Published - Writers Forum

Airborneguy · 06-30-2004, 12:32 PM

Who here is published or getting published (books, not articles)? It would be great to know as we can all share info on our experiences with the process.

I am currently in the works of being published with Publish America. I have signed the contract and been completely accepted, now it is just a matter of producing and refining the finished product. I have been VERY pleased with the company so far, and happy to be accepted on my first try. It is a science fiction novel (check out my site), which is one of their specialties. The entre process is supposed to take about 6 more months.

thelatemitchellwarren · 06-30-2004, 03:08 PM

I know you don't like me Airborneguy, but
since you asked...(and if there are any other
PA-ers out there)

I've been fighting for Publish America for the
last year now, as they have been under
great scrutiny by other writing forums I am
no longer a part of.

The truth is, I think PA has good intentions
when it comes to giving new authors a
chance to be published. They don't deserve
the censure they're getting, simply for giving
new authors opportunities that virtually
no other publishing company will give at
the moment.

Most traditional publishing companies won't
even consider new works from new authors
(especially the more avant-garde the works
are) unless they have an agent.

What PA does is make your work available
worldwide (and for no money on your part,
unlike subsidy presses) and shrewdly makes
their money back. (can't blame them for
that, or else they'd be hurting themselves
financially) To my delight, PA is very open
minded when it comes to artistic expression.
They censor very little and are open to new
concepts in writing that bigger publishers
would not even consider.

But finding out one is published, is much like
getting laid for the first time ("okay, great...
now what?"). PA doesn't have the resources
to invest a lot of money into promoting your
book, therefore it is up to the author to do
the promoting and the marketing of his book.
(And the secret to selling a book is all about
marketing) Whatever you do, don't sit back
and relax once you sign a contract...you're
still climbing the hill. Put aside some money
to invest in advertising and marketing since
your book can only be ordered by bookstores
and not displayed openly. (They are also
unusually high priced) I recommend
internet advertising, which I am looking into
at the moment, as a way to "sell" your book
to a given audience.

Now the tough parts to chew: the editing
process is a 50/50 venture. Don't expect
your returned manuscript to be error-free,
go over it and again and again to make sure
there are no glaring typos. (I know this all
from experience, yes) And i guarantee you
your audience (and any professional
reviewers, provided you can find a nice one)
will be unforgiving as regards any misspellings
and will of course trash PA all the more so.
When you finish your author questionnaire be
sure to be as specific as possible for your
cover art suggestion, because once they
design a cover it's pretty much done)

The only real complaint I had with PA was
the year long wait. But designing a website
kept me busy, as did drawing out my
marketing plans in excruciating detail.

PA is a fair company, and a great place to
start...BUT, if your book doesn't sell don't
be so quick to put PA on your future
resumes. The majority of the publishing
industry hates PA and are very snotty
about anyone involved with them. (Imagine
my snottiness x 50 and there you have it)

All in all, I'm hoping one day a PA author
will break the cycle and produce a best
seller. So even if its you, airborneguy,
i hope it happens.

Airborneguy · 06-30-2004, 06:53 PM

I don't like you because you always have to throw stupid shit in your posts, like the first sentence of this one above. I haven't said anything to you in days and you still find the need to throw something like that in there. No need.

Airborneguy · 06-30-2004, 06:55 PM

Do you have links to places that PA bashing is going on? I have heard about this before, want to check it out. I read about it on the PA forum, I have been nothing but pleased with them, I want to read the other opinions.

eleutheromaniac · 06-30-2004, 07:02 PM

I'm using www.authorhouse.com. (Feel free to cut and paste my PM on this thread, I'd do it myself but the stupid thing was deleted from my outbox).

thelatemitchellwarren · 06-30-2004, 07:46 PM

writers.net (under the forum: Other Ways Into
Print) is or should be the most notorious
anti-PA site out there.

They have a very fierce community of
cackling hens, and if you come across as an
outsider in any way they will maul you.

And if you start to stand up for yourself, as
we all do and can get away with here,
the moderator will ban you from the site.

Good luck.

safari invasion · 06-30-2004, 07:49 PM

I have looked into PA quite a bit and was curious if they have a maximum word limit? Because right now they are the number one option I'm looking into and want to make sure they don't have anything like that.

thelatemitchellwarren · 06-30-2004, 07:52 PM

btw, I wasn't actually banned from the site
I just stopped posting.

They strictly forbade talk of politics, religion,
anything good about PA, basically anything
"controversial" got you a warning. And if
the moderator didn't like you, regardless
of individual posts, you were gone.

The last straw was when the moderator
started threatening people with banning
if they responded to anyone else who was
"banned" WHETHER OR NOT that anonymous
banned poster was slandering you or your
work. (And these banned anonymous
posters were always posting provocative
messages and it took forever for the
moderator to remove their messages)

Anyways, sore subject...

thelatemitchellwarren · 06-30-2004, 07:53 PM

They don't have a word limit, but the
higher the word count, obviously the
higher priced the books will be.

books about 400-500 pages (175, 000
words and up) will easily be 29.95.

Last I heard they had a minimum word
count, so that sounds like good news.

Airborneguy · 07-01-2004, 09:15 AM

No minimum, they have books with like 30 pages.

And sorry eleuth, I delete all of my PMs after I read them!

Airborneguy · 07-01-2004, 09:16 AM

Eleutth, you should really check out PA, same shit with no money on your part.

eleutheromaniac · 07-01-2004, 09:20 AM

You said no promotional features. Also you said limited censorship, but this still implies some censorship. Also, according to Mitch, PA hasn't produced any best sellers. AH has produced a few. I definately check it out though. You're making some good points.

The big difference, I think is percentage of book revenues (I don't know, do you still want to keep this on the low-low?)

(I'll try to remember what I wrote and post it later)

Airborneguy · 07-01-2004, 10:18 AM

I never said they censure, at least I don't think I said that.

thelatemitchellwarren · 07-01-2004, 07:16 PM

Most likely there is no censorship.

Technically, they have the right to change
something in the book, because you sign
a contract with a provision saying that
hateful or libelous writing can be changed
by PA.

But I wrote some objectionable stuff and
they never said anything about it. The
only thing they really change is grammar--
and as I said, they don't really make many
major grammatical changes either--
sometimes they even ask you first.

The PA contract is questionable to somebody
overly familiar with the publishing industry,
and somewhere in between vanity and
traditional. You don't make as much money
on a PA book as you would a self-published
book. But legally speaking, they are a
traditional publishing company and they
charge literally nothing to publish your work.
Technically speaking they DO have some
minor marketing plans for your book--just
don't expect any major success from them.
They don't have any best sellers yet, but
they do have some leverage in the
entertainment world--if not the the respect
of the publishing world. Check out their website "author news" for a list of celebs
that really don't care about the publisher,
as long as its a book.

All in all, it boils down to time or money.
Authorhouse charges a lot of money, but
PA makes you wait.

Airborneguy · 07-01-2004, 08:58 PM

A few things:

In my book, the main characters go back in time to the colonial era. There is one black member of the team who repeatedly gets treated like a slave. So far, PA has not said anything about these references, and I was convinced that they would. Although, mitchell, what's the shit about "a person overcoming an obstacle"? They mentioned it, but it never went anywhere.

Also, I read the link you gave me. They really do rip PA there, one person even insults the defender of PA's intelligence by saying they don't know anything about the publishing bussiness.

I'll tell you why I picked PA. I like to do things on my own. I want my success or failure to be mine and mine alone. I have a great marketing strategy worked out and I plan to pursue it myself, which is how I like it. I didn't want a literary agent, and they allowed that. And, most importantly, if your book doesn't do well with a traditional publisher, the publisher takes it out of print QUICKLY and since they own it forever, its gone. PA is not liek that, you can re-release it later on your own (after seven years, but it still yours at least).

Mitchell, is your book out yet? If so, did you buy advanced copies to sell on your own? I was wondering if this was as benefecial as it seems since you can make more of a profit off of them that way.