On Vanity Press, Now It's Not Just America

by Steven Zeitchik -- Publishers Weekly, 8/30/2005

The much-maligned PublishAmerica is back in the news, though this time it has upset someone with a lot more clout—and lawyers—than unknown authors.

The slippery Maryland company is being sued by Encyclopaedia Britannica after launching an arm known as—what else?--PublishBritannica. The company apparently has a Web site and an "imprint" with that name, and the famed Illinois reference firm says that constitutes violation of its trademark.

According to a complaint Britannica filed earlier this month in Illinois District Court, Britannica says that the use of the name and a similar symbol could lead to confusion in the marketplace. It wants PA to stop all usage as well as pay damages and any profits that resulted from the use. The company also says several cease-and-desist letters have gone unanswered.

A quick trip to the Web site PublishBritannica.com show a quirk—all references to the imprint are now made as PublishBritannia. The complaint refers to all of them as PublishBritannica, avec 'C,' leaving open the possibility that the company has changed the name--but not the URL--in response to the suit. We were unable to get in touch with attorneys for Britannica by press time.

The suit follows months of accusations by unhappy authors, who say the company is deceptive and engages in gouging.

The discontent first surfaced last November, when [PW reported that] it had been in contact with more than twenty writers with a range of complains, from non-payment of royalties to false promises about distribution to asking authors to buy many copies of their own books.

Essentially, the authors claimed the company positions itself as a traditional publisher but functions like a vanity house, and not a very good one at that. A PA executive said at the time that the authors claims were unfounded and that "nobody has come to us with a true breach of contract."

This lawsuit contains the memorable line "Apparently, because of their methods of conducting their publishing business, defendants have earned a poor reputation among members of the public."

This article originally appeared in the August 30, 2005 issue of PW Daily. For more information about PW Daily, including a sample and subscription information, click here »

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