Sherry L Gibson, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
Blogs by Sherry L Gibson
Proud To Be a Publish America Author 2/5/2005 3:52:54 PM
Why I am proud to be published by Publish America
There is certainly a lot of negative publicity going around the news concerning Publish America the past few weeks. This bothers me for several reasons.
I am a published author and take great pride in that fact. I am not a self published author, but a published author. Publish America gave me that opportunity and I thank God for that.
Am I 100% satisfied in everything Publish America has done for me as one of their authors? No, I am not. Does this mean that I should bash them and try to tear them apart? No, I should not. I went over my contract with them very carefully before I signed on with them. I knew what to expect from them before I signed on the dotted line. They have upheld their contract all the way through.
I've heard so much about Publish America not doing any editing for the author. I find that astounding every time I read it! They edited my book. Yes, I did what other Publish America authors have done. I went over the final proofs before I approved them and did fine editing myself. Someone had taken time to edit some mistakes for me! I checked it out to see if they had. I found a few more errors and so did Publish America. I am very well satisfied with the job they did. Editing my own novel was no fun at all! My opinion is that I should have did that editing before I ever sent my manuscript out to a publisher in the first place. That is part of my job as an author. When I submit a manuscript to any publishing company it should be as close to perfect as I can get it.
I'm proud to say that I am a Publish America author and they have accepted my manuscript. I've read more negative input about them saying they print any and all manuscripts sent in to them. I can only say that I know this is untrue from a personal experience of mine. A young person approached me with a book manuscript. I glanced over it and suggested they send it to Publish America and see what happened. My heart ached for this person when they received a rejection slip from P/A. Like most publishing companies they don't print every manuscript sent their way and that my friends is a FACT.
Do I have any complaints as a Publish America author? Yes, I really do. I would feel better if Publish America took time to have a more personal touch with their authors. That may not seem like much but it would make me feel more appreciated as one of their authors! My big complaint is that I would like to see Publish America do more to help their authors with book promotion. Of course I'd like to see them offer a return policy on their books as well, but I do feel they are working on this. Until this is resolved, it is difficult to get our books on the market.
What does Publish America do for me, one of their authors? They worked with me on my book to make sure it was ready for publication. They let me have a lot of say about any changes in the book, though I really wanted none except a few typos. Publish America let my story stand on it's own and did not cut out pieces and parts. My story was not chopped! They did not ask me to rewrite chapters and make changes. My story was still my story when Only a Game was published. That is a big bonus for an author. I am not an artist. I had no idea what I wanted for cover art for Only a Game. I left that up to Publish America. When they sent me a copy of the cover for Only a Game for my approval, I was stunned. It was so perfect for my book! The cover depicts so much about my book. I would have to say they did an excellent job with no input on it from me! They did all of this and it cost me nothing.
Publish America handled all the headaches of setting my book up with the major on line book stores. All I had to do was sit back and wait! They did it all. I wrote the novel and they did the rest of the work.
What did this cost me? It cost me my time to sumbmit my manuscript to them. Nothing more. They put my book out there and paid me my one dollar advance (lol) and I have it framed. After the book was out, I receive a royalty check every six months just like clock work. Mind you I'm not saying it's a big check but it comes right to my mail box. I was not obligated to buy any of my own books. There were no strings attached. In fact they did just what they said they would do in my contract and they sent me two free copies of Only a Game. Actually it was four but they had only agreed to two? When I've ask reviewers to contact P/A for a review copy of Only a Game, it has been handled in a very business like manner and I have no complaints. One reviewer did have to wait a long time for her copy, but that was a mix up and she eventually got her review copy!
I was an unpublished, unknown author until I submitted my manuscript to P/A. My book is exciting and it's full of suspense. I did one hell of a good job in writing this book and Publish America rewarded all my hard work. Publish America is one of the few remaining publishing companies that will accept a manuscript directly from the author. Trying to get a foot into the door of the Major, old time publishing houses without an agent is impossible now days. It isn't going to happen. They will simply not accept unsolicited manuscript and will only look at manuscripts presented through an agent. There may come a time when P/A has to move on to this policy as well, but for now, they are one of the few companies willing to give a new unknown author a break.
Publish America did not make me rich or famous. What they did do was give my book a chance. They breathed life into a dead novel and made it possible for others to read it! I doubt Only a Game would have ever seen in print by you or me, had it not been for Publish America. I was determined I was not going to self publish my book and if it could not make it through on it's own then I was going to let it die a natural death.
Today, Only a Game is my dream come true. It's out there for me to enjoy and for anyone to read who is interested! For that, I stand up for Publish America 100%.
