By request - Discussing my experiences with PublishAmerica

[Betsy]

Yes, someone did ask me to come to the "living room" and talk about my experiences being published through PublishAmerica.  I will be glad to answer anyone's questions to the best of my ability.  My book doesn't officially come out until December 26th.  There are aspects of PublishAmerica that I haven't dealt with yet because my book isn't out yet.  But I am aware of some issues that have been discussed in other forums.  I'll try to be as fair and balanced as I can be, if anyone's interested.

Whether you're interested in PublishAmerica or not, I'd be delighted if you'd drop by my website! 

[mouser]

hehe - it was me who asked; i was just looking at their website and it sounded interesting (http://www.publishamerica.com/benefits.htm); i'm not sure i have any specific questions but i thought it just might be interesting to hear about your experience.

[Betsy]

Well, I appreciate your interest.  PublishAmerica will publish anything, regardless of quality.  (They claim this isn't true, but trust me, it is.)  This is a mixed blessing.  It's good because it guarantees you can get published.  It's bad because everyone "in the know" is suspicious of anything published by PublishAmerica.  I happen to feel that my writing is pretty darn good, and a whole lot better than a lot of what PA has published.  I'm glad that PA gave me this opportunity to be published, but I wish they were a lot more choosy.
They do offer "editing" services, but in my experience (and a lot of other people's), the "editors" do nothing but format the author's text to PA's specifications.  They do NOT catch errors, and they often insert errors.  (I wrote out a list of errors that they had added to my manuscript, and it totaled quite a few typed pages.)
If you want to know what other people are saying, just look up PublishAmerica on Google.  You'll see lots of people that absolutely hate PA and call it a scam.  Others say it's ok.  I'll have more firm opinions after my book has been out for a while.  The problems I listed above may be surmountable for a good author.  If I can surmount them, then I will say this whole experience was definitely worth it.  Some of the other problems that I've read about may be tougher to deal with.  Time will tell.
Like I said, I'll be happy to answer anyone's questions to the best of my abilities.

[mouser]

thanks for that info betsy - funny about introducing errors.  seems that there are very few people in the universe that can touch something and not introduce more errors into it   and writing a book seems like one of those things that is almost impossible to make a living from.  at least it seems like this company is not making you pay them a bunch of money up front.

[Betsy]

You're right, there's no cost up front.  And if my book sells, everything will be great.  Unfortunately, PA doesn't promote books at all, beyond the very basics (sending book announcements to a list of friends and relatives that you provide, sending info out to libraries, etc.)  If you want your book to sell beyond just your immediate circle of friends and relatives, you have to do your own marketing.  That's where things can get expensive. Brick-and-mortar bookstores won't usually stock PA's books because of quality issues (PA will tell you that brick-and-mortar stores order their books all the time, but that's a different thing from stocking them.  If a patron goes to a physical store and requests a book, the store will order it for them.  But you don't get many sales that way, compared to what you would get if the book was on a shelf).
My hope is that my book is good enough to get word-of mouth recommendations on top of the publicizing that I'm doing for myself, and that it can succeed.  I'm not looking to be the next Oprah book of the month, but I certainly hope my book will be well received.
I put some excerpts on my website, along with some other samples of my writing style, to help people decide if they think my book is worth buying.  So far the feedback I've gotten has all been very positive, so I have hope!

[Carol Haynes]

Interesting ...

I had a look at your webpage and out of curiosity jumped to Amazon.com ... you need to fix the link so it jumps to your book ...

Did you know it is now available (despite not being published) ??? According to Amazon they have stock !!!

Congratulations ... (and welcome to DC)

[Betsy]

Thanks for dropping by my site!

Actually, according to my publisher, the online stores are wrong when they say they have it available.  I wrote to amazon.com and asked them about this, but so far I haven't gotten any definitive answer. 

That's a good suggestion about changing my links.  I had intended to do that, but hadn't gotten around to it, and then I forgot.  The story of my life....