Thank you everyone who posted here. I am currently writing my second novel right now (the first I just started to find an agent for in May), and you've given me food for thought. I'm Canadian, and had never heard of Publish America before, and they undoubtedly are a company I will avoid like the plauge. I was in contact with a company that has a deal with Chapters/Indigo. I believe they would fall under the category of self publisher (as opposed to vanity publisher,) though I might be mixed up on exactly what that is. They ask for a huge sum up front (i.e. $4000), which gives editing, ISBN, yadda yadda. You also get 20 copies of your book. Oh, they also guarantee shelf space at one chapters/indigo for 16 more of your books, and a book signing experience in one location of your choice. My head is spinning, because it is so tempting to actually have my book in print and in hand. I have a chain of stores (besides the chapters/indigo thing) that will be selling and promoting my book on their website, and I feel so dejected that that is a possibility for me, that I'll probably pass up even though I haven't had any good responses from an agent. Does anyone know anything about these guys, or if this is a RUN AWAY type of situation? I know that publishers/agents are supposed to frown upon self publishing, but these guys seem to have a list of something like 20 authors on their site that have started with them and have gotten published by Scribner, Random House etc.