Primrose Road

An actual excerpt from Sally Stern-Hamilton's PublishAmerica title The Library Diaries:

"I hope after reading this book you are convinced of the far reaching consequences we all face when we allow active addicts and alcoholics...and people with low IQ’s to have children."

Stern-Hamilton is the library assistant recently fired from her job after writing a book heavily critical of her workplace. She's trying to frame the story as one of free speech and censorship, but the book's mean-spiritedness, nonchalant advocating of forced sterilization, and lumping together sex offenders (indeed a serious problem if they're around children) with alcoholics, drug addicts, and people with low IQs suggests "free speech" was not the reason why she was fired. If the book doesn't appear on library shelves (which it won't), it's not censorship: it's related to the fact that PublishAmerica will publish anything (as a clever sting operation revealed), invest $0 in marketing, and encourage its authors to (1) invest their own money in marketing, (2) sell to family and friends, and (3) buy copies of their own book. Because of this business model, PublishAmerica cannot participate in the US's Cataloguing in Publication (CIP) program, and therefore its books cannot be placed in libraries.

Some writing websites have taken interest in the case of a woman fired for publishing a thinly fictionalized critique of the library at which she works through PublishAmerica. Happily, the writers on the AbsoluteWrite message board are discussing why this is not entirely a free speech issue because libel and confidentiality breaches (which impinge on others' legitimate rights) come into play. And, of course, these message board posters seem to be the only commenters our there right now acknowledging the fact that PublishAmerica is not a "grassroots organization ... willing to publish people who are unknown" (as Sally Stern-Hamilton asserted in the original Ludington Daily News article) but rather a known scam that takes advantage of inexperienced and/or young authors. Amusingly, Stern-Hamilton, her book and her case are strongly supported by a site heavily critical of American libraries (not only considering them unsafe for children because of the purported presence of Internet-seeking pedophiles but also labeling the ALA's Banned Books Week as mere "propaganda"). So what have we learned, kinderlekh? If you're going to publish a book critical of your workplace, (1) don't use your maiden name as your pseudonym, (2) don't let your "publisher" send out publication announcements to your family and friends; moreover, don't publish with an organization that makes money by selling only to family and friends of authors, and (3) whatever you do, don't put a picture of your workplace on the cover of your fictionalized, hidden-beneath-a-vague-pseudonym account of your workplace.