AMS Settles with Goofy Foot
by Judith Rosen -- Publishers Weekly, 5/27/2008 12:34:00 PM
The successor company to AMS, Advanced Marketing Services (Reorganized) has reached a settlement with Paul Joanides, dba Goofy Foot Press, as the company continues to clean up issues associated with its bankruptcy. Goofy Foot is the only former PGW publisher to file for damages.
At the heart of the suit was a page and a half interview about Joanides’s Guide to Getting It On! that appeared in Oprah Magazine in June, 2007, after PGW stopped shipping books but before Goofy Foot was able to go back to press with new distribution through National Book Network, leaving Joanides with no way to take advantage of the publicity generated by the Oprah spot. To make up for lost sales, AMS (Reorganized) agreed to pay Goofy Foot $125,000.
“We could have walked away with a lot more,” said Joanides, but added, “Would it have been worth a heart attack? If you could see the empties of Pepto Bismol, I was drinking a half of one of those a day.”
Still, the $125,000 will give Goofy Foot’s publishing program a boost. The sixth edition of Guide to Getting It On, will be published in January. It’s even longer than before, 900 pages, and Joanides is keeping the price the same as the previous edition, $23.95.
