Complaint Review: PublishAmerica

I am writing this letter in an effort to expose fraudulent misrepresentation by PublishAmerica, a book publisher based in Frederick, Maryland.

This publisher has a long history of misrepresentation as they lure unsuspecting writers into a binding seven-year contract. They clearly misrepresent the type of company they are and what they will do for their authors.

This company also has made the false representations to the media, internet, and to the public in an effort to play down the negative reports of dissatisfied authors and to continue their recruitment practices.

When my attorney wrote to them, they emailed me letting me know that they chose not to repond to him, and that they do not deal with attorneys. They only responded to me after receiving copies of letters I had written to several government agencies.

Specifically, I did some checking on the internet about PublishAmerica before signing their contract and when I saw that they were Highly Not Recommended by Preditors and Editors, I wrote PublishAmerica telling them about my concerns and that I did not feel comfortable signing with them. Ms. M.N. Prather immediately emailed me back convincing me they were a reputable, traditional publisher that had been maligned by Preditors and Editors.

It was on the basis of this letter that I signed my contract with them. This is the business practice that I feel should be changed. They represent themselves as a popular, reputable, traditional publisher, which is not the case.

From their letter:

1. We would invite you to take a look at our author's message board. There you will see what our authors have to say about us, and about the organization that you mention.

Response: In reality, PublishAmerica cleans their message boards of any derogatory postings, which skews the perspective and does not reflect true author experiences.

2. They (Preditors & Editors) are considered disreputable in the book industry, partially for not keeping their records up to date. Why they would publicize things they know to be false remains a mystery to me. They have been advised that their records are, at best, way out of date.

Response: This paragraph would indicate that there are no dissatisfied authors and that the web site for anotherealm is reporting old information. In fact, the message boards all across the internet support the Beware message of Preditors and Editors. They did not just report one unhappy client, but rather, a large pool of PublishAmerica authors who are now seeking legal means to have their contracts nullified.

3. Our contract terms are very much standard for the publishing industry.

Response: Unfortunately, there are clauses that are NOT standard that ensnare the author in a seven-year long commitment; which also legally binds the author's heirs. This is not standard practice among publishers.

4. For celebrity endorsements and other media attention, see: www.publishamerica.com/upinlights.htm

Response: Their celebrity endorsements are minimal. They report a celebrity endorsement when a PA book is spotted on a movie set. That's not much of an endorsement.

5. Newspapers write articles about our authors almost every day.

Response: Internet searches about PublishAmerica authors do not bear this statement out. There are some press releases, mostly paid for by the authors. In reality, major newspapers will not interview or report about PublishAmerica authors. I was not even successful in getting hometown papers to write a story. My experience is wide-spread.

6. Thousands, each and every month, of PublishAmerica books are sold in bookstores across the nation. Bookstores buy books from us each and every day. Barnes and Noble has quadrupled the number of books they order from PublishAmerica during the past year, as can be seen by all the stories and reports from authors whose books are stocked. The PublishAmerica message board is overflowing with testimonials from our authors about their books being stocked in bookstores. Hundreds of bookstores across the nation stock our books. We promote each book to virtually every vendor from sea to shining sea, and go to great lengths, and expense, to ensure that everyone in the industry knows about it. Consequently, your book would be available through each and every bookstore in the country, and all those bookstores have all pertinent information at their fingertips.

Response: This one is a real out and out lie. Bookstores do not want to carry PublishAmerica books on their shelves because they have a no-return policy. Walden's, Borders, and Barnes and Noble all have a policy against ordering books with a no-return policy. For this reason, it is extremely difficult to get book signings, or to have any book store stock the books. On top of the no-return policy, the books are priced so outrageously high, bookstore managers have actually laughed in my face when I told them my 140-page paperback children's book was retailed at $19.95. Most of the author postings on the message board are from people asking each other how to get the book stocked on store shelves. You can read posts from many authors who have had the door slammed in their faces and are still trying to come up with a way to succeed. A few individual stores will consign the books, but it is still rare. The books are available online from these stores.

7. PublishAmerica sends marketing information for each title to RR.Bowker's In Print, Ingram, Baker & Taylor, The Brodart Company, Barnes & Noble.com, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com. This marketing information is distributed to each and every book retailer and library across the country, and is typically made available to review editors of most major newspapers and magazines. In addition, PublishAmerica creates and sends a direct mail letter with book and news release marketing information, which is sent to individuals and businesses across the US, including magazines and newspapers. These efforts have helped to generate hundreds and hundreds of feature articles and/or reviews about our authors and their books, some of which are posted on our web site.

Response: Again, some these statements may be true to the letter, but in the broad sense is very misleading. They leave all marketing up to the author. Traditional publishers will send galleys to Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus (school library reviewer) ahead of release date. PublishAmerica does not.

In most cases, they do nothing other than let the distributors know about the book for ordering purposes. When I emailed them to find out what they did for marketing so that I wouldn't duplicate their efforts, they told me to market my book any way I wanted to; it was up to me. Evidently, they were not concerned our efforts would be duplicated, because they didn't put forth any effort. The mailing they refer to is to a list of family and friends the author provides to PublishAmerica. From there, they mail out a flyer letting the friends and families know the book is available for ordering.

8. Also, PublishAmerica sends thousands of complete books, gratis, for review to magazines, newspapers, television, and radio programs.

Response: I asked them once to send a review copy to a company that asked for one. It took them four weeks to respond, and in their response, they said it would be sent out in another three weeks. From that point on, I sent the review copies myself. By the time they sent the copy, the interested party was no longer interested.

9. Our reputation in the industry is, and always has been, stellar, and we cherish our authors, as their number steadily grows. We have had, throughout our history, very few problems of any kind. In our hundreds of thousands of business transactions, we have had an extraordinarily small number of complaints, and to our knowledge, all have been resolved.

Response: Internet searches will tell the real story here. The number of angry authors grows steadily. Some sites to look at can be found with a simple PublishAmerica search.

PublishAmerica stated in an interview with The Fiction Forum that PublishAmerica is a traditional, advance and royalty-paying publisher. We follow the model of other traditional publishers, and not the POD, vanity, or subsidy press model of charging the author fees to have their book in print. we reject 80 percent of everything (manuscripts) we receive, says Prather.

Response: According to an attorney speaking on http://scrivenerserror.blogspot.com/2003_11_01_scrivenerserror_archive.html, PublishAmerica meets the two-prong test of being a vanity publisher. They pay a one dollar advance to seal the contract, but the author must pay for the copyright protection. That means the author pays a $30.00 fee and only receives $1.00 from the publisher. The direction of the money indicates that PublishAmerica is a vanity publisher. Though PublishAmerica does not ask for money up front, they receive their money from the author when the book is released. The author is expected to buy copies to sell; and the friend/family list is the other source of income for PublishAmerica. Also, I believe they accept nearly all of the manuscripts they receive. Some people have sent them true garbage (i.e., the same 30 pages copied over and over to make a fake novel), and they have still been offered a contract.

It would appear from the outside, that the business model PublishAmerica follows does not accept any real success. For the few authors that have worked out a deal for stores to carry books or have found a niche market, PublishAmerica quickly drops their contract. This would indicate that it comes down to a cash-flow problem. With authors and friend/family groups ordering directly from PublishAmerica, payment is immediate. If a book does well and is being ordered from Ingram's (distributor), payment may not arrive for 90 days after delivery. PublishAmerica walks a fine linethey keep the author buying directly from them for immediate cash, but have no interest in seeing the book do exceptionally well in the larger market because it ties up their operational funds.

The latest gimmick PublishAmerica used was to tell its authors that they could compete for a place on the Best Sellers list in the New York Times by purchasing the most books to get them to the top. Up until now, books purchased by the author were not eligible for payment of royalties. But, with the new contest, anything purchased by the author would now be eligible and the numbers would buoy the stats, making the author's book a popular sellermaking it to the NYT bestseller list.

I firmly believe that this company should be investigated for fraudulent misrepresentation. In truth, they ARE a vanity publisher, they do not market the books, they produce books that are mostly unmarketable, they accept far more than the 20 percent of manuscripts they claim to examine and sign, and operate under a business model that stymies true market success. This company should be forced to advertise honestly and to be forthcoming in their practices.

sorry, allowing you to give a competitors name would instigate others to just file against their competition, to only come back later to suggest their company your comments on this policy are welcome! CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

CJ
Puyallup, Washington
U.S.A.