Condensed PublishAmerica Thread II

According to one source, PublishAmerica rejects 80% of the submissions they receive. Since they claim to have published manuscripts from over 4,000 authors, that logically means that they have rejected as many as 16,000 manuscripts.

In order to test that claim, P&E is asking writers whose manuscripts were rejected by PublishAmerica to contact P&E at [email protected] so that we can gather the necessary evidence. Writers who do respond to this request can expect their identities and manuscript titles to remain totally confidential as journalistic resources.

Thank you,
Dave Kuzminski, Editor
Preditors & Editors ™

Edited to fix email address.

Dave, hope you're not...

...holding your breath on this one.

How about a PA anthology?

I have nothing to do with PA and have had the good fortune not to get tangled up with them. However, I've read all the threads on this board and they're obviously of (nearly) the same ilk as Poetry.com.

Which got me to thinking....

How about a bunch of us getting together and assembling an "anthology" of short stories and submitting it to PA? I'm talking baaaad stories. Stories that should never see the light of day. Sort of a la what Dave Barry did in submitting horrible poems to the International Library of Poetry.

This jape would serve three purposes: 1) test whether or not PA truly ever rejects a manuscript; 2) waste PA's time and resources; 3) give all of the contributors a good belly laugh.

I will probably live to regret suggesting the idea, but it sounds fun, to me. Anyone else game?

Re: How about a PA anthology?

if you want to waste a company's resources, do a search on google. if they have a sidebar ad, click it. the company has to pay google for each click-through kicked up by the ad...

Savannah, I'm game...

...and I'll bet ten to one that PA will take whatever we send in. Then Dave could start a "lending library" on his Preditors and Editors site, so that when people write in asking him if PA is a legitimate publisher he could just loan them a copy of our newly minted PA book and then ask them to draw their own conclusions.

Savannah, I like your idea and I'm game. If others are, it shouldn't take but 6-10 stories to have enough for a PA submission. Between you and I, though, we'd have to use phony names if we do this as we wouldn't want our literary careers ruined with the PA "taint" added to our publishing credits.

Rejections

So far, I've learned of two. That's a far cry from the 80% I understand they claim to reject (based upon their other claim of having published work from over 4,000 authors.

Re: Savannah, I'm game...

The individual authors would have to give up their copyrights, and assign them, in writing, to whoever the person who submits the work turns out to be.

Rather than an anthology, this ought to be put together like <a href="http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/stranger.html" target="_new">Naked Came the Stranger</a>.

It still wouldn't prove anything, (like Stranger didn't prove anything) but it might be fun.

You'd need to have someone in charge of making this work (the person assigning chapters, enforcing deadlines, and putting it together), someone to submit it (that'd be someone that PA has never heard of, and you know that they read these boards). You'd have to get a group of people who you know, face to face, who aren't PA plants, and who know how to keep their mouths shut.

Re: Did PublishAmerica reject your manuscript?

Let's see if I understand something here, Dave Kuzminski. You're giving your personal assurance to those who respond that you will not disclose their names and the titles of their work to others. And yet on another thread at the water cooler, Canada James has asked you to remove his name as a source, all of which you posted without his permission and likely as a 'dirty Nixon-style trick.' Well, won't those serious writers just be reporting to you one after the other because of your solid trustworthiness?

Let me get this straight

Someone gives me information. I can't thank them publicly without someone stating that it's a Nixon-trick? Yet at the same time, I'm being attacked as unreliable for maintaining confidentiality for those to whom it's promised?

FIRST of all, you're talking apples and oranges. Individuals who have asked not to be acknowledged have not been listed ever in P&E's thank you column. Get this straight. Canada James did not ask me any time prior to his request in this topic. Why else do you think I asked about whether he wanted acknowledgement should he give me other information later on? He went ahead and made one of his typical remarks in response and I'm supposed to be nice? I pointed out exactly what that would be or do I have to explain that as well? He made his decision long before he researched anything on P&E. Otherwise, I believe he would have seen enough to cause him to exercise greater caution. Instead, he made a financial decision based upon how much it would cost him to have the books published by PublishAmerica compared to his experience with his previous book. If anyone who really cares researches enough of Canada James' remarks, that comes out as part of his reason. If nothing else, he made a rational decision in doing that part of the equation, but I don't believe that he anticipated the difficulty in getting his work into enough book stores where it would make a real difference. He's still stuck with nearly the same amount of book stores as he could reach before. He knows that, but it's not likely that he'll admit it because he'd have to admit that he was wrong.

ALSO, for your information, hundreds of writers have written to me offering information while asking that they not be identified or thanked. P&E and I always followed through with their wishes in every instance. No writer's confidentiality has ever been broken by P&E and myself in its nearly eight years of operation.

And one last thing should be mentioned. You don't need permission to thank someone. However, like I stated, P&E doesn't list the names of those who ask not to be listed. Yes, I could have responded sooner to him, but I was on jury duty for one day sending a young man to prison for four years.

Re: How about a PA anthology?

Savannah, good idea. I think I can come up with a real stinker. Must be truely bad. Stories that don't end right, make no sense. One you truely don't want your name on. I am in. Need to know who to send the stories too. I will give up my rights to it. Certainly. But who ever does it, should ask for extra copies in the contract so we can all have one. To remember our worst work, and PAs blunder.

I have a chapter...

...from my first book that was culled out by the editor. It is absolutely awful, and that's me being kind about it. Savannah, I will gladly send it to you and revoke any rights that I have to it. One thing that could potentially be wild about this - if we do this, and the word gets out, the damn book might actually sell on account of "what it is." Sort of the same karma that made "Plan 9 From Outer Space" an extremely popular movie.

The more I think about it, the better this idea becomes...

Re: I have a chapter...

and make any more money for PA? hmmm...wouldn't that just justify their cause?

Re: I have a chapter...

Come on now. Show some risk to your personal vanity. Send them what you consider to be your very best stories.

Re: I have a chapter...

Why should I send my very best stories to PA, when a traditional publisher would pay me significant money and get me significant numbers of readers?

I'd have to be nuts in the head to go with an installment-plan vanity press.

(If anyone wants to see how low PublishAmerica's standards are, lots of PA authors have posted <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=PublishAmerica+sample+chapter" target="_new">sample chapters</a>.)

It's not a matter of risk to my personal vanity...

...it's a matter of adding something to my literary resume that will trash it beyond repair. Over the past three months or so, I've attended the Southern Festival of the Book, the Atlanta Literary Festival, the St. Petersburg Festival of Reading, and SEBA. These festivals are attended/populated by people representing libraries, media outlets, and other entities crucial to one's writing success. To a "T" they considered Publish America a joke, just a new age variant to the age old vanity press situation. I would just as soon run manuscripts off my printer, bind them, and sell them myself as go with Publish America, and that's being kind about it.

Re: I have a chapter...

(If anyone wants to see how low PublishAmerica's standards are, lots of PA authors have posted sample chapters.)

Click to expand...

Ouch. I only read the top three, but they were ungood. Especially the first.

Re: I have a chapter...

I don't mean to imply that the PA authors who posted sample chapters are bad people, or even bad writers, and they're certainly proud of their books.

Some of the books are probably good.

But ... most of them aren't ready to be published, and certainly aren't ready to be published unedited.

Re: I have a chapter...

gee, ya think?

*laughs*

I remember a post I responded to on the PA forums right before I was banned (possibly the reason why) where one of their victims met a reviewer and tried to ask for a review of her PA book. He declined, explaining why he wouldn't ever review a PA book. In fact, he even offered her a chance to attend a writing clinic he held at his own bookstore - granted, it may have been the tip of another scam but it was offered in good intentions. Of course, she launched into a scathing rant about how unfair the publishing world was and how 'orrible it was that PA authors were being ignored. She also mentioned that said man had actually gone to her site and read an excerpt to boot, so how dare he take the attitude that she was in need of his assistance!

I then went to her site and read the sample chapter - to say it was horrible would be an understatement. I took her to task, explaining that her customers would be reading this off her website as well, and if it wasn't a decent read (spelling - ijiot?) and so forth that she wasn't going to sell a thing. The rest of the board jumped in, explaining that it was the usual conspiracy against PA authors and so forth and how dare this man suggest that her work was anything less than perfect.

it's a sad, sad commentary on the world when everyone feels they have the RIGHT to be published and fawned over by every reviewer and bookstore owner from here to Haiti... especially by PA!

Ask Marky48

Said he managed to get two of his rejected...go figure

*yawn*

FEMazur and finerthingsinlife, latest two PA sockpuppets.

Marky's Back?

Hapi, I don't think finerthingsinlife is a PA-puppet. I think he is Marky back to his old routine. Jenna banned him a few weeks ago, but he can't seem to stay away.

Re: Marky's Back?

Eh, you're probably right.

Re: Marky's Back?

No, I don't agree. I'm convinced Finerthings and Marky are two different people.

Re: Marky's Back?

Yes, please ease up. Finer and Marky are two different people, and I'm not sure why that comment by Finer drew a bad response... any of us could have made that same comment-- Marky did repeatedly mention that he had manuscripts rejected by PA. And Finer has clearly stated that he/she doesn't approve of PA's tactics of "trading on dreams" before.

Re: *yawn*

HapiSofi, one more unimaginative, thoughtless, mediocre writer. Poke your fun at me when you can write as well. Until then, read something other than the ordinary pap and exercise your brain.

Also, just for the record, I don't stump for any business, publishers included. Who are you stumping for?