I did a basic search on publishing companies, and save the big companies, I didn't find many out there that would a) Readily publish a first time or relatively unknown author and b) Do it for free.
I'm sorry, my friend, but Google led you astray. Every legitimate commercial press will readily publish a first-time or unknown author, and do it for free. There are literally thousands of legitimate commercial presses. The only caveat is this: Your book has to be really well-written.
I'm sticking with PA, and hope that they make the decision to publish [title redacted].
Oh, I'm certain they'll accept it. Provided your manuscript arrived before they hit their quota for the day (and it avoids certain other very broad guidelines -- too short, too long, or featuring a character named Miranda), that is.
For twelve years this small crowd of hecklers have tried to prove only one thing: that PublishAmerica does not publish someone's book for free after all.
That's a strawman argument, PA. (It's also poor grammar. The line should read "
has tried to." Agreement of number. That makes me suspect that Larry wrote that line. His grammar...is no better than Miranda's spelling.) No one's tried to prove that PA doesn't publish their authors' books for free (other than requiring that their authors pay for their own copyright registration).
What's been
proved,
many times over,
beyond the shadow of a doubt, is that PA is a
vanity press, sub-category
author mill.
Do you want to know who PA is selling their books to? Look who they're advertising to. (We'll show your book to J.K. Rowling for just $49!) That's the definition of a vanity press: One that sells its books to their own authors rather than to the general public.
So how about, it, PA authors: If PA isn't a vanity press, why do you have less money in your bank account now than you did before you published with them? Why are you writing checks to your publisher? Why is your garage filled with cartons of unsold (and unsalable) books?
PA True Believers, Take the Pledge: Since PublishAmerica is not a vanity press in any way, shape, or form, I swear or affirm that I will never give them any money whatever, no matter what the pretext.
From PA's Facebook page:
How is that a legitimate argument against Publish America ?
Given that the argument was that PA offers contracts to books that they'd never read, it nails the coffin lid shut. That's how it's a legitimate argument.
(It's also true that PA didn't do that extra "screening" and turn down the book until
after they'd been told that they'd been pranked, but oh well....)
