PDMI Publishing LLC / PDMI Direct

There's something so... slick about the site as to set off some warning bells to me. Plus the fact that they have a page specifically for people who want to cancel their publishing agreement (http://pdmidirect.com/cancellation-request/) and that under the Contact page they have a log in system in which Authors have to submit a support ticket if they need help (http://pdmidirect.com/support/), I get a weird feeling about these guys.

You mentioned Injected Ink as being one of their imprints, on their imprint page it says this:

Want to carry an Independent Publisher imprint but keep your work freelance with total control? Simply pay for any freelance packages and keep all control and 100% royalties while publishing independently! You can also choose our Freelance Services with any publishing imprint we offer, or you can develop your own imprint under your own name or a business name for only $395.00

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(http://pdmidirect.com/imprints/). I could be wrong, but I think this means that anybody with $395 can call themselves an imprint of PDMI Publishing.

Overall, I would be very wary of these guys

Their website, too slick by half, is aimed at authors, not readers.

From an initial assessment, it appears to be a vanity press in my humble opinion.

PDMI Publishing

Hello,
I have read some of the posts about PDMI Publishing. I have to say, that you all need to do more research on this company. I was a bit skeptical myself at first due to being wronged by another publishing company. So, I did my research and I even met with the owners of this company, PDMI Publishing, and they are down to earth people and very sweet and very helpful. They are always there for their authors. I recently signed my first contract with them. I also know other authors as myself that were with the same publisher that had wronged me, and wouldn't you know it, they wronged them as well. So, these other authors have sought out PDMI Publishing for their publishing services as I have done.
Give them a chance to show you what they can do to help you have your dream of being a published author come true.
No, I am not posting this for the company. I am posting for myself because I believe in this company and I believe that they are perfect for me as an author. I also know that they can and will help their authors in any way they possibly can. Yes, you can pay for services with them just as you can with any other publishers.
I say to anyone who is looking for a great real down to earth true publisher, contact them. They have several publishing programs to fit any author and their needs.
Also, they are a Accredited Business with the BBB. I am absolutely honored that PDMI Publishing has accepted me to be among their very talented authors.
I plan to sign more contracts with them later on. I have been a published author for over a year, mostly self-publishing my books and the one publisher that is NOT worthy of speaking of, as well, but I am happy to have PDMI Publishing as my publisher now. They are worth a second look for anyone.

I even met with the owners of this company, PDMI Publishing, and they are down to earth people and very sweet and very helpful.

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It's nice that they're sweet and helpful, but being sweet and helpful doesn't automatically translate into being able to sell books.

Give them a chance to show you what they can do to help you have your dream of being a published author come true.

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Real publishers aren't in the business of making your dreams come true. They're in the business of selling well-produced books to the reading public.

Yes, you can pay for services with them just as you can with any other publishers.

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Any other publishers? Really?

Also, they are a Accredited Business with the BBB.

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I'm afraid that PDMI's A- rating with the BBB means means very little. Should you be dissatisfied with PDMI the BBB will be unable to help you because you are a client of PDMI, not a consumer of their product.

There are no book excerpts on PDMI's site so I went to Amazon and chose a title at random:

"It has to be the lady, that has been missing for so many years, the rumours had to be true. The lady is still alive, yet imprisoned by the lord who took the lands saying they were married", the king thought to himself.

Then the king approached her, and he heard a voice behind her, "Take another step, my dear, and there will be hell to pay." The king noticed that she totally ignored him, and began to pick up pace toward him.

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According to PDMI website:

With PDMI Direct you can expect the highest quality in design, editing, formatting, account building and customer service

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I can see no evidence that the book I quoted underwent any editing.

They offer copyright registration!

But it's not what you'd think or expect.

Would you like to be able to copyright your Original Work in safe and secure manner? With PDMI you can do just that! You keep 100% Rights and Protection through our Affiliate Copyright Management Team. It’s Simple!

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Basically, you upload your work to their servers and they'll send you a PDF showing the date and time they've received and printed it.

http://pdmidirect.com/copyrights/

I also looked at a blurb for one of the books and found this:

It all started the beginning of the school year in September of ‘69 at Columbia High School, Columbia S.C. and ‘Message in the Bottle’ by the Police was on the radio.

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Either that's a typo or the Police have been recording much, much longer than I remember. The rest was just as poorly edited, with tense change mid-paragraph...hell, mid-sentence and run-on's that make me question the abilities of the staff.

Vanity Press?

Hey folks, I just wanted to let you know about the issue being discussed about PDMI being a vanity press.

Before I became involved with PDMI, I was concerned about the same thing. It is a unique business model they have here, and I will try to clarify it so there are no misconceptions.

Really PDMI has a dual track system. There are a lot of self-pubbing authors out there who do not know the ins and outs of publishing a book. Yet there are advantages of remaining purely independent. For folks like them, PDMI offers services such as editing and formatting, and they charge for those services. Then the authors are free to self-pub or shop around their manuscript to other publishers.

They also have a direct traditional publishing route, in which the author submits a query, sample chapters, just like any other publisher, and if the work is up to PDMI's standards, they are offered a contract to publish. Going in this route, editing, formatting, marketing and the like are included in the process free of charge.

I have been fortunate to have a manuscript accepted by PDMI, which is due to be published in about a month. To this date, no one at PDMI has requested payment for anything they have done, nor do I expect they will.

Jim Henry

authortlc said:

I am posting for myself because I believe in this company and I believe that they are perfect for me as an author.

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Come back in a year and let us know if you still feel the same way.

JimHenry said:

There are a lot of self-pubbing authors out there who do not know the ins and outs of publishing a book. Yet there are advantages of remaining purely independent. For folks like them, PDMI offers services such as editing and formatting, and they charge for those services.

They also have a direct traditional publishing route, in which the author submits a query, sample chapters, just like any other publisher, and if the work is up to PDMI's standards, they are offered a contract to publish. Going in this route, editing, formatting, marketing and the like are included in the process free of charge.

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JimHenry, of the eight PDMI books I've sampled on Amazon only one was edited to what I'd regard as a professional standard. The other seven were, quite frankly, painful to read. If those authors paid for editing they were robbed; if they didn't, I have to wonder what happened to the "highest quality" editing offered by PDMI.

The only named editor who isn't also the author is one Jennifer Nunez, who apparently saw nothing wrong with this (my bolding):

Tabbruis went to the door and as he opened it up, Shane boomed his way into the room yelling, "I want to know what the hell is going on here Tab!"

Charmeine ran into the room and could see immediately Shane was very upset.

He shouted, "That goes for you too Char! What the Hell is going on?"

Charmeine and Tabbruis stood together with his arm around her.

"Shane, I am with Tab now," she answered.

Tabbruis added, "And Charleen is my life now. I will never hurt her, and will keep her safe always."

"I know what you saw here last night was confusing Shane," she said softly...

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The missing punctuation is bad enough, but fer pete's sake - not noticing the heroine's sudden change of name?

T C McKinney of PDMI/Injected Ink also deserves mention for this incoherently over-the-top blurb:

Ellen McKinney's Santa Fe Son, Best of Intentions and Private Honor are among the world's most loved mystery novels. Praised for their intriguing and vivid blend of crime scene investigations and romance, as well as for her intense formulation of characters and immense storytelling penmanship, her novels stand as a true and sworn testimony to the courtroom of her innocent plea in America's most popular literature since her first publication in 2005.
http://pdmidirect.com/amazon-bookstore/

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Ouch.

More exquisitely-phrased words of wisdom from T C McKinney:

Effective book descriptions are a not only a crucial element to your book but also of your overall distribution success through Marketing and PR. Lets think of the book description like your own personal hygiene. The overall appearance of your book and how you take care of it to the general public can make or break you in your authoring career.Is your book compelling, intriguing or mysterious? Leaving people suspended in the air with eyes widely peeled is in fact a great start to your successful endeavors as an established author. Emotions are a big key to grasping the readers attention and the average attention span of the reader is very limited. These readers want the first sentence to just absolutely startle them and reel them in even further to your story.

Secondly, I cannot stress the fact enough that grammar is a crucial factor that will make or break you as well. People are just turned off by poorly written anything. It does not matter even if you are the bestselling author of anything. If you cannot get your grammar together then you have just lost that bestselling rank you so nobly hold.
http://pdmidirect.com/blog/2012/08/24/effective-book-descriptions-with-ownerfounder-tc-mckinney/

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I can honestly say that the quality of PDMI's editing and Mr McKinney's grammar did leave me suspended in the air with eyes widely peeled.

Mr McKinney on the use of 'power words' in book descriptions:

When it comes to the astonishment of your readers think of surprising them with a bit of emotional treaties through word usage. Power words are not only important but also rewarding. To keep someone emotionally in tune to the melodies of your writings is nothing short of a wonderful experience and miracle waiting to unfold. Let your story latch onto the readers emotional outlets through the use of such power words that will make them stay in sync with your story. Do not however use too many power words. Power words can be just as it states, ‘Powerful’. Power words examples: Obsession, Passion, Generated, Impacted and so forth. When writing your description of 150 words I recommend using anywhere from 4-10 power words altogether. Do not overdue it as it could damage and create chaotic disturbances to the general eye.
http://pdmidirect.com/blog/2012/08/24/effective-book-descriptions-with-ownerfounder-tc-mckinney/

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A press whose founder and editors are barely on nodding terms with the English language is one to be avoided like the plague.

PDMI also has a rather bizarre 'Author Code of Ethical Conduct' which includes such gems as

DRAMA IN-DRAMA OUT: Any and all drama pertaining to PDMI, its Authors or Employees will not be tolerated. If any accusations are made against or by Authors, Employees or related parties, PDMI will take any appropriate action to investigate the situation. All decisions made by PDMI regarding the offending party are final and not subject to appeal. A negative finding will result in immediate termination without right of reimbursement or payment of any monies due.

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Tucked away in this curious document is an acknowledgement that PDMI publishes unedited work, presumably at the author's expense:

The Author agrees that the Publisher is not responsible for editing, misspelling, rewriting, page numbering, indexing, reviewing, or any other errors in the work in completed format. Under the terms and conditions as provided by the Author to the Publisher, the Author request that the Publisher shall in no way edit the selected Manuscripts.
http://pdmidirect.com/ethical-code/

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This alone would make me run a mile from PDMI. Who on earth would want their carefully-crafted work to bear the same imprint as raw slush?

PDMI PUBLISHING

If this has already been discussed on here, I couldn't find it.

What's the word on PDMI publishing?

<link snipped>

Run far and fast from PDMI

This company is one of the worst around. If you are considering using them, don't! Their editing department is a joke and I've heard that you don't ever receive money when your books sell. A friend of mine was published with them and when she canceled with them, they kept her money. Not only did they charge a fee for the cancellation, but she had earned royalties they refused to hand over. They sound like a bunch of thieves to me.

Their business manager is a piece of work, too. I don't know how many horror stories I've heard directly from their authors about what a tyrant she is. They expect everything from their departments and authors and then give nothing back. Again, THIEVES.

The authors that are worth reading leave them. So, what's that tell you?

I previously published a book with PDMI Publishing. It started out great, and then went horribly wrong. I no longer work with PDMI. I know of several other authors who had negative experiences with them, and left as well. Jim Henry, who posted previously in April 2013, is one of the authors who I know became very unhappy with PDMI and no longer works with them. I know of a couple of authors who had to obtain lawyers to help them with battling PDMI.

They do not take responsibility for any mistakes which are made by them. They will make excuses for everything which goes wrong in your process with them. And if you complain too much, the cut ties with you.

I highly recommend that you either publish your book on your own with CreateSpace (you can contract people to do your editing, formatting, cover design, etc), or do your best to find a quality publisher. PDMI is not a quality company. If you work with them, it is very likely that you will come to regret it as I and several other authors have. Save yourself the heartache and frustration.

As we've said on many, many occasions: always examine the quality of a publisher's books before signing a contract with them. It was obvious in 2013 that PDMI didn't give a damn about what they released.

Alice, that's the worst writing I've read since I was an agent and had to deal with slush piles. Thank you for sacrificing yourself so that others might live.