Quoth janetbellinger:
I am a Publish America author and just want to know what's wrong with print on demand publishing, anyway?
Nothing’s wrong with POD per se, but PA tries to convince its authors that it’s not a POD. That’s the problem with PA.
I mean, what if you don't mind marketing your own work and buying and reselling your own books?
More power to you. But you would get a better product and service through the likes of Lulu, etc.
I have three booksignings coming up, starting tomorrow, and two of them are at Chapters.I felt no stigma at all when approaching them. They were as welcoming of me as if I were published by a mainstream publisher.
Good for you. Did you happen to compare your book’s price to comparable work from a mainstream publisher? Prospective buyers will.
And I believe that more people are buying online at places like Amazon.com.
About 8% of book sales are online. But the vast majority of those are by folks looking to buy that particular book. That is, folks don’t browse online for books to buy like they do in bookstores.
And Publish America is a member of the Better Business Bureau.
Meaningless. Companies pay to be listed with the BBB, and only need to acknowledge a complaint for the BBB to consider it “resolved”. Also, PA has changed its listed name at least once to clear the negative record that was beginning to build against it.
I negotiated my own contract with P A.
Ouch.
I did sign on with N Y Literary recently though and am concerned about all the negative posts.
You should be. They are a scam.
They say that they do not negotiate deals with print on demand publishers.
Funny, since they’ve “sold” dozens of people to PA.
I have nothing against print on demand publishers, but you don't need an agent to negotiate for you.
Correct.
And with regards to agents such as New York Literary Agency charging fees, I don't see that it is a sin to charge fees.
The problem is that they are profiting from the fees you pay them, not from selling your book.
What is a sin though, is to misrepresent yourself.
Yes. And both PA and NYLA do.
But on the subject of scams, supposing that NY Literary was a scam, wouldn't it take more work for them to perpetuate the fraud, eg change names frequently, than it would just to be up front about the critiques?
Not at all. Critiquing requires knowledge and skill; collecting fees does not.
I was always prepared to pay for editing, and planned to pay a professional editor before I submitted to a publisher.
Not a good idea. Read the other topics on this board for why.
I know that traditionally agents do not charge fees until they publish you, but on the other hand, it is difficult to find one to represent you unless you've been published.
No, it’s only difficult if you do not have a book they can sell.
I am willing to pay a one time editing fee, but would not be willing to keep shelling out.
You’ve got that going for you, at least.
So, I would have respect for a literary agency who just came right out and said they charged for critiques, and that they offered editing services.
Why? Such services are a blatant conflict of interest with selling your book to a publisher. That is, they needn’t spend time and effort contacting publishers on your behalf when they can just pass you back and forth for editing/critique/illustration fees.
Of course, I would expect a good edit in return.
Which they do not give. See NYLA topic for examples.
But, whoever wrote the blurb on N Y Literary website has obvious writing talent and if that person would use that talent to edit my work, I would be willing to pay for it.
First, it’s not logical to presume the person writing their website content would be their editor. Second, the site is not well-written.
I think that perpetuating a scam must much harder work than running a legitimate business. So why would Robert Fletcher etc. spend so much time and energy in running a scam if that were the case, when all he has to do is offer editiorial services?
You’ve answered your own question. The scam is the editorial "services".
I don't know, maybe I am a hopeless optimist, but what I really want to say is, Robert Fletcher, you have a gift. Show me how to improve my manuscript and I will pay for the service. Just be up front with me.
Janet
Robert Fletcher has a gift for conning people into believing in he can help them get published. He can’t, he won’t, and you would do better to avoid him.