Policy on warning people off PA?

inkkognito

Onlyifyouwanttowillyoufin daway-Enya
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Is it allowable to post the link? If so, here it is:

http://orlando.craigslist.org/wri/860037705.html

If not, mods please feel free to remove. Maybe if more than one person educates her gently, it will help her from stumbling into a long, dark abyss.

pagey's, you're so right about the love of writing being destroyed by a scam. I have a friend whose 12 year old daughter loves to write, but they're going about things the right way. She submits to the kids' section of magazines, and coincidentally one of her blurbs/drawings appeared in the same issue of "Bird Talk" as one of my articles. It was so cool to see her excitement. If the 8 year old's mom can be guided in the right direction now so she knows how to recognize scams and to nurture her child's talent in the right ways, hopefully he'll retain and develop his love of it.
 

JulieB

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A small suggestion: It might be better to have one local person write the Craigslist poster. I'm all for people making an informed choice when it comes to finding a publisher, but overwhelming someone with e-mails isn't a good idea.

Just a thought.
 

Shadowman

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Is it allowable to post the link? If so, here it is:

http://orlando.craigslist.org/wri/860037705.html

If not, mods please feel free to remove. Maybe if more than one person educates her gently, it will help her from stumbling into a long, dark abyss.

pagey's, you're so right about the love of writing being destroyed by a scam. I have a friend whose 12 year old daughter loves to write, but they're going about things the right way. She submits to the kids' section of magazines, and coincidentally one of her blurbs/drawings appeared in the same issue of "Bird Talk" as one of my articles. It was so cool to see her excitement. If the 8 year old's mom can be guided in the right direction now so she knows how to recognize scams and to nurture her child's talent in the right ways, hopefully he'll retain and develop his love of it.


I set her straight. Directly, and gently.
 

Shadowman

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I just got an Email today from the lady (Caroline) with the little boy who has wrote 50 books. She said thanks, and that she is going to take my advice.
Incase you're counting that's:

Shadowman: 1 Dirty rotten stinking rat's: 0
 

inkkognito

Onlyifyouwanttowillyoufin daway-Enya
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Woohoo, thanks Shadowman! I'll just leave it at that since it sounded like she heeded your warning. I don't want to overwhelm here. I'm just so glad she will stay out of the clutchs of PA and its ilk.
 

benbradley

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Perhaps this webpage would be helpful in dealing with "current" PA authors. Often it's hard to know how to help someone who is "happy where they are," even when you've been there yourself. Just think of the title as "How to talk to a PublishAmerica author" and change the appropriate references to relate to PA and its authors:

http://www.xenu.net/archive/infopack/16.htm

With that and the other posts in this thread in mind, I've just composed this little blurb:

"Congratulations on publishing your book! It's great see yet another published author! If you ever have any concerns about your publisher, or problems with them you can't seem to resolve, email me and I'll see if I can help, as I've had experience in this area. Here's hoping you have a best-seller!"

Notice I didn't name any names, or say anything bad about anyone. :) This could even be put into a public blog comment, as it won't be embarrassing to family and friends and such.

Feel free to use the above as-is or modified as you feel appropriate, and in ways you feel appropriate.
 

kullervo

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I got to warn many nice writers at the Southern California Writers Conference. It was quite enjoyable. I alerted them to PA, scams in general, and commended their attention to Preditors and Editors and AW.