My Publish America article
- Thread starter Marian Perera
- Start date
Whew - I found a few links where Larry Clopper admits that PA relies on their authors to sell books. Here are a few to add to the ones already offered up here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25187-2005Jan20.html
http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2005/01/the_publishamer.html
They're a few years old, but still...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25187-2005Jan20.html
http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2005/01/the_publishamer.html
They're a few years old, but still...
Add some more to it, polish it up a bit more, though it's very good right now, take it offline, and then try Reader's Digest and Writer's Digest. Both have excellent distribution to the people who need to be warned.
Doesn't Writer's Digest refuse to do articles about vanity presses because that's where it gets most of its advertising dollars? I think I heard that at some point.
I think the AARP would be very interested in exposing a scam.
Yeah, the AARP is quite interested in exposing scams and fraud. For example, they've got the "Scam Alert" column in the AARP bulletin and the "Fraud Fighters" program.
This is a very good article. Considering the amount of information in the article as well as the amount you haven't yet added, I can't see it being too long. Surely some magazine would be interested in publishing it, even if it had to be done in more than one issue to get it all out there. You won't know who might be interested unless you shop it around. Go for it.
Wow!! That was a lot of work!! You did a great job compiling all those quotes! the only thing I would recommend is the opening part about vanity publishers. You make it sound like vanity publishers are always bad. I think there are a LOT of very legitimate uses for a vanity press - if you have a family history and only want a few copies, you are putting together an album of a special event for the people who worked on it, etc.... Maybe you could put a quick listing of times when a vanity press is a perfect choice, and when it wouldn't be good. Otherwise - great job!!
That's a good point, Nancy. If writers know that they're going with a vanity press and aren't expecting anything more from it than a few copies for the family or books to sell after they give a talk on some subject, they're not likely to be disappointed. Unfortunately that's a far cry from the majority of PA authors. I'll mention this in the conclusion. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Author as salesperson
The PA contract states, in effect, that the publisher is not under any obligation to promote or publicize an author’s books. But it states this in carefully chosen language that will probably fly beneath the radar of an excited new author.
“At his discretion” is another way of saying, “if we choose to do so”. Nothing in the contract requires PA to send copies of books to Kirkus Reviews or to Amazon.com for their “Search Inside” program. Nowhere in the contract does PA agree to send catalogs to bookstores or libraries. But few authors are going to stop to wonder just what “at his discretion” actually commits PA to doing.
In other words, if the Publisher doesn’t want to publicize your book, they don’t have to, and no court in the world will hold them responsible for a breach of contract. I have to agree with the “discretion” part, though. PA is the soul of discretion when it comes to an author’s books – if you’re a major reviewer or buyer for Borders or (perish the thought) Wal-Mart, you won’t hear a word from PA about anyone’s book.
There’s nothing about election and discretion in this clause, but still, on the surface, this probably looks good to a lot of authors. Interviews and book signings are part of the fun of being a published author. The problem isn’t just that the publisher won’t arrange said interviews or bookstore appearances. The problem is that these are unlikely to result in major or sustained sales, especially if the publisher isn’t reliable as a supplier of books. And how many authors are financially prepared to promote their book “elsewhere”, wherever that is?
As well as the monetary costs, authors who take on the work of promoting and distributing their book soon find that this takes a great deal of time and effort. PA gives them no help at all, unless you count setting up a board with a marketing forum where authors can exchange ideas about posters and bookmarks. Instead, PA’s reputation, pricing and lack of quality control all work against authors, meaning that despite their best efforts, bookstores may refuse to carry their books, much less give them signings.
So PA authors resort to other strategies. Some of them suggest holding book signings at banks, gas stations, grocery stores, sporting goods stores, sandwich shops, airports and restaurants (“If you're being slow, maybe you could help a waitress out and hand the plates of ordered food to the customers”). Many stores do not wish to have their customers being approached for book orders unless the book has some connection to the place of business. PA authors may avoid the rejections from editors and agents that other writers go through, but they’ll face a different kind of rejection – the “No Soliciting” sign – if they try to peddle their books in this way. If there are laws against this, the consequences could be worse.
And then there’s the time and the effort spent on such marketing.
Those are weekends that the authors could use to work on their next novel. First novels are rarely publishable, but if writers continue to improve their skills with subsequent novels, they raise their chances of being picked up by a legitimate agent or publisher. With PA, this process is short-circuited. Once an author’s first effort, good or bad, is rushed into print, that author often stops being an author and becomes a salesperson instead.
Creative energy that might have been funneled into subsequent books is poured into sales strategies instead, though most PA authors take this for granted.
If authors are so busy with their new job of promoting and marketing, it’s likely that the old job of writing will no longer be wanted or needed. I can't imagine stifling all the stories I haven't yet written, spending my time and imagination on ways to coax bookstore managers, persuade strangers and sneak my book onto shelves when no one's looking. “New job”. Was that the primary purpose of your writing, PA authors? To land you a new job as a salesperson?
I find it strange that an author’s primary responsibility is or should be marketing. However, on the PAMB, this is the norm.
I wonder if 80% of a salesperson’s career is writing – not marketing. But this quote is from the author of a guide to selling one’s book, so it’s to the author’s advantage if people believe that marketing is far more necessary than improving one’s writing skill or finding a reputable agent. Promoting one’s book is important, but it can never be a substitute for a publisher’s sales department, which many PA authors do not take into account.
Stephen King’s publisher sends boxes of books to the store where he does his signings – books which can be returned if they don’t sell, books which the store will get at a significant discount, books which don’t have to be paid for up-front. PA cannot do this and doesn’t need to try, not when the author is happy to pay for those books. And Anne Rice’s publisher foots the bill for those book tours. PA’s financial responsibility to an author begins and ends with $1. Trying to do what successful authors do, without having those authors’ publishers behind you, is like trying to fly cross-country in a hang-glider because you’ve heard of a Boeing 747 doing it.
Some PA authors will claim that book promotion and marketing is an author’s responsibility. Others will say that this is a part of the pleasure of being an author, and that they are the best people to sell their books, since they know the books far better than a marketing department will. Neither justification results in much success as far as sales go, and sooner or later the authors realize this.
And here I am thinking that the main goal of a writer is to, you know, write. That’s the worst thing about PublishAmerica, for me. Money can be replaced. Time cannot. How does an author feel at the end of the road, looking back on time and effort spent trying to do a job that should be left to a sales department, realizing that the years could have been spent writing better books, books that might have been accepted by major publishers?
No matter how that author feels, there will be some who sing the praises of PA. But what has it actually given them?
*****************************************************
I have to do some actual writing (and indulge in a little festivity!), so this may not be updated again for a few days. Further parts of the article at this moment are : what PA actually does for authors, reviews, royalties, publication of a second book through PA and popular mistakes/misconceptions on the PAMB. I'll also edit the PA quality control part of the article to include information on the sting manuscripts.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
The PA contract states, in effect, that the publisher is not under any obligation to promote or publicize an author’s books. But it states this in carefully chosen language that will probably fly beneath the radar of an excited new author.
“At his discretion” is another way of saying, “if we choose to do so”. Nothing in the contract requires PA to send copies of books to Kirkus Reviews or to Amazon.com for their “Search Inside” program. Nowhere in the contract does PA agree to send catalogs to bookstores or libraries. But few authors are going to stop to wonder just what “at his discretion” actually commits PA to doing.
In other words, if the Publisher doesn’t want to publicize your book, they don’t have to, and no court in the world will hold them responsible for a breach of contract. I have to agree with the “discretion” part, though. PA is the soul of discretion when it comes to an author’s books – if you’re a major reviewer or buyer for Borders or (perish the thought) Wal-Mart, you won’t hear a word from PA about anyone’s book.
There’s nothing about election and discretion in this clause, but still, on the surface, this probably looks good to a lot of authors. Interviews and book signings are part of the fun of being a published author. The problem isn’t just that the publisher won’t arrange said interviews or bookstore appearances. The problem is that these are unlikely to result in major or sustained sales, especially if the publisher isn’t reliable as a supplier of books. And how many authors are financially prepared to promote their book “elsewhere”, wherever that is?
As well as the monetary costs, authors who take on the work of promoting and distributing their book soon find that this takes a great deal of time and effort. PA gives them no help at all, unless you count setting up a board with a marketing forum where authors can exchange ideas about posters and bookmarks. Instead, PA’s reputation, pricing and lack of quality control all work against authors, meaning that despite their best efforts, bookstores may refuse to carry their books, much less give them signings.
So PA authors resort to other strategies. Some of them suggest holding book signings at banks, gas stations, grocery stores, sporting goods stores, sandwich shops, airports and restaurants (“If you're being slow, maybe you could help a waitress out and hand the plates of ordered food to the customers”). Many stores do not wish to have their customers being approached for book orders unless the book has some connection to the place of business. PA authors may avoid the rejections from editors and agents that other writers go through, but they’ll face a different kind of rejection – the “No Soliciting” sign – if they try to peddle their books in this way. If there are laws against this, the consequences could be worse.
And then there’s the time and the effort spent on such marketing.
Those are weekends that the authors could use to work on their next novel. First novels are rarely publishable, but if writers continue to improve their skills with subsequent novels, they raise their chances of being picked up by a legitimate agent or publisher. With PA, this process is short-circuited. Once an author’s first effort, good or bad, is rushed into print, that author often stops being an author and becomes a salesperson instead.
Creative energy that might have been funneled into subsequent books is poured into sales strategies instead, though most PA authors take this for granted.
If authors are so busy with their new job of promoting and marketing, it’s likely that the old job of writing will no longer be wanted or needed. I can't imagine stifling all the stories I haven't yet written, spending my time and imagination on ways to coax bookstore managers, persuade strangers and sneak my book onto shelves when no one's looking. “New job”. Was that the primary purpose of your writing, PA authors? To land you a new job as a salesperson?
I find it strange that an author’s primary responsibility is or should be marketing. However, on the PAMB, this is the norm.
I wonder if 80% of a salesperson’s career is writing – not marketing. But this quote is from the author of a guide to selling one’s book, so it’s to the author’s advantage if people believe that marketing is far more necessary than improving one’s writing skill or finding a reputable agent. Promoting one’s book is important, but it can never be a substitute for a publisher’s sales department, which many PA authors do not take into account.
Stephen King’s publisher sends boxes of books to the store where he does his signings – books which can be returned if they don’t sell, books which the store will get at a significant discount, books which don’t have to be paid for up-front. PA cannot do this and doesn’t need to try, not when the author is happy to pay for those books. And Anne Rice’s publisher foots the bill for those book tours. PA’s financial responsibility to an author begins and ends with $1. Trying to do what successful authors do, without having those authors’ publishers behind you, is like trying to fly cross-country in a hang-glider because you’ve heard of a Boeing 747 doing it.
Some PA authors will claim that book promotion and marketing is an author’s responsibility. Others will say that this is a part of the pleasure of being an author, and that they are the best people to sell their books, since they know the books far better than a marketing department will. Neither justification results in much success as far as sales go, and sooner or later the authors realize this.
And here I am thinking that the main goal of a writer is to, you know, write. That’s the worst thing about PublishAmerica, for me. Money can be replaced. Time cannot. How does an author feel at the end of the road, looking back on time and effort spent trying to do a job that should be left to a sales department, realizing that the years could have been spent writing better books, books that might have been accepted by major publishers?
No matter how that author feels, there will be some who sing the praises of PA. But what has it actually given them?
*****************************************************
I have to do some actual writing (and indulge in a little festivity!), so this may not be updated again for a few days. Further parts of the article at this moment are : what PA actually does for authors, reviews, royalties, publication of a second book through PA and popular mistakes/misconceptions on the PAMB. I'll also edit the PA quality control part of the article to include information on the sting manuscripts.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
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It's a good thing that PA doesn't know how or havehe marketing team to set up signings for PA authors in locations other than each PA author's home town. Otherwise, PA would use that as a weapon in order to keep any writers with questions or objections from having the time to communicate with other writers and learn the truth.
So what DO you get from PublishAmerica?
At any given time, there will be at least four or five threads on the PAMB which praise PA as a publisher. The majority of those will be in the “New Author Arrivals” forum, but expressions of support and loyalty will quickly appear in other forums if anyone criticizes PA or suggests that it could do more in the way of promotion and marketing. Many authors are not experienced enough with publishing to know that actual publishers pay more than a dollar in advances, even for first novels. They are also delighted at the speed with which PA sends their acceptance letters and rushes their books into print, not realizing that this means the books have received little to no editing. Finally, they are pleased and proud to have their books listed on various websites.
Some places will list anything that has an ISBN, but this is like being in the telephone directory, except that at least that way, you’ll get calls from telemarketers. No wait, I take that back – with a PA book you’ll get similar offers.
Being listed on Amazon will result in sales – but only if people know that the book exists. Few readers browse Amazon for books they aren’t already aware of, and are even less likely to buy something without reading a few pages (remember that PA doesn’t subscribe to the “Search Inside” program). When it comes to browsing for books or authors they haven’t read before, most people prefer bookstores, where they can check the quality of the books beforehand and where the prices will be affordable. And the PA author’s wording is accurate : the book will be available to bookstores, not in bookstores. As for the free webpage, that can be obtained from Geocities, Freewebs, Angelfire and so on, but in this case, it cost PA nothing and gained PA another show of hands.
What PA honestly provides authors is what any vanity press provides – the chance to see a book in print without having that book evaluated for content, editing or sales potential. If a book is intended for a limited audience, such as for one’s family, a vanity press will be suitable. Even a vanity press such as PA might not be too bad, provided the author is aware of some of the problems that arise with PA, such as errors being introduced into the manuscript or a seven-year contract. But most PA authors believe that they’re getting more than this – a stepping-stone to actual publication, or even royalty checks that leave them in the black. For those authors, all PA can offer is disillusionment in the long run, both an emotional and a financial fallout.
For others, though, what PA offers isn’t reality, because the reality of publication can be difficult and disappointing. It’s not easy to improve one’s skills, to look critically enough at a manuscript to edit it, to do research, to pick oneself up after a rejection and keep trying. Instead, PA offers a pleasant alternative to that – instant acceptance and the illusion of publication. It’s like participating in a fantasy role-playing game – you can have the fun of seeing your book in print, the admiration that most people feel for a Published Author and the companionship of like-minded people without any of the gritty unpleasantness and hard work. And it’s similar to buying a doctorate online; isn’t that easier than studying and struggling for years to get the same three letters after your name?
This easy elevation to the authorial platform can be very soothing to the ego, especially after rejections from publishers and agents. The only problem is that publication with PA, no matter how many dreams and hopes an author invests in it, will never be more than a pretty illusion. That’s fine if an author never expects more than $1 and two free copies of the book. But most PA authors hope for more, and their love for their books is so strong that they believe it will surmount all the obstacles in their paths. Book overpriced? People will pay more for quality. Book not available in stores? Internet selling is the wave of the future. Publisher not willing to help with sales or promotion? The person most qualified to market a book is the one who wrote it. They are sure that if they can only tell readers about the books, those readers will love the books as much as they do, and they will tell their friends, who will also love the books, and so on.
Optimism is a good thing, but not when it results in a denial of reality and not when it leads authors to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for their own books, pay further for promotion and write press releases rather than other books. Every now and then, a PA author will claim that their book is being considered for a movie option or will have some other good news to share, and this is enough to keep many others hanging on, trying, hoping.
It hasn’t yet happened and it’s not going to happen. But when an illusion is as far from reality as PA acceptance is from actual publication, the façade needs all the help it can get. And another of the trappings of publication, with PA, are the reviews.
At any given time, there will be at least four or five threads on the PAMB which praise PA as a publisher. The majority of those will be in the “New Author Arrivals” forum, but expressions of support and loyalty will quickly appear in other forums if anyone criticizes PA or suggests that it could do more in the way of promotion and marketing. Many authors are not experienced enough with publishing to know that actual publishers pay more than a dollar in advances, even for first novels. They are also delighted at the speed with which PA sends their acceptance letters and rushes their books into print, not realizing that this means the books have received little to no editing. Finally, they are pleased and proud to have their books listed on various websites.
Some places will list anything that has an ISBN, but this is like being in the telephone directory, except that at least that way, you’ll get calls from telemarketers. No wait, I take that back – with a PA book you’ll get similar offers.
Being listed on Amazon will result in sales – but only if people know that the book exists. Few readers browse Amazon for books they aren’t already aware of, and are even less likely to buy something without reading a few pages (remember that PA doesn’t subscribe to the “Search Inside” program). When it comes to browsing for books or authors they haven’t read before, most people prefer bookstores, where they can check the quality of the books beforehand and where the prices will be affordable. And the PA author’s wording is accurate : the book will be available to bookstores, not in bookstores. As for the free webpage, that can be obtained from Geocities, Freewebs, Angelfire and so on, but in this case, it cost PA nothing and gained PA another show of hands.
What PA honestly provides authors is what any vanity press provides – the chance to see a book in print without having that book evaluated for content, editing or sales potential. If a book is intended for a limited audience, such as for one’s family, a vanity press will be suitable. Even a vanity press such as PA might not be too bad, provided the author is aware of some of the problems that arise with PA, such as errors being introduced into the manuscript or a seven-year contract. But most PA authors believe that they’re getting more than this – a stepping-stone to actual publication, or even royalty checks that leave them in the black. For those authors, all PA can offer is disillusionment in the long run, both an emotional and a financial fallout.
For others, though, what PA offers isn’t reality, because the reality of publication can be difficult and disappointing. It’s not easy to improve one’s skills, to look critically enough at a manuscript to edit it, to do research, to pick oneself up after a rejection and keep trying. Instead, PA offers a pleasant alternative to that – instant acceptance and the illusion of publication. It’s like participating in a fantasy role-playing game – you can have the fun of seeing your book in print, the admiration that most people feel for a Published Author and the companionship of like-minded people without any of the gritty unpleasantness and hard work. And it’s similar to buying a doctorate online; isn’t that easier than studying and struggling for years to get the same three letters after your name?
This easy elevation to the authorial platform can be very soothing to the ego, especially after rejections from publishers and agents. The only problem is that publication with PA, no matter how many dreams and hopes an author invests in it, will never be more than a pretty illusion. That’s fine if an author never expects more than $1 and two free copies of the book. But most PA authors hope for more, and their love for their books is so strong that they believe it will surmount all the obstacles in their paths. Book overpriced? People will pay more for quality. Book not available in stores? Internet selling is the wave of the future. Publisher not willing to help with sales or promotion? The person most qualified to market a book is the one who wrote it. They are sure that if they can only tell readers about the books, those readers will love the books as much as they do, and they will tell their friends, who will also love the books, and so on.
Optimism is a good thing, but not when it results in a denial of reality and not when it leads authors to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for their own books, pay further for promotion and write press releases rather than other books. Every now and then, a PA author will claim that their book is being considered for a movie option or will have some other good news to share, and this is enough to keep many others hanging on, trying, hoping.
It hasn’t yet happened and it’s not going to happen. But when an illusion is as far from reality as PA acceptance is from actual publication, the façade needs all the help it can get. And another of the trappings of publication, with PA, are the reviews.
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Reviews
PA does not send out review copies, either before or after a book is published. Therefore, any authors who want reviews have to send their own books to reviewers (meaning : buy the books from PA).
Sending free copies to reviewers is a valid promotional tactic, but only for publishers who want to sell books to stores and to the reading public. For publishers who want to sell books back to whoever wrote them, it’s a waste of money, because the author is going to buy those books whether Publishers Weekly or Kirkus Reviews has commented on the book or not. That’s why PA doesn’t do it. PA prefers to sell books to authors and then allow the authors to take on the responsibility of obtaining reviews.
Authors who contact legitimate reviewers and publications, though, find that on top of the cost of the books, there’s the additional hassle of persuading people to read unedited vanity-published manuscripts, and possibly getting a poor review at the end. It’s not worth the trouble and the cost. Instead, many PA authors solicit reviews from their fellow authors. That way, they can send a PDF instead of an actual book, and an author – especially a less experienced one – will not have standards as stringent as those of a professional reviewer.
Authors frequently trade reviews in a “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” mutually beneficial way, but few seem to realize that the reviews obtained by such a process are not likely to be entirely honest or free of bias.
So PA has a forum devoted to reviews on its message board. These reviews tend to be vague and filled with uncritical praise. They contain few specifics – some may not even mention the genre or main characters – and they frequently carry a plug for the reviewer’s own book(s) at the end.
Although PA authors willingly provide each other with glowing reviews that can be used to fill their free webpages, some want a more professional (or more professional-looking) evaluation of their work. That’s where sites like Ghostwriter Literary Reviews come in. While this website offers free reviews, they also offer paid ones.
Hopefully authors won’t pay to have their books reviewed, but PA’s fast acceptances and rushing of their work into print may have accustomed them to similarly quick responses when it comes to reviews. And Ghostwriter also stops taking free reviews if they have too many such requests, but an author who isn’t prepared to wait for the website to clear its backlog can pay for the review. What they get seems to be the same in either case – a brief but generally positive review, which praises the book without going into detail about what worked or what didn’t. The popularity of Ghostwriter on the PAMB reached a point where even a PA author noticed something strange about all the five-star reviews.
Ghostwriter’s FastTrack option costs anything from $5 to $25, depending on the number of pages. Other less-than-legitimate reviewers, including one advertised on the PAMB, may charge more.
Another paid review service provides certificates that can be framed and hung on the wall beside the $1 advance.
(The frame costs $5 more)
Ultimately, such reviews will not result in more sales. Customers can tell when a review is written for the purpose of giving a positive review, rather than for the purpose of informing a reader about what succeeds or what fails in the book. A forum of Harriet Klausners will radiate positivity and make authors feel very good about their work, but it will not provide readers with any idea if the books are worth spending money on.
But then again, PA doesn’t foster the idea that books are to be sold to readers. Therefore, its authors don’t look at the matter from a reader’s point of view. Rather than wanting honest, specific reviews, even if these are critical, they settle for those that assure them that they have done an excellent job, the book was unputdownable, a five-star read. It’s another aspect of the role-playing game of being a published author, and it can even lend an appearance of authenticity to a website, provided customers don’t check to see whether the reviewers had their books published by the same vanity press. And it makes authors happy. Which is more than can be said for the royalty checks.
PA does not send out review copies, either before or after a book is published. Therefore, any authors who want reviews have to send their own books to reviewers (meaning : buy the books from PA).
Sending free copies to reviewers is a valid promotional tactic, but only for publishers who want to sell books to stores and to the reading public. For publishers who want to sell books back to whoever wrote them, it’s a waste of money, because the author is going to buy those books whether Publishers Weekly or Kirkus Reviews has commented on the book or not. That’s why PA doesn’t do it. PA prefers to sell books to authors and then allow the authors to take on the responsibility of obtaining reviews.
Authors who contact legitimate reviewers and publications, though, find that on top of the cost of the books, there’s the additional hassle of persuading people to read unedited vanity-published manuscripts, and possibly getting a poor review at the end. It’s not worth the trouble and the cost. Instead, many PA authors solicit reviews from their fellow authors. That way, they can send a PDF instead of an actual book, and an author – especially a less experienced one – will not have standards as stringent as those of a professional reviewer.
Authors frequently trade reviews in a “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” mutually beneficial way, but few seem to realize that the reviews obtained by such a process are not likely to be entirely honest or free of bias.
So PA has a forum devoted to reviews on its message board. These reviews tend to be vague and filled with uncritical praise. They contain few specifics – some may not even mention the genre or main characters – and they frequently carry a plug for the reviewer’s own book(s) at the end.
Although PA authors willingly provide each other with glowing reviews that can be used to fill their free webpages, some want a more professional (or more professional-looking) evaluation of their work. That’s where sites like Ghostwriter Literary Reviews come in. While this website offers free reviews, they also offer paid ones.
Hopefully authors won’t pay to have their books reviewed, but PA’s fast acceptances and rushing of their work into print may have accustomed them to similarly quick responses when it comes to reviews. And Ghostwriter also stops taking free reviews if they have too many such requests, but an author who isn’t prepared to wait for the website to clear its backlog can pay for the review. What they get seems to be the same in either case – a brief but generally positive review, which praises the book without going into detail about what worked or what didn’t. The popularity of Ghostwriter on the PAMB reached a point where even a PA author noticed something strange about all the five-star reviews.
Ghostwriter’s FastTrack option costs anything from $5 to $25, depending on the number of pages. Other less-than-legitimate reviewers, including one advertised on the PAMB, may charge more.
Another paid review service provides certificates that can be framed and hung on the wall beside the $1 advance.
(The frame costs $5 more)
Ultimately, such reviews will not result in more sales. Customers can tell when a review is written for the purpose of giving a positive review, rather than for the purpose of informing a reader about what succeeds or what fails in the book. A forum of Harriet Klausners will radiate positivity and make authors feel very good about their work, but it will not provide readers with any idea if the books are worth spending money on.
But then again, PA doesn’t foster the idea that books are to be sold to readers. Therefore, its authors don’t look at the matter from a reader’s point of view. Rather than wanting honest, specific reviews, even if these are critical, they settle for those that assure them that they have done an excellent job, the book was unputdownable, a five-star read. It’s another aspect of the role-playing game of being a published author, and it can even lend an appearance of authenticity to a website, provided customers don’t check to see whether the reviewers had their books published by the same vanity press. And it makes authors happy. Which is more than can be said for the royalty checks.
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Great article! I keep eagerly waiting for the next installment.
Maybe you could include a compare/contrast chart or something of the sort between an honest vanity press (advertises fees and services up-front) and PA, a traditionally dishonest printer (uses weasel words to imply nonexistant services).
Maybe you could include a compare/contrast chart or something of the sort between an honest vanity press (advertises fees and services up-front) and PA, a traditionally dishonest printer (uses weasel words to imply nonexistant services).
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Royalties
Money talks. All PA authors are paid $1 for their first rights of publication, so no one expects any more than that for an advance. But the royalties which PA sends out in February and August are another matter, especially for authors who have poured their time and money into promoting and marketing their books. For that much effort, they understandably hope for a check which is worth more than the paper it’s printed on.
This is hardly atypical. Another author who received a zero-dollar royalty check was so disappointed that the relevant thread had to be removed from the PAMB.
That’s another reason PA authors look forward to royalties. Even though few of them may expect their royalties to put them in the black, the royalties are an indication of sales, a yardstick for how well a book is selling online. Since books are listed on the websites for Amazon, Barnes and Noble and PA itself, it’s reasonable that authors might expect sales from these sites. And the royalties are solid evidence of those sales – except that it doesn’t work out that way with PA.
Even if other people sympathized with these authors’ confusion and unhappiness – which is by no means a given, since on the PAMB, this might be criticized as ingratitude towards one’s publisher – their posts were censored. PA is very careful to delete (or move to a private forum) most such royalty threads, so the links will take you to posts on AW which quote the PA authors’ words. The same goes for a post doing damage control, where a PA loyalist tries to convince newer authors that it’s normal to get a check for nothing.
The solution to any sales problem will be the ubiquitious mantra of “promote, promote, promote”, even though it’s clear from posts that promotion and sales don't necessarily correlate with royalties.
The only royalty thread allowed to remain was this one, where the author was delighted with her royalties and praised PA several times in her post. Her check was for $65.77, making it the largest I’ve ever seen for a PA author. Fortunately her thread also contains several examples of more typical PA payouts.
Chances are this author has already paid PA for books to use in promotion or to sell. But few PA authors stop to do the math of how much they’ve received for their books compared to how much they’ve paid for them. And there’s plenty of smoke and mirrors from PA and from its message board to keep them deceived. Another excuse for a lack of royalties is the ninety-day grace period.
In other words, if authors sell books through Amazon or other online bookstores but don’t see these sales reflected on their royalty checks, they may have to wait until the next royalty period to see if they are going to be paid for these sales at all. That means a six-month delay. By that time, the author may have grown tired of the obfuscations and given up on PA (a much better outcome than giving up on their own dreams of writing). Or the author may be hopeful and optimistic enough to submit another manuscript to PA, investing even more of themselves in the scam and becoming that much less likely to complain. Either way, a delay can only help PA. Those authors who are disappointed with their royalty statements, and who express this in public, may be told that it is their fault for not marketing their book sufficiently or not believing in themselves.
Dissatisfied authors may also be reminded that PA made their dream come true for no cash upfront, that only the big-name authors like Stephen King make money from writing, that what matters most is getting their names out there, not royalties. But none of these claims change the facts.
Many PA authors realize just how much they have been cheated once they get their royalty checks. Others, though, hold themselves responsible for the zero-dollar amounts; since they are frequently assured that PA is blameless and charitable, the lack of royalties must be their fault. What can they do to break even? Work harder, certainly, and promote more. And publish a second book.
Money talks. All PA authors are paid $1 for their first rights of publication, so no one expects any more than that for an advance. But the royalties which PA sends out in February and August are another matter, especially for authors who have poured their time and money into promoting and marketing their books. For that much effort, they understandably hope for a check which is worth more than the paper it’s printed on.
This is hardly atypical. Another author who received a zero-dollar royalty check was so disappointed that the relevant thread had to be removed from the PAMB.
That’s another reason PA authors look forward to royalties. Even though few of them may expect their royalties to put them in the black, the royalties are an indication of sales, a yardstick for how well a book is selling online. Since books are listed on the websites for Amazon, Barnes and Noble and PA itself, it’s reasonable that authors might expect sales from these sites. And the royalties are solid evidence of those sales – except that it doesn’t work out that way with PA.
Even if other people sympathized with these authors’ confusion and unhappiness – which is by no means a given, since on the PAMB, this might be criticized as ingratitude towards one’s publisher – their posts were censored. PA is very careful to delete (or move to a private forum) most such royalty threads, so the links will take you to posts on AW which quote the PA authors’ words. The same goes for a post doing damage control, where a PA loyalist tries to convince newer authors that it’s normal to get a check for nothing.
The solution to any sales problem will be the ubiquitious mantra of “promote, promote, promote”, even though it’s clear from posts that promotion and sales don't necessarily correlate with royalties.
The only royalty thread allowed to remain was this one, where the author was delighted with her royalties and praised PA several times in her post. Her check was for $65.77, making it the largest I’ve ever seen for a PA author. Fortunately her thread also contains several examples of more typical PA payouts.
Chances are this author has already paid PA for books to use in promotion or to sell. But few PA authors stop to do the math of how much they’ve received for their books compared to how much they’ve paid for them. And there’s plenty of smoke and mirrors from PA and from its message board to keep them deceived. Another excuse for a lack of royalties is the ninety-day grace period.
In other words, if authors sell books through Amazon or other online bookstores but don’t see these sales reflected on their royalty checks, they may have to wait until the next royalty period to see if they are going to be paid for these sales at all. That means a six-month delay. By that time, the author may have grown tired of the obfuscations and given up on PA (a much better outcome than giving up on their own dreams of writing). Or the author may be hopeful and optimistic enough to submit another manuscript to PA, investing even more of themselves in the scam and becoming that much less likely to complain. Either way, a delay can only help PA. Those authors who are disappointed with their royalty statements, and who express this in public, may be told that it is their fault for not marketing their book sufficiently or not believing in themselves.
Dissatisfied authors may also be reminded that PA made their dream come true for no cash upfront, that only the big-name authors like Stephen King make money from writing, that what matters most is getting their names out there, not royalties. But none of these claims change the facts.
Many PA authors realize just how much they have been cheated once they get their royalty checks. Others, though, hold themselves responsible for the zero-dollar amounts; since they are frequently assured that PA is blameless and charitable, the lack of royalties must be their fault. What can they do to break even? Work harder, certainly, and promote more. And publish a second book.
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I've finally figured it out. What the sentence "Bookstores are terrible places to sell books" means.
Bookstores are terrible places to sell books if the only way you're selling books at all is face-to-face, hand-to-hand, one at a time. In a bookstore you're surrounded by thousands of other books. Books that are better packaged, lower cost, and by better-known writers than yours. There's huge competition.
You're far better off at a Jiffy-Lube. Anyone there who's going to buy a book is going to buy yours, and no other.
Bookstores are terrible places to sell books if the only way you're selling books at all is face-to-face, hand-to-hand, one at a time. In a bookstore you're surrounded by thousands of other books. Books that are better packaged, lower cost, and by better-known writers than yours. There's huge competition.
You're far better off at a Jiffy-Lube. Anyone there who's going to buy a book is going to buy yours, and no other.
You're right. That makes sense. PA-published books cannot compete with those in a store, no matter how highly the anti-bookstore authors might praise the clip-art, the ink and the quality of the binding. PA authors can try to compensate for the high price and possible low quality with bookmarks and chocolates and autographs, but when was the last time you spent $20 to $30 on a book you hadn't read by an author you weren't familiar with, even if you were sure to get a bookmark and a signature out of it?
Thanks very much for commenting. Would you mind if I rephrased what you said in my own terms and added it to the section of the article which mentions signings?
Thanks very much for commenting. Would you mind if I rephrased what you said in my own terms and added it to the section of the article which mentions signings?
Why not just quote him? I'm sure James won't mind being quoted in an article. You're certainly welcome to quote what I've stated about PA.
That never occurred to me, maybe because most of the quotes in the article come from the PAMB, and I was initially worried that the article might look too quote-heavy, without enough original material. But if James doesn't object, then I'd like to quote him. Proper attribution, of course. I'll even add the cover of your book to my website and sign your guestbook, James!
And thanks for the permission to quote you as well, Dave. I'd like to quote the comment in your signature about reality and royalty checks, if you came up with it.
I did. Otherwise, I would have attributed it.
There's more material about PA on the P&E site. Check through that. You may find more that you want to quote or write about. In particular, PA even attacks people who have not criticized PA. There's a documented case in the links at P&E.
There's more material about PA on the P&E site. Check through that. You may find more that you want to quote or write about. In particular, PA even attacks people who have not criticized PA. There's a documented case in the links at P&E.
Submitting a second book to PA
PA’s standards of acceptance for a first book are easy to meet. As long as the book isn’t about publishing scams and is over 8500 words, meaning that PA will publish a single short story and charge novel price for it, the author will receive an acceptance. A second book is a little different, though. By the time an author submits a second manuscript, PA usually has an idea of how much it can squeeze out of that particular cash cow. So if sales for the first book are low, PA is unlikely to accept a second book.
PA loyalists are quick to point out that actual publishers also take sales into account when considering whether to publish a sequel or another book from an author. The difference is that actual publishers accept most if not all of the responsibility for the marketing and promotion that sells those books, and they take the quality of a book into account. Authors are always better off, both financially and career-wise, if they are accepted by a publisher rather than by a vanity press like PA, even if the sales of their first books are low.
A discussion about the acceptance of second books is one of the few occasions where PA is likely to be referred to as a business which needs to pay its bills (hence its regretful rejection of something which might not sell), rather than as a charity along the lines of the Make-a-Wish Foundation. PA is protean that way. It’s a generous, benevolent friend that made the author’s dreams come true for no money at all, but it’s also a company which needs to consider the bottom line, which is why it can’t make the author’s subsequent dreams come true.
Rejections always sting. But for PA authors, there can be worse consequences than emotional ones. After PA’s instant acceptance and the thrill of being a published author, the rejection is a shock. Unaccustomed to editing and improving a book, unused to the idea that some books are not publishable and should be treated like learning experiences instead, these authors will often seek easy publication elsewhere, even if that means going with another vanity press. That’s the only way they can continue to be Published Authors. That’s the only way to enjoy acceptance again without having to endure the work and rejections that are part of actual publishing. Relatively few authors will search for legitimate publishers or agents.
Information about such publishers and agents is indeedhard impossible to find on the PAMB, since mentioning sites like Writer Beware or Preditors and Editors on that discussion board will lead to the offending post being censored. Even mentioning that one wants another publisher or a literary agent for a second book will meet with a less-than-helpful reception. To the above post, another PA author replied,
Why would PA accept a book “later” if it was previously rejected? Has the quality of the book changed in the interim? No, the only thing that’s changed is that the author poured more money into book sales and promotional efforts. The only conclusion I can draw from this is that PA doesn’t care about the quality of a book, only about how much more it can gain from the author. Another reply confirms this.
The PAMB is a fine example of crab-bucket syndrome – if one crab tries to climb out of the bucket, the others lock their little pincers around its legs and pull it back in again. The author wasn’t directed to sites which provide more information on agents or advised to post the query letter to see if it could be improved. The quality of the book is a non-issue. What matters are sales, because if PA realizes that this author still has a few dollars left (or can get more), it will accept a second book as well.
But don’t mention that you might be looking for another publisher. Just don’t.
The above post was quickly moved to a private forum, perhaps because PA doesn’t want prospective victims to see PA authors in doubt about where their loyalties should lie. After all, if PA is, as it claims, the nation’s #1 publisher*, why would an author need to go elsewhere?
Many authors submit a second book to PA even before the first one is released, before they see what kind of promotional and marketing their publisher will provide and before they’re aware of what kind of royalties they’ll earn. No, wait, that's why they submit their books to PA. They aren’t aware that the oasis in the desert will turn out to be a mirage surrounded by bleached bones. Others may believe that now that they’re published authors, they can make a success out of their second attempt. Now that they’ve learned enough about the industry, they can write and advertise and sell the book which breaks out. And no one on the PAMB will encourage them to find a publisher which pays a larger advance or gives their books more publicity. Actual facts about publishing are not as common on the PAMB as mistakes and misinformation.
*This makes me imagine PA looming over a bedridden author while saying, “I’m your Number One Publisher”, a la Kathy Bates in Misery.
PA’s standards of acceptance for a first book are easy to meet. As long as the book isn’t about publishing scams and is over 8500 words, meaning that PA will publish a single short story and charge novel price for it, the author will receive an acceptance. A second book is a little different, though. By the time an author submits a second manuscript, PA usually has an idea of how much it can squeeze out of that particular cash cow. So if sales for the first book are low, PA is unlikely to accept a second book.
PA loyalists are quick to point out that actual publishers also take sales into account when considering whether to publish a sequel or another book from an author. The difference is that actual publishers accept most if not all of the responsibility for the marketing and promotion that sells those books, and they take the quality of a book into account. Authors are always better off, both financially and career-wise, if they are accepted by a publisher rather than by a vanity press like PA, even if the sales of their first books are low.
A discussion about the acceptance of second books is one of the few occasions where PA is likely to be referred to as a business which needs to pay its bills (hence its regretful rejection of something which might not sell), rather than as a charity along the lines of the Make-a-Wish Foundation. PA is protean that way. It’s a generous, benevolent friend that made the author’s dreams come true for no money at all, but it’s also a company which needs to consider the bottom line, which is why it can’t make the author’s subsequent dreams come true.
Rejections always sting. But for PA authors, there can be worse consequences than emotional ones. After PA’s instant acceptance and the thrill of being a published author, the rejection is a shock. Unaccustomed to editing and improving a book, unused to the idea that some books are not publishable and should be treated like learning experiences instead, these authors will often seek easy publication elsewhere, even if that means going with another vanity press. That’s the only way they can continue to be Published Authors. That’s the only way to enjoy acceptance again without having to endure the work and rejections that are part of actual publishing. Relatively few authors will search for legitimate publishers or agents.
Information about such publishers and agents is indeed
Why would PA accept a book “later” if it was previously rejected? Has the quality of the book changed in the interim? No, the only thing that’s changed is that the author poured more money into book sales and promotional efforts. The only conclusion I can draw from this is that PA doesn’t care about the quality of a book, only about how much more it can gain from the author. Another reply confirms this.
The PAMB is a fine example of crab-bucket syndrome – if one crab tries to climb out of the bucket, the others lock their little pincers around its legs and pull it back in again. The author wasn’t directed to sites which provide more information on agents or advised to post the query letter to see if it could be improved. The quality of the book is a non-issue. What matters are sales, because if PA realizes that this author still has a few dollars left (or can get more), it will accept a second book as well.
But don’t mention that you might be looking for another publisher. Just don’t.
The above post was quickly moved to a private forum, perhaps because PA doesn’t want prospective victims to see PA authors in doubt about where their loyalties should lie. After all, if PA is, as it claims, the nation’s #1 publisher*, why would an author need to go elsewhere?
Many authors submit a second book to PA even before the first one is released, before they see what kind of promotional and marketing their publisher will provide and before they’re aware of what kind of royalties they’ll earn. No, wait, that's why they submit their books to PA. They aren’t aware that the oasis in the desert will turn out to be a mirage surrounded by bleached bones. Others may believe that now that they’re published authors, they can make a success out of their second attempt. Now that they’ve learned enough about the industry, they can write and advertise and sell the book which breaks out. And no one on the PAMB will encourage them to find a publisher which pays a larger advance or gives their books more publicity. Actual facts about publishing are not as common on the PAMB as mistakes and misinformation.
*This makes me imagine PA looming over a bedridden author while saying, “I’m your Number One Publisher”, a la Kathy Bates in Misery.
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Remember too that the first-time author already subjected his one hundred family and friends to receive PA's only public marketing effort to sell the book.
If the first book was lousy, those hundred family and friends aren't likely to waste more money on a second one.
So unless the author himself has shown a willingness to invest in his own first book, by buying a bunch of copies himself, there's no profit for PA to print a second one.
The odds are better for PA making money on prospecting for a new author and get his new listing of a hundred family and friends, than trying to bleed an old one whose usefulness is over.
In other words, the cash cow has dried up.
If the first book was lousy, those hundred family and friends aren't likely to waste more money on a second one.
So unless the author himself has shown a willingness to invest in his own first book, by buying a bunch of copies himself, there's no profit for PA to print a second one.
The odds are better for PA making money on prospecting for a new author and get his new listing of a hundred family and friends, than trying to bleed an old one whose usefulness is over.
In other words, the cash cow has dried up.
That's an excellent point. The first time around, the family and friends are likely to be encouraging and enthusiastic, because they're not yet aware of PA's how-low-can-you-go standards. But the second time around, they know what to expect. So unless the author is clearly the type to buy books in bulk, there's probably more profit in moving on to a new victim.
Thanks, CatSlave! I'm working on the section about common mistakes and misinformation on the PAMB at the moment, and I can't shake the feeling that I'm writing a book, not an article.
Thanks, CatSlave! I'm working on the section about common mistakes and misinformation on the PAMB at the moment, and I can't shake the feeling that I'm writing a book, not an article.
You're quite welcome.Thanks, CatSlave! I'm working on the section about common mistakes and misinformation on the PAMB at the moment, and I can't shake the feeling that I'm writing a book, not an article.
I'm impressed with your article/book and am confident you will find a paying market for it.