Terri --
To save you the trouble of looking for it, here's what I posted up in the "PA Woes" thread:
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All Authors Are Created Equal...
Not really. Most people can't write at all. Only a very few write books that someone other than Mom would want to read.
Publish America is the number one book publisher in the nation...
By what criterion? It's neither the oldest, nor the newest, nor does it have the greatest number of authors, nor the greatest number of titles. It doesn't have the most award winners, nor the most best-sellers. It doesn't pay the highest royalties. How is it "number one"?
They place thousands of books on the shelves of standard brick and mortar bookstores everyday.
They don't place diddly-squat. Their authors, by means of endlessly badgering individual bookstore owners, manage to place one or two copies of their individual books (often on consignment) on bookstore shelves. Since PublishAmerica has thousands of authors that works out to thousands of copies ... but hardly something for PA to be proud of. The authors could have done the same with books they printed in their basements.
These are not low cost, poorly printed, or print on demand books...
No, certainly not low cost, and no one's ever said that Lightning Source didn't do a good job of printing, but these sure as heck are Print On Demand books.
...author’s [sic] that have signed contracts and earn standard royalties from this company ...
Standard royalties are based on cover or list price. PublishAmerica's royalties are based on net price. Therefore, these are not standard royalties.
They preferred the one on one supportive treatment they receive from Publish America.
Really? We've seen examples of the "one on one supportive treatment" here. Folks banned from their message boards, the "don't take that tone with us" emails (when they can be bothered to reply at all), the lack of support for publicity, the lack of support for even such a basic act as printing and shipping books.
They are told that Publish America is a vanity publishing company, even though the authors do not pay one penny to be published and to the contrary are paid royalties that are often higher than other publishing companies.
This is because PublishAmerica is a vanity publishing company. On the day the first book is printed, the author has paid $30, and received back only $1. Every book printed thereafter has a $5 vanity press fee attached. Sales are primarily to the authors themselves, and to their families and friends. As to the royalties being higher -- yes, I suppose you can find publishers that don't pay royalties at all. I'd question the word "often."
... there are thousands of Publish America books lining the shelves of standard book stores.
There may be thousands of books (based on the efforts of thousands of authors), but that's divided by thousands of stores. Lining the shelves? No. You'd be hard-pressed to find any PublishAmerica book in any randomly selected bookstore. This is due to the high cost of the books, the non-returnable nature of the books, the lack of publisher salesforce, and (let's whisper) the poor writing of many, many PublishAmerica books. Tell me, other than your own book, how many PA books are on the shelves of your nearest standard book store? What did you have to do to get your book shelved?
But even with all of these obstacles Publish America Authors continue to submit second, third, fourth and fifth books to this company. Surely there must be a reason for such loyalty.
Many of them submit a second book before the first ever comes out, while they're still in that happy glow of pre-production wishful thinking, when they imagine that everything will go the way PA suggests it will. The rest are desperate.
Could it be that these intelligent individuals know a good deal when they see one?
Or could it be that there's a sucker born every minute, and a fool and his money are soon parted?
This is not the first time that the written word and those that write and publish it have been judged and banned from certain circles, I believe Hemmingway [sic] was one of these cases.
Well, actually, no. (Though Hemingway did self-publish his first book. It was a collection of poems.)
Wouldn’t it be a shame if the next Hemmingway was one of Publish America’s authors and couldn’t get a review or interview because of it?
It would surely be a shame if Hemingway were to be a PA author -- it would mean that his books would be read by about 75 of his family and friends.
I did not sign my contract with them because I couldn’t get published anywhere else; they were the first publisher that I sent my work into [sic].
Then how do you know that you couldn't have gotten your work published by a legitimate press?
They are my publisher of choice and not my last resort and I assure you I am not the only author that feels this way.
Yet there are others, many others, for whom PublishAmerica was the last resort. PublishAmerica is the home of the desperate, the deluded, and the naive. It looks to me like Ms. Von Reiman is one of the deluded ones. Answer honestly now, T. A. -- how many copies of your book have sold? Did any sell to someone you don't know by name? How many copies are on the shelves of bookstores? How much money have you, personally, spent on your book? Is it greater than the "royalties" you've earned? What were those royalties as a percentage of cover price? How many copies have you personally bought? Are you aware that the author buying her own copies is the vanity press model of publishing?
Alas.
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Wait! Late-breaking news! T. A. Von Reisman's book, Storms of Destiny, hasn't come out yet! Nevertheless, Terri Von Reisman's second book, The Eyes of Horus has been accepted by PA. So the jury is still out -- maybe she's deluded, maybe she's naive. We'll see how she feels about PA a year from now.
