Publish and Market Press is a front for Pagefree Publishing -- as is SageEvansPublishing.com. (Sage Evans is supposed to be the 'consultant' at Publish and Market.)

Each of these companies use the same publishing prefix in their ISBNs -- possible only BECAUSE they are the same company with different names.

Furthermore, SageEvansPublishing.com is registered to Kim Blagg, owner of Pagefree Publishing. This is visible presently under the registry page - but she'll doubtless make this registration private as soon as she realizes her mistake. I have made a copy if you would like to have it.

A quick google search will reveal a plethora of authors complaining of author abuse of every kind. What the owners, Kim and Gary Blagg learned early on in their career is that in Michigan, they can get away with it. Many authors living across the US and internationally have filed complaints with the authorities in Michigan, but because each individual author usually only has losses of up to a couple thousand dollars, it is supposed to be handled in small claims court: this loss is not dramatic enough for the authorities to react to.

If you count the large number of contracts the Blaggs have each year, however, each contract from between $399 and $1699 and more, that's quite an income they have fraudulently acquired, not to mention the royalties they generously promise (75%) but never give to the author.

And then there's the print files that the author is required to buy from them, for thousands of dollars, should the author wish to continue production of their book with another publisher. (Note: the new company promises the author that they own the print-files, but the fine print in the contract says that the company owns any work they produce--the exact claus Pagefree uses to hold on to ownership of the print-files. (Yes, Publish and Market's contract is identical to the one Pagefree used, only the names have changed.)

All Pagefree authors will tell you that the initial contact was extremely pleasant. Kim may spend over an hour on the phone with a new author and write kind, thoughtful emails. But once the contract is signed and the money transferred, the author begins to get a dose of the true tone of the company: rudeness, avoidance, and finally, humiliation, dismissal, and breaking off contact altogether (they no longer answer emails and when they see your caller ID will not take your calls).

If you look at their websites (they have taken Pagefree down because the Internet complaints became too visible to continue business under that name), you have to assume this is a large company. How could they offer so much for so cheap otherwise? But that is really all the company IS: a website that offers a bunch. There is no law that will hold them to fulfill their promises, or to giving you your money back when you realize they are not competent enough to fulfill the contract and edit and format your book properly.

We authors (about 50 0f us) who have gone through the Pagefree maze wish now to prevent them from hurting more authors. Most authors have one thing in common: we are hardworking, decent people with a story to tell. It is hard for us to imagine that anyone would set up a business designed to dupe us and take advantage of our hard work and good nature. But these people have done precisely that.

Please do your research -- before signing on with any of this type of publishing house.

One way to approach the research is to go onto amazon and do an advanced search (to the left beneath the upper bar). That will allow you to search the publisher. Under Pagefree you will find that most of the authors have withdrawn their books--the books are no longer available except as used (available from these sellers...). Now put in Publish and Market. To date they have only produced FOUR books. And two of those have authors who only provide their first names... they could have been written by Kim herself.

Presently, none of the books are available for sale. That is because the printer most such publishers use (lightningsource.com) is no longer working with Pagefree (and since Publish and Market is using the Pagefree ISBN, the printer recognizes them as the same source). They will have to find another printer, but will be unable to find one who works intimately with amazon so that amazon always has your books in stock. So really, at this point they are unable to fulfill their most basic promise: they cannot even get your book to amazon.

Now, you can use this same research approach to research any publisher -- and in the results you will see all the books they have produced and by clicking on them, you can see how many are actually selling well. This will key you in to whether this publisher has anything substantial to offer you. No amount of return-ability or other promotion package that a publisher offers to sell will get you sales, so don't let yourself be pulled into putting a lot of money down for nothing. But a good cover and a nicely constructed amazon page will go a long ways--and the publisher has control over the latter.

I am writing this to key you in to what is going on with Publish and Market. Too many authors have been injured. Take care of yourself and make wise choices!