PublishAmerica And J.K. Rowling- What writers need to know about Celebrities and Unsolicited Material

I was reading an article about a PublishAmerica scam where they told authors if they paid $49 to $69 fee that the publisher would present their books to best-selling author J.K.Rowling for her to read and give her opinion on. Many fell for the scam with hopes and dreams of being read by Rowling not knowing they’ve been conned out of their money.

Needless to say, Rowling is fighting back, filing a lawsuit against Publish America and sending them a Cease and Desist order through her attorney. PublishAmerica is a known disreputable business in the publishing industry. From their bad contracts, which tie up author rights for years, retail prices that are noncompetitive ($24.00 for a small paperback is common with them) and unethical business practices many smart authors know to avoid them at all costs.

What really irked me about this scam is how PublishAmerica misled writers. PublishAmerica promised authors something they knew they couldn’t deliver and couldn’t possibly deliver. J.K. Rowling is under contract to Scholastic in the U.S. and Bloomsbury in the UK. I doubt two of the biggest YA publishers in the world would want their best-selling author involved in reading material from a competitor while under contract with them.

And I doubt she’d want to be involved with a disreputable business like PublishAmerica. Hence why she’s taking legal action against PublishAmerica herself.

Here’s the truth regarding best-selling authors, celebrities and other famous people like J.K. Rowling: They don’t read unsolicited material. Period.

And their definition of unsolicited means anything not submitted to them through their agent or manager. This is the official policy stated on their their official website and the websites of their agents and managers.

The reason why best-selling authors and celebrities don’t read unsolicited material from writers is simple. They don’t want to get sued. Many an author or actor who just “took a look” at another person’s book or screenplay found themselves wrapped up in a lawsuit soon after they released a new book or starred in a new movie.

Why? Because the writer whose work they “looked at” said they stole their story.

The process for settling a copyright infringement suit is a long, bureaucratic process that can cost hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars in court costs and legal fees. Many who wind up in a lawsuit settle out of court just to avoid the years and sometimes decades of legal wrangling which keeps them from making money on their properties and projects.

Which is why celebrities and best-selling authors like Rowling don’t read unsolicited material.

Usually all business dealings with a celebrity or a best-selling author like J.K. Rowling go through their agent. And their agent will not present them with another writers’ material unless they get the author to sign a release statement absolving them of all liability.

If an author sends a celebrity or best-selling author their work unsolicited it will wind up either:

a)      Marked Return to Sender and shipped back to the author unread,

b)      Thrown in the garbage.

When it comes to E-mails sent to celebrities and best-selling authors regarding unsolicited material they will wind up either:

a)      Marked Return to Sender and shipped back to the author unread,

b)      Deleted,

c)      Sent to a spam folder and then deleted.

Most authors and celebrities like J.K. Rowling don’t even open their own mail. It’s opened by assistants at a business office, where it’s screened for unwanted materials such as unsolicited material like manuscripts, synopses, and queries. So there will never be a chance that a manuscript from an unknown author will wind up on their desk.

And when it comes to unsolicited material no one is under any obligation to read it. Unsolicited queries, manuscripts, and synopses are like mail order catalogs. Just because someone sends a catalog out doesn’t obligate anyone to buy anything from it. Moreover, once it’s mailed out to the person who it’s addressed to it becomes their property. They can do with it as they please.

Which is why it’s foolish for an author to pay someone like PublishAmerica money $49 to $69 to send out unsolicited material. Since best-selling authors like J.K. Rowling have a policy of sending back unsolicited material unread or discarding it, spending $49 to $69 to have them send out unsolicited books is like taking money and throwing it in the trash.

Writers need to understand that publishing is not an easy career path. It’s harder to get a book published, and even harder than that for a writer to get a book to sell. In a business where 90 percent of the almost two million books published every year fail to find an audience there is no fast track to success, no way to pay to play. Finding a marketplace for a book isn’t about what you know or who you know. It’s about writing well.

Anyone who wants to be a writer or a self-publisher needs to understand this is long road full of pain and frustration. It’ ain’t yellow and there ain’t no riches. Don’t quit your day job. In fact, get a second one. You’re gonna need it.