You do realize if you had been one of the lucky 1 to 2 percent of the authors to be picked up by one of the big 6 publishers, that it would take 2 to 4 years for your book to be published?
Which is standard.
You want to go faster and have the same level of PA's distribution to bookstores (zero) then go to Lulu or CreateSpace.
Publishers have a lag time for a reason. They're busy putting your book through a proper edit, buying good cover art, and making sure the marketing department has things lined up to get that book into stores and library catalogs.
You know--all the stuff PA doesn't bother doing.
Oh, and writing CHECKS to their authors.
Four figures for most, sometimes more. They are
investing in the writer.
PA invests one dollar and an endless supply of emails urging their
customers (PA calls them Published Authors) to buy their own books.
It's usually a 1-2 year wait between contract signing and release. It might run to 4 years if the author can't meet a deadline. If so, then they'll bump up another title to take its place in the release schedule.
I had an 18-month wait after a major house picked my title out of their slush pile, paid me a 4-figure advance, and advertised it in a trade magazine. During that time I wrote 3 more novels and got paid for them, too.
Yes, NEW WRITERS DO ACTUALLY SELL BOOKS TO THE "BIG 6." They are actively looking for the next big thing. They don't have time to gang up on newbies to thwart their literary ambitions. Really, they don't.
It is not 1-2 percent of the
authors--it's 1-2 percent of
submissions. There's a good reason for this. The other 98 percent just aren't up to snuff.
Those authors who sell are not "lucky"--they wrote something publishable. That's the ONLY catch. Publishers don't randomly pick a sub from the slush pile. They look for good writing they can
sell to the general public. To do anything else would put them out of business.
before they sign their contracts, and even more surprised people actually sign a contract with out reading it, and then get pissed about it.
How about inexperienced people believe the website claims and don't know enough to recognize the red flags in a PA contract? It's more logical.
PA is not a big 6 publisher. It's more like a hybrid.
Genetic monstrosity is more accurate.
But they say they're NOT.
Right here. "Fact" number 5. If they say something then it must be true. They wouldn't LIE to their own writers just to make a few bucks. Would they?
PA has a lot of negative PR out there thanks to a lot of authors that didn't read their contracts and had no idea what thy signed up for.
We have ample statements from ex-PA writers to the contrary. Many have moved on to sell work to real publishing houses. They had a right to be PO'd and rightly blamed PA for ripping them off. PA represents itself as a legit publishing operation, and of course no one on the Internet ever,
ever LIES.
The negative PR is for a good reason. Time to wake and smell that coffee!
When they start to have problems they run off looking for some answers from the web, and find all the hate mail from people who didn't have a clue.
Here we go, people and entities Who Don't Have a Clue:
The Washington Post
John Scalzi
Editor Teresa Neilsen Hayden
Lee Goldberg
Consumer Affairs
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors of America
Writer's Weekly
The Frederick News Post (their home town paper)
Tip of the iceberg.
Don't trot out the "That's old news" argument. PA hasn't changed since then and is not inclined to do so. We hear from new people every week looking for help. As long as the desperate, deluded, impatient, and barely literate ignore the warnings, PA is going to continue to wave the flag, praise Jesus, invoke Oprah's name, and rip people off for as much as they can manage.
And the very sad fact is that you're willing to let them do that to you.
Sorry, mate. Your feet are wet and you can see pyramids.
.
