author

SC Harrison's story

I am a PA author who submitted a Mystery/Crime novel manuscript to PA back in the Spring of 2004. While waiting for my book to come out, I spent quite a bit of time on the PublishAmerica message board, associating with others like myself and excitedly preparing for the release of my novel Undeserved Trust.

Upon its release in May 2005, I began to print and distribute bookmarks, I contacted several bookstores to try to set up booksignings, and I vigorously pursued some local newspapers to see if I could get my book reviewed.

To date, I have not been able to convince any book stores to stock my book. I have had several state that they would allow me to place the books on consignment, but that would entail me purchasing the books myself, which I refuse to do.

It took me four months to finally get a newspaper to mention my book. Part of the reason for this was PA's reluctance to even send them a press release, which is something they claim to do for all authors. The book review editor required a notification from the publisher, and this took some six weeks, and a few e-mails from me to PA before he finally got something. I called him once a week to check, and got more and more depressed and angry as the weeks went by with no word from my "publisher".

I have also had friends and family try to order my book from bookstores, only to be told it was "not available". This is also very humiliating, and hard to explain to people. The fact that they have recently reduced the discount they give to bookstores (5% as opposed to their previous 40%), ensures that most bookstores will no longer touch the transaction, or they will lose money every time.

I have come to the conclusion that PA is not interested in pursuing or even facilitating retail sales. Their main objective is to sell books to the authors themselves, which is why they accept virtually any manuscript that comes their way. They even offer a formatting option with no editing whatsoever, which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt they are targeting the author instead of the wider reading public.

They are a vanity press, plain and simple, but they claim to be a traditional publisher. They do this because they want their authors to believe their work is at a level that can compete with all other books. I believe they do this so the authors will feel confident enough in their book to spend hundreds (if not thousands) buying books and promoting them. By the time an author realizes they have wasted time and money, two more aspiring authors have taken their place, to begin the cycle over again.