The Trap

There has been alot written about vanity publishers and such on AP as well as some other sites that I frequent. This is something I just stumbled across today and thought I would post it, as I have seen ads for this particular press on AP.

Publish America. Many of us have heard of it, and of course, when you cruise by their home page it does seem like a decent idea.

One of the dead giveaways about vanity presses is that often times on their websites they tend to brag about their services and mention little to nothing about the authors that they have published. Publish America is different in this regard...there is alot of information about the authors and their books, but it really is too good to be true.

Traditional publishers for the most part do not accept unsolicited work for a good reason. They are busy and selective, and they have to have a system for weeding out the serious writers from the rest of the crowd. Also, a traditional publisher who does accept a book to be published offers an advance to the author, as well as the marketing responsiblity of the book.

Publish America offers a one dollar advance as a "show of good faith" and leaves all marketing responsiblity up to the author, while still collecting their share of all profits including movie rights.

http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue409/news.html

Heres a link to some insight on Publish America. If you scroll down you will find two articles about hoax manuscripts. Apparently, Publish America is so unreliable that this hoax manuscript was accepted for publication. This is an implication that the so called "editors" of this Maryland based publishing company do not actually read what they agree to publish. It wasn't until after the authors admitted that the manuscript was a hoax that Publish America revoked its offer to publish.

I personally have published one book through Publish America, and another book through a real, traditional publisher. I was appalled at the shoddy cover design and the lack of organization. I was even more disgusted by their failure to answer my questions after I had signed the contract. My emails went ignored...my phone calls were placed on hold, never to be picked up again.

I was fortunate to find another publisher, but not until I had paid the agent's fee and spent almost a year tearing my hair out hanging rejection letters on a pin board over my desk.

Just be careful out there. If it sounds too good to be true then it is. I would personally like to see Publish America out of business, its ads forever banned from places like AP where many talented writers get sucked into the ploy.