Nick Mamatas (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} nihilistic_kid) wrote,@ 2003-11-29 15:11:00 |
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PublishAmerica, the Amway of publishing
PublishAmerica, as some of you may know, is a per-unit vanity press. While charging no money up front, PA organizes its distribution so that the author is bound to buy most of the copies of his or her own book at inflated prices. PA, in addition to publishing literally anything sent to them, sets their book prices 30% over market price, minus a 30% author discount (standard author discounts are closer to 45-55%), leading to the author buying books at full market value. The specifics of how the scam works are explained here.
Because SF writers and editors tend to be technologically savvy, we were here waiting for the scammers when they went online with their new business models, and have been at the forefront of educating people about the nature of POD vanity presses. SFWA has an anti-scam committee, folks like the Nielsen-Haydens, quoted above, have taken them on, as have many other writers including myself.
PublishAmerica, the most digusting of the vanity presses, has fired back with this brand new sock puppet website, Authors Market, which poses as an anti-vanity site. Why pay iUniverse $100 or XLibris $400 when a small press like PublishAmerica will buy your book for a $1 advance? Good question, and the good answer is in the link above. The page goes on to make a series of dubious arguments about publication, thus leading the reader to the conclusion that PA is the only remaining viable alternative for a writer. And to counteract the information presented by people, the site takes several swipes at SF writers.
Under Never Trust The "Experts", PA stooges explain:
A second caveat is that science-fiction and fantasy writers have it easier. It's unfair, but such is life. As a rule of thumb, the quality bar for sci-fi and fantasy is a lot lower than for all other fiction. Therefore, beware of published authors who are self-crowned writing experts. When they tell you what to do and not to do in getting your book published, always first ask them what genre they write. If it's sci-fi or fantasy, run. They have no clue about what it is to write real-life stories, and how to find them a home.
Under Only Trust Your Own Eyes, it takes more swipes at the genre:
Let's look a little closer at those self-anointed "experts", the ones who call themselves author advocates, or watchdogs. You won't find too many of them, but they are usually loud. Their writing is typically characterized by the use of an overkill of adjectives, and by references to you being a victim of something. Their own book genre is almost always Science-Fiction or Fantasy.
That's why some of them are actually published writers. SciFi and Fantasy are among the easier genres, requiring no believable storylines, and no believable every-day characters.
...
SciFi and Fantasy abounds with literary parasites and plagiarists. Some writers have built a name for themselves by writing spin-offs of hugely popular movies, such as Star Trek, after all the characters and story parameters had been handed to them on a silver plate by the story owners who licensed the merchandising rights to a publisher. It requires some talent, but not too much, to write such a book.
There are others who, particularly in the field of Fantasy, rewrite all but everything under the sun that has already been written before. They rummage through books on mythology, steal a character here, borrow a plot line there, throw in a wizzard from King Arthur, and literally loot all the mythologies ever written.
Needless to say, these are rather obvious slams on anti-scam watchdogs A. C. Crispin and Victoria Strauss. Crispin writes media tie-in fiction as well as original SF and Strauss writes fantasy. The page concludes with this note about any advice a published writer may give you:
Do not, repeat NOT, believe those who tell you the opposite [that new writers can be published by large traditional publishers], because it is simply untrue. They elevate themselves by saying you can get where they have gotten, knowing quite well that this is not going to happen. They are the ultimate fact benders of the publishing world. They are not out to help you. They are only out to maintain their own elite status. Sounds familiar? That's right, this is how elites have always protected themselves and their peers.
The site is new, and the discussion board is virtually empty, but the first couple posts are from scam victims trumpeting PA for publishing their junk. It's sad, really.
PublishAmerica, as some of you may know, is a per-unit vanity press. While charging no money up front, PA organizes its distribution so that the author is bound to buy most of the copies of his or her own book at inflated prices. PA, in addition to publishing literally anything sent to them, sets their book prices 30% over market price, minus a 30% author discount (standard author discounts are closer to 45-55%), leading to the author buying books at full market value. The specifics of how the scam works are explained here.
Because SF writers and editors tend to be technologically savvy, we were here waiting for the scammers when they went online with their new business models, and have been at the forefront of educating people about the nature of POD vanity presses. SFWA has an anti-scam committee, folks like the Nielsen-Haydens, quoted above, have taken them on, as have many other writers including myself.
PublishAmerica, the most digusting of the vanity presses, has fired back with this brand new sock puppet website, Authors Market, which poses as an anti-vanity site. Why pay iUniverse $100 or XLibris $400 when a small press like PublishAmerica will buy your book for a $1 advance? Good question, and the good answer is in the link above. The page goes on to make a series of dubious arguments about publication, thus leading the reader to the conclusion that PA is the only remaining viable alternative for a writer. And to counteract the information presented by people, the site takes several swipes at SF writers.
Under Never Trust The "Experts", PA stooges explain:
A second caveat is that science-fiction and fantasy writers have it easier. It's unfair, but such is life. As a rule of thumb, the quality bar for sci-fi and fantasy is a lot lower than for all other fiction. Therefore, beware of published authors who are self-crowned writing experts. When they tell you what to do and not to do in getting your book published, always first ask them what genre they write. If it's sci-fi or fantasy, run. They have no clue about what it is to write real-life stories, and how to find them a home.
Under Only Trust Your Own Eyes, it takes more swipes at the genre:
Let's look a little closer at those self-anointed "experts", the ones who call themselves author advocates, or watchdogs. You won't find too many of them, but they are usually loud. Their writing is typically characterized by the use of an overkill of adjectives, and by references to you being a victim of something. Their own book genre is almost always Science-Fiction or Fantasy.
That's why some of them are actually published writers. SciFi and Fantasy are among the easier genres, requiring no believable storylines, and no believable every-day characters.
...
SciFi and Fantasy abounds with literary parasites and plagiarists. Some writers have built a name for themselves by writing spin-offs of hugely popular movies, such as Star Trek, after all the characters and story parameters had been handed to them on a silver plate by the story owners who licensed the merchandising rights to a publisher. It requires some talent, but not too much, to write such a book.
There are others who, particularly in the field of Fantasy, rewrite all but everything under the sun that has already been written before. They rummage through books on mythology, steal a character here, borrow a plot line there, throw in a wizzard from King Arthur, and literally loot all the mythologies ever written.
Needless to say, these are rather obvious slams on anti-scam watchdogs A. C. Crispin and Victoria Strauss. Crispin writes media tie-in fiction as well as original SF and Strauss writes fantasy. The page concludes with this note about any advice a published writer may give you:
Do not, repeat NOT, believe those who tell you the opposite [that new writers can be published by large traditional publishers], because it is simply untrue. They elevate themselves by saying you can get where they have gotten, knowing quite well that this is not going to happen. They are the ultimate fact benders of the publishing world. They are not out to help you. They are only out to maintain their own elite status. Sounds familiar? That's right, this is how elites have always protected themselves and their peers.
The site is new, and the discussion board is virtually empty, but the first couple posts are from scam victims trumpeting PA for publishing their junk. It's sad, really.
