author

Lisa's story

I had that "funny feeling" when I submitted my mystery novel to PA. The feeling grew stronger when they accepted my novel within a day or two. Kind of fast, I thought, for a traditional publisher, but maybe my book was that good!

I made a media kit. Bookmarks. Business cards. I tried to get my book into local stores by handing a media kit and a free copy of my book (not free to me, of course) over to the managers. Not really a salesperson, I didn't push. I just explained that I was a local author who had written a book. Call me after you read it. We'll set up a signing.

I received no calls.

At this point, I blamed the story. It wasn't written well enough. The stores had a free copy. Had they enjoyed the story, they would have been breaking down my door to get a hold of this wonderful, new, local author! That could have been the case. Or it could have been the price, or the no return policy, or the "mistaken" notion that PA was POD (mistaken, of course, because PA has "nothing in common" with POD publishers.

The relationship I had with PA began to deteriorate. I had joined NAIBA (North Atlantic Independent Booksellers) and planned on attending a conference/tradeshow in AC. I asked PA if they would be attending (many publishers did) and received this reply:

"Unfortunately, we will not be able to attend the tradeshow in September, though you are more then welcome to go to promote your book!" I remember thinking "gee...uh, thanks for allowing me to promote my book."

Then I was banned from their message board. Several times. For asking questions about copyright, I received this little ditty from Author Support:

"We have temporarily revoked your message board privileges to protect you against yourself a little. You had reached the point where you risked coming across as a whiner, a hairsplitter, and as someone who doles out innuendo. You probably didn't mean that, so we called a time-out. Sometimes, that does the trick."

After my "time out", I stated that authors sometimes get banned from the Message Board and received this:

"Contrary to your statement, you have not 'seen several authors banned from here for stating their opinion.' You may have seen a very small number of posts removed that made statements of fact that were simply, factually, untrue, to the point of being comedy. Your statement quoted here is a prime example of such an occurrence."

In other words, "We certainly don't ban authors. Oh...by the way...you are banned."

Then, finally, I received the infamous "tone letter". This was in response to an e-mail I sent to them in which I stated "I simply feel that my publisher should be capable of communicating with authors without resorting to name calling and deceptiveness":
"Do not address us in such a tone. We are not deceptive in any way. If you cannot be truthful and get along with us, then perhaps we should rethink publishing your book." And I truly hate myself for this now, but why, oh why didn't I take them up on that? I had the opportunity to say "maybe we should rethink this" but I didn't!!! I was too scared to have my book be not published anymore! Does that make any sense at all?

And what I had done to me was nothing. My book didn't have typos added. I never had the problem of not getting books when I needed them (because I didn't need them - although that fact doesn't make me feel any better). I didn't have false cops show up at my door to harass me because I was creative enough to beat PA at their own game. I didn't have PA not pay me royalties when they should have (as I haven't sold any books).

At the very least, PA is unprofessional with its authors. The nasty e-mails they send regarding questions every author has the right to ask and receive answers to still astounds me. For this reason alone, every author should stay away.

At the very most, they are scammers and thieves.

Somewhere between "least" and "most", PA will have you doubting yourself as a writer. They may cause a block so thick and hard, that it might take you months or even years to feel you are creative enough to write a book, an article, or even a stinking sentence you could even think of submitting.

So stay away. Stay faaaaaarrrrrr away.