Why the animosity toward POD authors?

[B.R.Stateham]

Recently I thought about sending a novel to a well-known but small publisher. But I forgot to read the entire submissions demands. Much to my surprise I was informed in no uncertain times I could not submit if I had ever been published by a POD publisher.

So the question is this: Why this vehement animosity toward POD authors?

[Bob]

It wasn't me alone. These authors had several people in the bullpen as well as me. I believe they followed a route to success by enlisting a lot of assistance and adopting an open mind.

[B.R.Stateham]

N o problemo, Dana.

And Bob--apparently you are very good at what you do! It's great to hear successes like that!

[Dana King]

BR,
I'm sorry, I didn;t make myself clear in my previous comment. I did not mean to iply that writers who went the POD route were failures, only that I wouldn't consider POD unless I had given up publishing elsewhere. That's just how I'm going to do it. I didn't mean to imply that everyone who went that route was a failure.

[Bob]

The 1 in 8,000 may be accurate, but a well written query backed by a well written novel do get accepted. In the past 6 months, I have beta read, assisted in polishing the query and done edits on a dozen books. To date, 6 of these books have been accepted by agent, three have signed with medium to large publishers. All were first time authors. Difficult, yes. Impossible, no. A well written book with a good story sold by a great query always has a chance.

And one of these that got signed had both a POD and a free read from their website of other titles.

Smiles
Bob

[B.R.Stateham]

Clair,

Good luck, girl. I hope you become hugely successful.

[Clair Dickson]

I would consider it a failure if I was unable to be published through a commercial publishing house. That is my goal. If I cannot meet my goal, then I have failed. My goal is to write a commercially successful book (series, actually.)

I don't speak for other people and their goals. If my first attempt at being published commercially fails, then I will try another. And another. I will keep trying to improve until I reach my goal. I will die trying. This is MY goal. You may judge it if you wish, but it is still my personal goal.

BTW, if you're looking just for books printed, Lulu.com and Creatspace are way better options than PublishAmerica. If nothing else, the books from Lulu and Createspace are not quite so badly overpriced. (Last I checked it was some $27 for a PA paperback.) But I also read the broken dreams of former-PA authors who have crawled over to AbsoluteWrite to share their tales of woe over PA, so I'm probably biased.

I don't wholly agree with a publisher holding a former POD(-mill) printing against an author. People make mistakes-- for some people, that mistake is doing the POD(-mill) thing. But I also think that some authors make the mistake of calling it a "publishing credit." It's no more a publishing credit than printing up some copies at Kinko's.

Understand, I'm talking about POD-mills, not companies that use POD technology to deal with small print runs. Those are different. And, I think, most publishers/agents would understand the difference.

[B.R.Stateham]

Why would anyone ever think going the POD route is tantamount to admitting to failure? The odds of getting published by a 'traditional' publishing house is like 1-in-8000 (approximately the number of manuscripts submitted to a publishing house--at least a paperback house.)

With those odds against you, it's almost a guarantee you're not going to break into the market thru traditional means. So why not POD publishing? Especially if the possibilities exist you can actually sell your work!

[Dana King]

I know I chimed into the Marco discussion as someone who bestows a presumption of a certain level of competence on traditionally published books that have been through some kind of editorial review, and I do not grant that same benefit of the doubt to self-published POD books. I have also said that, while I may self-publish through a POD someday, that will mean I've given up. I stand by those statements. Still, for any publisher to decline to even lok at a book if the author has any POD in their history, even for different books, is infantile.

[I. J. Parker]

I apologize for the typo. (Thinking of two versions simultaneously). Make that "applies to."

[Pepper Smith]

LOL! Yeah, I'm feelin' that.