The law hasn't yet gotten around to addressing the fact that it's now possible to publish a book without reading it. I don't believe printers and binders are liable for the content of the books they manufacture. I find it very amusing that the basis of AuthorHouse's liability (and possibly PA's as well) is their claim that they're real publishers.

As I trust everyone knows a screwdriver should never be used as a prybar - ranks right up there with hitting one hammer face against another hammer face as hardened parts are more brittle. Chilton lost

See also Paladin Press on how to be sued for selling a book on how to be a hitman.

The Poor Man's James Bond is of course full of bad advice - I'm pretty sure the whole question of whether some authority sought to poison anarchists with the Anarchist's Cookbook has been discussed hereabouts.

You may not like vanity publishers. Still, if a publisher's business model is that they will print whatever someone wants as long as they get paid the materials cost, distribution cost, plus a profit, then shouldn't they be treated as a common carrier? Do you think an ISP should be able to get sued for libel because of statements made by one of its subscribers? I don't see how this is any different. The law should not encourage people to be spies, especially where it would have a chilling effect on free speech.

I'd just as soon junk libel laws entirely. It's so difficult to win a libel judgment in most cases that it's virtually a crap shoot. Rush Limbaugh has the dirtiest mouth on radio - how many times has he been sued for libel? Most libel cases I see involve rich and powerful people who want to shut up their critics.

Rush Limbaugh hasn't been sued for libel because libel is only written slander.

I think that, so long as we have free speech, we have to allow people to seek redress for speech that is false and harmful.

the hitman affair

When Teresa jests, keyboards die.

Maxine Ginsling
(Exoticish-locale adventures featuring two-bit Bogarts, one-bit Bacalls, and debituated Lorres.)

Danvers* Fabrique-Chaudiere
(Decadent stories set, as the cover says, "on the very fin of the siècle," in a Paris as real as any in Nevada. Phantoms optional.)

Scrumpy Manderley
(Clean but honest peasants doing clean but honest things amid the manicured fiefs of the suburban Middle Ages. Magic depending on which way the wind is blowing.)

*pron. "Dahn-VAIR."

1. The book is crap.
2. There is not a marketing plan in place.
3. Lack of funding for marketing.

Unless you are able to show you have a market for your book you will never receive substantial support of any publisher.
Also I hate it when folks say that Authorhouse is not a publisher, because it is and it is NOT a printer. If you look at the definition of both terms you would be pressed to define them as a printer.

I have not read the case notes from the judge....has anyone? I do know that Kansas has an odd tort law in place about libel. So if the case was not in Kansas would the outcome be different.

I think I've figured out where they go.

In case Move on isn't some kind of footware, if condition 1 is the reason the book isn't selling, the publisher needs to hire a better editor either to reject the crap or to improve the manuscript before it becomes a book. In cases 2 and 3, they just aren't doing their job. So if we accept your assertion that AuthorHouse is a publisher, they clearly are not a very good one.

A vanity publisher is a vanity publisher regardless what they claim to be. Self-publishing should never require an author to "sign away their rights" with an authentic publishing contract! Publishing Houses are not vanity publishers.

Preditors & Editors is a great source for learning the good, bad, and the ugly about publishers, editors, agents, etc. They give great advice and links to find your way around in the dark world of publishing.

After many hours (years actually) of researching while completing my novels, I have boiled the cabbage down to two options:

l) Seek an agent and thus if good enough, shoot for the stars (REAL Publishing Houses)

2) Become a publisher - pay a printer to print your book; retain all rights; learn how to market, sell and distribute your book. Spend all your time trying to sell the first novel and forget about ever having the time to write the next one.

(just a note on the second choice: better begin putting away every dime you can because it is NOT a cheap choice)

People just expect the publisher to carry them through the process and hold their hands until their book is a best seller. Some traditional publishers do. AuthorHouse doesn't. If you're not serious about actually devoting yourself to a quality book and to marketing, then do not choose a SELF PUBLISHING company.

You may not realize it, but there are actual professional writers hanging out here; they know what publishing companies do, and it does not involve the publisher holding their hands and magically making it a best seller.

Yes, self-publishing is a lot more work for the author, and there can be a bit of vanity in the author's motives. But self-publishing doesn't require you to do business with crooks.

I'm tempted to get a printed copy of my NaNoWriMo book, just because I can, but it'll be an honest print-on-demand deal, for printing something that I hope is half-way competent.

And the only way I'd want to touch Authorhouse with the proverbial ten-foot pole would be by dropping it from orbit.

Go to a bookstore. See all those books on the shelves? Find ones like yours. See who published them. Get those publishers' guidelines. Follow the guidelines to the letter. If the guidelines say "agented works only," find out who represented those books and submit your work to those agents, following the agents' guidelines to the letter.

I have no illustrations at all. While I can write, I am not gifted in the art department.

That's good, because usually the publisher wants to pick the artist. NOTE: You do not pay the artist, the publisher does.

Meanwhile, you might want to hook up with SCBWI, and you'll definitely want to start working on your next book.

In addition to what Jim posted (he's a published author, I'm not) your local library should have a copy of Writer's Market for recent years.

Check it out from the library - or buy a copy if you're so inclined - and you should find in it specific sections on a wide variety of genres, who publishes them, and how best to submit manuscripts to those publishers, including (I think) a section on children's books. You'll find that a much cheaper and more useful investment of time and money than getting pulled into a fraudulent vanity publishing house.

How much did your book cost? What would it have cost through Lulu.

How many copies has AH sold, to anyone but you?

a) The folks in this forum have a very wide range of experiences, backgrounds, and vocations. Also, there are a lot of us here who have been acquainted in person for literally decades. Such things do make a difference as regards communications and weighting words, when one has some additional knowledge about someone, than what they have typed that shows on a display.
b) You have not given the name of you book or any pointers to descriptions of it-what it's about, who the intended audience is, etc. My vocatioal background involves math, science, engineering, and test engineering. When I see assertions, I expect there to be something evidential to bulwark the assertions. But without you saying anything about your book, even the name, beyond your assertions about it, I see no support for your claims....
c) "Good Christian" is neither a recommendation nor usually a detriment regarding a book. Someone can be a lousy Christian, or not Christian at all, and still be a good writer and popular author (Laurell K. Hamilton's books are quite popular, and she is a non-Christian. Deepak Chokra's books are popular, and he is not a Christian. And there are people who are wonderful people, whose books sell so poorly that they are commercially unviable as writers...) Being a good Christian has nothing to do with ability to write books which people find worthwhile buying/publishing/reading.

Almost anybody can write a book; whether the book is worth reading by other people, is a different issue-Atlanta Nights is a book, Atlanta Nights is an expansive piece of crap, written to be a piece of crap, and accepted for publication nonetheless despite the blank chapter and the repeated chapter, because the "publisher" accepting the book for publication, was an operation which was a scam perpetrated upon wannabee writers, and not a business with a business model based on publishing books which earned their publications by sales of the published book to the public (as opposed to the author paying the "publisher" for publication, the hallmark of a vanity press/author scam.)

Being "available" and selling to readers are two very different things.

Who's asking you to write a sequel?

If you do (and only do so if it pleases you to do so), then I suggest you start looking at publishers that actually have books on the shelves in stores.

If you're asking me for the name of the judge and the lawyers who were involved in the suit against AuthorHouse, I'm afraid that I don't know.

===========

Clarence: Check your contract. Do you have a clause allowing you to audit the publisher? If so, you'd probably have to hire your own accountant, but you should be able to find out the actual sales numbers.

But be advised that it's likely that the true sales, when the audit is done, will turn out to be very low.