In August I signed a contract with Publish America for my manuscript, The Price for Paradise. I was high on the feeling of being published and am now equally heartsick at the final product Publish America PRINTED. I never claimed to be something I was not and Publish America took ample advantage of that. I easily shoulder the blame for my decision to sign their contract, I truly did believe I was just that good.
This paragraph follows the pity party I allowed myself to wallow in my own inexperience and stupidity for not recognizing PA for the parasites that they are.
My husband and I purchased 60 books at considerable expense and my first royalty check was for 4 whole books. Now whether I believe that figure to be correct or not is irrelevant. What is relevant is the media kits and marketing I have done to find that no reputable book store will shelve Publish America books period. Barnes and Noble in my local area actually felt sorry for me and explained what PA is really doing and so far they have been spot on.
PA did not fill the orders for my book that were received as evidenced by a canceled check in my mother-in-laws possession dated 11 and still no product. That is WITH a call that I personally placed in February about her, (mother-in-law's) book as well as 2 others a friend of mine had ordered with a credit card. He received his books about three weeks later and my mother-in-law is still waiting.
Now then.
My story line is a good one. With a proper editing it could have been very good read.instead PA PRINTED my story line, complete with errors and even a few added by their formatting I would wager and I am horrified with the end result. I was requested to make the corrections that I requested to be made to the manuscript in the, I believe it was, 15 day time frame and I did make them, beginning to smell a rat but already committed so ignoring the smell with a little vicks under the nose. Many of those changes that I made are not reflected in the end book and I have my files but whether that means anything at all is beyond humbled me at this point. PA insures that you cannot really be sure of the final product with a twenty-four hour window for final review of a locked PDF document. My story was 400 pages, I know of no one who can review that much that quickly and do it properly.
OK I just read that last paragraph and for the record, I blieved PA read my manuscript and thought it to be 'the cat's pajamas' in one day. Ego in charge, hard lesson learned here.
I told you about Barnes and Noble and I live in a pretty big town so there are no shortage of book stores. NO ONE will carry any PA books and I was unable to find one PA book on the shelves anyplace except in thrift stores. I finally did convince a book store to give me a chance and they did attempt to purchase 50 books three seperate times. They were unable to get the books. The library will not shelve a FREE copy of my book and that hurt; I finally sat down and read the actual end product.
I am seeking to break my contract with PA due to lack of demand for my book. Their numbers attest to that fact. I refuse to market, purchase or even to recomend my book to anyone for fear that my writing future will be forever scarred by this fishing expedition where I was the fish caught.
I fully intend to re-write this manuscript and to not accept this as anything more than a chance to birth some really evil characters from the evil soup that is my dealings with PA.
I have heard of some of the retaliation tactics PA has used and I have been careful to show here that I accept responsibility for my own actions.
A shines like a beacon to new writers in an afterglow of creating something we feel worthy to share. Rarely is a writer able to be nonbiased of their own work without practice and the trap that I fell into is still there ready to take every dime you are willing to invest in your dream.
That Publish America is allowed to continue to operate using this Great Country's name as some sort of perverted foundation to fool you into thinking they are 'for the people', when nothing could be further from the truth.
90% of the e-mails that I have received from PA were advertisements attempting to sell my own work back to me at some discounted price from the ungodly initial price they set for my book in relation to others of the same length.
The list is infinate and the story is old and unchanged and yet they are still in business. Damaging countless lives and dreams, what does it take to slay the beast?
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