Hot off the presses: Interview with Miranda

CatSlave · Jan 4, 2007

http://www.fictionforum.net/writers/toolbox/interview-pa.html

CatSlave · Jan 4, 2007

correction

CatSlave said:
http://www.fictionforum.net/writers/toolbox/interview-pa.html

OOPS, maybe not so hot. Date at top of page is today, but interview was conducted in December 2002. Wonder how many of the players named are still at PA...

Christine N. · Jan 4, 2007

Ugh. That interview managed to have a lot of words that didn't say much.

Double-speak. All of it. Ack.

Marian Perera · Jan 4, 2007

We require that submissions be a minimum of 7,000 words with no upper limit to word count.

I don't understand this. How do you publish a 7,000-word novel? And what if someone submits a manuscript that's 300,000 words long?

She also doesn't answer the question "Who are you leading authors at the moment".

We specifically look for work that presents a character(s) overcoming obstacles in life.

I suppose they also look for work with a beginning, a middle and an end, but figure two out of three ain't bad.

J.S Greer · Jan 4, 2007

PublishAmerica is a traditional, advance and royalty-paying publisher.

Hmmm...

We follow the model of other traditional publishers, and not the POD, vanity, or subsidy press model of charging the author fees to have their book in print.

True, yet slippery.

We maintain this old-fashioned, time-honored belief that a publisher should sell books, and not so-called "services."

So that's why they offer none?

We're not reinventing any wheel here, we're just selling books, and by concentrating on bookselling only, we have grown very good at it: hundreds of thousands of books per year. This puts us in the top ten percent of the nation's publishers in terms of volume of books sold.

Mostly to the author themselves. This statement is very misleading.

Every submission goes through an immediate review. During the immediate review, we check to make sure the manuscript meets our submission guidelines. If the manuscript meets our submission guidelines, we place the title for review with an acquisitions editor. The acquisitions editor reads the entire manuscript and reviews the other materials. After the review a decision is made and the book is either accepted or rejected.

Is that how "Atlanta Nights" got published?

PublishAmerica books enjoy full distribution through all of the major distributors: Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Brodart, and Barnes & Noble. We list our books with these distributors and elsewhere. Consequently, our books can be found at numerous online vendor sites, and through each and every brick and mortar bookstore from coast to coast.

Wow, there is so much wrong with this paragraph that it hurts to read, especially that last bit.

We publish approximately 1,100 new titles per year. Of those titles, about 800 are first time authors.

SO... only 300 of 1100 return to be printed again? I wonder why?

Saundra Julian · Jan 4, 2007

What a pack of lies!

batgirl · Jan 4, 2007

Is there a font where all the letters are curled-up weasels? Because that interview's beyond weasel-wording. It's like, written with weasel-ink on brushes made of weasel-tail-tips. On parchment made from weasel-hides.
Hm. Well, there's a font called Electric Weasel...
-Barbara

MMcC · Jan 4, 2007

I noticed a blank 'YOUR BANNER COULD BE HERE' at the bottom of the page. It would not surprise me to know people no longer wanted to advertise on a site that loaned legitimacy to PA.

I think some of that rhetoric (circa 2002) has been shifted. They stopped the "every brick and mortar" crap, for example. Lawsuits, one suspects.

CatSlave · Jan 5, 2007

MMcC said:
I think some of that rhetoric (circa 2002) has been shifted. They stopped the "every brick and mortar" crap, for example. Lawsuits, one suspects.

I believe the "brick-and-mortar" phrase is still being beaten to death, but the weasel words are available in and not stocked in.

Available in meaning you have to walk in and order it, if you even know it exists.

WildScribe · Jan 5, 2007

Ouch. That's all I can think of

James D. Macdonald · Jan 5, 2007

There are echoes of the infamous "POD, not POD" argument there.

But I, too, noticed that she couldn't or wouldn't name their best-selling authors -- possibly because she couldn't recall any authors' names, or possibly to keep folks from checking up by calling those authors to ask, "How many books have you sold?"

CatSlave · Jan 5, 2007

More weasel words to chew on

CatSlave said:
I believe the "brick-and-mortar" phrase is still being beaten to death, but the weasel words are available in and not stocked in.

Available in meaning you have to walk in and order it, if you even know it exists.

Para 23 of the contract states:

The Author acknowledges that the Publisher has not made any prior pledges, promises, guarantees, inducements, of whatever nature, either in writing or by word of mouth, or in any form, that are not contained in the terms of the agreement.

In other words, they can tell you ANYTHING but once you sign the contract, all bets are off and they are in the clear.

Clever little weasels, eh?

Hot off the presses: Interview with Miranda

CatSlave

Mah tale iz draggin.

CatSlave

Mah tale iz draggin.

Christine N.

haz a shiny new book cover

Marian Perera

starting over

J.S Greer

Feel the power!

Saundra Julian

A work in progress

batgirl

Writting broad

MMcC

CatSlave

Mah tale iz draggin.

WildScribe

Slave to the Wordcount

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle

CatSlave

Mah tale iz draggin.