author house/the writer's association

Anybody out there famliar with The Author House and The Writer's Association? www.authorhouse.com is the website...The Writer's Association is geared to contact and communication with authors/aspiring authors. They have a critique circle as well as a chat room. The Author House actually leads you through the publishing process and advertises you nation wide with stores like Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com.
I would like feedback from anyone who has had contact or who knows anything about this group. The two are the one and the same.
Thanks, Rose

This is what Preditors & Editors http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/ has to say about Author House

AuthorHouse (formerly 1st Books): Not recommended. A vanity publisher.
5/17/06 - If you don't know by now, AuthorHouse lost a libel suit in court. It seems that the courts and jury decided that a publisher couldn't disavow itself of what it published. In other words, AuthorHouse should have vetted what it accepted before publishing. Now they owe several hundred thousand dollars and may have to pay even more in punitive damages.

Hi Rose, I checked into all of these self-publishing houses before I finally decided to do it myself.

If you go this route, please read all the fine print in the contract. You want to be sure that you have ALL control of your book. Who owns the ISBN? Who owns the copyright? What if you want to move to a different publisher? etc.

Also, you pay them (sometimes lots of money) to get your book published, they do very little, if anything, to help you market your book. Oh, it might be posted on Amazon for sale, but who's going to know it's there without marketing?

Unless you are already a famous author or a celebrity, YOU will be the main one to market and sell your book - and it takes lots of time and isn't always cheap.

I wish you the very best in your publishing journey. This is the right place to ask these questions - there's a lot of ladies on this forum who've been down this road, and I'm sure they'll have lots more comments and advice.

Kathy

Amen to what Kathy is saying!
A fellow coach contacted me with similar questions and we are working up a proposal for him (My husband and I own a small publishing house) to create, edit, print and do all the ISBN/Catalog in Print information. We'll put the book on our website (although we will have a new imprint for coaching/self-help books) and send to Amazon, but like Kathy says, the bulk of the marketing will be on the author.

Feel free to send me a private email to discuss further if you would like. Or keep asking questions -- its the best way to learn!

Good luck!