The PublishAmerica Rocks (Not) Thread

I'd say very poorly. They're extremely deceptive, drawing in writers for whom their services are neither desirable nor suitable. They're expensive, and they treat their authors appallingly.

If it's POD you want, I'd suggest Lulu or one of the other POD publishers.

No, I would not be satisfied. Why? Because many of the services they provide are misleading in nature, such as book availability from retail sources. While PA books may be listed with Ingrams as well as orderable directly from the publisher by retailers, PA has taken steps to actively discourage these transactions. Their refusal to address the issue of distributors listing books as "out of stock" or "not available" has caused countless authors (myself included) to suffer disappointment and embarassment, and is, in my opinion, a violation of the spirit of the contract the author signed. This could be addressed quickly with a mere phone call or two, but instead their response to authors is "You are mistaken." A company that cares so little about the legitimate concerns of their clientele cannot be trusted on any level, and should be avoided like the plague.

An honest POD like iUniverse will at least admit you are the customer and treat you accordingly.

If somebody were actively seeking a vanity press I assume they would do research on several and then pick whichever one suited their needs. It wouldn't take much effort via google.

If they then chose to bed down with Publish America they would have to live with the consequences, satisfactory or not, and could hardly complain if they were not satisfied.

It's not fair to compare PublishAmerica, who lies about what they are and what they do, and who exists purely to sell books to authors, with CafePress or Lulu.

CafePress and Lulu, and your local printer, provide services for fees up front.

They print books. They don't pretend to be publishers, like PublishAmerica does.

Moreover, CafePress and Lulu make it very clear that they don't market your books, or distribute them anywhere except via the Web.

And Lulu actually provides a slightly higher print quality than PublishAmerica, because they're using the right kind of stock; PublishAmerica uses the cheapest options offered by their digital printers.

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Seriously. Not only do they lie, they don't pay full royalties, have awful records, derail any and every move you make by calling you a liar, not fullfilling basic orders, badgering bookstore managers and librarians, shoving all the blame on everything but them.

They are far worse than a vanity, at least a lot of vanities are professional and do not treat their clients like disobediant, stupid children.

So, ya'll are saying that PA doesn't rock? How about PA sucks rocks?

I figured that PublishAmerica Rocks was a disease similar to Kidney Stones.

A lot of pain caused over a long period of time, and if you can't get rid of the problem yourself, you're stuck with having the offensive material removed by a professional...

For a discussion of those issues, Bartholomew, see the Reasons We Don't Recommend PublishAmerica Thread, at the top of this forum.

Not once in its entire history has PA ever signed a check for an author (save the cash $1 they send in the mail)

Yet dozens of writers each and every day sign checks to PA.

What kind of math does that indicate?

Tri

triceretops said:

Not once in its entire history has PA ever signed a check for an author (save the cash $1 they send in the mail)

Click to expand...

Not true, Tri!

How about the (allegedly multi-thousand-dollar) check that they sent to Phil Dolan? Let's not forget all those $0.00 checks, and the other checks for a buck fifty here, four-eighty there.

If you want to pay $30 (going up to $45 soon) for two copies of your book, you want to wait a year to get 'em, you don't want the rights for the next seven years, and that's all you want -- PA is the place for you!

Yeah, I did forget about those royalty checks. And that just goes to show you. Hah! I've got it! The largest check PA ever wrote to an author was the result of a lawsuit. OMG, that's it.

Many legit publishers pay out checks to authors for 10, 15, 20 thousand dollars on a regular basis. PA can now claim that they've paid that amount out to an author. Specifically, Dolan.

Tri

Poke away. I'm not stopping you. *g*

Just letting the lurkers know where to find the answers.