Comments on PA comments

I came across some interesting information at Lee Goldberg's "Writer's Life" (see links) blog. His is a site I often stop by for some upbeat dialogue on writing issues. The past two days have had posts about the oft maligned and still in business vanity (claims not to be) press Publish America. Complete with quotes from the news and other credible sources (Not that the news is always credible), the posts point out the various fallacies in the Publish America contract and procedures. I've been familiar with this company for many years. Comments and questions about Publish America crop up in many of the writer's forums I frequent, with novice writers wanting to know if the company is legit, and many editors and writing professionals saying "beware!". Those warnings are always followed by Publish America authors denouncing the put downs and saying they've had nothing but success. I'm beginning to find it all quite humorous. (Dark humor, of course) It doesn't seem to matter how many negative points are spotlighted about this company, the novice, desperate and sometimes egocentric writers still flock to them, jumping at any chance to see their work in the "official" form of a book. I am often one of the writing professionals who gives negative response to questions about Publish America. I point the newbies to Preditors and Editors, Books and Tales and other sites that list the pros, cons and warnings about this publishers and others of their ilk. I don't think it does any good. I have removed Publish America from the writers' directory at my Books & Writers site. Although I had a comment "Read Contract Carefully!" and "Beware of this site", I decided it was a much better service to delete the listing. Of course publicity (which Publish America authors don't get unless they generate it themselves) fuels interest, so I imagine it's really a disservice to be going on so about this company. Someone will probably read this and the posts on Goldberg's blog and drop by the PA site see for themselves, and think, "That doesn't look so bad." Ooops! NOTE: Just because the company is shady doesn't mean the all their books are duds. See Big Apple.