Why?

Emerald

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With all the worthwhile information that is out there in spades regarding the shonky dealings of Publish America, why do people still fall for their schtick? For those of you who were unfortunate enough to become ensnared by them, what was it that made you think they were on the up and up, or that publishing with them was a good idea? Was it a particular marketing campaign, the information against them wasn't available at the time, they seemed genuine, *insert any other reason here*.

I already try to warn as many of my aspiring writer friends as possible about going the PA route. I just figured if former PA authors, or those trying to break free of PA, could have a thread where they could be honest and open about the mistakes they made, and why, it might help newbies to avoid the same sorts of pitfalls.
 

kaitie

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Also, a lot of people don't do appropriate research. PA states a lot of common misconceptions as truth, so an uninformed person might not immediately recognize that there's something wrong.
 

francisbruno

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Probably a combination of both.
The first writing conference I saw sounded great. I googled it and didn't find much. And believe me, I looked. It wasn't until after the conference that I discovered Absolute Write and gained a whole new insight into writing and publishing.

I never fell prey to PA, but I feel for those who do. And I know people who have fallen for similar things and cognitive dissonance has set in. They don't want to see the problems.
 

Chris P

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I looked into PA on the recommendation of someone who was still happy with them.

And, as people said, I wanted to believe. It makes perfect sense that a publisher would do all it could to get my actual book in actual stores, and nothing on their website or contract contradicted what I assumed they would do. I didn't know enough to see the loopholes they left themselves (I didn't notice, for instance, that there is no provision in the contract for the author to terminate it). PA are masters at weasel wording and letting my assumptions guide me.

Why I didn't do more research? I guess it made too much sense for them to be legit than to be conniving. Led by my assumptions again.
 

merrihiatt

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I signed with PA because they responded quickly to my manuscript, said they did line-by-line editing, and I misunderstood the line "Books will be available to brick and mortar stores" ("to" rather than "in" changes everything).

I contacted two of their authors who lived in my area, they sang PA's praises. I ordered both of the authors' books and promptly signed the contract. After I received the books, I was shocked to see all the grammar and punctuation errors, not to mention the storylines. Hadn't this book been edited line-by-line? Then I saw the disclaimer in the front of the book stating the book went to print as the author wanted it, without editing.

I believed the books were priced high because they were hardcover. Doh!

I began trying to get out of my contract immediately. I contacted PA every week for two years. Finally, I paid $99.00 to get the publishing rights returned to me.

Lesson learned the hard way, but one I will never forget.

Oh, and that particular book (after being revamped and self-published), provided me with significantly more royalties when it was out of PA's hands.

I can't encourage writers strongly enough to avoid PublishAmerica.
 

J.S.F.

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As someone said, if you want to believe in something hard enough, you'll do what the company asks for and hope for the best. I was fortunate enough not to have fallen for the vanity publishing schtick, and I also discovered a number of decent websites: Piers Anthony's, P&E, and of course, here. All three have offered very unbiased views on the good and bad things about each publisher (IMHO) and I am grateful that they have provided such a service.
 

tlblack

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A bad agent made the recommendation to me. She'd been my agent for almost a year and had been mailing me copies of the rejection letters she'd received from publishers. They were all legit pubs, but were all form letters. She touted PA like they were the best thing since disposable diapers. She sent me a copy of PA's contract (at the time) to look over. Because I'd had no reason to doubt her as knowing what she was doing, and after trying to find anything negative about PA and finding nothing, I signed the contract. I didn't know she had already submitted my ms until later. (She is no longer in business as an agent, but has four of her own titles with PA.)

That was 2001, and there wasn't the slew of info about PA there is now. I think I had the shortest response time ever when asking PA to let me out of that contract. Ten days from the time I mailed a certified letter with my request, I received the termination letter. Of course, I had a long list of complaints detailed in that letter, too. This was in 2006 before PA started charging for early termination.
 

Chris P

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She is no longer in business as an agent)

Holy moly I hope not! But interesting to hear some facts from back then. It seems any learning PA has done is how to be more shifty than ever.
 

underthecity

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I was part of a local author event at our local bookstore last weekend. The author who sat next to me had a hardback by PA. And it was huge, probably more than 300 pages.

Her table was visited mostly by people who knew her. From listening to them, they were all friends and family. I never witnessed any "stranger" pick up her book and leaf through it. Her book was $30 and didn't have a bad cover, but it was a typical, no-frills cover. I read the first page. It wasn't "bad" either.

I heard her talking to someone visiting about her agent search, but didn't hear anything else about it.

After the event concluded, I had to ask: "Why Publishamerica?" She said she shopped around and found they were the only one who didn't ask for any upfront costs.

And that was it. I didn't say anything else about the subject. I know all about PA from these threads, and know that her cost per book was substantial, including shipping these behemoths. There was an empty box on the floor that had PA's address (I believe) and her name on it, so she provided all her own books--the bookstore did not, as they did the rest of the authors.

My guess is that after a failed agent search she sought to self-publish. And PA did that for her. I guess she's one of the their 90,000 happy authors. It's 90, isn't it?
 

Chris P

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She said she shopped around and found they were the only one who didn't ask for any upfront costs.

[. . .]

I guess she's one of the their 90,000 happy authors. It's 90, isn't it?

Chances are she ran a Google search, in which case vanity publishers or the big houses who don't take unagented submissions are likely to be close to the top. After $5000 sticker prices for vanities, PA seems like a bargain. Probably by design on PA's part. They're masters at playing off what the authors think they know about publishing.

And last I knew they were claiming about 45,000 happy authors.