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Feb. 9, 2005 Over the past few weeks, POD vanity publisher PublishAmerica has received a lot of negative press, and rightfully so. It’s misleading, shoddy business practices are finally coming to light, and, like most other creatures of the night, the shining of the media high beams has caused all manner of wing flapping and worse in the ranks of the most true PA believers/defenders, those individuals that I refer to as PAvidians. PAvidians defend the PA scam utilizing the following: *PA published me for free! *The future of publishing is POD, and PA is in on the ground floor. Things will get better. *The publishing industry as a whole is a stacked deck, it’s against good writers getting a break, and thank God PA has leveled the playing field! Let’s face it, anyone with beyond a grade school education doesn’t buy any of it, each point given has been well refuted over and over and over again. My purpose here is not to address those, but to address another one that needs to be made, but one that’s skipped over for various and sundry reasons. I’m not going to skip over it, though, I’m going to hit it dead on the head because someone needs to say it - the point I‘m making here is: “Most PA titles are average to worse, and most of their authors will never find a legitimate publishing opportunity.” It’s sad but true, and let me point out why. While I am among the first to acknowledge that there are some excellent writers over at PA, Allen Parker and Frank Weaver, Jr. among the most notable, most are average to less than average. Some very less than average. Think I’m exaggerating just to make my point? Then please do the following - log into Google, type in the words, “PublishAmerica excerpt,” and take a few moments to read what you’ll find. For the most part, you’ll find some very average to very appalling reading material, and that‘s me being kind about it. Reading material that no reputable publisher in America would even scan beyond the first page or so. Need further proof? Well, take a gander over at the PublishAmerica author message boards. Now, I’m among the first to realize that message boards are not bastions of editorial correctness, but typos and capitalization errors are not what I’m talking about here. What I’m talking about are “authors” who can’t even write complete sentences, “authors” who don’t know what paragraphs are, and “authors“ who believe that editing is a four letter word. Don’t take my word for it, go over and read some of the threads there (http://www.publishamerica.com/cgi-bin/pamessageboard/view.pl) and draw your own conclusions. In closing, just ponder these thoughts. The founders of PA are both men who couldn’t get legitimately published anywhere. One of their most vocal supporters’ publishing history consists of his signing with a fee based literary agent and then with PA. As far as I can tell, no one on PA’s editorial staff has any significant publishing experience or history. These are people you’d trust a manuscript with? And for those of you who still, even after all this, refuse to admit the obvious, here’s some prose direct from PA’s own web page - read this and tell me that this is professional grade writing: "No downloading, no programs to run, no rules at all!" "PublishAmerica specializes in books about, for, or by people who confront a challenge in life, and who are determined to overcome it, real or imagined, fiction or nonfiction." "We are not in that league, in any way, shape or fashion." "The author is never, ever, under any obligation to pull their wallet to make any purchase whatsoever." "Glad you discovered us, on your road towards getting published." If I didn’t know better, I’d swear that Travis Tea wrote the above. And with that, folks, I rest my case.... ------------ About the author: Ed's latest book, “Rough As A Cob,“ can be ordered by calling River City Publishing toll- free at: 877-408-7078. He’s also a popular after dinner speaker, and his column runs in a number of Southeastern publications. You can contact him via email at: ed3@ed-williams.com, or through his web site address at: www.ed-williams.com. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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