# American Writing Association?



## Johnny (Jul 16, 2014)

Hey guys! 

So I'm about halfway through a book (~50k words) and am researching publishing companies. Has anyone else ever used the American Writing Association? 
Their website it http://www.writingassociation.org/index.html. 

My first impression is that the site is a little shady, but then after entering my contact information they called me and one of their "representatives" talked to me about how to submit my book and said they'd review it for free before any publishing fees. I get that they're more of a head hunting agency for literary agents but they still don't really seem very legitimate. I might have them review my material just for the sake of having it looked over for free but then obviously not give them any money if they want to proceed after that. The whole thing seems too easy and a little fishy. 

I also heard from Xlibris and talked to a guy there although I believe they are based more on E books. Their company seems a bit more legit judging by their website and reviews online (something I could not find for AWA) 

Has anyone here ever gotten a book published? Which companies did you go through? I've heard of people submitting what they have before finishing the entire book, did you wait until then? 

In case you can't tell I'm pretty new to this. Thanks everyone!


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## movieman (Jul 16, 2014)

The general rule is that publishers should pay for your book, you shouldn't be paying them to publish it.

I've never heard of this particular group, so I can't comment on them.


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## TWErvin2 (Jul 16, 2014)

*Johnny*,

Someone on another forum I visit asked this question. This write indicated that the American Writers Association relayed that they would query or shop his novel to at least a thousand agents, after they did a free critique and if they thought it would merit such. They wanted $699.00 for this service.

Here was my response:


> Do you really think there are a thousand agents and editors that  represent/publish your specific genre and would be interested in your  novel because of that? And that they're  (ARA) going to take the time to sort  through their list? Or do you think it's more likely that the (ARA) have 1000  email addresses and will fire off a form email to all of them? And how  would that be received? If the publisher/agent has been contacted by  them before and say they're a YA publisher or an agent that represents  mysteries, and they get a steamy romance submission via the ARA, that anything else  from that submission agency (or whatever their term is--association)  will even be considered? Or just deleted, unlooked at?
> 
> Their  testimonials only list a first name...so it's hard to look up the  author/writer/agent listed. They list 5 successful contacts this month,  but no details.
> 
> ...



As far as Xlibris, they're going to charge you money as well to publish. If you're going to pay, you might as well self-publish, and hire your own cover artist and find an editor. It'll be cheaper and you have a far better chance of finding success and recouping your investment.

Pick out some random books published by Xlibris and check out their ratings on Amazon. Are they all in the millions or no sales at all? 

I just looked at a children's book, published a few weeks ago. It's 30 pages long and lists for $28.00 in soft cover. No sales recorded (but discounted a couple dollars). The Kindle has a 420,000 rating, which means at least in the past few days, someone has purchased a copy. A YA book of 130 pages that goes for $19.99 soft cover and 27.00 hard cover, and 3.99 Kindle. It has no reviews and a rating of 420.

Those come from Xlibris' featured page, which an author might have to pay for.

I looked up the first fiction title I could find on their best seller list. It was published in 2007, was listed in the 5 millions in sales, from iUniverse, which I think Xlibris absorbed some time back.

I went to fantasy fiction on the the Xlibris site, and picked the first novel from the normal listing. One review, a 50 page novel for about 13 dollars in soft cover.

*Johnny*, you should do the research to see if you'll even come closes to making back your investment. My cursory one (which is limited and may not be fully accurate with respect to the big picture) is that the books do not sell well, which means that they might be poorly edited or written, or not marketed at all) and are far over priced.  With an unknown author, who is going to pay twice the normal retail price for a print edition. Ebook is closer to equity with other works, but still a little high based on the length of the works.  Also, one that I was able to look inside only had two pages of information content, and stopped before chapter 1 (so I wasn't able to check the grammar and formatting).

Many would term Xlibris as a vanity press, as they're reputed to publish anything for a fee. Some will call it assisted self-publishing. But if money comes from your pocket for the process, it's not what others would call 'traditional publishing' where the publisher pays for the process (cover, editing, ISBN, formatting, review copies, etc.) and stays in business by selling books, not off of author fees.

A good website, while an indicator of a legitimate publisher, doesn't mean it is one that a writer should submit their work to.

Again, it's up to you.

Good luck as you move forward, whatever direction decide to take.


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## Johnny (Jul 17, 2014)

movieman, I generally knew that but isn't that extremely hard to do? (Not that I won't try, I've gotten this far, might as well keep going.) 

TWErvin, I definitely agree with you. It would be silly to put down 700 dollars for a service you aren't sure will work or have no reason to believe will. The AWA is definitely fishy, I wonder how many people actually pay them money (I would have them read what I wrote for free feedback but would never pay them.) 

I suppose I should look for a literary agent before submitting it to any real publishing companies. The book is only about halfway done or so, so I should finish it completely first. 

I've googled things like "list of best publishing companies" and stuff like that and usually get bombarded with junk, I obviously know famous ones like random house or scholastic etc. but I'm sure those are not easy to submit to. 

I would post what I have of my book on here but I'm not sure how many people have the time to read through almost 50k words haha. I only really am interested in publishing it in hard cover, no ebooks or any of that junk. My book is good though, I have my own cover/art designed, a plan for a series and even movie ideas but I'm still aware at how hard it is to make real money off something like that. 

Thanks again for the help.


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## spartan928 (Jul 17, 2014)

Check this out;

Writer Beware: American Writing Association


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## Caragula (Jul 17, 2014)

I would look for a literary agent first.  If that doesn't work, you can always go straight to the publishers.

I put in another thread that I got an agent by submitting to agencies first, then the agent was able to take me to 'the top table' with publishers due to his contacts.  In this case, lunch with the head of publishing and two senior commissioning editors, pitching my book straight at them.  There's no way you or I could get that kind of access without family connections, or that amount of their time.

You can still make it straight off the publisher slush pile of course.

If even that fails, as I had expected it to before now, you have the option to go self-published, a perfectly good fall-back in all cases, and in some cases, an epic win (50 Shades, Wool etc.)


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