author

Deborah's story

After getting numerous rejections from agents, I approached an acquaintance who said she is a writer. She recommended PublishAmerica to me. I hadn't heard of them before, so I went to their website. It said they pay advances and royalties, and that books are available in bookstores. I was thrilled when I got an acceptance very quickly to my query.

I decided to google them before sending in my manuscript. I found the Washington Post article and decided to try to find an agent instead. After getting more rejections, I was browsing amazon.com for books in my genre, to see if I could find an agent listed. I came upon a PA book that had a decent sales ranking and lots of positive feedback.

I decided to email the author and ask her opinion of PublishAmerica and was given the standard reply, "They did everything they said they would in the contract." She also said she had gone with another publisher for her next book "because I can."

If a PA author could do well with her book and get another publisher for her next book, I figured that I had a good chance with my book, and that PA could be a stepping stone.

Being new to writing, I did not realize that her many 5 star reviews on amazon were from fellow PA authors. I bought her book and read it, and was horrified by the huge amount of grammar and punctuation errors and poor quality of writing. I looked up her new publisher and it is a vanity press. So, what I thought looked like a great situation on the outside, was actually very deceiving.

That is the crux of the problem with PublishAmerica. It's all smoke and mirrors, and their message board is riddled with bad advice.

The reality is, my book is not in stores, and that makes selling very difficult. I am also hurt by the reputation PA has for poor quality books. I can't get any serious reviews. At every turn, an author is hurt by being with PA. Publish America has a terrible reputation in the literary world, and as an author, you cannot overcome this obstacle.