- Joined
- Mar 26, 2005
- Messages
- 5,011
- Reaction score
- 697
- Location
- Sacramento area, CA
- Website
- www.umbachconsulting.com
Precisely. PA lies about what it is. For the most part, it lies to people who are very susceptible to those lies, who want (if not need) to believe them. That is what makes the scam work, the appeal to people who crave recognition and who are naive about publishing. (Those who crave recognition and are not naive about publishing will do what it takes to sell to a real publisher, or die trying. Those who do not particularly crave recognition but want to make money from writing will go where the money is--and that is not PA or anything like it.). . .The difference with PA is that they claim they are not vanity, they do not put out the bucks that commercial publishers do. And I think that is the most insidious part of PA. They do not do the work of a commercial publisher, but they claim the profits of one.
As for profits . . . PA settles for a pittance, but tries to make that pittance out of the authors' pockets on every book, so it adds up. No commercial publisher would be interested in publishing a book with a potential profit of a few hundred dollars at best. They at least have to aim high.
Sigh . . . in a while I am off to a writers group meeting that will be treated to self-promotions by some PA-published members who honestly think their books have been legitimately published. Nice folks, but they really do not understand.
Post-meeting edit. One of the PA authors is catching on. Interesting. The group still greets a PA-published book with applause, though. Not sure if that is out of kindness our out of unawareness. Both, I think.
--Ken
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