So I got a phone call yesterday from "Rebecca", a rep from PA. Since "Publishamerica" showed up on CallerID, I was ready for her. Even before she could say why she was calling, I told her I wasn't looking for a subsidy publisher. "Oh, we're not..." So I continued to tell her all about the stuff I had already read here on AW and in other places. She later sent me an email to address those concerns. I just wanted to post for you the email I got from her. (Side note: I didn't read all of it; I didnt think I needed to)
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Thank you for speaking with me and expressing your concerns. You seem to have read some very old, and very false, news. What you saw posted is simply, plainly, false. Please read the following information carefully, and we will be happy to answer any further questions that you may have.
PublishAmerica represents traditional publishing for tens of thousands of authors, both new and old, plus, tellingly, it represents the end of the vanity publishing industry. Therefore, we are bound to make headlines, and to cause concern to those who profit from charging authors money. Partly as a result of the on-line efforts that you read, our popularity has risen so dramatically that each day over 100 new authors contact us, wanting to join PublishAmerica.
The websites to which you refer have long ago lost credibility, and it would appear that they are rarely taken seriously. We've seen them mocked many times. In fact, as we speak their ringleaders are being sued in New Jersey by a third party for libel and other objectionable behavior. Their attorney in that case, who also is a frequent poster on these websites, was suspended from the practice of law by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission because he defrauded an elderly lady. In the Commission's order, it said that he is "unfit to practice law", "poses a threat to the public and the integrity of the legal profession", and that he was "lying upon lying upon lying".
Fortunately, few people take them seriously, and we rarely hear their name mentioned from any of our roughly 40,000 happily contracted authors or from the more than 200,000 aspiring authors who have sought a PublishAmerica contract to date. Among these are thousands upon thousands of professionals, including lawyers, doctors, and professors, plus many previously published authors and celebrities. If you care to know what real PublishAmerica authors have to say about the nonsense out there in naysay-land, these links may be very helpful:
http://bb.publishamerica.com/viewtopic.php?t=28502&sid=2d3a123b5e6fae91120fc887bcad1303
http://bb.publishamerica.com/viewtopic.php?t=28758
Seeing that, it should come as no surprise that 40 pct of our current authors request that we also publish their next book. That's an astonishing number, given that this reportedly amounts to roughly 100 pct of all authors who actually finish a second book. It tells you something about our authors' satisfaction rate.
Many businesses proudly boast that they have a 95% customer satisfaction ratio. Our ratio is far, far and away above 95%. We operate within only the highest ethical standards. See http://www.publishamerica.com/testimonials for more information.
Here is a brief overview of PublishAmerica:
- Each day, over 100 new authors request to become PublishAmerica authors
- Each year, over 25,000 new authors request to become PublishAmerica
authors
- 3,000,000 households served
- 40,000 proud authors on board
- Thousands of positive newspaper reviews, interviews, or feature stories
- Thousands of book signing events in bookstores across the nation
- Ten years in business
- Ten years of steady growth
- Ten years of doing what no other publisher has ever done before,
much less for free: bringing a status of class to a previously
ignored mass of aspiring authors.
Thousands, each and every month, of PublishAmerica books are sold in bookstores across the nation. Bookstores buy a PublishAmerica book almost two thousand times every day. The PublishAmerica message board is overflowing with testimonials from our authors about their books being stocked in bookstores. Hundreds of bookstores across the nation stock our books.
In closing, it's good to remember that in the not too distant past, authors who were spurned by the established publishing houses had only one alternative left to them: self-publishing through a vanity press. According to industry insiders, when all is said and done vanity publishers charge an average $1400 in return for "publishing" someone's book. Since the arrival of PublishAmerica, who charges zero dollars, period, our authors have kept almost $50 million (!) in their own pockets, money that otherwise could have ended up in vanity coffers. And you still wonder where the mud comes from?
When PublishAmerica entered the market ten years ago, there were three major vanity houses angling for the wallets of authors. Today, after authors discovered PublishAmerica and came running to us in droves, only one of those pay-to-publish entities is still left standing. And you wonder why we, the ultimate agent of change, encounter some hostility?
We hope that this information is helpful, and that you will be very happy with our ever-growing family of authors. And again, if you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to let us know.
Best Wishes,
Rebecca
Acquisitions Department
PublishAmerica, LLLP
-------------------------------
Thank you for speaking with me and expressing your concerns. You seem to have read some very old, and very false, news. What you saw posted is simply, plainly, false. Please read the following information carefully, and we will be happy to answer any further questions that you may have.
PublishAmerica represents traditional publishing for tens of thousands of authors, both new and old, plus, tellingly, it represents the end of the vanity publishing industry. Therefore, we are bound to make headlines, and to cause concern to those who profit from charging authors money. Partly as a result of the on-line efforts that you read, our popularity has risen so dramatically that each day over 100 new authors contact us, wanting to join PublishAmerica.
The websites to which you refer have long ago lost credibility, and it would appear that they are rarely taken seriously. We've seen them mocked many times. In fact, as we speak their ringleaders are being sued in New Jersey by a third party for libel and other objectionable behavior. Their attorney in that case, who also is a frequent poster on these websites, was suspended from the practice of law by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission because he defrauded an elderly lady. In the Commission's order, it said that he is "unfit to practice law", "poses a threat to the public and the integrity of the legal profession", and that he was "lying upon lying upon lying".
Fortunately, few people take them seriously, and we rarely hear their name mentioned from any of our roughly 40,000 happily contracted authors or from the more than 200,000 aspiring authors who have sought a PublishAmerica contract to date. Among these are thousands upon thousands of professionals, including lawyers, doctors, and professors, plus many previously published authors and celebrities. If you care to know what real PublishAmerica authors have to say about the nonsense out there in naysay-land, these links may be very helpful:
http://bb.publishamerica.com/viewtopic.php?t=28502&sid=2d3a123b5e6fae91120fc887bcad1303
http://bb.publishamerica.com/viewtopic.php?t=28758
Seeing that, it should come as no surprise that 40 pct of our current authors request that we also publish their next book. That's an astonishing number, given that this reportedly amounts to roughly 100 pct of all authors who actually finish a second book. It tells you something about our authors' satisfaction rate.
Many businesses proudly boast that they have a 95% customer satisfaction ratio. Our ratio is far, far and away above 95%. We operate within only the highest ethical standards. See http://www.publishamerica.com/testimonials for more information.
Here is a brief overview of PublishAmerica:
- Each day, over 100 new authors request to become PublishAmerica authors
- Each year, over 25,000 new authors request to become PublishAmerica
authors
- 3,000,000 households served
- 40,000 proud authors on board
- Thousands of positive newspaper reviews, interviews, or feature stories
- Thousands of book signing events in bookstores across the nation
- Ten years in business
- Ten years of steady growth
- Ten years of doing what no other publisher has ever done before,
much less for free: bringing a status of class to a previously
ignored mass of aspiring authors.
Thousands, each and every month, of PublishAmerica books are sold in bookstores across the nation. Bookstores buy a PublishAmerica book almost two thousand times every day. The PublishAmerica message board is overflowing with testimonials from our authors about their books being stocked in bookstores. Hundreds of bookstores across the nation stock our books.
In closing, it's good to remember that in the not too distant past, authors who were spurned by the established publishing houses had only one alternative left to them: self-publishing through a vanity press. According to industry insiders, when all is said and done vanity publishers charge an average $1400 in return for "publishing" someone's book. Since the arrival of PublishAmerica, who charges zero dollars, period, our authors have kept almost $50 million (!) in their own pockets, money that otherwise could have ended up in vanity coffers. And you still wonder where the mud comes from?
When PublishAmerica entered the market ten years ago, there were three major vanity houses angling for the wallets of authors. Today, after authors discovered PublishAmerica and came running to us in droves, only one of those pay-to-publish entities is still left standing. And you wonder why we, the ultimate agent of change, encounter some hostility?
We hope that this information is helpful, and that you will be very happy with our ever-growing family of authors. And again, if you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to let us know.
Best Wishes,
Rebecca
Acquisitions Department
PublishAmerica, LLLP
