Publish America will “bring your book to the attention of Harry Potter’s author” for fifty bucks. (More info here: http://www.publishamerica.net/JKRowling.html) Now, I would bet my first-born child against a day-old bagel that they don’t even have an appointment with her. I seriously doubt they have even tried to contact her.
I wonder how many people are taking them up on this offer? Do they imagine that Rowling will be meeting with PA reps at length to discuss these vanity published books, picking the ones she likes best, reading them, loving them, and helping the authors get major book deals? Well, yeah, I guess that IS what they think, but it’s the saddest scam I’ve ever seen. It’s even sadder than the “pre-written” book scam at Outskirts Press (http://www.outskirtspress.com/options/17701_fully_illustrated_custom_children_s_book_for_a_boy.html)
Bonus material: I was curious to see if this ballsy venture into utter soullessness on the part of the most sued company in publishing had prompted any news stories, so I googled Publish America J.K. Rowling, and found this, the saddest thread about writing and publishing I have ever read. This woman was excited to have a form letter from Rowling’s people after suggesting that Rowling steer the Harry Potter books into her own creepy self pubbed Christian-fantasy series which already has 45 volumes (!). The grammatically fractured letter adds to the overwhelming pathos of the whole letter.
Really? What is Publish America and why do they get sued so much? Are they like the publishing company in Foucault’s Pendulum, preying on vanity authors?
I think it might have something to do with the 10,000 pages of overrated huffle-puffle, argle-bargle kid’s ‘ooh, I wish I was a wizard too’ stories, that are lapped up by the masses as though they were flung down from Olympus by Zeus himself. But I suppose it could be her incessant nose-picking too.
Are you sure? I totally believe that someone unrelated to the author read that book and thought so highly of it that they now want to purchase toys based on characters from the book.
Totally.
Bur it’s not all that heavy, which is why I ask “How Hard?” You’d have to throw it with some heft, or hir her with the corner or something to do any damage.
The bindery is in Maryland. The editors are in New York. (I just checked on Google Maps, and there’s more than 30 miles between PA and the RH bindery, but it’s beside the point since the bindery doesn’t have editorial offices and the geographical proximity to the RH bindery means less than nothing when they submit the bound books to New York).
Ha ha. So you pay for five books instead of one. And since they won’t even match submission guidelines they won’t be read. And yet I am pleasantly surprised that there’s not a surcharge of some ridiculous amount to have them mail the books for you.
Donate? LOL.
I particularly like the David and Goliath text at the end of the article.
