Is Publish America Good? Yes or No

Is Publish America Good? Yes or No


  • Total voters
    7

newportcat

I am an author who has just been accepted by publish america. I am now wondering if it is worth it. I have read through some of the threads and find it time consuming. I only want to hear a yes or no answer from people on whether I should publish with the company as an unknown author.

A am looking to make money and not just trying to get a book published. I also have many avenues to sell the book myself as I am a professional speaker. I appreciate all the yes or no's or any other advice anyone could give me.

I really have no idea about this process and do not want to get suckered into a bad deal. Thanks in advance
 

James D Macdonald

Good Deal?

Please read the various threads here. Go over to Publish America and read the PA authors' messageboard there.

Pay attention to the following:

1) Lack of editing
2) Poor contract
3) Very high cover prices
4) Lack of distribution
5) Lack of publicity
6) No returns policy

Depending on your situation, if your plan is to sell books from the back of the hall after you make a presentation, you might be better advised to go to a local short-run printer to see what it would cost to run off a thousand copies.

Traditional publication has POD in general and PA in particular beat all hollow.
 

FM St George

you get what you pay for...

it's all in the contract - if you don't read it before signing, then you're being more foolish.

can't say I've had any problems with PA, but I did my homework before signing - unlike a lot, it seems...

*shrug*
 

marky48

Re: you get what you pay for...

Unfortunately, it's not in the contract; promotion; bookstore placement; in exchange for the rights, no mention of price-per-page count and so on. They're crooks; it's misrepresentation-deliberately.
 

Tish Davidson

books sold?

Just curious FM St. George, how many of your books have you sold since you seem to be one of the few satisfied PA authors?
 

marky48

Re: response

Gee, another satisfied Canadian. A trend? Nah. OK mate to bring you up to speed I used Xlibris when it was free to give you an idea of how long I've been on this topic. Having said that, I have always held the rights to the book. Same with iUniverse. So how is my deal with PA different? They took the rights. And provided indentical handling of the product. Try to get a handle on what you're saying here. It's really easy to knock down.
 

James D Macdonald

Re: response

...most of the peeps I see here published with Xlibris or some other such alternative publisher - not with any major company

I've published with HarperCollins, Ballantine, Dell, Warner, Tor, Ace, Scholastic, and Roc, among others. And I came out of the slush heap -- as did almost any writer you care to name.

Don't believe the vanitys' claims. They fib to you. Their motto is: The Easy Road to Publication is Paved With Your Money.

Sure, you aren't in it for the bucks. Aren't you in it for the readers? Didn't it occur to you that there's a direct relationship between the amount of money you get and the number of readers you have?

If your book is worth reading, it's worth publishing well.

[Edited to fix apostrophe.]
 

Tish Davidson

Re: response

FM St G said
most of the peeps I see here published with Xlibris or some other such alternative publisher - not with any major company (that I've seen so far)

I'm published with Scholastic, Scribners, McMillan, and I sure don't have any special connections.
 

maestrowork

Re: response

If you have ways to sell books on your own, why don't you just self publish? It's cheaper, and you make all the profits. You're not getting anything more from PA.
 

NickolausPacione

Re: response

I went with Lulu. Because I can make a little more for a royality; but the hard part is promotion of the thing.
 

Cussedness

Re: response

Lulu.com is a printer, not a publisher and they are pod. Which is more expensive than what Mr. MacDonald suggests. You would do better to go with a local short run printer. It is also possible to hire a good editor or copy editor to go over the manuscript and help you improve it.
 

MarySangiovanni

Re: response

James MacDonald: Amen. Well said.

Janrae, too, re: Lulu.