Welcome to all the new arrivals! Please take the advice that Mac and others have given, and
check out the rest of the Forum! Absolute Write is more than just one big thread dedicated to PA. It's a treasurehouse of information about the entire writing/publishing industry. Look up at the top of the page and click on
Absolute Write Water Cooler to see all the different topics of discussion!
Additionally, there are some giants walking among us here who
actually make a living with their writing. I look to them as heroes and role models. They are proof that you don't have be Stephen King or J. K. Rowling to pin your career on your pen. They offer good, trustworthy advice as to how you can do it. When they talk about the realities of the publishing industry,
listen! They know whereof they speak!
I appreciate that some of you just joining us this week are still quite happy with PA. Fair warning, though: The more information about the publishing industry a writer gathers, the less of a good deal PA looks like.
Lastly, I want to second something Diana said earlier. Again, I realize some of you are still happy with them, but know this:
PA is not "taking a chance" on anyone. PA's profits simply don't depend on the quality of the books they publish. PA's business model is to simply...
1) Acquire as many manuscripts as feasible...
2) ...from writers who know very little about the industry...
3) ...so PA can get away with as little time/effort/money spent on each title as possible...
4) ...and convince the author to be his/her own distributor (i.e. buy his/her own books for resale).
There is no "taking chances" involved in PA's business model. They view the books they acquire as cheap product to sell back to the author him/herself. The business model is guaranteed no-risk, and has nothing to do with the contents of the book itself.
Now, if you want to see actual publishers actually taking an actual chance on an actual new author... look at Tor. Look at Random House. Look at Baen. Look, in short, at any commercial publisher, mainstream or small press.
Their business model is to acquire stories they think the reading public will enjoy enough to buy and buy again. That's a risky decision to have to make: Will this title sell? Will this?
A legitimate publisher's profits depend on selling
stories to
people who want to read them. PA's profits depends on selling
bound pages back to
authors who think they have to be their own distributors.
This is why the PA Forums quickly delete any post that talks too knowledgeably about how marketing and distribution is supposed to work. If their authors knew that legit publishers don't expect their authors to sell copies themselves, well, that might cut into PA's profits.
I would love to see some discussion of these points by those of you reading now who are content with PA. Many of us would love to discuss them on PA's own forums, except folks like me who've never signed on with PA aren't allowed, and folks who have signed but have come to regret it got banned. So, please, please, if you're happy with PA, tell us why! If you think we're wrong about PA, tell us why!
Let's talk. Virtual coffee, tea, and biscuits all around.