The more I think about it...
...the more I wonder if all of the complaints from PA authors are due to their inability to TRY to push their own book. How many of these PA authors bothered to actually READ the contract? I read it. I understood that I had to do my own marketing, and that it was going to be overpriced (with the hope that someone in the mainstream industry would see it and buy the rights from PA--which was probably a fool's hope). There were some things I read on the below links that made me shudder, no doubt. But I haven't had trouble with their editing. In fact, they FOUND grammatical errors I missed that I'm sure a regular spell-checker would not have found. The print wasn't all crammed into 300 pages. The book is actually very nice to look at, and VERY easy to read--better than those $10 trade paperbacks in my opinion. I have NOT, that I have seen, been mistreated by PA.
I also haven't had a lot of experience with dealing with the final product that is my book--namely, trying to publicize it. I've done my own press releases to local papers, including the Portland Phoenix. Nothing either negative or positive has come of it. And I emailed my friend who steered me towards PA to see what kind of success or failure she's had. No response yet.
The jury's still out.
The fact of the matter is this: I knew at least most of the implications of having PA print my work. There were things I didn't know. And I wonder how much of the bad press PA received was because of authors who did NOT read their contracts and just "assumed" everything would be handed to them on a silver platter.
Did PA's advertising mislead authors? That's a distinct possibility. They threw numbers at potential authors (see the below links for examples) making authors think that they'd sell tons of books, which is apparently not true.
What worries me the most when it comes to pushing my book is that, because of previous authors voicing discontent and the media giving PA bad press, nobody will WANT to stock my book due to all the bad press that PA received. If PA's bad press and the prevailing price for my book becomes such a touchy issue with people, I may (or may not, depending on how much legal grief I get into due to my contract) release the book chapter by chapter on a separate website. The money isn't the biggest deal when it comes to getting my book out there. I just want people to share my vision. I should've just done like I did in the old days and leave it out in the open (i.e. on the web for download) for people to peruse at their leisure.
Regardless, I have a ton of other manuscripts at different stages of completion that I can share with you all. Voyage to Xanadu, Book Two would've normally been the next release. It can be (and I've been rewriting it to be so) a standalone novel, not relying on people to have ever read its prequel.
So, today I'm feeling a little more optimistic. I think I just needed to get hammered, then pick up the next day and carry on. Stay tuned here for anything new.
I also haven't had a lot of experience with dealing with the final product that is my book--namely, trying to publicize it. I've done my own press releases to local papers, including the Portland Phoenix. Nothing either negative or positive has come of it. And I emailed my friend who steered me towards PA to see what kind of success or failure she's had. No response yet.
The jury's still out.
The fact of the matter is this: I knew at least most of the implications of having PA print my work. There were things I didn't know. And I wonder how much of the bad press PA received was because of authors who did NOT read their contracts and just "assumed" everything would be handed to them on a silver platter.
Did PA's advertising mislead authors? That's a distinct possibility. They threw numbers at potential authors (see the below links for examples) making authors think that they'd sell tons of books, which is apparently not true.
What worries me the most when it comes to pushing my book is that, because of previous authors voicing discontent and the media giving PA bad press, nobody will WANT to stock my book due to all the bad press that PA received. If PA's bad press and the prevailing price for my book becomes such a touchy issue with people, I may (or may not, depending on how much legal grief I get into due to my contract) release the book chapter by chapter on a separate website. The money isn't the biggest deal when it comes to getting my book out there. I just want people to share my vision. I should've just done like I did in the old days and leave it out in the open (i.e. on the web for download) for people to peruse at their leisure.
Regardless, I have a ton of other manuscripts at different stages of completion that I can share with you all. Voyage to Xanadu, Book Two would've normally been the next release. It can be (and I've been rewriting it to be so) a standalone novel, not relying on people to have ever read its prequel.
So, today I'm feeling a little more optimistic. I think I just needed to get hammered, then pick up the next day and carry on. Stay tuned here for anything new.
posted by xanadian at 10/04/2005 09:11:00 AM
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