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samples would not be complete without words
from the wise.
Author
My story is that an author who’d done online writing for such
dot gones as Themestream, Written By Me, and The Vines,
someone trying hard to have fiction, poetry and nonfiction in
print for real, recommended PublishAmerica. She claimed it
was a traditional book publisher. I was struck with their
slogan, “We treat writers the old fashioned way – we pay
them.” Wasn’t that what publishers were supposed to do?
But since my novel was just sitting on the DiskUs Publishing
site and doing nothing but supplying me with enough money
to buy a pair of skate laces every three months, I thought
maybe it would have a better chance over at PublishAmerica
where it would be available as a trade size paperback both
on and off-line.
So this author, Ellen Du Bois, had a big thing on her
Geocities site about books being available in brick & mortar
bookstores & they’d have ISBN numbers and be online and
all that stuff. Also had her full size book cover up so I sat
there for 5 minutes waiting for the damn thing to appear.
Not impressive, but she liked it. Ellen was a cheerleader for
her book and sent reviews from a weekly community rag
and she bulk e-mailed several pieces of correspondence
during those heady days when her book was in prerelease,
then release stage in the summer of ’03. I broke down and
bought a copy from Amazon – took almost 3 weeks to get.
And I struggled to read all 176 pages. Tripe. Clichés
abounded. Spelling/grammatical errors weren’t there at
least. But the writing was thin. The story moved too quickly.
The main character was the most realistic as it was most
likely based on the author. The dialogue was okay. The
descriptions were minimal. Had there been a real editor, the
book could’ve been very good. I wrote to Ellen and told her
the positive things about the story, avoiding the
negativities. She’d been an online correspondent for almost
two years, yet after I didn’t review her book on Amazon.com
and Barnes & Noble she didn’t contact me. Almost a year
later she sent me another e-mail – to promote a book of her
poetry. I was just someone to sell a book to and she was
only interested in the sale and hopefully a glowing write up.
A Future PublishAmerica Author
Since I’d already signed the contract with PublishAmerica, I
wanted to cancel it after reading that trash. Now my book
would be affiliated with a company that put out just about
any piece of writing that came its way. I wasn’t expecting
much what with my dealings with the extinct eNovel and RJ’s
eBooks, along with a tiny eBook publisher named Crafts
Across America where I wasn’t paid monthly as promised.
And my novel and short story collection languished at
DiskUs, home of the alleged Number One Best selling eBook
author of all time, Leta Nolan Childers.
PublishAmerica sent me an author’s questionnaire where
they asked for basic biographical information; cover art
suggestions, and a long list of people who might want to
read my forthcoming novel.
“Please prepare a list (names, and addresses,) of people
who know you well enough to be interested in your success
as a writer: personal friends, colleagues, relatives, etc., to
receive a book announcement…Please limit your list and
your labels to a maximum of 100 contacts. Also, please do
not include businesses or organizations of any kind,
including bookstores, media contacts, or government
organizations. Include friends and associates only.”
The editing process of my manuscript took two weeks over
the Christmas holidays. I was able to ascertain that the first
few pages had been read as some minor alterations had
been made, but no changes followed for another 50 or so
pages. One of the errors that occurred was clearly the result
of a spellchecker on the part of PublishAmerica as a question
mark appeared after the end of a statement. I’d read of real
authors receiving instructions to change chapters, alter
endings, delete numerous pages, in other words, really
struggle to rewrite a book. Why so much effort? Names.
Reputation. The publisher wanted to put their name on the
best quality book that they had invested in. The author
wanted a book that was saleable but also well written and
something they were proud of. PublishAmerica’s editing
comprised neither ideal as all they did was put the computer
program’s spelling/grammar checker into action.
My two free author’s copies arrived in early March and it was
nice to see my trade paperback book in print sans a cheesy
cover and stapled spine. ‘North of Sunset’ actually had
decent looking stock cover art of a few silhouetted palm
trees, a noticeable font, and a spine where the book title,
publisher and author’s name was apparent. It would look
good on bookstore shelves, I imagined.
Reviews – What Reviews?
What was Publish America doing to make sure my book was
reviewed? Nothing. I decided to contact local daily and
weekly newspapers by e-mailing a press release. The only
responses I got were two e-mail autoresponders
announcing the editors were on vacation.
the Library Journal magazine. Then I phoned a book reviewer at the ‘San Diego Union-
Tribune’ and asked if he’d be interested in reviewing my book but before I could even
describe what it was about, he asked who my publisher was. I told him. “We don’t review
books by that publisher,” he stated.
I called all the local bookstores and spoke to the managers and/ or community relations
people about my book, including a couple of stores who were physically located on the street
I’d written about. An independent bookstore owner told me that since PA didn’t have a
return policy she was unable to stock my novel. Another said that I could sell my book on
consignment. The chain stores of Borders and Barnes & Noble said my book would be
available through Ingram if anyone chose to order it.
Tried getting PublishAmerica to send review copies out and it took them weeks to do so. Had
to call and make sure on two occasions that the books had been mailed. Maybe quoting one
of their enthusiastic promoters on the message board, a guy with a natural genius for
marketing and the budget to back it up, got three books sent to reviewers.
Then I sent my book to Piers Anthony, noted sci-fi and fantasy author of more than 100
books. I’d been in touch with him since 2000 when I alerted him to the fact that eNovel was
a rip-off. Although the action in his books usually took place in alternate time
periods/universes, he didn’t mind reading a mainstream Hollywood novel. He did so. "North
of Sunset by Lisa Maliga. She's the one listed in my Survey as I'm a Published Novelist Ha Ha!
Ha!, a pertinent warning for starry-eyed aspiring writers. Her web site www.lisamaliga.com is
worth checking similarly; she tells it as it is. If you took a few decades off my age and
changed my gender, the result might resemble Lisa. North of Sunset is fun, about a
Hollywood producer and his temporary secretary, showing a good deal of what I presume is
reality. It is written with the omniscient viewpoint, which I dislike, but it held my interest
regardless. "
I’d discovered through an upset PA author on the messageboards, which I read on occasion,
that someone was complaining about PublishAmerica. Discovering the Absolute Write
Background Check area I spent several hours reading, at the time, more than 40 pages of
complaints about PublishAmerica. Authors not receiving books in time for booksignings that
they set up themselves. Bookstore owners/managers refusing to stock their shelves with
unedited PublishAmerica titles. Writers unable to get their books reviewed.
Doing a search on LexisNexis, the reputable online legal research system, for all
PublishAmerica books receiving newspaper reviews, I saw that from July 2002 to June 2004,
only 24 books had been reviewed nationally. Papers in Syracuse NY, Tulsa, OK, Fort Pierce,
FL, Wilmington, NC and Lakeland, FL were represented. Only Salt Lake City’s ‘Deseret
Morning News’, the ‘Tulsa World’, ‘Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’ and the suburban paper, the
‘Chicago Daily Herald’ were actually major newspapers. Evidently, the ‘New York Times’ or the
‘Los Angeles Times’ were not reviewing anything by PublishAmerica’s authors. According to
the PublishAmerica site in the Facts and Figures section, “Fact #3: Again, unparalleled among
all traditional book publishing companies, each day an average 15 times a PublishAmerica
author appears in the news media, in newspapers, magazines, radio or TV.” Yet even
mathematically challenged folks can determine that by using the LexisNexis search statistics,
we learn that the average is a paltry once a month that a PublishAmerica book gets
mentioned in a newspaper somewhere in the United States.
Editing – What’s That?
Here’s a gem of a post on the PublishAmerica message board: “When it came out in book
form a month ago, my friends mentioned the editing problems in it, so a friend of mine with a
masters in education went through it for me. It had close to a thousand editing errors in a
182-page book. So, have some who actually knows what literary content should be in a
book, go through your book for you before you send the final draft back to PublishAmerica.
Because the final draft, IS!, how the book will be when it comes out.”
I discovered that through the misspellings, grammatical errors, and general bad writing that
just about anyone was publishable through the ‘traditional’ publisher located in Frederick,
Maryland. Such postings as: “I too am not the best editor LOL! I did get my finished books.
And when I met with a lady that is huge in the marketing field, she told me that my book at
it's length of 132 pages needs to have chapters.” A couple of PublishAmerica authors
discussed editing. “I felt like you did when I found errors, but then I realized, hey people
read it for the story, not looking for mistakes in typo land! LOL Now I just keep on a keepin
on!”
Sales Figures
Question: I’d really like to know how many copies I’ve sold.
Answer: Buy all of the books yourself and then count them.
No matter how naïve PublishAmerica authors appeared, they will eventually come to the
realization that PublishAmerica isn’t really a traditional publisher, especially when those twice-
yearly royalty checks arrived. Every few months or so PublishAmerica sent them an e-mail
extolling their success, bragging about a big name author they’re negotiating with, or, more
recently, doing a deal with the New York Times. On August 17th, an e-mail bearing the proud
subject heading ‘Advertising Our Topsellers in the New York Times’ appeared in author’s
online mailboxes.
PublishAmerica was well named in that they want to publish anyone in North America who
has churned out a manuscript, regardless of quality. They claim to have anywhere from 9,000
to 12,000 “happy” authors and they want more and more of them as that obviously means
more money for the greedy owners, namely Willem Meiner and Larry Clopper.
The PublishAmerica name and logo is seen as a joke to those in the media, bookstores and
libraries. Books can’t be returned. All PublishAmerica titles lack the necessary CIP [Cataloging-
in-Publication] data, which is necessary for libraries to order titles, and who wants to read
unedited and overpriced tomes other than the author’s cronies? Oh yeah, and while
PublishAmerica claims that they’re a ‘traditional publisher’ why on earth do they have in their
main page keywords list the term ‘self publishing’ three times? And in their site’s description,
they brag: “PublishAmerica, Inc., a traditional publisher, accepting and publishing
manuscripts and books at NO CHARGE to the author. Royalties paid to writers, books sold in
stores. Manuscript submissions by mail and online."
In the beginning of September I received a royalty check. To my surprise, I was not only able
to afford to buy a pair of laces for my skates, I shelled out the $12 it cost to sharpen my
blades. Who knew that this company would provide extra income enabling me to continue
participating in my recreational skating hobby? But it cost me more than the $160 in author-
bought books, the $40 for galleys, which were probably plunged into a recycling bin, the $87
color business cards, $20 press release -- and the countless hours building and rebuilding my
website so people would happen across it and buy a book that was only available online--
like any other eBook.
PublishAmerica allows the myth of being a ‘traditional’ publisher, a term not used before the
advent of the Internet, to fester. The lie is perpetrated in those HTML source codes that
search engine spider robots deliver; the future authors led to the promised realm of
publishing, an internet web of woven myths fanning across cyberspace. PublishAmerica
resembles most other ePublishing companies promising tales of bestselling books and
authors. PublishAmerica is just another scam, just another future dot gone.
If you are a PublishAmerica author, or know of one, who is unhappily published and will tell
your story, please contact:
Federal Trade Commission
attn: CRC - 240
Washington, DC 20580
FTC Consumer Complaint Form
Frederick County Board of County Commissioners
Winchester Hall
12 E. Church Street, Frederick, MD 21701
Telephone: 301-694-1100
Fax: 301-694-1849
www.co.frederick.md.us/BOCC/
John L. Thompson, Jr., President
Winchester Hall
12 E. Church Street
Frederick, MD 21701
Telephone: 301-694-1028
Fax: 301-631-23
Mention the following points:
Your book is not available in brick and mortar bookstores and libraries
Your book is not returnable if a bookstore owner/manager should stock it
7-year-long contract is considered in improper amount of time
Your book is published by a vanity press
You had to pay for your own copyright
PublishAmerica will not apply for the CIP, which allows it to be bought by libraries
PublishAmerica overprices the books
PublishAmerica offers a nonstandard discount
PublishAmerica’s business model is to sell to their own authors
PublishAmerica's books are NOT edited--certainly not line-by-line as they claim on their web
site but have since admitted that they only edit for grammar and spelling
PublishAmerica accepts approximately 80% of submitted manuscripts [most publishers reject
99% of their submissions]
PublishAmerica will only accept credit card orders over the phone when booking for one of
their seminars or to purchase your own titles
About The Author
Read and learn at Lisa's Library of Writing http://www.lisamaliga.com Discover the diverse
writings ranging from free soap and bath & body recipes to fiction, figure skating, herbal
hints, and helpful publishing advice.
everythingshea@msn.com
Article provided by www.ArticleCity.com
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