Publish America

I'm at the London Book Fair, where I got to meet the executive director of Pubish America, Miranda Prather.

I told her I had written a book, and no agent would look at it, and she was very sympathetic. She told me that based on my good speaking voice and grammar, she thought she would be interested in publishing it.

According to her, Publish America pay 8% royalties on both print and e-books (reasonable enough for print but rubbish for an e-book). They own all rights the book for seven years, even if it goes out of print. But if you sell a lot of books, like more than a hundred, the rate of royalties might increase, depending on your contract.

I mentioned that though my friends enjoyed my book, I knew it needed editing, but she said they didn't do editing as "our authors don't wish to use that service."

There was nothing I could say which would make her reject me. I told her I would send her in a Psion file. I didn't use Word, as it turned my whole novel green and red, and she said that yes, Word was a diaster which had no idea about good writing.

She suggested I try submitting to Random House (which does not accept unagented submissions) and if that did not work, to come back to her. Sometimes they had to request a subsidy from authors, to cover certain costs, but it wasn't a lot, just a couple of hundred dollars.

She showed me some of the books they published, and all I can say is that if these are the books they spend money shipping to the Book Fair, what most the rest be like?

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"Peter went downstairs,to the wet bar, he wanted some Sparkling champagne, it would be in the downstairs cooler. It was pretty quiet in the house, Peter call Troy, he came out of his bedroom, he had a little cut over his right eye, Peter look at it, he ask what had happen? Troy told him, he miss a block, Peter what kind of a miss block, and who was the dude? Troy sdaid he didn't know Andrea said she seen him before, she said Randy would of kick his Ass for that. Peter told Troy I think I kno whim, he got into it with Randy once, was any of the crew there? Troy told him " No" Randy stop to take Max from Carl, It ain't No big thing. Peter told Troy iot is a big think you are my younger brother, I don 't wan t anyone picking fights with you."

That isn't even the entire first paragraph of one of their books, posted exactly as it is published and sale for $20.

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@Ctyolene WOW! I am laughing so hard over here. I'm in shock. Sort of.

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@SarahWilkinson Today, we went back with one of my editors, who said she had written a book of epic poetry, and Publish America said they were interested in that too, poetry needed more exposure.

We took away more books, and shared them out with the editors from Ellora's Cave. I swear, I thought they were all going to have heart attacks. Mind you, the 23 page book, where a woman beats her professor to death for giving her a C, then a few more people then her mother, was strangely hypnotic. I loved the bit where she used a chainsaw to cut off her mother's head, hands and feet, then the police burst iin and asked the headless, handless, footless mother "Are you all right?" Then they took her pulse!

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Their wiki entry has some interesting stories as well:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PublishAmerica

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@KiplingKat So I got personally accepted by the big wig? Go me!

Perhaps I should write a very bad book, about Princess Prescious Poodle, and see if they will take it.

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Publish America is terrible.. They're probably just desperate for something

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@Ctyolene Now I feel like writing a really crappy story to see what they would say.

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Also, take a look at this, especially the last paragraph: http://web.archive.org/web/20031217113119/http://www.authorsmarket.net/experts.htm

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@KiplingKat @Ctyolene - thanks for the info, and wow. SCARY. I hadn't looked into them... Not that I was tempted to go that route, but I'm glad I know now!

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@dreamingthought They are not the only ones, just the most notorious.

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@Ctyolene - I figured.

My thoughts are to publish a collection of short stories with e-books. I'm debating whether to go with amazon or smashwords. I haven't looked that far into it, though.

I ever properly finish a novel, I'll look into publishers.

Thank goodness for google and wikipedia. Good way to get some background on a publisher's reputation before deciding.

Thanks so much, though for sharing the info. That paragraph you shared, frightening. How can that be considered publishable?

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@dreamingthought Do both. Amazon is a huge site, and if you have a good cover and tag it properly, you can get a lot of sales. And Smashwords is the portal for B&N and other e-readers.

But please, before you upload, make sure your stories are edited and polished till they glitter. People will click Look Inside before they buy, and if there is a single mistake, they won't.

Yes, I'd love to know how bad you have to be to be rejected. That is not even English.

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That paragraph really is just scary to read. My thirteen year old sister writes better stories than that.

In all honesty, HOW is it even remotely possible that someone read that and thought *Oh, that'll make me some money!* I went looking around about PublishAmerica, even if it is a supposed Vanity Press, the stories they accept should at least be readable, even if they're cliche and bad.

@Ctyolene I don't think it'd be possible to be rejected by them. The hoax story even got accepted.

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@Ctyolene - haha, i actually had written, "but i have a lot of editing to do first," in the comment previously, but thought I was getting a bit wordy. I plan to finish more stories, then polish. I have to get a month or two distance on my works before I can even see the errors. I'll still need someone else to look at them as well. Proof reading is not a skill I've managed to perfect, especially with my own works.

I agree, too about the cover. People do judge a book by it's cover.

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@dreamingthought Read out loud, ideally to a teenager. They'll let you know if htey are bored. It's amazing what you can hear that you can't see on the page.

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@Ctyolene - Or to my husband. XD He has the attention span of a teen. Good suggestion. I'll have to borrow him or my little brother for that this summer.

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@LadyAstor In responding to that article, SciFi and Fantasy have very high standards. Because they have been struggling to be taken seriously for decades, they police themselves. My sister reviews for SciFi magazines like Strange Horizons and Locus, and they are very critical and very selective. Very difficult markets to crack.

Unless one believes Neil Gaiman and David Brinn, Walter MIller, Cordwainer Smith, Asimov, Bradbury, Vonnegut, Orwell, Clarke, etc. to be "lightweights."

If you want "low standards" just pick up any random romance novel in the "pastel aisle" of your local bookstore.

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@Ctyolene I wish you every success. I can tell that you personally have the good sense to avoid the industries sharks but many will get caught. My advice, for what it is worth, is edit your own work three or four times. Now edit again a paragraph at a time after reading aloud. Now ask a couple of friends/relatives to proof read for you. Chose ones that are good at grammar rather than likely to be enthusiastic about your story. Now edit again, taking into account their input. Now go to Smashwords, and follow their guide word for word. Publish. Now the hard work begins- Marketing. This is a way to publish free of cost, but it isn't free of a huge amount of time and effort. When you have had feedback and a few reviews, and made any changes you now feel are required, consideration should be given to the idea of producing a print book- through Create space perhaps. For most this is just so as to have the fun and pride of having one's own book to put on friend's shelves- but it is a very rewarding experience. Remember that the cover is important. Unless you or a friend have real artistic fair it may be worth paying a professional. There is nothing wrong with trying for an agent, or with paying to have books produced if one has the money. However, a variation of the above is a practical and sensible approach for those of us for whom there is little chance of every finding an agent, or for whom loads of cash is unavailable. Above all- never, never go with outfits like Publish Rubbish. There are plenty of really good Vanity publishers, many of which will help with editing for a realistic fee. Looking at previous books a publisher has produced is an excellent way of checking them out. I'm sure I'm teaching most of you to suck eggs, but for others this is simple but very important advice.

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@KiplingKat Agreed, agreed, agreed.

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@RichardBunning As it happens, I've got two books published and a third due in July (after exhaustive editing and cover design) so when they said they didn't edit, I nearly swallowed my tongue.

And that was before I saw the books they were producing.

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@Ctyolene- Unbelievable isn't it!

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@RichardBunning I've got to say, I sort of enjoyed the one where the heroine used a chainsaw to cut off her mother's feet, hands and head. Then the police rushed in and said to her mother "Are you in need of assistance?" and TOOK HER PULSE. Twenty three pages long, and retails at a mere $10.

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@Ctyolene- Blood money. "No thank's young man, and I won't be needing my shoes."

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Is there a possibility of PA publishing an actually good book?

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