Here's the latest...

Scroll down a bit if you have had dealings with PublishAmerica and you can read about some of the former and current author's experiences.

EverythingShea is still on hiatus. In the meantime, Golden Web Soaps your home for necessary luxuries has recently made its online debut. And more soap will probably be added within the next few weeks as that wish for genuine shea butter soap is increasing again!

I'm writing a lot -- both fiction and nonfiction. The September 2009 issue of Long Island Woman has "The Beauty of Olive Oil" on page 24. You can also read it here. A few articles about pets are in The Pampered Pet Magazine . You can read about feral cats, Cats Haven, and Pets in the White House. Wrote some keyword-friendly copy and have also written about astrology, exercising, luxury chocolate, and some California travel articles. More pet articles are coming soon.

Naturally I've been reading a lot and have read Cormac McCarthy's "The Road." Just happened to get a copy of it at a book sale and can recommend it for those of you who like post-apocalyptic tomes. The bleakness of the landscape, the constant cold, the biting winds, the burnt foliage...makes you appreciate how things are now. At least we can see the sun and hear the sounds of animals, unlike the world that McCarthy created with no animals and a level of survivial of the fittest that's unappealing to put it mildly. Saw the movie back in January and it's similar to the book and captures the devastation in a very visual manner. I don't think the book is "better" as it's a different media. The movie get the essence of the book and that's important. I do encourage people to read "The Road" and watch the film and come up with their own views.

Over at Amazon some books were recommended for those who like post-apocalyptic fiction. Guess I'm a fan 'cause I found a copy of "Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse" which is edited by John Jose. Quite a list of authors: Stephen King, Octavia Butler, Orson Scott Card, George R.R. Martin, Catherine Wells, and many more talented writers.

Reading and perusing lots of other titles but won't go into all of them here. I never know what'll catch my attention and interest.

I've met some new animal buddies and will be writing more about them later.

More articles have been posted on my nonfiction articles [scroll down] and Buddhism pages.

web smarts by lisa is now here! If you have a site that isn't doing so great, let me know and maybe I can help your rankings climb higher on the major search engines. Even better, you might notice more business coming your way.

Last year I ended up reading all the books in the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. Then I read the Lily Bard [Shakespeare] series and I'm trying to find all the Aurora Teagarden mysteries. I've never read so many mysteries in my life! I was recently given the DVD of the complete first season of True Blood as a gift and I've watched all the episodes and will rewatch all the ones that contain commentaries. I sure like seeing the adventures of those vampire and other supernatural people in Bon Temps [which means GOOD TIMES].

Designing bath & body products was something I did for years and soon I'll be putting those recipes together into a book. No idea about a title, but I will be including some formulations that will be useful for those of you who don't want to do a lot of work.

PUBLISHAMERICA -- THE PROBLEMS!

The letters still roll in for some reason--must be the Google page rankings or people are researching PublishAmerica. Here's a sampling:

"Lisa, I would like to thank you for your article about Publish America. I was thinking of signing with them this week and wondered if you could please tell me what prompted you to write this cautionary piece about their business practices. Thank you." A.B. 

"My name is E.R. I am a romance author. I ran across your write up on http://express-press-release.net I too have been hoaxed by publishameria and dont think I will have a happy ending. I was a newbie author and they took me for a marry ride. I would like to talk with you on your experiances with the publisher. Gain some information perhaps. I feel that the publisher is scamming me."

"They offer  have these “offers” 45%off the books…and you get one free for each you buy……good deal?  No so!   They charge you $3.99 for each single book (paid and free) they send to you…so in essence you are paying for the free books….no wonder I bought a couple when I got published and then just ignored this Idiot and his get rick quick scam.  People in office are so nice and long suffering and don’t always agree with the policies…it cost $2.33 a POUND to send media mail…so if you sent 10 lbs of books and that is a lot it would not cost more than $25.00 but say you order 5 books and get 5 free you are paying $3.99 for each book sent.  Not good but handling costs are included and no one in their right mind should go here and publish. Peggy"

"I was just about to get online and publish my book with PublishAmerica.  It's really the only option that I have, weather or not they screw me.  I do not have enough money to self publish and I have sent it to the only book company that will except a manuscript with out "manager."  It's hard to work this long on a piece of work and have it go nowhere.  If you can help me, by telling me who I can send my manuscript to, that would be great.  Otherwise, I'd rather see it published then in my desk. Thank You. C.S."

Desperation makes people do crazy things. If you send your manuscript to P.A., it IS like having it sit in your desk drawer! The only thing they do is put a cover on it. They also run the thing through the Spell Check so it can pick up more errors!

Earlier this year I received this happy piece of email: "I am being cheated out of royalties a check for 73 cents was mailed to me. I know more than 1 book sold on amazon.com in 6 months. How can I get out of this contract with publishamerica? R.R."

My standard answer is to send P.A. a registered letter and inform them that you are in no way going to continue to promote your book. Sometimes you'll get out of your contract, sometimes you won't. P.A. will find more desperate authors possessing differing amounts of writing skills and the story will continue. A royalty check for less than a dollar is fairly standard for the P.A. author who hasn't bought a bunch of his or her own copies. Maybe that author has a tiny circle of people who are willing to buy the overpriced book and even then they decide not to because it's equivalent to a week's worth of lunches...

Oh, and I can't resist posting this one: "I just read your article on the scam of publish america…..I sent them 39 true stories to publish a book for me…  what do I say the have them return it to me…?  do you think they will print any of it without my permission? L.O." I did respond to this one with a simple question of my own -- did you sign a contract? No answer. Even P.A. has you sign a contract before they take your money and your book's rights.

That's all for now. Will keep you updated with more newslog ramblings!

© 2001-2010 by Lisa Maliga