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- Sep 8, 2010
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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.
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.