Hello, I'm here to testify that true publishing success is impossible under PublishAmerica. Certainly, it is possible, with great effort and perserverance, to get a few bookstores to stock your book, but despite the most energetic and stalwart attempts, little beyond that is possible. Take my PA book as an example. It was a fantasy novel written primarily for a mainstream audience, but with a strong niche audience built right in. The book was the story of a prince who must become a princess in order to defeat a sinister demon. I bought John Kremer's 1001 Ways to Market Your Book which PA recommended and tried many of the things there suggested. First, I sent about 25 review copies to the biggies: PW, NY Times, LA Times, Booklist, Science Fiction Chronicle, etc., plus my local papers. No luck on the biggies, obviously, but I managed to get stories on me and my book, and/or book reviews in: Philadelphia Inquirer, Courier Post, Gloucester County Times, Philadelphia Gay News, The Daily Journal, and a cover story in Philadelphia Weekly. I also worked hard to get interviews and reviews in the tg niche (though national or international) pubs: Transgender Tapestry, TG Community News, TG Forum. I got major coverage in the tg websites, as well. The Philly Inquirer helped me get some national tv coverage: The O'Reilly Factor, The Big Story with Rita Crosby, Real Life with Mary Amorosa. All this helped get my books stocked at a fair number of places: WindChimes Books, Borders (Philly), Barnes and Noble (Philly), Waldenbooks (Cherry Hill Mall), Barnes and Noble (Deptford), International Foundation for Gender Education Bookstore (Waltham, MA-they also took my book with them around the country to conventions, etc). There were a few other places, I just don't remember. I paid a lot of money and ran three ads in Radio-TV Interview Report which netted me interviews on hundreds of radio stations across North America. Eventually, my book was nominated for the 2004 Spectrum Award. I didn't have much of a chance there, though, due both to the editing problems with the book and the fact that PA ignored requests from the award people for copies of the book.
All of that, and I'm sure I've forgotten a lot, and I sold about 700 copies or so. Of course, it's possible that the book, just sucked, but most reviews were positive:
diana