they basically are saying they sign all new authors more than anyone else. hats where I got that they do not reject anyone. Yeah right. i thought about sending in a whole new manuscript with a different name and all on with different email address just to see waht they will say.
PublishAmerica's stock image covers
- Thread starter Marian Perera
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The website design is crappy. There's way too much going on all at once. Even I can do a better job designing a website. This should be a serious red flag before anything else.
Oh, I've seen legit agents with worse looking sites. As with anything else, it's not the quality of the presentation but the track record that matters more. Too many people confuse presentation with results. PA's web site isn't slick, but it gets the job done or we wouldn't be here right now.
Not so much a matter of stock images, but covers in general. I've never seen this addressed, but with more and more of the PA authors talking about multi-part series and sequels they've printed through PA, I think it should be mentioned.
Normally, if there's a book series, then the covers of the books "match". They're not identical, but they're coordinated. Now, check the books from one of the newly disgruntled PA authors.
Book one actually has a decent cover:
http://www.publishamerica.net/product26546.html
Now take a look at book two - there's no connection to the previous title beyond the title itself:
http://www.publishamerica.net/product86759.html
Book 1 looks like a contemporary, most likely YA story. Book 2 looks like a gothic fantasy of some kind.
It's somewhat obvious that it's a case of the cover being done based on the blurb rather than familiarity with the story. Book 2 mentions that it's a fantasy, book 1 doesn't, so even if someone were to pick up the book based on the cover, it doesn't match what's inside.
Normally, if there's a book series, then the covers of the books "match". They're not identical, but they're coordinated. Now, check the books from one of the newly disgruntled PA authors.
Book one actually has a decent cover:
http://www.publishamerica.net/product26546.html
Now take a look at book two - there's no connection to the previous title beyond the title itself:
http://www.publishamerica.net/product86759.html
Book 1 looks like a contemporary, most likely YA story. Book 2 looks like a gothic fantasy of some kind.
It's somewhat obvious that it's a case of the cover being done based on the blurb rather than familiarity with the story. Book 2 mentions that it's a fantasy, book 1 doesn't, so even if someone were to pick up the book based on the cover, it doesn't match what's inside.
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The first book was released October 30, 2009. The second? Same date. Maybe that's why they got the same cover.
. . . and there's another with the same scattered rose petals:
http://www.publishamerica.net/product87496.html
But since it's about rogue vampires, blood drips from the petals.
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Good find! That cover at least matches the story, although the title could have been better placed.
One thing that bugs the crap out of me with some of these book covers is that the author's name is larger than the title of the book, and a few of the covers have text that is not on a grid. Two minor qualitative nitpicks, but as usual, good ol' Jupiter Images is doing most of the work anyway...
Just took a look at the new covers and there's a match with some old ones. I think of these as the "My book is trapped in PA's clutches and can't get out" covers.
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Just took a look at the new covers and there's a match with some old ones. I think of these as the "My book is trapped in PA's clutches and can't get out" covers.
Ok, not a bad cover for a book titled "Mental Ward." Not sure about that third one, though!
I actually thought the third one was pretty cool, in that disturbing sort of way. I get the impression of a book where sanity is gradually upended by the realization that Things Are Not Going To Make Sense Ever Again.
If I saw that book in a bookstore, I'd definitely at least pick it up to look at the back cover and see what it was about. Pity I can't do that.
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Actually, if you search the archives at http://totallylookslike.com/ you will find books from well-respected commercial publishers with dopplegänger covers. I have noticed, though, that in most cases the lookalikes are a commercially published book and a self/vanity/subsidy published book, so it seems most likely that the copycat deliberately seeks out the stock photo that was used by the commercial house. However, it does mean commercial houses don't always use original art/photowork.
Not trying to defend PA, but in fairness I must note that nowadays many trade paperback covers curl quite badly. In the store I have to continually rotate the front book of some face-out displays to the back to try to counteract this tendency. It's common in YA/MG fiction and mainstream fiction, but a little less prevalent in mystery and science fiction, for some obscure reason.
Not trying to defend PA, but in fairness I must note that nowadays many trade paperback covers curl quite badly. In the store I have to continually rotate the front book of some face-out displays to the back to try to counteract this tendency. It's common in YA/MG fiction and mainstream fiction, but a little less prevalent in mystery and science fiction, for some obscure reason.
True, and there are some terrible covers put out by commercial publishers as well. I always check out the annual cover contest that used to be hosted by All About Romance. And then there was the cover where the heroine had three hands...
The difference between those, usually, is that the cover designers at commercial houses take the original stock image or picture and build the cover around it, rather than simply using the stock image as it is and Photoshopping the title into that. It would be much more difficult to pick out matching covers if PA's designers made an effort to individualize them. Instead, though, they use basic, identical images.
Also, I have to admit - I got tired of defenders saying that PA had the best cover art or the best cover designers in the industry. This was the most effective way I could think of to counter such claims.
It was last year that two books by commercial houses ended up with the same piece of stock art as their central image (a woman in shadow with a high ponytail, IIRC). It was such an unusual occurrence and such a big deal to the publishers/writers that it made the news.
It's so common with vanity/self pubs that it's no big deal there.
A commercial publisher wants a book cover that will stand out and get noticed. They don't want someone to go to a bookstore, or on line, knowing only that the book they're after has a certain look and have any chance of finding the wrong one.
If someone went to find that book "Mental Ward", but couldn't remember the title, they could instead ask someone about "That book with the hands like they're on the other side of a window trying to break out..." - all of those books fit the bill.
Compare that to something like, say "Wings" -- "That book with the two flower petals that look like wings."
The image in the 2nd is iconic, and specific. No other publisher would copy that image because it's too distinct.
It's so common with vanity/self pubs that it's no big deal there.
A commercial publisher wants a book cover that will stand out and get noticed. They don't want someone to go to a bookstore, or on line, knowing only that the book they're after has a certain look and have any chance of finding the wrong one.
If someone went to find that book "Mental Ward", but couldn't remember the title, they could instead ask someone about "That book with the hands like they're on the other side of a window trying to break out..." - all of those books fit the bill.
Compare that to something like, say "Wings" -- "That book with the two flower petals that look like wings."
The image in the 2nd is iconic, and specific. No other publisher would copy that image because it's too distinct.
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That's not entirely true. Similar covers are released all the time. One of my writer e-friends has a post on her blog once a month or so where she's come across similar covers. Commercial houses often use purchased photographs. The difference is that they usually do a lot more computer enhancement than vanity publishers do. All of my covers include stock photography. (You can click each image to see a larger version.) It's pretty obvious that these aren't just photo images slapped on and tinkered with for five or ten minutes.
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Wow! PA really likes the flowered cover. Hope the three books that are all in the same genre with the dove on them don't end up at the same bookstore. That would be confusing. Oh, this is a PA book. The chances of that ever happening are slim to none.
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