The Newer Never-Ending PublishAmerica / America Star Books Thread

Sirion

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ResearchGuy said:
You can download my style guide for free....but still: $0.00.
Click to expand...

But do you offer an awesome promo like PA does? :p

You know, in this age of Google searches and whatnot, I'm surprised that anyone falls victim to the PA scam. Just typing 'Publish America' into Google gives you the following suggestions: "Publish America Complaints" and "Publish America Scams." At this point, red lights should be going off for most sensible people. And on top of that, some of the top results are Absolute Write and other websites exposing it. Heck, even the Wikipedia page isn't too kind.

*sigh*

But I guess if people still fall for Nigerian princes offering them millions of dollars, this isn't that absurd.
 

DeadlyAccurate

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But people don't type in "Publish America" unless they know to look for the name, such as being referred by another PA author. They type in "book publishers," or "how to get published," or something similar.
 

gordo

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Somewhere along the way, a person who submits his or her manuscript to PA must type in "Publish America." If they don't, they wouldn't know where or to whom to send their manuscript. I submit, as I have before, that if those people go directly from the PA website to submitting their work to them without doing their research; e.g. either checking this site or other sites on Google, they have been irresponsible and/or lazy. I say this with some cconviction, because that's precisely what I did. In fact, I will go even further than irresponsible and lazy. I was stupid.
So, what to do? Well, one alternative is to post warnings about this terrible company on AW. Thousands of posts about PA are here and that's fine if y'all want to keep it up another eight years or until PA goes belly up. Or you can agree with the notion that people, certainly those who are lazy, irresponsible, and even stupid, benefit from their mistakes, and in so doing will write better books and submit them to better publishing companies.
 
Gillhoughly

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Some of those people are not lazy, irresponsible or stupid, just inexperienced.

They type in "book publishers" and up come links to the Big Six. Those sites keep the "submission guidelines" links in the fine print, so most miss them. If they can find them, they discover they have to have an agent. They've heard agents can be dishonest and that the best of them take money for doing nothing, so let's keep moving.

What's up next will be the vanity houses--yikes, they want money to publish!

And then there's PA with its flag waving promise that they will pay writers. Words like "traditional" and "old fashioned" are carefully calculated to reassure them and hey, look at ALL the Christian books in their store! All their books are available to stores and they're not a POD, whatever that is.

The target market misses the red flags, falls for the sales pitch and bookmarks the page. No need to google them, just hit the bookmark link.

A few might do a search about the company--often after they've signed the contract.

So, no, not all of them are stupid, they just don't know any better. When you think you have to pay to publish then PA starts looking like a godsend. And everyone knows that once you get a book into print that you'll get instantly rich.

Yup, PA wants them to think that. In the meantime Willie is probably still shopping for yachts, Miranda has a racehorse to feed and board and I suppose Larry is busy stuffing a mattress with cash he'd rather the IRS never finds.
 

Scribe4264

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Gillhoughly is dead on right, at least in my case. Back in 2005, I didn't have time to waste on agents who only looked at your submission if you were already published, or referred to by another author. I didn't google PA, but I came across some kind of web ad or other search engine hit back in 2005 (don't really recall which) and figured "hey, these guys seem cool. They'll look at my manuscript and let me know if they'll publish it. And if they say yes, I don't have to pay them a dime and my book will actually be in a book store."
So I figured why the heck not. I wasn't looking to get rich, had a full-time career and family that took up 120% of my time so this seemed the easiest and less stressful option to get my book on a book store shelf.
Not sure how much was out there on these "people" back then and to be honest I didn't do much research on them. Will I make that mistake again? Oh hell no!!!
But, especially then, to a person new to publishing PA was a very attractive company and there didn't seem to be any reason not to sign the contract.
I am sure there are still people out there today who would feel the same way, sign the contract and then spend the next seven years cursing the day they did.
It is what it is and "people" like PA will always find a way to stay in operation, unfortunately.
 

DeadlyAccurate

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There's a certain subset of the population--and intelligence has absolutely nothing to do with it--that will fall for every scam, con, and dirty trick around. Show them a legitimate offer and a scam, and they'll practically choose the scam every time. This is why you see people going from PA to Tate or Strategic while talking about that Nigerian prince who's sending them a fortune.
 
Torgo

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Gillhoughly said:
In used stores. And it's free on the Net.

But of course Elements of Style has nothing to do with how PA does things, which is make it up as you go or ignore it altogether.

I wonder which of those clowns is responsible for this joke: Willie, the English as a second language speaker, Larry the failed writer or Miranda whose tone letters are sterling examples that she slings words and punctuation with the same accuracy as horse shit when she's mucking out stalls.

Or perhaps they passed this one off to one of those hapless temp students.
Click to expand...

From the introduction:

"No written work ever created didn't benefit from a reading by a friend."

There are no words.
 
Don Davidson

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Gillhoughly said:
Some of those people are not lazy, irresponsible or stupid, just inexperienced.
Click to expand...

. . . and naive. That was me. I thought I was very careful. I kept looking for the catch--some obligation to pay money or buy books, but there was none. I wasn't obligated to do anything but send them my book to publish. I did the research too late--after I'd signed the contract, though early enough to avoid losing any money. PA's scam has a different twist than most, which is what makes it so effective. But I'll know better next time.
 
Gillhoughly

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PubliSHAMErica and the IRS at 201 Thomas- Johnson Dr. Frederick, MD 21702




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Gillhoughly

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That's just sad.

I looked up some of the writers.

One has a book at the high end of a fair bookstore price, about 16 bucks, but it's a fat book, so you can almost excuse it. However, all the reviews cite the grammatical errors, structural problems and other editorial gaffes as interfering with the story, which means no one at PA did more than save the file and move on to the next book. According to the sales ranking, there are 2 million, 9 hundred thousand other books selling better than that one.

There's a happy, successful author with a 78-page book for 19.95. I read the book's blurb on Amazon three times and still do not know if the book is bout the author or Willie Meiners. The English is rather vague. It was just released so there's no sales rank or review ratings.

A poet's 90-page title for 19.95 has some 5 star reviews. I'm glad for him, but ain't shelling out bucks like that when I can get Maya Angelou for 6.99. The ranking says that 5 million, 9 hundred thousand books are selling better that that one.

From that sample, I can guess other PA writers have similar rates of "success". They've no clue that the only money makers in the room are the Stooges.

I did nearly spew coffee on seeing the pic of a person the author described as his "agent" and ... . book cover designer. (WTF??)

Dear PA writer--just so you know, an agent who gets her paycheck from the publisher is NOT your friend. Can you say "conflict of interest?" Come on, give it a try, you can do it!

My agent doesn't design my book covers. She sells my books. She makes money for me. But yours works for the publisher and does *what* for you??
 
Richard White

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I saw that "agent and book cover designer" and my brain went into melt-down (or it could have been melting down from all the Marx, Freud, and Nietzsche I had to read for class last night and that was the final straw).

Agenting is NOT . . . repeat NOT . . . a part-time job.

And you sure can't be an agent and work for a publisher.

Either you work for the writer OR you work for the publisher. Any attempt to do both is a clear and present danger of "conflict of interest".

And considering how little money an agent is getting off the percentage of royalties from a P.A. book, does any one doubt whose side the so-called agent is going to choose?

Provided the poor writer isn't "paying a monthly fee" to be agented or something hideously wrong like that.

(shudder)
 
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Gillhoughly

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I've been to conferences--real ones.

They have professional writers you've heard of, ditto for editors and agents. They give away goodie bags full of books, and have well organized events and panels divided up by genre. Publishers don't ask their writers to pay for the booths or the books.

Ye gads, I've been to tiny little conventions with Hugo winners as guests.

This one looked like a bake sale but minus the baked goods.

PA doesn't dare promote this crap to the general publishing industry. A few REAL authors from the local pool would show up and blow the whole house of cards down with a 1-minute talk about how legit publishing really works.

It won't sway the Kool-aders, but those with nagging doubts and no sales on the royalty statements might wake up and smell the coffee.
 
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