Would you accept PA if they...

I would think that the 'watchdogs' would still caution people against them becuase its still a bad deal. I imagine that despite this people would still go with them. I mean, look at the staggering evidence provided against them in this place and yet even after reading it people still choose to "work" with them.

I actully had someone say that to me. She was at an early stage and could still get out with her work but she, even after reading through a few of these threads decided to stick with them and "Make it work".

PA is kinda like an abusive relationship. . .

I like the line "Our goal is to publish works of authors who had no other chance,". That says a lot.

That's because there aren't enough hours in the day to publish everything that's submitted with the staff they have on hand.

I'm told that they also reject works that have characters named Larry, Willem, or Miranda, use the words "stooge" or "scam," and/or are less that 6,500 words.

In that article, I counted the word 'publish' 61 times (in various forms of PublishAmerica, publishing, etc)

I counted the word 'print' using the same manner.

They can't escape the vanity publisher tag, so serious writers would probably still avoid them.

If PA dropped all the false and misleading advertising and told the straight-up honest truth about themselves, I'd stop calling them scammers. But I still wouldn't say that going with them would be a good idea outside of certain very-narrowly defined situations.

James D. Macdonald said:

If PA dropped all the false and misleading advertising and told the straight-up honest truth about themselves, I'd stop calling them scammers. But I still wouldn't say that going with them would be a good idea outside of certain very-narrowly defined situations.

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Such as Nazi hate lit? Just out of curiosty what would you recommend them for if they were honest?

Cereal boxes?

The narrowly-defined situations?

People who want a printer, don't want to hassle in any way -- and are willing to pay extra for the convenience.

Grandma's memoirs, writing you want bound and given to your children. My father left me a stack of his writing in his will. I would have loved to had it printed and bound.

Well, to be honest, I've seen books more overpriced than P.A.s books. An example is some of the self publishing companies. I would respect P. A if they said up front, "We are a vanity publisher." I still wouldn't use them, but I wouldn't criticise them.

SouthernWriter1978 said:

Changed their contract from 7 years to 1?
Told people straight up that their books would be overpriced? or they would not be stocked in most bookstores? or said they would not "edit" but "spellcheck" only?
Took Traditional Publisher off their website?

Let's say PA changes all these things, would you say..."Okay, they are being honest and are there should be no reason to dislike them?

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If they were honest, why would anyone want to buy a book published by them? Being honest wouldn't make the quality of the books they publish go up one bit, but now readers would know how rotten they are without the need to spend money to learn.

James D. Macdonald said:

If PA dropped all the false and misleading advertising and told the straight-up honest truth about themselves, I'd stop calling them scammers. But I still wouldn't say that going with them would be a good idea outside of certain very-narrowly defined situations.

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That's what I say, too. The real problem is that they lie to people, and make the writers believe they have been published, when they haven't. There is nothing wrong with a vanity press, if the writer knows that's what it is. But I still wouldn't recommend it, because there are other vanity presses who are more economical for writers.

James D. Macdonald said:

If PA dropped all the false and misleading advertising and told the straight-up honest truth about themselves, I'd stop calling them scammers. But I still wouldn't say that going with them would be a good idea outside of certain very-narrowly defined situations.

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My same thoughts.

janetbellinger said:

Well, to be honest, I've seen books more overpriced than P.A.s books. An example is some of the self publishing companies. I would respect P. A if they said up front, "We are a vanity publisher." I still wouldn't use them, but I wouldn't criticise them.

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I wouldn't respect them because of their past history, but I would stop calling them a scammer.

Jamesaritchie said:

If they were honest, why would anyone want to buy a book published by them? Being honest wouldn't make the quality of the books they publish go up one bit, but now readers would know how rotten they are without the need to spend money to learn.

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And aspiring, serious writers would not be caught up in their net of deceit.

Celia Cyanide said:

There is nothing wrong with a vanity press, if the writer knows that's what it is. But I still wouldn't recommend it, because there are other vanity presses who are more economical for writers.

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Like Lulu.

PA won't change its feathers. It was born a buzzard, and a buzzard it will remain.

Jamesaritchie said:

If they were honest, why would anyone want to buy a book published by them?

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Mom and Dad and Aunt Sue and the author himself will still buy just about as many as they do right now.

like all scavengers, PA serve a purpose. Beware the passer-by.

SouthernWriter1978 said:

... or said they would not "edit" but "spellcheck" only?

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From what I've read about PublishAmerica, I wouldn't trust them to spellcheck a grocery list.

Problem there, southernwriter, is PA ADDS mistakes to your m/s before printing. Thanks partly to Word's good ole grammar check!

Yes, Unimportant, the copyright registration is the author's responsibility.

SouthernWriter1978 said:

So if everyone knew they did not edit (perhaps if they listed it in the FAQ), it might help others who are published there to check their own work.

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Ah, but if you look at the message boards, very few of them are troubled by the mistakes. After all, "there are mistakes in every book, even by the big name-authors." It does happen sometimes, but somehow, I don't think Grisham's publisher is adding more.

BenPanced said:

Yes, Unimportant, the copyright registration is the author's responsibility.

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So does the author need to submit proof to PA that the copyright has been registered? I've read in songwriting forums that it takes many months to get a verification note back from the US Copyright Office that you've registered a copyright. It seems this could slow down "the publishing process."

If proof is required, I certainly wouldn't recommend submitting a false statement to PA just to get two free copies of a book (and a dollar). Perish the thought...

It takes approximately 8 months to get notification back from the copyright office that it's been registered. There are many PA authors who were clueless that they had to send two copies of their books along with the registration fee to the copyrights office. My guess would be that many PA authors never registered their copyright.

For those PA authors who read here... the copyright registrars office requires two copies in printed book form, the registration form and $45.

There are too many other publishers-on-demand who do it better. There isn't really a way for them to redeem themselves.

Not to mention past transgressions making them simply BAD PEOPLE.

Will I EVER buy dog food that got some of its ingredients from Menu Foods again? No. They'll go out of business. They should.

PA hasn't killed anyone yet (that we know of). That's the only reason they still exist. There are enough dim witted dreamers who are too slow to use Google effectively or too lazy to bother out there to keep them in business. It's not just that they're so incredibly damaging and BAD. It's that there are legitimate, safe, and non-abusive alternatives.

Which is why I have absolutely no pity for those who fall for the garbage spewed. They remind me too much of the morons who send their entire pention fund to a girl named Carmelita in an obscure location thousands of miles (and several borders) away so she can come to the US as Horny69Guy's new child bride. When HotCarmelita4U absconds with said retirement fun I actually think it's hysterical... and pretty fair.

tlblack said:

It takes approximately 8 months to get notification back from the copyright office that it's been registered. There are many PA authors who were clueless that they had to send two copies of their books along with the registration fee to the copyrights office. My guess would be that many PA authors never registered their copyright.

For those PA authors who read here... the copyright registrars office requires two copies in printed book form, the registration form and $45.

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Which only goes to show just how little PA actually knows about publishing even though they've now had almost eight years to learn. It's terrible that most writers learn more about publishing in eight weeks than PA has as a "publisher" in eight years.

By the way, our Anotherealm site is down, but our backup site remains up. It's at URL http://www.invirtuo.cc/prededitors/ for those who need to consult our listings. The two sites are identical except for one logo--our host's.