Here are some "facts" from the PA website...
FACT #5: PublishAmerica is NOT in any way a POD, vanity press, or subsidy publisher, and has nothing in common with them. Obviously, our authors are also not being self-published. In the most commonly used context, POD indicates "Publish On Demand", or vanity publishing. Vanity publishers charge for their "services". Some charge a few hundred dollars, others a thousand or more. We are not in that league, in any way, shape or fashion.
Uh, no, that's false. POD means "publish/print on demand", which IN FACT, PA is, in every sense of the word. Many vanity publishers do print runs for a client - which, of course, the person pays for when they buy their package. So comparing POD, as a technology, to a vanity press, is false. PA IS in fact, a POD press, printing copies of books AS THEY ARE ORDERED, or... ON DEMAND. Get it?
FACT #6: PublishAmerica is a traditional, royalty paying publisher. We are strongly opposed to charging fees, ever. There's no catch, no hidden surprises. We even pay small advances to indicate our principle. The author is never, ever, under any obligation to pull their wallet to make any purchase whatsoever. We don't want their money. We want their book. All expenses involved with acquiring, producing, manufacturing, and publishing a book, and marketing it to the industry's wholesale and distribution channels for full availability through all bookstores at home and abroad are underwritten by PublishAmerica solely. This is one of our main claims to fame, and one that we are very proud of. All authors are treated equally here.
True, they don't charge fees. They only make it so difficult, because of their non-standard discount to booksellers, difficulty in obtaining books and some non-returnability issues, along with the well-known knowledge that their 'low acceptance barriers' cause a basic non-vetting of books, thereby a lack of quality, to get into bookstores, that the poor author has no choice BUT to buy their own books.
Oh, and that "one-time, get it now" offer with a big discount on books to the author when they're released, that's not pressure to purchase? Clue time, PA - most publishers don't have 'sales' on book to their own authors, and if authors do choose to purchase copies, most contracts state they CANNOT resell them.
FACT #7: The only area where the acronym POD comes in sight, is the printing stage of a book. Among printers, POD means print-on-demand, a digital technology that enables the printer to manufacture a book one at a time. This is in contrast with the offset technology that, by definition, must produce at least hundreds of copies of a book at a time at a minimum, but preferably thousands, to justify the expense of running the press.
That's true. But you can use a digital printer and do print runs. There's no law that says using a digital printer means you have to print one copy at a time. The per unit cost is higher, but you can do it. Unlike PA, who does one copy at a time, as ordered, a fact that EVERY bookstore chain says they will NOT consider for nationwide stocking (oh, but they're AVAILABLE in every bookstore. If you order it. If the store chooses to let you order it, which they might not. Then they might cancel the order - we've seen that happen.)
FACT #8: ALL publishers use digital (Print-On-Demand) technology for printing, from all major publishing houses such as Random House down. In fact, Random House is a major producer of digitally printed books. They also use additional printing technologies, including offset. PublishAmerica uses the offset technology occasionally as well, each time a larger run is necessary.
Eh? Since when? I can see if RH is doing a small amount of ARC's, they might use digital printing, but I don't know that for a fact. Who cares what they use to print the books? It's what happens after that that's really important, like, they go to bookstore buyers and get a big order of books.
FACT #9: Does the use of the digital on-demand printing technology make a publisher a POD house? No, it does not. Of course not. According to
www.acronymfinder.com, there are 57 different meanings for POD, from Post Office Department to Point Of Departure to Proof Of Delivery. In our world, POD is vanity publishing, and PublishAmerica is no vanity publisher, by any stretch of the imagination.
And in everyone else's world, POD means print-on-demand, which you are, in spades. No, not a "traditional" vanity publisher, PA. We've come up with whole new term, just for you - Author Mill.
FACT #10: As for the production time of our books, we put the author in full control. If an author wants us to release his or her book fast, we can do that. Authors who feel that their manuscript is already edited to perfection may opt to have no additional editing done, provided that we agree. Depending on how fast they submit all necessary information and materials, they may see their book go to the printer within as little as 6 weeks. If time is of no primary concern, or if we decide that additional editing is required, we assign an editor who will spend time going through the text. We don't touch style issues, we don't edit the author's voice, tone, or delivery. We edit for spelling, mechanics, grammar, and typos. In all situations, before it goes to print we send a book back to the author at least twice, to ensure that it looks exactly as the author wants it to look.
Clue: All authors need editing. All of them. And for more than just spelling, mechanics, grammar and typos. Aren't typos spelling errors? Anyhow, any author is going to tell you that 9 times out of 10, their editor's suggestions make their books better. So, what does that say about PA?
Not only the fact that we've seen time and again the fact that despite the author's best efforts, PA adds errors and prints the books that way.
There you have it - "facts" about PA
Here's another couple - Fact: a PA book is not considered a publishing credit by anyone in the indsustry. A PA book will not get you into Author's Guild, nor impress any reputable agent or publisher. Fact: PA have a cover price dollars above similar length books from other publishers. Fact: PA books have a non-standard discount, which won't make any bookseller a profit, so bookstores are hesitant to even stock PA books on a store by store basis. Fact: PA does not submit a marketing plan, media kit or copies of any of its books to bookstore chain buyers, because they have no intention of every having a book picked up for nationwide stocking, because they KNOW their 'lower acceptance barriers' prohibit putting out consistent quality books.
Fact: if you want to have a career as a writer, stay away from PA. If you just want to publish a book and go through the motions and play the Published Author Role-Playing Game, have at it. If you're truly happy, so am I. But be prepared to spend a lot of your own time and money.
