James D Macdonald
Other Stuff
I do not know much about this profession and from what I do know from my past experience, I don’t want any part of it.
...right now I'm so discouraged that I don't want to write anything else.
Guys, this is part of why I'm so down on PublishAmerica. Authors are fragile, especially new authors. How many wonderful writers have we lost, their voices silenced, because their first experience was with PublishAmerica, and it crushed them. Hapi's mentioned the deliberate emotional abuse that PA heaps on its writers. You can all see it for yourselves.
Maybe the current book that these writers sent to PA wasn't very good. The way things ought to work, the author would send a first manuscript around, get rejected a bunch of times, then write a new, better book. Now -- that writer is told "Yes, you're good enough" (derailing the learning process), then sent out on endless promotional schemes (stealing from the time that they should spend honing their craft), then cynically crushed by a professional bully, knocking them away from real traditional publication.
PublishAmerica offends me on a moral level.
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Molly -- you mentioned another publisher that had been interested in your book. You have the rights back now. Have you written to that other publisher to see if they're still interested?
In a lot of very important ways your book is still unpublished.
The way I see it, you can still get back on track.
I do not know much about this profession and from what I do know from my past experience, I don’t want any part of it.
...right now I'm so discouraged that I don't want to write anything else.
Guys, this is part of why I'm so down on PublishAmerica. Authors are fragile, especially new authors. How many wonderful writers have we lost, their voices silenced, because their first experience was with PublishAmerica, and it crushed them. Hapi's mentioned the deliberate emotional abuse that PA heaps on its writers. You can all see it for yourselves.
Maybe the current book that these writers sent to PA wasn't very good. The way things ought to work, the author would send a first manuscript around, get rejected a bunch of times, then write a new, better book. Now -- that writer is told "Yes, you're good enough" (derailing the learning process), then sent out on endless promotional schemes (stealing from the time that they should spend honing their craft), then cynically crushed by a professional bully, knocking them away from real traditional publication.
PublishAmerica offends me on a moral level.
--------------
Molly -- you mentioned another publisher that had been interested in your book. You have the rights back now. Have you written to that other publisher to see if they're still interested?
In a lot of very important ways your book is still unpublished.
The way I see it, you can still get back on track.