Baltimore Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against PublishAmerica

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) -- Book publisher PublishAmerica is celebrating the dismissal of a federal lawsuit alleging it deceived several authors with a false promise to show summaries of their books to "Harry Potter" creator J.K. Rowling.

The Frederick News-Post reported Thursday that a judge in Baltimore dismissed the case for lack of specificity.

He also found that the Frederick-based publisher did not have a consumer relationship with its authors. The plaintiffs had alleged violations of the Maryland Consumer Protection Act.

The authors complained that PublishAmerica offered to bring their works to Rowling's attention at a 2011 book festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, for a $49 fee. A spokesman for Rowling said the claim was completely false.

PublishAmerica contends the lawsuit was fueled by Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc., which has a competing print-on-demand service called CreateSpace.

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