Authors who were hoping that Harry Potter creator JK Rowling might be induced to sprinkle a little fairy dust on their novels have been disappointed.

An offer from print-on-demand press PublishAmerica promised writers that for a price of $49 (£30), "your book will be among the very first that we will bring to JK Rowling's attention next week while we are in Edinburgh". "We will ask the world's very bestselling author to look at all of your books next week," promised the publisher, which says on its website that it has 50,000 authors. "[We will] ask her to read it and to tell us and you what she thinks ... Write your own note for JK Rowling, max. 50-100 words. We will include your note in our presentation for her!"

But Rowling's spokesman Mark Hutchinson said today "that PublishAmerica does not have access to JK Rowling". The PublishAmerica offer has now been removed from its website, but a cached version is still available.

A spokesperson for Rowling told US book trade magazine Publishers Weekly yesterday that the PublishAmerica claim was "completely false" and that Rowling would take "appropriate action". The comments provoked a speedy response from PublishAmerica, which called for an "immediate retraction" in a lawyer's letter.

"PA has done nothing to harass your client or invade her privacy. The simple fact is that your client's Edinburgh residence is public knowledge; she even publicises this fact on her own website!!! Accordingly, PA did nothing wrong by repeating that fact in its promotion. If she wants to keep her residence private, perhaps she should not publicise that fact," wrote lawyer Victor Cretella. "By revealing only well-known information about your client that is generally available to the public, PA specifically contradicted the impression that it has some direct line of access to your client."

Hutchinson said this morning that he could not comment further "at this stage". Rowling is not the only figure to have been the subject of PublishAmerica promises: the press is currently offering its authors, for $39, the opportunity to "let the president, John Boehner, Harry Reid and your local Congressman, AND your local TV, know" about their books.

Based in Frederick, Maryland, PublishAmerica says that it is not a vanity press, with authors paid advances for their work, not paying to be published, although "we pride ourselves in maintaining lower acceptance barriers than any other traditional publisher". Specialising "in books about, or by, people who face and overcome hardships and obstacles in life (both fictional and nonfictional), and who turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones", it published over 3,000 books in 2010, according to Publishers Weekly.