Preditors and Editors ™

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Book Publisher and Distributor Listings - P

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XYZ

Padwolf Publishers: A book publisher. A writer notified us that this company's contract contains unusual features. Some unacceptable. Another writer informs us that Padwolf is reasonable in negotiating or removing some sections of their contract.

Pagans Press: A publisher featuring books for the pagan community.

Palimpsest Press: reported defunct: A royalty-paying electronic publisher of novels of all genres.

Papyrus Book Publishing House: A Canadian non-profit book publisher. Link reported broken.

Para Publishing: 450 pages of resources for writers, editors and publishers. Information products on non-fiction book promotion and parachutes/skydiving.

PARACHUTE PRESS, INC.: A children's book publisher. Contact at:

Parallel View Publishing: "A publisher of Spiritual/ mind, body, and spirit books."

Parker Publishing LLC: "new and specialize in AfriKan-American works."

Passion Nook: Publishes personalized romantic fantasies where the reader becomes a part of the romance. Link reported broken.

Pathfinder Press: International publisher of books and pamphlets by revolutionary fighters.

PEACHTREE PUBLISHERS, LTD.: A children's book publisher. Contact at:

Peak Interactive Books: An organization serving the print publishing industry by providing inexpensive ways to make electronic multi-media books with print, CD_ROM, and Web parts using traditional print publishing methods.

Pearl Street Publishing: A publisher located in Denver, CO. P&E is not hearing good things about this publisher. Contact P&E if you've had dealings with this publisher.

PEEL PRODUCTIONS, INC.: A children's book publisher.

PELICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.: A children's book publisher.

Penguin Books Canada Ltd.: "publishes award-winning Canadian fiction and non-fiction for adults and children and distributes bestsellers from around the world."

Penguin Press India: A publisher in India. Contact at:

Penmarin Books, Inc: A small publisher. Appears to also cater to corporate accounts.

Penton Overseas: A distributor that handles CDs, audio, videos, and some books to toy, gift, video, and software stores.

Per Aspera Press: "An independent publisher of high-quality speculative fiction novels in hardcover and trade paperback. We are open to science fiction, fantasy, and cross-genre works; our focus is on novels of any subgenre which are built around a big idea or develop a deep theme."

Permanent Press Publishing Company, The: A small independent press. Primarily publishes fiction with occasional non-fiction releases.

Perseverance Press: A publisher working in association with Daniel & Daniel which appears to specialize in literary mysteries.

Petals of Life: An electronic publishing imprint of MDJ, Inc..We produce electronic books. All of our books must deliver a message. Life is not easy. Our readers want books which give them ideas on how to enhance their lives. They want books which will take them away for a short time and give them a breather from everyday trials and tribulations. They want material which can teach them something new or lead them into a more positive outlook on life. They want to be swept into adventurous or romantic tales which leave them feeling satisfied by the end of the book. We publish romance, mainstream, mystery/suspense, humor, self-help, true stories, inspirational, and anything else we deem appropriate to be produced by our company.

Phantasia Press: A book publisher specializing in limited edition science fiction.

Phaze: "publishes romantic erotica in all genres."

PHILOMEL BOOKS: A children's book publisher. Link reported broken.

Phoenix Books and Audio Inc.: A publisher. Anyone know more about them? Contact at:

Plan Nine Publishing: Print publisher that appears to specialize in humor. On hiatus until 9/1/08.

Players Press: A publisher. Contact at:

PLEASANT COMPANY: A children's book publisher. Contact at:

Plexus Art & Communications: An electronic book publisher.

Ponder Publishing Inc.: Small press romance novel publisher. Currently running our 2nd Annual Write Your Heart Out contest. Editor's note: nice looking site. Link reported broken.

Potomac Books (formerly Brassey's): Books in the fields of defense, technology, military history and biography, security, current affairs, and reference works.

Pottersfield Press: A small press, Canadian book publisher.

Power Publishing: A vanity publisher featuring "inspiring/motivating stories and instructional/reference manuscripts across a variety of genres including nonfiction, fiction, children’s books, and textbooks."

Prentice Hall: Recommended. "we are currently publishing books on self-help/self-improvement, health and alternative health, and communication, as well as professional, technical, reference, and college texts."

PRO LINGUA PRESS: A children's book publisher. Contact at:

Professional Press: A vanity press. Contact at:

Profitable Publishing: A subsidy publisher. A Division of Thornton Publishing.

PROMART PUBLISHING: A book publisher. Closed due to death of owner.

Prometheus Books: A publisher for educational, scientific, professional, library, popular, and consumer markets since 1969.

More information can be found at Writers Net, Absolute Write, Mindsight (be sure to read all the June 2003 archives), The Writer's Den, here, and here. Writers considering this publisher should visit the PublishAmerica forums and read any topics concerning pricing and distribution, though visitors are urged to read quickly as PA frequently deletes topics that show them in a bad light. Writers can visit Scrivener's Error to read the words of an independent lawyer who possesses intellectual property expertise or read an interview in the San Antonio Current dated 6/24/2004, where Miranda Prather, executive director at PublishAmerica, states, "It's a common myth that bookstore placement equals sales." Furthermore, writers have reported that books published by PA are not considered creditable for membership in the RWA, the Author's Guild, and the Writer's Guild. Further information is available in this Washington Post article dated 20 Jan 2005, where Larry Clopper, PA CEO, admits that he and Willem Meiners came up with the phrase "traditional publisher" to differentiate their company from the vanity publishers even though PA is unlike other publishers that charge no fees.

Here are links to other articles on the web detailing facts about PublishAmerica: WNBC.COM Ask Asa, The Frederick News-Post, An Interview with a PA Bestselling Author, and PA's Response to Writers Concerning Bad Publicity by PA's Author Support.

Concerning PublishAmerica, the BBB of Greater Maryland, Inc. has declared as of 2/20/05 that, "Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau due to a pattern of complaints. Complaints generally allege lack of promotion of authors' books and inaccurate record keeping with respect to books sold and commissions due. The company has responded to most complaints but has not responded to others. The number of complaints increased during 2004."

5/9/05: P&E's editor notes that PA has rejoined the BBB as a member in good standing with no complaints against it. Is this the action of an honest publisher when there are still many writers formerly published by PA whose complaints have not been resolved?

New writers may want to check Publish America, Yes or No? for an unbiased comparison of PublishAmerica to other publishers.

If your manuscript was rejected by PublishAmerica, please email P&E so that we can accumulate statistics for use in verifying or refuting that publisher's claims. Your name and the title of any work will remain confidential as a journalistic resource. If you know an author whose work was rejected by PublishAmerica, please ask that author to contact P&E.

Editor's note: Based upon rejection reports at other sites, because most writers are eager to contribute information, this number should be considerably larger even if only one percent of all authors who submitted to PublishAmerica were to report their rejections. PublishAmerica claims to reject eighty percent of what's submitted to them. Based upon PublishAmerica's earlier claims of 10,000 accepted authors (which is now 25,000), that means they rejected at least 40,000 manuscripts. One percent of that would be four hundred.

Editor's note: additional inventory numbers are available at the web site of Publish America, Yes or No. (This site is no longer available.)

Well, that ad appeared and there were ten PA published authors listed. However, some research into those authors revealed that their sales appear to have been all self-purchased. How do we know this? Because such information is available from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and Ingrams, to name a few. In fact, we invite our site visitors to view those statistics for themselves at Absolute Write's Bewares and Background section of their forum.

By the way, if you caught that ad in the NYT, did you notice that ads for other books generally featured the publisher's name in small print and the books in large print? PA's ad featured the two in reverse. Do you think PA needs to learn more about how to market its wares?

PublishAmerica's second NYT ad appeared on 31 Oct 04. As before, the top sellers from PA showed very poor public sales. Statistics for those PublishAmerica top sellers can be found at Absolute Write's Bewares and Background Check. In the meantime, writers should consider this very closely. How can the reading public even order your book if the publisher doesn't put the ISBN in the ad? Do you think PA needs to learn more about how to market its wares?

PublishAmerica's third ad has appeared in the NYT. Like the second ad, it was smaller than what PublishAmerica first claimed it would purchase. Like their second ad, it failed to give enough advertizing to the books rather than the company. Statistics for the new list of top selling PublishAmerica books can be viewed at Absolute Write's Bewares and Background Check. Do you think PA needs to learn more about how to market its wares?

These linked statistics were all researched and compiled by author James D. Macdonald. P&E thanks him on behalf of writers everywhere.

Additionally, in a letter to the Maryland Attorney General's office, PublishAmerica claimed that they spent over $50,000.00 for three half-page ads. In actuallity, PublishAmerica purchased a single half-page ad and a pair of two-fifths of a page ads. Based upon the NYT's ad rates, that comes up to only $46,195.00 in total. Not unexpectedly, PublishAmerica's claim has turned out to be yet another exaggeration on their part.

3/14/05: A response to a writer from Barnes & Noble concerning PublishAmerica books.

Dear Memory McDermott,

Your letter to Mary Ellen Keating was forwarded to me for a response as my
department manages the business relationships Barnes & Noble has with new
start up publishers, and self-published authors, like yourself.  

All the titles PublishAmerica produces are available to Barnes & Noble
customers either through orders in the stores, or online via Barnes &
Noble.com (www.bn.com).  The books are printed (on demand) when they are
ordered, and shipped to the customer's home or back to the store for
customer pick up.  The terms for Publish America titles are not competitive
in the trade bookstore marketplace:  the books are non-returnable, the
discount is not favorable, and most of the titles including Tea for Two
Nature's Apothecary  are about $5.00 over the going price for titles in the
category.  These factors in combination inform our decision not to stock the
titles in the stores, and for the stores to decide not to do an event with
the titles.  

I hope this information is helpful.

Marcella A Smith
Director Small Press & Vendor Relations
Barnes & Noble, Inc
122 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY  10011

4/7/05: The New Three Stooges and The POD Squad features a compendium of facts concerning PublishAmerica compiled by a former PA writer.

4/8/05: The Only Thing You Need to Know About PublishAmerica features more facts (with sources) about PublishAmerica.

4/13/05: Once more, PublishAmerica is in the news.

4/21/05: Mug An Author Dot Com teaches the fundamentals of running a simple scam.

4/24/05: Sarashay's Wholly Unoffical PublishAmerica Controversy FAQ gives an outsider's view.

4/24/05: New York Times weighs in on self-publishing.

5/3/05: PublishAmerica Sting gives the story of Atlanta Nights.

5/20/05: Truth About PA teaches advanced principles of running a simple scam.

6/3/05: About Half of Americans Reading a Book according to Gallup Poll while Miranda Prather, executive director at PublishAmerica, states, "It's a common myth that bookstore placement equals sales." Miranda, looks like you're wrong.

6/19/05: Gee! Even Punjabi people can see what's going on around them as evidenced in Onlypunjab.com.

7/14/07: PublishAmerica's lawyer Victor Cretella infringing contract? This is what we've had reported to P&E. According to our source, Vic has infringed upon or is breaching the terms of a contract in regards to the Arbitration clause. So, is this how PA operates? They don't honor their contracts or show any good faith even when it comes to negotiations and arbitration?

7/21/05 - Gee, how low can you go? Evidently, PA can limbo beneath the belly of a snake as evidenced by a recent review that was posted on their site that they edited to reflect a distorted view of what was actually stated. Here are the two versions with the original critical review on the top. By the way, it was deliberately written like that to make a point about PA's lack of editing:

PA made me a Plublished Arthur
Published Arthur Mick
Essex, UK (7/21/2005)
This book is a work of jeanuous. The arthur says why bokstores are no good and PA will slay big publoishers = he even has my name in his book with all the uther arthurs. Like me and my publishedamercan books 'Nobody Abused Me' and the secwel 'Living With Not Being Abused,' Mister Minors went the cheeper no-chellspecker root so you can sea our works on show in bookplaces from see to shinin see qicker., PA sez they resonate and weer eleet arthurs. That:s good enuff for me: my book got the chance it deserved. Best book I've luked at since Ten Per Cent of Nothing

Here's how PA doctored it up:

PA Made me a Published Author
Mick
London, Uk (7/12/2005)
This book is a work of genius. The author says why bookstores are no good and PA will slay big publishers - He even has my name in his book with all the other authors…Best book I've looked at…

Editor's note: PA is so dumb, they didn't even notice that they negated the value of the doctored version by retaining the information about the author's name being in their book instead of noticing that would create a conflict of interest as well as a lack of credibility. They also mis-edited UK to become Uk. I've seen rocks sharper than PA. No, Miranda, I'm not going to point those out to you.

7/23/05 - Writers are reporting that PA has their location identified inside the books they "publish" as being in Baltimore when PA doesn't have an office in Baltimore. Looks like they can't even tell the truth about their home office.
Also, PA claims to have an office in the UK. However, writers have visited that location only to find that PA does not have an office in the UK. Instead, they're claiming the address used by Lightning Source, a printer that prints books on demand for many publishers, including PA. Seems like PA wants to produce great fiction, but hasn't figured out yet that they're supposed to actually publish what writers provide to PA and not make up their own.

8/12/05 - Well, PublishAmerica has done it again! Uh, no, they haven't sold a bestseller. They still haven't accomplished that yet. What they'd done is send the cops to the front door of another writer's home to intimidate him by trying to have him arrested for harassment.
So, what was his harassment based upon? Only his desire to view the accounting books as stipulated in his contract with PA. He quoted their own paragraphs about his right to inspect the accounts in an email to them, so they filed charges against him and had the cops try to arrest him.
Only problem is, the writer wasn't intimidated. Instead, he showed the officers the P&E listing about PA and then showed them some other documentation. Now it appears that PA is the one that's in trouble for making false charges. Well, PA, looks like you can't dodge this one by claiming it has to go to arbitration first. Here's a link to the author's own statement of what transpired.

8/27/05 - Trademark infringement? Say it ain't so, PA! Yes, it's true. PA is being sued by Encyclopaedia Britannica. Some information about the suit can be viewed at URL http://www.courts.com/FedAlert/reportAug22/encyclopaedia.htm. However, most of the details require special permission to view, so don't expect to see anything more than that page.

9/3/05 - PA Authors trade reviews? Gasp, what is the world coming to when you can't trust a reviewer to be independent and honest? Read Eddie Bruce's revealing article, "PublishAmerica Is Not A Real Publisher", at the link and find out for yourself.

9/13/05 - PublishAmerica books are now returnable according to a notice on the PA site. P&E stood ready to applaud the change in PA's policy and look forward to seeing other changes in PA policies and procedures. Unfortunately, it now appears that further information has come out before we could post this on our site and the returnability has a Catch 22 provision in that books must sell 40 copies to achieve returnability and it appears that previous sales to this date do not count. In other words, it's nothing more than a gimmick so PA can sell more books to its own authors by giving them false encouragement.

9/14/05 - PA's InfoCenter has it all wrong. Here's what they claimed to one of their authors: "Anne: what's your problem? We just announced that roughly ELEVEN THOUSAND titles will be made returnable, step by step, starting with the ones that sell at a certain level this month, and you call it a manipulating scheme? It will take us and Ingram a few steps to get it right, and it may not be until the end of the year for the status of the last batch of those books to have changed. So we start with the books that actively sell this month, whether through bookstores, libraries, or individual purchases, and they become returnable no later than November 1, with the rest following soon thereafter, gradually. What in the world could be wrong with that? If you know a better way of doing it, please let us know, and we'll be all ears."
P&E's editor responds, "Well, guess what, PA? I'm a programmer. Those books can be changed all at once in the bookstore database with just a simple routine that can be built and operated in as little as ten minutes. So, if you're promising returnability to all PA books, then do it. Otherwise, you're scamming your own authors in an obvious attempt to manipulate and defraud them."

9/29/05 - How I Got The Rights To My PA Book Back! - by Linda Oness. P&E recommends that all writers read this account of how one author was treated at PublishAmerica.

10/04/05 - London Times announces settlement of Encyclopaedia Brittannica's civil suit against PublishAmerica for trademark infringement.

10/31/05 - A nation of sidewalk publishers in the Christian Science Monitor shows another side of the self-publishing problems faced by authors.

11/8/05 - True stories about PA. Writers would be wise to read some of these.

11/11/05 - Is PA a cult? Writers should give this some thought.

11/14/05 - The misrepresentations continue at PublishAmerica. Here's an explanation of what PA is really stating when answering just one of their authors' questions.

11/15/05 - The Only Thing You Need to Know About PublishAmerica (Publish America). Wow, this one certainly gives the facts.

11/15/05 - More about PublishAmerica. Now it appears that they're trying to force Wikipedia to carry only a positive description of PA.

11/17/05 - Shelly's Diary is being produced as a motion picture. This, by the way, was first published by PublishAmerica. Editor's note: we haven't found the non-printing link yet, so don't worry. No one's taking over your computer. Just select cancel in the print window and then you can read the article. We also ran into one popup. 11/29/05: Duh, evidently PA just heard about this and finally put it in their Up in Lights. Can you believe their efficiency? Mind boggling, isn't it?

11/23/05 - About those discounts. Recent postings at PublishAmerica, Absolute Write, and other forums indicate that PA is claiming that the discounts offered to brick and mortar bookstores is set by their distributor, Ingrams, while counter posts claim it's set by PA. One writer at Ed and Soots Writers Guild has researched the conflicting claims and discovered that Ingrams is honoring the discount posted by PA at Lightning Source, Inc. (LSI), PA's printer. Another writer located the following terms at LSI which P&E also quotes here:
"Terms of Sale
Publishers determine the suggested retail list price and wholesale discount of each book submitted to LSI. The publisher may change the list price and/or wholesale discount by notifying LSI at least 45 days in advance of the effective change, and the change will be updated in the LSI system on the first day of LSI's fiscal accounting month. The publisher determines the wholesale price at which it sells the book to LSI. LSI pays the publisher the wholesale price less the cost of printing for each book printed. A standard trade discount of 55%, with a 'returnable' status allows for the widest availability through our wholesalers and retailers. While LSI accepts short discounts as low as 20% off of list price, setting a short discount significantly limits the distribution of a title in the retail market. Some major chain retailers and wholesalers will not order a short discount book."
Folks, that makes it official. PA is responsible for the low discounts offered to bookstores.

12/20/05 - A Drifter's Legacy. Even authors in the UK know about PublishAmerica and are seeking justice.

12/20/05 - PublishAmerica in arbitration! Click the link for the details. You'll want to read this! Link no longer valid.

1/1/06 - Phil Dolan wins arbitration hearing against PublishAmerica. Congratulations Phil! Details are at POZKIN- NEW PA NEMESIS ON THE BLOCK.

1/26/06 - Why does PA send so many offers to their own authors to buy their own books?

2/2/06 - Pozkin reports a second arbitration between PA and another author has been lost by PA.

3/26/06 - PublishAmerica makes the news once more in its own hometown paper, the Frederick News-Post. There's also a readers' forum for discussing the article on their site at URL http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/fusetalk/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=7&threadid=1625&enterthread=y. Registration to post is required, but free.

3/27/06 - From PublishAmerica's own email to an author, it appears that PublishAtlantica and Publish Icelandica are both toast, kaput, fini. Here's the letter:

I regret to inform you that we can not accept your manuscript. We 
can only consider authors in the United States and Canada.

Ryan Tuccinardi
Acquisitions Department
PublishAmerica

5/9/06 - Ed and Soots'Writers Guild forum reports that PA has an open case against it in the Circuit Court of Baltimore City. P&E's guess: it's for libel. Gee, do you think PA could have avoided this by reading through any manuscripts first before accepting them for publication? By the way, according to the author, PA terminated the contract in order to get out of the suit. Let's hope the court looks at their actions carefully when the case resumes and determines that PA doesn't have a right to dump their responsibility in that manner.

6/11/06 - The Guild (formerly known as Ed and Sootie's Writers' Guild) now has online a forensic's report from an accountant concerning payment of royalties to one of PA's former authors.

6/23/06 - A reliable source states that Jessica Lewis no longer works for PublishAmerica as a General Partner. Here's hoping she shares her knowledge of PA with the local prosecutor.

On another front, evidence has been forwarded to a Federal agency requesting that they follow up on the activities of PA. Hmmm, could this be related to why Jessica left PA? If nothing else, it provides her with an added incentive to turn state's evidence.

7/18/06 - PA must be hurting! They upped the minimum amount of books in order for author purchases to qualify for PA's 45% discount!

8/28/06 - Every once in a while, some folks claim that others can't properly evaluate a publisher because they're spewing sour grapes over being rejected. P&E has challenged that claim and here are the results with just one try. Follow the link to see the results.

8/31/06 - P&E thanks Phil Dolan, Nancy Mehl, and Jean Marie Wiesen who furnished the following documentation and the sites that have supported them for their cooperation. We would be remiss if we don't mention and thank The Guild, Absolute Write, and The Mindsight Forum. We now present proof that PublishAmerica (PA) is cheating its authors. In the interest of keeping this page fast for downloading, the documents have been moved to another page.

9/12/06 - P&E thanks Linda Oness and Sean Schaffer, who furnished the following documentation, and The Guild and Absolute Write for their cooperation in providing additional proof that PublishAmerica (PA) is cheating its authors. Once more, P&E has moved the documentation to another page so this page can remain fast loading. Please click this link to reach it.

10/26/06 - PA in the limelight. Unfortunately, this is the kind they don't want to be featured within.

11/19/06 - Isn't it awful?

"What?" you ask.

Well, that PublishAmerica (PA) would reply to an author with a response like this when the author submitted a second manuscript to PA, "Based on the sales performance of your previously published book(s), we cannot offer a contract for this work at this time. Please do not take this as a setback to all your hard work as a writer. We are sure you will find a publisher to fit your needs for this book."

I mean, let's face it, PA did everything in its power to produce a sales catalog and send it around to the major retailers with a sales team so that retailers would send PA large orders which would be filled through the distributor that PA uses, right? Oops, I'm sorry! That would be expected of a real publisher like Random House or Tor. I forgot we're talking about PA which expects its authors to sell their books after they purchase them even if it means buying those books instead of presents for other family members for the holidays. Well, at least PA was honest in stating that the author would find a publisher since PA clearly isn't based on the terminology of their own response.

1/8/07 - Boy, can PA ever find the best manuscripts to offer contracts to! Yep, PA did it again. They offered a contract to a book that was deliberately written badly. Details are on the Absolute Write forum.

And how many PA contracts were released by PA since 2/18/06 to 1/6/07? Well, Pozkin appears to know! Clearly, PA is leading the publishing industry in rights reversions.

1/20/07 - Linda Dockery, PublishAmerica, and American Book Publishing Group. What do they all have in common? Hopefully a lawsuit for plagiarism. The word on the Internet from esteemed sites like Writers Net, Speculations, and Absolute Write happens to be that Linda's books published with both publishers are not all her own work nor are the poems copied and published with permission. In fact, Linda's name appears on the byline as the author of works that belong to other writers. So, if you happen to be one of the following writers, you might want to contact a good lawyer and sue for damages:
Tina Trivett
Francine Pucillo
James M Schmidt
Rowena K. Lewis
Baxter Black
Mary Rita Schilke Korzan
Diamond C. Aloes
Cathy Krachinski
Father Gerard J. Barnes
Mary Frye
Ruth Stuart

2/9/07 - Leave it to PublishAmerica. If you can't counter the criticism, then change the wording on your website so that the criticism no longer reflects previous PA claims. Cheesy and legal, right, PA?

After that, send a cease-and-desist to a writer/critic threatening to take that writer to court for libel. Of course, PA also decided to mention they'd settle out of court for a cash payment along with the other terms mentioned in their cease-and-desist letter. Evidently, self-purchased sales to PA authors are seriously down. Gee, it must be awful for PA having to use legal extortion to get both money and a retraction that would weigh heavily with naive authors considering whether to believe those critics. How will they ever sleep at night? After all, without the money and the retraction inside the mattress, it'll remain lumpy.

By the way, if no one has noticed, PA didn't send the cease-and-desist letter to Preditors & Editors. Could it be they don't want to have all the evidence P&E has on hand shown in court? Well, guess what, PA? We've already offered the use of all our files on PublishAmerica for the defense of that writer/critic. So, have a nice day, PA. We're looking to give that writer an even better one in court.

3/1/07 - Commentary from a PA author titled Meet the Real PublishAmerica. If you're thinking of submitting to PublishAmerica, this commentary is well worth reading first.

3/31/07: A writer published by PA shares the following:

"Hi,

"I have seen on your site that you are interested in knowing if anyone has been rejected by PublishAmerica. I am writing to tell you that I was indeed rejected for my second novel because PA says that sales from my first book was low. I don't even know why I tried again and am glad that they are not publishing my second novel.

"But I do have story I would like to share with you, almost as classic as Atlantic Nights by Travis Tea. I have known some authors who still insisted that they were a good company and that they did not accept manuscripts without reading them first. Last week I was on a mission to prove them wrong. You may use this example on your website if you would like.

"I came across a file of the book I had published with PublishAmerica and decided to send it in to them again. I used an email address that they weren't familiar with, changed the title slightly, and used a different pen name. But, it was an identical story that they already published. About 4 days later, I received the famous "We would like to give your story the chance it deserves," acceptance email. They sent me a sample contract as well. They want to publish a book twice? Now I know that they do not read what is submitted to them. I was half tempted to allow them to do this and to make a fool of themselfs but I declined the offer.

"Not only do they publish anything they receive, unless of course its by an author who couldn't sell the initial 100 copies they need to make up their costs, but they are also apparently very stupid! What a laugh."

Want to prove it for yourself? Just open a free Hotmail account under a different name and do what this author did. P&E will be waiting to hear your results. Or if you simply want to get the sequel published, use a different name and email account to submit it to PA. You can change that rejection into an acceptance because PA doesn't read beyond your name on what's submitted. So either way, you can prove to yourself how professional PA really is.

5/20/07: Jersey Chick at AW noticed that Willem Meiners balked at being overcharged for a hotel room. P&E agrees. Why is it so important for him about what something costs, but not for what his company PublishAmerica charges? So, does this mean Willem took the hypocritic oath?

6/12/07: PA claims it never knows how many sales a book has. Is that true? Click on this link to find out. Our thanks to Phil Dolan and The Guild for sharing this with us.

6/14/07: PA gets stung again! You think they might recognize a classic and realize it wasn't written by the submitter. Geeze, what a bunch of maroons!

7/14/07: PublishAmerica's lawyer Victor Cretella infringing contract? This is what we've had reported to P&E. According to our source, Vic has infringed upon or is breaching the terms of a contract in regards to the Arbitration clause.

So, is this how PA operates? They don't honor their contracts or show any good faith even when it comes to negotiations and arbitration?

By the way, anyone who has had dealings with an attorney in Maryland who knows they are in violation of the law or their ethics code can file a complaint against the attorney using the information at http://www.courts.state.md.us/attygrievance/complaint.html. This site lists some of the sanctions applied to various attorneys. According to our sources, sounds like it's time to report Vic for his behavior.

7/20/07: Typical PublishAmerica deceit. PA received money for books in British Pounds and converted it to US dollars, but won't convert it back when they pay their authors.Click on this link to find out.

7/25/07: Does PA ever make false police reports? It took us until now to obtain this documentation, but take a look and judge for yourselves. Then ask yourself, is this publisher trustworthy? Is this the kind of publisher you want for your work? Click on this link to find out.

8/12/07: How does any publisher offering POD books get the idea that it can charge a... (wait for it)... restocking fee? After all, POD means print on demand. THERE IS NO STOCK to be restocked. Claiming a restocking fee is pure fraud on the publisher's part. Now can you guess which publisher is doing this?

8/21/07: Correspondence with R.R.Bowker provides the following facts: ISBNs for PA books are owned by PA. Therefore, PA has to give permission to R.R. Bowker to delete the ISBN from their database in order for the book to be noted as unavailable. Don't accept any excuses from PA. It's their responsibility to handle the deletion when they terminate the contracts on any of their books.

10/4/07: PublishAmerica (PA) on Dr. Phil program. PA announced that they participated in the program with a PA representative ready to offer a contract to one young woman author after being invited by the Dr. Phil staff. If this is true, then it shows a serious lack of research on the part of the Dr. Phil staff as even a cursory investigation on the Internet would have brought to light the many complaints against PublishAmerica. Fortunately, no contract was signed to our knowledge, possibly because PA's representative stated that they haven't paid out any three-million dollar royalty checks.

12/26/07: SooToday stings "America's number one book publisher." P&E salutes Pete Vere and SooToday for their original article and its followup. We can only offer sympathy to Tim Ratliff who learned the hard way that it can hurt one's reputation to be associated with a publisher that doesn't honor copyrights or trademarks and even files false police charges against its own authors. For those who haven't read either linked article, he signed the acceptance letter for the sting manuscript. Sorry about that, Tim, but your objection to being named in that article only goes to show you're knowledgeable of PublishAmerica's reputation and your own culpability, yet you work there anyway.

2/4/08: The Chronicle Online reveals a publishing scam. Now who, oh who, could it be?

3/13/08: PublishAmerica worried about copyright? Here's their letter to one of their authors who dared to ask about participating in the Amazon.com "Search inside" program:

Dear Xxxxxxx: 

Thank you for your e-mail. Per the contract, we own the print rights 
to the book, and do not participate in the Amazon.com's Search Inside 
the Book Program, due to copyright concerns. 

Thank you 
Xxxxxx 
PublishAmerica Support 

Of course, permitting readers to search inside is really dangerous since it might induce readers to actually buy like they do for books by other publishers who willingly participate. So much for PA claiming to be a traditional publisher...Oh, a traditional vanity publisher. Nevermind.

3/14/08: John W. DeVore has filed a civil action against PA for breach of contract and deceptive trade practices in Martin County, Florida. The Action is public record now in the 19th Judicial Circuit Court in Martin County, Florida case # 08-589-CA. P&E wishes Mr. DeVore well in this action.

3/19/08: Willem, Larry, tell me it's not true that you would continue to violate the trademark belonging to Encyclopaedia Britannica. You know? The suit you settled in 2005 that you wouldn't use their trademark? So why is it that you're still using it on your letterhead in 2008? Tsk, tsk, that's a violation of trademark and it's willful because you've had three years to stop and you haven't. Guess you better be prepared to cough up some big bucks to Encyclopaedia Britannica for this. You'll probably need to reach 50,000 happy authors and have a specual double-sale in the month prior to paying royalties.

4/9/08: A recently discharged PublishAmerica employee stated that having employment at PA on a resume was a liability.

4/22/08: New information from PA indicates they claim Amazon is responsible for their high prices. That would be somewhat believeable had PA held their prices to what other publishers charged instead of going overboard with what PA charged. P&E doesn't doubt that Amazon insisted that PA not undercut their prices, but that could have been resolved with a price only a few pennies higher rather than one that was dollars above.

5/31/08: A writer has alerted us that PA has finally removed the PublishBritannica name from its letterhead. P&E only wonders why it took this long for PA to comply with their settlement terms. Are they that greedy or poor that they couldn't replace some letterhead paper when they first settled?

5/31/08: PublishAmerica demands payment to return rights even though it's not in their contracts we've seen. Of course, that may change. A writer furnished P&E with a copy of the email from Darcy at PA. Although it shows a Yahoo header, the writer believes that was tagged on when he forwarded the email to us.

3/26/06 - According to a letter from PA, this imprint is defunct.

3/26/06 - According to a letter from PA, this imprint is also defunct.

Publisher's Circulation Group: A publisher. Subsidy press.

Puckerbrush Press: A publisher. Anyone know more about them? Contact at:

PUFFIN BOOKS: A children's book publisher.

Pugu Press: defunct: "While we do charge the author for services, we believe that our prices are the fairest. Also, our dedication to alleviate the horrors of author payment and royalty-raiding serves only to show that we do care about the authors. Proof of this is our vow to have the printer send a statement to the author, upon request, to back up the statements we send out.
Vanity/subsidy presses serve a particular niche in the world. While their direct purpose is not fully known (or even realized at times), we do strive to supply a service that is in need. We also feel that in order to break the cycle of ‘rip-offs’, vanity presses that aren’t in the business to scam authors need to be founded and proven to work."

Pulpless.Com [tm]: Recommended A book publisher.

PulplessFiction: An ebook publisher and seller.

Pyramid Publishing Inc.: A vanity publisher.