Why PublishAmerica's press releases aren't printed in newspapers

JustSomeJournalist

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Someone posted once that most media outlets won't do stories about PublishAmerica authors and their books. I can't speak for all of them as to their reasons why, but where I work, the rule of thumb is that if you receive a PA "release," delete it.

Just for background: I work at a family of weekly newspapers in a rural county. I believe this unwritten rule began after we noticed a lot of authors from this neck of woods getting "book deals" with PA.

Here's why we won't run PA releases or give authors coverage:
1. PA's releases are terrible. It's the same generic form letter, and every time, "the" is misspelled. I don't have time to fix typos in releases.
2. PA's press office is terrible. When I first started here (two and a half years ago), one of the first stories I was assigned was about a woman who wrote a book that was published by, you guessed it, PublishAmerica. I decided to do the unthinkable and get ahold of PA's press person, a guy named Shawn Street. His answers were the description of the book.
That is not how a press/marketing/communications department should operate. If PA really wanted to help you in your promotional efforts, they would have people who know about the product.
3. We know it's a scam. Again, our newspapers are based in a very rural area. We found it hard to believe that 10-plus residents have managed to get a book deal in the past two years. Due to that number, it's not worth our time to staff it for a story. One person doing it is an accomplishment. Ten or more doing it makes us scratch our heads.

People will call in and ask, "Why didn't you run the release?" If I have to deal with the call, I'll try to explain to them that we receive these all the time and it's not really worth the cost of ink or labor. They're not usually happy, so I try to help by telling them that PA is a scam, and often direct them to AWWC. We don't part on good terms.

In our eyes, a PA release is no different from a Pampered Chef release.

I just thought I would add my two cents. This forum has been beneficial to us in the office in dealing with PA requests.
 

Jill Karg

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So I shouldn't send you my release for my uggg PA book aye? Just kidding, by the time they released my book I already knew that it was unsaleable and a mistake to have chose them. I am hoping to one day (after I have 0 sales) to get the book back from them.

So bummer to those that haven't realize that they are a scam.
 

M.R.J. Le Blanc

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Something I can add, based on some stuff I learned through NaNo promotion, is that it's also a matter of time. A press release has to be really easy for the editor to use, ie they don't have to do a lot of work to put it in the paper. Small papers like JustSomeJournalists don't have the staff, but with the bigger city papers you're competing with A LOT of others for limited space. If the editor has to do much tweaking or needs more specific info your press release goes to the recycle bin. They don't have time. The easier you can make it so it's practically just a matter of sending it to be printed, the better chance you probably have. Writing a good press release is actually kind of similar to a query; it's hard. You gotta sell it.
 

Cyia

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Anyone remember where the post is here in the PA section from someone who worked at their local paper? He/she said (basically) that announcing a PA "published" book would be akin to running a piece with "Local man attends community college!" for a headline.

Anyone can do it, so it's not news.
 

alleycat

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Anyone remember where the post is here in the PA section from someone who worked at their local paper? He/she said (basically) that announcing a PA "published" book would be akin to running a piece with "Local man attends community college!" for a headline.

Anyone can do it, so it's not news.
More like . . . "Local Man Accepted Into Phoenix University."
 

thothguard51

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To the original poster, if this is truly the experience and feelings at your paper, why not do an article of P.A. Sort of as a warning to prospective authors, a community service so to speak...
 

CACTUSWENDY

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/\/\/\/\ I agree. It would do to write up an article about them. When I was up in Scottsdale a couple of years ago I put out a call for books to review and stated I did not want any self pubs. You guessed it. That was all I got. lol
 

Sarashay

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To the original poster, if this is truly the experience and feelings at your paper, why not do an article of P.A. Sort of as a warning to prospective authors, a community service so to speak...

I like this idea, but I also know that they may not want to deal with the hassle of a bunch of angry letters from PA authors squawking the 'you should have read your contract!' party line.
 

James D. Macdonald

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When I was up in Scottsdale a couple of years ago I put out a call for books to review and stated I did not want any self pubs. You guessed it. That was all I got. lol

That's because only self-published authors send out review copies of already-published books.
 

JustSomeJournalist

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I like this idea, but I also know that they may not want to deal with the hassle of a bunch of angry letters from PA authors squawking the 'you should have read your contract!' party line.

I like angry letters. So, that's not the reason why we wouldn't do a story about PA.

The reason is that unless it affects a big portion of our circulation area or happens in our circulation area, we don't bother. It's a small shop; two reporters, the other of whom has been on health leave since September 2009.

We focus our attention locally. It sucks and is boring, but our readers seem to enjoy the work, so why not?
 

Bartholomew

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Anyone remember where the post is here in the PA section from someone who worked at their local paper? He/she said (basically) that announcing a PA "published" book would be akin to running a piece with "Local man attends community college!" for a headline.

Anyone can do it, so it's not news.

Heh. That was me. I actually lost that job because of that post.
 

Jill Karg

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Heh. That was me. I actually lost that job because of that post.

Sorry for your job loss, Bartholomew. I hate it when you try to do something good and get smacked in the face for it.

I hope you landed a better job.
 

Bartholomew

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Sorry for your job loss, Bartholomew. I hate it when you try to do something good and get smacked in the face for it.

I hope you landed a better job.

I'm copy-editor elsewhere, now. :)