Finally!! My first book is out!!

[Johnny Walker]

David,
These writers are shooting for the moon. And they are the worst kind of in-crowd snobs. Listen to me. Buy a supply of your books at the steepest discount you can get and sell your book anyplace they'll let you. The supernatural has a HUGE audience. L. B. Taylor publishes his own books about "real" ghosts and has sold over 100,000 copies. Look him up if you don't believe me. He wrote "Ghosts of Richmond," among dozens of others. You have a salable book with a giant audience. The snobs above think you have to get into "the loop", consisting of about a 1000 publishers owned by just five big companies. And you can damn well bet it's all about money with these companies. So, young man, be brave, fight the odds, sneer at the nay-sayers and bitter back-biters . . . even if your book retails at $20, you can buy them from the publisher at $12 or so and sell at $14. Now, I mean it, show some backbone and be a real writer -- a person of courage, vision, knowledge and wisdom. Sure, your publisher is despised because it exploits writers and makes them think they';; be in book stores. Make the best of it. Be courageous. The women and wish-they-were-women on this forum will attack you tooth and nail -- they'll make you feel this country is totally feminized and politically correct. it ain't, David. This is still a man's world and you get out there and be a man. Sell those books and to hell with the little women coming and going and saying tsk tsk tsk. You hear me, young man? 'nuff said! Have balls!

[Richard Lee Fulgham]

Mr. Walker,
Your anachronistic remarks immediately brand you as a man behind the times and -- incidently -- very angry. Yes, men no longer get the same autmomatic priviledges that they did before WWII opened the way for true equality. But this is a weriters forum and I want to address your advice to this young man to sell his own books. That may be admirable and "masculaine" (in your mind), but it is not economically realistic. Is David going to be a writer or an entreprenuer? Unfortunately, most of us have to choose -- it takes a truely brilliant person to write, publish and sell his/her own works at a profit. Mr. Walker speaks of "the loop". There are hundreds, maybe thousands of perfectly legitiimate and respectable independent publishers out there. Get published by them first, and then sell to the publishers who can actually sell large quanitities of your book(s) if deserved, and who can allow you to write as a real writer, while they sell your work. Take Mr. Walker's advice if you want, but I think I would forget hawking my PublishAmerica books and get to work on one with enough quality and worth to warrant a legitimate publisher. I remain your Southern Gentleman friend and fellow author, Richard Lee Fulgham, aka "Johnny Hess". PS: I made the same mistake as you with PA -- but their contract ends in seven years. I'm waiting with infinite, graceful patience.

[Richard Lee Fulgham]

Mr. Walker,
Your anachronistic remarks immediately brand you as a man behind the times and -- incidently -- very angry. Yes, men no longer get the same autmomatic priviledges that they did before WWII opened the way for true equality. But this is a weriters forum and I want to address your advice to this young man to sell his own books. That may be admirable and "masculaine" (in your mind), but it is not economically realistic. Is David going to be a writer or an entreprenuer? Unfortunately, most of us have to choose -- it takes a truely brilliant person to write, publish and sell his/her own works at a profit. Mr. Walker speaks of "the loop". There are hundreds, maybe thousands of perfectly legitimate and respectable independent publishers out there. Get published by them first, and then sell to the publishers who can actually sell large quanitities of your book(s) if deserved, and who can allow you to write as a real writer, while they sell your work. Take Mr. Walker's advice if you want, but I think I would forget hawking my PublishAmerica books and get to work on one with enough quality and worth to warrant a legitimate publisher. I remain your Southern Gentleman friend and fellow author, Richard Lee Fulgham, aka "Johnny Hess". PS: I made the same mistake as you with PA -- but their contract ends in seven years. I'm waiting with infinite, graceful patience.

[Vanessa Canevaro]

And you know this how, Mya?

[Vanessa Canevaro]

Totally agree with you Johnny about the book stuff, but I'm a woman who doesn't mix words and I don't believe in that feminist jazz. I also don't believe it's a man's world.

[David Middleton Edelen II]

Hello again everybody,
I did not mean to touch off an argument or what have you. I will just have to wait and see what Pub Am does. In the mean time I am working on four other works, three in totally different genres. I will make it, don't worry. Time and perseverence are on my side I reckon.
Take care and be nice to each other.
Dave

[Simon Says]

Vanessa - you're also obviously a woman who doesn't know much about the difference between a real publisher and PA if you 'totally agree' with Johnny.

But as they say, ignorance is bliss.

[Johnny Hess]

I had a party tonight with some other writers. This guy named Walker asked to send an email and instead sent that really ugly comment. You who know me know that I am Richard Fulgham and call myself Johnny Hess to avoid the authorities of The-Press-Who-Fines for saying bad things about them. I'm a nice guy. Johnny Walker gets me in hot water every time I see him. I'm Richard, ok? And Johnny Hess, too. But not Walker!

[Vanessa Canevaro]

Simon,
I totally agree that it is the writer's responsibility to get his/her book out and sold, traditional, POD, PA whatever. 'Published' means having your work read by the public. For some it's by self-publishing, others by the traditional way. A person is considered published whether it's through a small town paper, or a national publication.

[Simon Says]

Vanessa,

In the most specific sense being published is when a particular entity chooses to put a writer's work out there to represent the publication and/or to make money for the publisher.

In that sense - POD and vanity is not technically published because there is no vetting process (i.e. weeding out the poorly written) and the business model is about making money off the author's (either via a publishing fee or by selling books to the authors, their friends etc.)

Which is why Mya made the statement she did about keeping the PA credit off your resume.

There is a place for POD, self-publishing etc. But if you choose a press that prints everything submitted - it's not "being published" in the true sense of the word.

The problem is that many people don't understand the difference - and are misled to believe they are in fact published, that there's no difference between PA and... say Bantam. And there's a huge difference.

You can shoot a film on dv, rent out a theater and show it - but it doesn't mean you've had a movie distributed.