Rejected by PublishAmerica

Sam Champie · Oct 24, 2006

I know this is a good thing, given their reputation, but still it stings when an outfit with a very low rejection rate, adds your name to the few that they issue rejection emails.

Oh, well I was going to reject any offer they made anyway, after the enlightenment I have received here on this forum.

DeadlyAccurate · Oct 24, 2006

There's a very good possibility they rejected you because they recognized your name here.

PeeDee · Oct 24, 2006

You beat me to it. Yeah, they either recognized you or feared your use of commas...

LeeFlower · Oct 24, 2006

My guess is they randomly reject every thirtieth person in an effort to glue down their peeling veneer of legitimacy.

That, or they googled you and found out you hang out here

[EDIT: Deadlyaccurate and PeeDee both beat me to it].

Sam Champie · Oct 24, 2006

or maybe my stories are above their intelligence ... they are rated 7th grade level by Flesch-Kincid. LOL!

Bartholomew · Oct 24, 2006

Sam Champie said:
I know this is a good thing, given their reputation, but still it stings when an outfit with a very low rejection rate, adds your name to the few that they issue rejection emails.

Oh, well I was going to reject any offer they made anyway, after the enlightenment I have received here on this forum.

Publish America is a publishing house the way an aardvark is a bathtub.

Being rejected by them means absolutely nothing.

K_Woods · Oct 24, 2006

Bartholomew said:
Publish America is a publishing house the way an aardvark is a bathtub.

Being rejected by them means absolutely nothing.

Curse you, now I want an aardvark bathtub!

Doesn't PA also have a set number of queries they'll accept per day, or has that changed?

(Which reminds me, I need to continue reading Atlanta Nights. That thing is a riot!)

Bartholomew · Oct 24, 2006

K_Woods said:
Curse you, now I want an aardvark bathtub!

Holy crap, now I want one too. o.o

Gravity · Oct 24, 2006

The above poster is correct. PA has a daily quota of manuscripts they accept. If you'd sent it in early the next day, you would have gotten one of those "we're giving your book the chance it deserves" letters that sends such rapture into the hearts of the easily-deluded and/or Google-ignorant. Yep, you missed the bullet with them. Good for you, bad for them!

emeraldcite · Oct 24, 2006

Moved from novels. They're so dubious, they get their own board...

PeeDee · Oct 24, 2006

K_Woods said:
(Which reminds me, I need to continue reading Atlanta Nights. That thing is a riot!)

Read it out loud, as dramatically as possible, with gestures. It's loads of fun.

(Probably, you should wait 'till you're alone, though.)

Alan Yee · Oct 24, 2006

PeeDee said:
Read it out loud, as dramatically as possible, with gestures. It's loads of fun.

Do that, especially with Chapter 34.

Bartholomew · Oct 24, 2006

Alan Yee said:
Do that, especially with Chapter 34.

Only funny if taken in context with chapter 2 from the holy tome.

Sam Champie · Oct 25, 2006

Let me clear up one issue, so I don't look stupid ... I submitted to PA after reading their ad ... I found out about this forum a week later. I am not sure what method PA uses to accept manuscripts and I not sure they do either. The whole outfit sounds like a bunch of kids with big dreams of making millions by discovering the next great author. They operate on limited funds and make money by selling books to the author.

I have discovered my books paid to publish by me by eBookTime have greater coverage. Only drawback is the difficultity of getting them on bookstore shelves and getting the price down lower.

My goal is to get my stories about my inner ear disorder out there ... the public needs to know the truth. The internet is full of BAD INFO. I thought by writing entertaining novels, I could accomplish my goals. I don't care about making the big bucks or fame, but I feel it is a writers responsibility to share stories even if they are against the main flow. Maybe this is why PA rejected me ... my exposing the multi million dollar racket called Meniere's disease.

janetbellinger · Oct 25, 2006

DeadlyAccurate said:
There's a very good possibility they rejected you because they recognized your name here.

Yeah, that would do it. Also, they may have guessed that you wouldn't be buying enough of your own books to suit them.

James D. Macdonald · Oct 25, 2006

They could also be cutting staff down there in Frederick. The number of books they can accept depends on the number of hours in a day times the staff on hand. If they have 30 "editors" they'll accept 75-90 books per week (the first 18 books to come in the door). If they have 60 "editors" they'll accept up to 180 books a week. If they have 15 editors they'll only accept the first nine books to reach them on any given day.

Maddog · Oct 25, 2006

Maybe they are rejecting any non-fiction disease books for fear of lawsuits. Remember Cancer Boy, the author who wrote a book purporting to know how to prevent cancer?

James D. Macdonald · Dec 4, 2006

Don't despair. Word is that PA has started writing to folks they "rejected," asking whether the book is still available.

We've started to see reviews (in places that still do reviews of PA books) saying "This strikes a new low even for PublishAmerica" or words to that effect.

I think the word on PA is out, that most folks with reasonable manuscripts and any ability at all with Google know about PA and know to stand clear.

The "the author feels compelled to buy 50 copies" psychological trick still exists, even with folks who can barely read and certainly can't write, so don't count PA out just yet.

PeeDee · Dec 4, 2006

James D. Macdonald said:
The "the author feels compelled to buy 50 copies" psychological trick still exists, even with folks who can barely read and certainly can't write, so don't count PA out just yet.

But...I want to. I look forward to the day when someone posts "And that's it. We're done." to the NeverEnding PublishAmerica thread.

janetbellinger · Dec 4, 2006

You can be sure the rejection had absolutely nothing to do with the quality of your novel.

Celia Cyanide · Dec 8, 2006

Yes, I think it's pretty much been proven that they don't even read the submissions.

bstevens · Dec 31, 2006

NONE of your experiences apply to me. Everyone has been wonderful. My book is great and I'm so happy. Even if they don't send me one royalty check I can make money selling my own books (more than they will pay) and I HAVEN'T BEEN out of dime. My only choice besides PA would have been one of those Jerk vanity publishers who wanted thousands UP FRONT or waste my time year after year quering those lousy traditional publishers who have no interest in anyone except politicians, movie stars or dinosaur writers with reputations.

PUBLISH AMERICA is doing a great thing for the unknown author. See my website at www.barbarastevensbooks.com

Gravity · Dec 31, 2006

never mind

James D. Macdonald · Dec 31, 2006

...or dinosaur writers with reputations.

How about the sodomy writers?

(Obscure joke. Never mind.)

JanDarby · Jan 1, 2007

NONE of your experiences apply to me.

And that, in a nutshell, I'm afraid, is why PA will never close its doors.

JD

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