PublishAmerica CEO explains manipulating shipping fees

This is the second letter that PublishAmerica CEO Meiners sent out to his authors. In it, he explains how the company manipulates shipping charges. He admits they are lowering book prices but increasing shipping. Many of the authors bought into previous offers in affect paying PublishAmerica to offer their books at a discount. But the outrageous shipping charges apply to all.   Also included is Meiner's paid endorsement of an author's book. This is supposed to be a review mind you-but it is merely a blurb. For this, the author paid them $69.00 plus you MUST pay shipping! $5.99 shipping within the United States and $14.99 international. Funny this shipping option on these services. Nothing is being sent through the mail. What is being sent through the post office here? Nothing. It's all done on the computer.   The Bogus Barrister has consulted an attorney about this. It is illegal to sell the services of the United States Post Office without anything actually being sent through the post office. In this case, and in the majority of the offers made by PA to their authors, NOTHING is being sent through the United States Postal Service. that is all money that PA has pocketed in the name of a branch of the United States government. We have turned this over to the Postmaster general's office and the FBI.     Letter from PublishAmerica's CEO: shipping fees  April 26, 2012     Good morning! Yesterday's letter generated hundreds of responses. Thank you. I read all of them. I will deal with one of the two most popular issues that were raised below, after this book review: I like this book's concept, Jesus and The Time Travelers by R.J. Mason (rjmace@pacbell.net): Writing about time travel is as old as writing itself, for the simple reason that man's brain has always been obsessed with "what if". What if we could travel back a thousand years ago? What would we see, what would we change? Mason takes that concept and has a professor build a time machine that sends two students back to 23 AD. They find Jesus and bring him into today's world. That's where things get really interesting (remember the song "Would Jesus wear a Rolex"?), especially when he meets the Pope and basically takes possession of his own church.  The main question in time travel stories is whether the traveler will accidently change history or not (read Stephen King's 11/22/63). In Mason's book that's obviously not the question: having traveled to 2010, Jesus does make a difference indeed. But what difference exactly, that's where Mason's book becomes a masterful tale. Recommended!   Find Jesus and The Time Travelers here: www.publishamerica.net/product46464.htmlTwo questions jumped out yesterday, and none are new. One: why does the shipping fee change so often? And two: can't we lower the retail price of our books? I'll talk about the second issue tomorrow. We started to make shipping fees elastic on January 1. Look back in your email history and you'll see what happened. We raised shipping to $5.99 that day. But we also lowered all book prices to $3.99. Total price for a book on New Year's day: $9.98. Over the next few days and weeks we played with those numbers a little, and went as deep as $1.99 for the book, but as high as $6.99 for the shipping. Total price: $8.98. Why did we do that? Because it was popular. Believe it or not, but there are thousands of people who go for a deal when the unit price is superlow. They ignore what they pay for shipping, as long as they get the product for a song. But then there are many others, people who don't like paying for shipping. Those, for instance, who benefitted from this week's special sale: free shipping! Your book for $8.88, home delivered. We have offered many such sales opportunities as well since January. Shipping fee: $0. Now what's the common thread here? The total price. It's always somewhere between $8-$10. Ignore how we arrive at that amount. Instead focus on the end amount. Always roughly the same, and always far below what you'd pay anywhere else for the book. We need to charge the $8-$10 end amount if we want to generate enough of a margin to be profitable. It's a reasonable price for a very good book, delivered on your doorstep and all. Remember Lee Iacocca? He saved Chrysler in the 1980s. He said, "People want economy, and they will pay any price to get it." He was right. We have been catering to, and pleasing, thousands of authors who either want the economy of a low book price (and pay any shipping price to get it), or the economy of free shipping (and pay any book price to get it). But: all have received a high-quality product for well under ten bucks! And that's the real story here. Really, if it wasn't popular what we did, we wouldn't do it. If you see something that you, individually, don't particularly like, such as an occasional high shipping fee, rest assured that thousands of others have a reason to like it. PublishAmerica is a for-profit organization. We do what sells. If it doesn't sell, we don't do it. Open mic on today's soapbox: Joseph Young, The Journey >From Doubt To Faith (jeclfyoung@aol.com): "The aim of this book is to stimulate your faith by reducing your doubts. It will help your children/grandchildren to doubt their doubts." Next: Rafiki Chemari, The Return of Ghetto Woman (rafikichemari@gmail.com): "Hello PublishAmerica readers! It's 2012 and that could mean doomsday-filled with no money, no food, no jobs. Or a new urban rodent future!" And that concludes today's letter. I invite you to talk back to me. I don't guarantee a response, but I do guarantee that we listen. You can reach me by email at meetpublishamerica@publishamerica.com. In the subject line write Attn. Willem. Have a wonderful day! --Willem Meiners PS: if you want to use Willem's future Letters-from-the-CEO as a vehicle to be heard, go to www.publishamerica.net/service/Willem.html. Have your book reviewed for tens of thousands of people to see, or talk in the open mic! I invite you to talk back to me. I don't guarantee a response, but I do guarantee that we listen. You can reach me by email at meetpublishamerica@publishamerica.com. In the subject line write Attn. Willem. Have a wonderful day! --Willem Meiners PS: if you want to use Willem's future Letters-from-the-CEO as a vehicle to be heard, go to www.publishamerica.net/service/Willem.html