I have become a lurker! I go once in awhile to get a laugh, like you do Dick, but every so often there is a post I simply must reply to. I have managed to keep my trap shut most of the time, so haven't been banned ... yet.

They threw me out for nothing--couldn't even explain why they did it. They told me over and over they would never let me back so I told them I never wished to come back.
That surprised them and shut them up. If they ban someone they have done them a huge favor.

Posting on their board is a huge waste of time. Everything ends up deleted. I like my book--not the price. I do not like their messageboard, but there are other places...Here for instance!

Thank you, Shelagh.

You are welcome Alice. It's good to have you on board.

I checked out the PA board today - first time in a month. What has happened to Pier? No posts from her recently.

She said something about a week ago about going on a trip - Paris, I think.

I miss her so...

I feel sorry for Pier. She has not much of a life, even though she would invent it for her self.
Joy McQuiston came back to the PA board. She had told everyone to F off, went a little insane, had an episode, and said some really nasty stuff to Pier, to me, to James, and to Lynn Barry. It was one of those instigated arguments by the big four. (What ever happend to Rudy)

Since then, some eight months have passed, Joy is back with smiles and much to say.

She has taken over every thread. She did it with glee! Everyone left. It was time. Joy rules. I love that.

Love,
Betty

I could feel sorry for her if she didn't get so nasty at times. And you, Brew, that wasn't nice so why am I laughing?
That PA board seems like a very boring place these days. No James, no Rudy, nothing but stupid questions or people celebrating because they received their author copies.

An old World War II buddy who doesn't use the Internet wrote to ask how he could get two copies of the book I did on the Normandy Campaign. I have never ordered a book from PA but I called to try to get two. I got an automated answer and was told to leave a message after the bleep. I hung up and ordered two from Buy.com for him. I have come to believe that PA's sole idea is to sell books to the people that wrote them, and do it by answering machine.

Of course PA's 'business model' is to only sell to the authors. That's why so many in the business label them as a vanity press. Most of us learned that quite a while ago and that's one reason so many of us were so upset. It wasn't because we expected our books to be number one sellers, or that we didn't read our contracts, but most of us thought our books would have a chance to be in bookstores, to read by the public. That wasn't the case then, and it's not the case now.

About the time I signed with them in late 2004 or '05, one author was celebrating her success in getting a large bookstore to order her books. PA dropped her because they were not set up for large orders. Upset their bookkeeping, or something like that.

In PA's favor, they do what they say they'll do, get them on the Internet sites. That's how I was able to order from Buy.com. When you get down to it, shelf space in bookstores is dominated by books from large, mainline publishers. They have the sales force to make personal contact, make special offers available and much more. Those sales people are similar to the pharmaceutical companies detail men and women who take up so many parking spaces at doctors offices. No matter how they try, few if any small publishers can compete on a nationwide scale. Until they have a sales force to cover the entire country, that won't change.

PA told me and several others in 2004-5, that they were making their books returnable, the last obstacle to bookstore placement. Of course they didn't mention it would take them several years and then only on a limited basis. What they promised and what they provided were two different things.

Some of us learned to 'put it in writing,' from that experience, so it wasn't a waste. I've come to believe that most things in life are learning experiences.

Hey, Dick, D.K. Christi is paging you and the Lady Pier in the Chill Out Bar.

Oh, no! Think I'll go on hiding out, and did she have to lump the two of us together?

You are probably safe here, Dick! I would never put the two of you together!