WD Book Club and Publish America

I just posted this over in the Neverending Publish America thread

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=524&page=1&pp=25


but thought it needed posting here as well, since many who come here might not know of that thread yet or where to find it.

The thing is, I just got my Writer's Digest Book Club bulletin, and each month they list a few members who've been successfully published. Both last month and this month, and most probably before this, they've listed authors who've had their works printed up by Publish America.

It reads:


Then, after mentioning four writers who had their work published at Authorhouse, Pleasant Word, and a couple Canadian companies, there’s this:

Bill Westhead’s latest book, The Mill, is his fourth historical novel. It is available at www.publishamerica.com and through online bookstores.

There’s another one just like it, also printed by PA, and, finally…

Keep up the great work and be sure to continue sharing
your writing successes with your fellow club members!​

So, just by listing the company, Writer's Digest Book Club is actually promoting PA to all those beginning writers.

The Book Club is a quality outfit, and so I'm hoping they're unaware of PA's reputation and aren't sinking their own by pushing the fact that their members have been published.

And I also hope that a few of the members and moderators here will send Writer's Digest Book Club a letter informing them of how unprofessional and immoral it is to send any author to this company.


http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=524&page=1&pp=25

For those new to this site and unaware of Publish America and other vanity publishers, you need only read this bit by Harold Underdown, who keeps one of the best sites for children's writing at http://www.underdown.org.


Q) I've been offered a contract by a "vanity press." I've been warned about such publishers, but it does seem to me to be a way to get my manuscript published. Is this indeed vain to consider or will it make me a more viable author in the eyes of publishing houses in the future?

A) It will not make you a more viable author. All it would say to a real publisher is that you have both the money and the gullibility to work with a subsidy press. All you will get out of it will be several thousand books, printed to uncertain standards. In spite of their promises to market and distribute them, they will do little and if you want to sell those books you'll have to do so yourself.

You would do better to self-publish, simply working with a local printer who would print and bind books for you. You would still get several thousand books, and you would have to market and distribute them, but you would pay much less for them, and so you would actually have some money left over to help you market them.

There can be good reasons to self-publish. There never are good reasons to work with a vanity press.