PA, wow you've opened a big discussion, just so you know, so I'll stick to my own personal story.
I submitted to them in January 2001, I got an acceptance two weeks later. I knew nothing about the industry and they were the first ones I queried. I scooped up the acceptance in a heartbeat, again clueless was stamped all over my forehead. I submitted my second book right after that and it got accepted as well. I was an author, two books were coming out. It was unbelievable.
Things seemed okay, the staff was really nice. They were "Giving my book the chance it deserved!" *gag*
I found the message boards in April. I started feeling uneasy, the message boards were partially illiterate, but I started making some friends. I figured it was a message board and they just weren't careful with their posts, and there were some really great writers on board.
Then word cropped up that Ingrams was no longer stocking our books. I freaked out. I e-mailed author support (a joke), no response, so there was a thread on the message board talking about the ingrams situation, I chimed in, voicing my concerns, was it going to affect our books and so forth. Nothing inflammatory. And WHAM, banned. All of us. I e-mailed author support about it, they replied. "You're not banned, you're password has been misplaced, it happens from time to time." Yeah, sure.
Determined not to have a failed book because of those idiots I asked if I could seek my own distribution. See, they blamed ingrams for not giving proper discounts, thus bookstores didn't like to stock the books because they couldn't get a large enough discount.
So I found an awesome distributor, they print and warehouse their own copies, they work with all the big boys, and the bookstores love them. I called around. I also got ahold of Wal-mart's distributor and they agreed if I could get them listed with the bigger distributor they would carry them as well. They would also come in paperback instead of trade paperback which is about the size of a hardcover but with a paperback covers with more gloss. This would mean a lot cheaper than the current 19.99 price tag it was boasting.
I got the go ahead from PA, got the okay from the distributor, it was all lined up, they sent the agreement to PA, PA refused. Turned them down, ripped up the agreement, and said to me "No." This was after I had already attained their permission to do so.
That is when I started fighting for my rights back. I also had lined up three tv interviews, I canceled them. There was no point. My book wouldn't be available to the public so why bother?
I fought them for six months, the proofs had errors added into them, the cover was horrible, we had less than 24 hours to make our own or to deal with the ugly one. It came out despite all the resistence I tried to put up. It had maybe 30 sales, that was with me actively promoting against it. There were still people asking for it (they still are thus the lulu thoughts) they couldn't order it from amazon, or barnes and noble more than one at a time. It would come back as unavailable. The switch in Ingrams supposidely insured that they would never be unavailable. Yeah sure.
I contacted the BBB hoping they would help since it was a contract violation for it to be unavailable and PA had refused to do anything. They first said it would be unavailable from time to time and it was the system's fault, then they said that I never had any trouble ordering it, I could order it one or fifty copies as I pleased. I sent them proof that I was having trouble, I sent all this to the BBB, they closed the case, satisfied PA was doing nothing wrong. I now know that in Maryland the BBB does not consider you a consumer if you also have a business relationship so they are no help.
A local school teacher read it to her class, loved it, went to the state board, the state board agreed to have it included as part of the curriculum if PA would give them a reasonable discount. PA refused saying it did not wish to fufill such a large order.
By this time my second book was coming up, it's cover was even uglier, had absolutely nothing to do with the story, and the image was stolen on top of it. It had even more errors added in.
Then right before it's release date I got two signed and sealed releases.
They are still selling my first book, it is orderable, despite the fact that they stated there were no copies in stock. They haven't replied to any of my inquires into it.
I got several abusive letters from their author support.
Point is, there is nothing you can't get from lulu.com that you can get from PA. Other than abuse, a binding contract, and an ugly cover, added in errors, and so forth.
I have worked on several other things, I am moving ahead with screenplays, I have written and submitted books and am working on a new one right now.
These two were both first books of series, I know how I want them to be rewritten, but everytime I go into the document to try my fingers freeze. I know it's all in my head but I'm hoping putting them back out there without the PA logo will unfreeze them and with lulu I can delete it and within a day, poof, it's gone. This way those who have been asking for it and asking for it can buy it if they want to.
As for you Vrab, I strongly suggest working on your next book. Most authors don't get published until they have written several. If you can't get any bites on this one, put it away for a while and work on the next one, and continue doing so. It will improve your writing like you wouldn't believe. I know, I'm working on my sixth.
ETA: The seperating their slime from my work is strictly for my benefit. Many people in the industry have come forward and said it doesn't make much of a difference as it doesn't count as a publishing credit.
