Jill Karg:
I would say that some of the comments above were very nasty.
I understand why you'd find some of the comments here quite difficult to read, but everything said here is true.
Jill Karg:
Just for the record as a PA author, I do read. My favorite authors from the old school: Hemmingway, Poe, Shakespeare and from the new school: Clive Cussler, John Gardner, Sebastian Faulk to name a few. I have always and will always have a thirst for knowledge. I am educated (bachelor degree in MIS) and have been a technical writer. My book might be published by a not so nice publisher but it doesn't mean the quality is sub-average or poor.
The problem though is that you've been published by a vanity publisher and the vast majority of other PA authors are not regular readers (many say as much in the PA discussion boards) and the books they have released through PA are not very well written.
That's what is so insidious about PA - they publish anything regardless of quality. In esence, they are publishing slush. As a result, while your book might be great (and there are books with PA that could easily have found a commercial publisher had the author done their research in advance) it will never, ever get the audience it deserves and it will be tainted by its association with a publisher that does not care about quality.
Jill Karg:
I will not be using PA for the second book in my series, and I will be searching out an agent.
Unless your second book in the series works as a stand alone, you may find it difficult to get an agent. It's very difficult to find an agent for a book or series where first publishing rights have been exhausted (which is what happens when you go with PA) unless you've managed to get significant sales for that first book. You may be better off abandoning the series completely and working on something completely different.
Jill Karg:
I feel the agents that snub their noses at those that have been published even by PA are not worth having.
You're misinterpreting what the agents are saying. Agents do not regard PA as a publishing credit - therefore if you list your PA book in a query letter as being an example of your having been commercially published, they will view you as an amateur (ditto if you query a novel that's already been published by PA) and your query is more likely to be set to one side.
As regards whether the agent is worth having - all of the agents quoted on this thread are people worth having on the basis that they represent some best selling authors and can (and have) negotiated good deals for their clients.
You might not like that attitude, but that's the reality you face given the PA situation. The good news is that you are not alone and there are plenty of people in this Forum who have been with PA and who have gone on to get agents and commercial publishing deals.
Jill Karg:
I truly believe that you do attract more bees with honey instead of vinegar. And yes that is a cliché. And cliché is a French term that is overused also.
That's not a great analogy. Again, not liking the way the message is being presented doesn't make the message any less true.
Jill Karg:
My all time favorite is “Don’t judge someone unless you are willing to walk in their shoes. or Don't judge a book by it's cover.”
Great sayings. Shame they don't apply in this case.
PA is known as a vanity publisher. Therefore its authors are judged to be vanity published. The only way you can mitigate that is through your sales, which you will never get with PA.
Jill Karg:
I am published author and I am proud of that fact.
Yes, you are published but you have been badly published by a vanity outfit.
Jill Karg:
I will have success even if it is with the second book of the series of seven. Yes, I said seven. All these books are more than 500 pages long with many plots lines, many characters and dialogue that can stand the test of reading it out loud.
I hope that you do have success, but you won't with PA.
Jill Karg:
I don’t pretend to know what these agents were looking at to say such harsh comments but I do know it wasn’t my work.
Those agents were looking at work produced by your fellow PA authors. Your work may well be great, but the fact that so much from PA isn't, will taint it.
For that reason, you're better off not mentioning PA at all when querying an agent and let your work stand or fall on its own merits.
MM