Is Publish America a reliable Publishing Source?

Question

I am interested in publishing a book, and have noticed Publish America. Are they respectable, or are they merely a scam? Please tell me!

Answer 1

Dear God NO!! PublishAmerica is a HUGE scam; they are not respectable, they will not read your book, they will not edit it, they will not get it in bookstores, they will not treat you with respect, they are not considered a legitimate publishing credit. They will produce a cheap, crappy book and sell it to you at an outrageous price--like $19.95 for a fifteen-page book, seriously.

Please, please, please do not give them your work if you are remotely interested in having anyone aside from your family read your book.

Their chairman admitted under oath in Arbitration that PublishAmerica's customers are its authors (in other words, they're not interested in selling books to the general public; as a "PA author" YOU are the one expected to buy your book, and you are the one on whom they focus their sales efforts). They make it almost impossible for bookstores to order their books, even if the bookstore wants to, which most don't--Barnes & Noble has a specific policy against stocking PA books.

Please check out the PA subforum on Absolute Write:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/foru...

Start with the "Here are the reasons we don't recommend PublishAmerica" thread first, and branch out if you want.

Absolute Write is also invaluable for writers looking to be legitimately published; a large portion of members, including myself, are published with major NY houses. We know how to write and we know how publishing works, and the information is all free for anyone who wants it.

If you decide to self-publish there are better, more reputable companies to do it with, companies which produce a solid, quality product.

Answer 2

They are a self-publishing, print-on-demand business. You can pay them and they will publish your book, but they won't be able to get it into the bookstores. Customers can order them but they have to be paid for in advance.

There's a stigma to self-publishing, especially for fiction. The attitude is that if your book was any good, you would have found an agent and a regular publisher (one the author doesn't have to pay).

To put it bluntly, if you have a book published through Publish America, it will be up to you to promote and market the book. And the burden will be on you to show that your book doesn't suck.