "know"'s word for it.

No, I'm not bitter, it's just a hypocritical double standard.

Harold, I don't post here very much anymore, but as you can tell from the number of posts I've made, I was quite active here in the past. And I was one of the people who had some very outspoken thoughts about LC not being willing to give a name or tell us anything she'd written. I don't like people who hide behind false names, or initials, or refuse to post the titles to what they've done. This is no secret here, or elsewhere. I'm sure LC and most of the others who have been here for a while will remember those, shall we say, discussions. In fact, it's part of the reason I'm just here every now and then. I've posted more here in the last few weeks than I have in the last couple of years. I like some of the people who post here, not so much some of the others. Believe me, there's no double standard as far as I'm concerned.

I don't care if people use initials or fake names. That's just Don's opinion, he doesn't represent everyone, and I told him what I thought of his opinion in the aforementioned "discussions," lol. There are very good reasons for not using real names on a message board, and I respect that. Over time, it's obvious which posters know their stuff, and I don't need to know their real names to discern that.

We still disagree on that, LC. I think anyone who is afraid to use their real name has two reasons. 1: They're scared, of something or someone, and 2: They're lying about everything they say they've done. I think that was my opinion the first time around, it remains my opinion today.

I am glad  E. Don has returned.

Thank you Alice. I have friends here. A few anyway.

Well, here's my opinion.  Some people are just plain nuts.  They post anything anywhere and have no concerns about what they say or to whom because it's anonymous.  Sometimes they are foolers who seem to make sense for a while, but usually they reveal their intent at some point.

Some people have no reason to care whether their own names are used.  They feel safe to state their opinions, list their books, seek advice and comment from their heart and experience.  They do their best to express themselves as "real" people.

Some people have legitimate reasons for remaining anonymous, however they still express themselves from their hearts and experience and wish to be part of a genuine exchange of ideas and thoughts, writing trials and tribulation and sharing information.

I met Don and his spouse very briefly at a table at a writer's conference in Tampa sometime in 2006 or 2007.  I know he is real.  I have read his books and enjoyed his writing.  He also knows that I am a real person.  We have some very strong differences of opinion, but we know we actually exist in the real world very similar to how we express ourselves in forums.

I have not met anyone else.  I have been posting with a group of people since 2006 and over time feel as though we have developed knowledge of each other that is real.  However, that is not necessarily so.

I do know of a textbook that LC has written.  I have read works that are referenced by each of the posting people on this forum and based on their posts and writings have formed some sense of knowledge about them - that may be totally false.

I have legitimate reasons to be anonymous but that anonymity is slipping.  I recently changed my phone number because the phone company must have sold it to an Internet posting entity even thought it was private and unlisted.  How do I know?  For years the phone company has spelled my name uniquely wrong and I never changed it.  That spelling was with my  phone number, my address and a google map to my house on the Internet.

If anonymity is a cloak to hide nefarious intentions, it is quite distressing.  Unfortunately, when anonymity is for other reasons by a perfectly sane and sensible writer with something valuable to share, they will just have to understand that the bad pill makes them suspect in spite of their good intentions.  It's just the way it is.

My two-cents since it's my hijacked thread :-)))