5/31/06
Very Important Notice:
Under circumstances which I consider highly unethical and unprofessional, PublishAmerica has canceled its contract with me. For the time being, Dying for Answers is out of print. It is no longer available except for the few copies that I have on hand. No one, including PublishAmerica, has my books in stock. They are not held in stock because they are only printed on demand.
If you find that you are still able to purchase copies from any other source, please notify me at once, because this would be an illegal action on PublishAmerica’s part.
I do hope that Dying for Answers will eventually find new life with a legitimate commercial publisher. I’m not giving up on this book.
Please take a few minutes to read up on the disagreement between PublishAmerica and me, especially if you are considering signing a contract with them or know someone who is. You will find PublishAmerica’s own words undermining their credibility here:
http://www.freewebs.com/meet_real_pa
The above site contains no rhetoric. It simply reproduces the correspondences between PublishAmerica and me regarding just a few of my concerns. PublishAmerica’s responses confirm the validity of those concerns. My posting of these correspondences led directly to PublishAmerica’s cancellation of my contract. I urge you to read this information even if you think you will never need it. You may meet someone someday who is considering PublishAmerica, and you will have some very valuable insights to give them.
I will summarize the issues concerning PublishAmerica below, but don’t just take my word for these things. Look at my site http://www.freewebs.com/meet_real_pa and see how PublishAmerica responds when confronted about these very issues.
The web contains literally thousands of warnings against PublishAmerica, but many people (including myself) will naively trust PublishAmerica’s claims without investigating further. Authors need to know that, despite PublishAmerica’s deceptively-worded claims to the contrary:
-PublishAmerica is NOT the victim of a deep, dark conspiracy forged by the legitimate publishing world to keep them and their authors down. The legitimate publishing world does not own or control the web, and it is not responsible for the thousands of web pages devoted to debunking the PublishAmerica myth. Nor is it responsible for the fact that there are no web pages out there attacking legitimate publishers and warning authors away. Think about that very closely. Better yet, do a Google search. How many “Anti Random House,” or “Anti Zondervan” or “Anti Multnomah” pages can you find? If hordes of angry authors wanted to create such pages, there would be nothing to stop them. Why don’t such pages exist?
How many “Anti PublishAmerica” pages can you find?
PublishAmerica’s own policies and practices keep its authors from succeeding. For example:
-PublishAmerica’s books are ridiculously overpriced, limiting their sales. Bookstores won’t stock books that won’t sell.
-PublishAmerica’s books are NOT edited in any meaningful way and are often very poorly written and printed. Bookstores know that they risk buying a turkey when they buy a PublishAmerica book. Your book may not be a turkey, but it will be held down by association.
-PublishAmerica’s books are NOT truly marketed. The company’s goal is to sell books to the 75 to 100 people in the author’s immediate circle, and that’s all. They claim that simply listing the books is the same as marketing them. It is NOT the same at all.
-PublishAmerica’s policy of giving retailers “short discounts” makes the vast majority of bookstore owners unwilling to shelve PublishAmerica’s books. Don’t be deceived by the claim that the books are available in brick-and-mortar stores. By “available” they do not mean “shelved.” They simply mean that someone who actually knows that your book exists can special order it from the store. This is a moot point, since few people will ever know that your book exists.
-PublishAmerica’s discounts to retailers drop even lower if the retailer wants the right to return unsold books. The discount is so low that it does not even cover the restocking fee that the bookstore would have to pay if it returned the book. That’s right, the bookstore loses money if it returns a PublishAmerica book. The bookstore manager is not an evil person. He is not motivated by a grand conspiracy. He has a business to run, and he can’t run it by stocking overpriced, unmarketed, often poor-quality books that will make him almost no profit if they sell, and will cost him money if they don’t.
-PublishAmerica has often failed to deliver the books that authors have requested for books signings (for those rare occasions that bookstores have actually allowed a PublishAmerica author to hold a signing.)
-PublishAmerica’s accounting practices are highly questionable.
-PublishAmerica has been sued by its authors multiple times, and more suits are likely.
-PublishAmerica’s authors often fight for years to be released from their contract, and they celebrate if they finally succeed. My release letter is framed next to my computer. Do you suppose that authors under contract to legitimate publishing houses do the same thing?
Please, if you are considering signing a contract with PublishAmerica, do a lot of research with an open mind.
So far all Jeffries knows is what won’t help his son. The answers don’t lie in education, or in money, or even in religion, no matter what his wife and daughter believe. 
