As in almost any industry or vocation - investment firms, medicine, home improvement companies, distance learning, mortgage banks, insurance companies, discount retailers, and many, many more - the author services industry (subsidy publishing, print on de book promotion services, editing services, literary agencies) has both legitimate providers and scam artists competing in the marketplace. All the rules of thumb apply: read the agreement carefully, don't accept vague terms, ask questions, talk to a live per-son, check business references and company history, don't be pressured, if it sounds too good to be true, be skeptical and find out why. And while it is a fact that there are indeed scammers among the companies that provide author services, by no means should all author services companies be categorized as such and painted with the same broad brush.

For example, the author services company with which I have been associated for over thirty years, Dorrance Publishing and its related companies, is not and has never been a scam. There are individuals who believe authors should never pay to have their work published. For them, charging authors for publishing services is in itself a scam. We have heard this criticism throughout the decades, and it is born of individual prejudices. Literary purists say, if a work merits publication, a traditional publisher will pay for its publication. That has never been the case. There have always been good, worthwhile books written for a niche market, or written by an unknown author, or written for private distribution, or written in conjunction with a business or organization, or written for a workshop or course that do not have broad appeal or meet the criteria of a trade, mass market, paperback, textbook, religious, or scholarly publishing company. It is for that reason the Dorrance name has been attached to high quality publishing for ninety years. Companies that last that long provide a valuable service. Today newspaper and magazine headlines shout out the opposing truth. "Time" Magazine recently stated that traditional publishing is dying, " a victim of its own inability to find a reason for being." And "The New York Times" in an article appearing earlier this year about self-publishing stated, "Traditional publishing declines while self-publishing is flourishing."

In 2009 almost a million new titles were published, many more than ever would have been published without authors services and self-publishing options. Victoria Cochrane writes in BestSyndcation.com," Because many publishing houses have been known to edit and pare down individual style, self-publishing has become the preferred method of choice for many authors." And Alice Pope of "Writer's Digest" says,"Self-publishing can be just as much the author experience as that of those picked up by major publishing companies because these days it's mostly up to the author to publicize the book and market it." So much for the purists, many of whom despite the disintegration of traditional publishing, still write of the alternatives, "Don't do it!"

If you read a consumer complaint or see a blog post about Dorrance or any other author services company, consider the source. Is it a competitor? Is it someone who has a vested interest in that company's failure or demise? Is it an emotional outburst not based in facts? Is it just one of many posts, others of which are positive? Look at the dates. If it's three, four, five, six years old, why are there not more recent complaints if a pattern exists? A closer look at Dorrance provides some history and perspective on the company and what you might expect when doing business with them.

Dorrance is the oldest name is subsidy publishing, and the company is celebrating a ninety-year history that is unique in the subsidy publishing field. Colonel Gordon Dorrance, a member of the distinguished Main Line Philadelphia family that owned Campbell's Soup Company, originally founded the company in 1920.  Throughout its history, Dorrance has had only
five owners; all have held the company for long periods of time and were committed to its mission of offering excellence in publishing opportunities to authors, most of who have been new and unknown, and who believe in their work and wish to exercise their rights of self-expression.

The Dorrance family owned and operated the company for five decades, then during the
1960s the ad agency Dorrance had worked with in promoting its books, Briggs &
Associates, purchased the company. After a number of years Anthony Parrotto, who was
the ad agency's accountant, bought the firm and took on the role of president until the
early 1980s. While building Dorrance, Parrotto had spun off a new ad agency and
printing firm, The Kingswood Group, and wanted to direct more of his energies into the
development of that other business. Elizabeth and Robert House (I and my husband),
both of whom had many years of experience in traditional publishing, then purchased the
company from Parrotto.

Finally in 1989, a successful Pittsburgh businessman, who had founded and owned
several businesses in Pittsburgh, purchased the Dorrance name, assets, and inventory.
I stayed on as managing director for sixteen years. From its first location
in downtown Philadelphia, to Ardmore and Bryn Mawr on the Main Line, the company
moved in 1989 to western Pennsylvania and took up headquarters in downtown
Pittsburgh where it remains to this day.

The Dorrance saga is a reflection of historic changes in publishing in the United States
throughout the years. When the country was new, one of its most well-known and lasting
works, Poor Richard's Almanack, was written and published by Benjamin Franklin. As
time went on and the costs of printing became more economical and more people could
read, greater numbers of books were printed. By the late 19th century, a hundred years
after Franklin, most books published in America were paperbacks that were pirated from
European publishers. American book publishers were not likely to publish American
authors when they could "borrow" from European authors. In 1891 copyright law was
introduced to protect European authors. This change forced American publishers to begin
to publish original American manuscripts. Still many well-known authors, Whitman and
Poe for example, had paid for the publication of their own work, and the tradition
continued.

Legend has it that, early in the next century, Colonel Gordon Dorrance had a dispute with
his publisher, Scribner's, over the editing of a book titled The Pocket Chesterfield, and so
he started his own company and published the pocket book himself in 1920 under the
Dorrance imprint. A 1921 issue of a publication titled The Independent contains a review
of the book, listing Dorrance as the publisher and calling it a "little volume of
gentlemanly wisdom."

Nineteen years later, Dorrance was still successfully releasing titles, including Gordon
Dorrance's own historical work, The Bonapartes in America, published in 1939. That
volume remains available today through Kessinger, Publishers of Rare Reprints.

In 1955 Dorrance published a volume of poetry titled Ommateum by A. R. Ammons.
This collection helped establish Ammons' career as he went on to win the National Book
Award in 1972 and the National Book Critic's Circle Award in 1981. The 1950s also
featured Dorrance in the then new medium of TV as Lucy Ricardo wrote and submitted a
novel to Dorrance on Episode 90 of "I Love Lucy."

After receiving rejection notices from traditional publishers, Doris Paul published her
seminal work, Navajo Code Talkers, with Dorrance in 1973. This book, having sold
almost 100,000 copies over the years, is still in print with Dorrance. It has been featured
by the Smithsonian Institution, was the subject of four segments of CBS's "An American
Portrait" series, and provided the basis for a major motion picture released by MGM
Studios in 2002 titled Wind Talkers. The book and movie tell the dramatic story of the
courageous and critically important platoon of American Marines who were instrumental
in cracking the Japanese code during World War II.

Ken Bruen, popular and highly acclaimed mystery writer who has been a finalist for the
Edgar, Barry and Macavity Awards and the winner of the Shamus Award for best novel
in 2003, published his first book with Dorrance twenty years ago.

Over the years Dorrance has been at the forefront of the technological advances that have
transformed the book publishing industry. In the 1960s when typesetting was first
becoming computerized. Dorrance embraced the change and purchased its own
typesetting equipment before most publishers would consider the new approach. During
the 1990s when higher quality laser printers became available and could be used in
conjunction with offset presses, Dorrance began to experiment with creating its own
repro for cameras that produced negatives that were then chemically burned into plastic
plates. Later in that decade, Dorrance became the first subsidy publishing company to use
print-on-demand technology. Today when the technological explosion is changing the
marketplace with high quality e-readers, Dorrance publishes all its titles in both
conventional paper format and in all the popular e-reader formats so that all Dorrance
titles are available for purchase electronically.

Likewise in the area of promotion, while forty years ago Dorrance press releases, media
letters, and flyers were reproduced on a mimeograph machine and placed in the mail,
today the company utilizes the Internet for much of its book promotion efforts.
Dorrance's use of e-mail to targeted lists, online press releases, a book review web site
for reviewers to request copies of books, social networking, virtual book tours, and online
bookstores represent an approach to promotion that utilizes the most up-to-date
technology available.

During the 1970s the prosperity of publishing houses made them attractive acquisitions
for large corporations, and conglomerates purchased most well-known, traditional
publishers. This phenomenon dramatically changed the book publishing industry. 
Previously the vast majority of publishing companies were independently owned and
operated. Their editorial boards searched for quality writers and strove to introduce new
authors. With financial officers of corporations in control, over time modern-day
publishing companies have come to rely on issuing books by established authors and
celebrities and on following proven successful formulas. The number of new authors
published by these houses is extremely small. Ironically the small monopoly of
conglomerates that became interested in the industry for profits and that has controlled
publishing for thirty years finds itself now in a deteriorating position that has been
described as the "death of traditional publishing." A multiplicity of causes is offered, but
at the heart of the difficulties are the technological developments that have introduced
digital printing, web retailing, cyber communications, and social networking.

Even beyond the impact of technological changes, the acceptance of subsidy publishing
and self-publishing as primary means for authors to communicate with their audiences
has diminished traditional publishing while highlighting the benefits of subsidy
publishing and self-publishing options. All forms of self-publishing are growing while
traditional publishing declines.

Today Dorrance is not only America's oldest but largest full service subsidy publishing
company, having published almost 10,000 titles. The company continues to lead in the
subsidy publishing field by selling more books than any other subsidy publishing
company and by offering a wide array of publishing services that can be tailored to each
manuscript, author, and budget.. With all its various imprints - Rose Dog Publishing, Red
Lead Press, and Whitmore Publishing - Dorrance and its related programs provides
authors with choices that allow them to become active participants in the new world of
today's book industry where the democratization of publishing means there are more
ways than ever for authors to connect with readers to share their creative work and ideas.
Dorrance continues to hold to its ninety-year tradition of striving to satisfy its authors by
providing excellent service, as is attested to by the fact that the company has maintained
for decades a very good Better Business Bureau rating.

The company operates from its headquarters building in Pittsburgh in the historic
Triangle Building in the heart of the Cultural Center (next to August Wilson Center for
African American Culture).  It is conveniently located close to the Pittsburgh Convention
Center and train and bus terminals.  Authors come from all over the world to visit the
offices and are welcome to make appointments to discuss their manuscripts.
As Dorrance looks proudly to its past ninety years, the company sees its potential for
growth and success as practically unlimited. In the new climate of increasing acceptance
of and broad support for self-publishing and with technological advances that favor its
business, promotion and marketing models, with an experienced and knowledgeable staff
in place, Dorrance Publishing looks forward to its centennial celebration and the ensuing
decades with optimism and excitement. 

When choosing a company to partner with you in publishing your book, consider all that you have read; check with the Better Business Bureau to be sure there are no unanswered complaints; and make a rational and reasoned decision. A company such as Dorrance will be honest with you and upfront about both fees and services. They will not promise you the  moon, but they will make an honest effort to provide all the services they offer and that you pay for. You can't beat honesty, longevity, and success.

For more information, contact Dorrance Publishing Co., Inc.
www. dorrancepublishing.com (web)
1-800-695-9599 (phone)
Dorrance Publishing Co., Inc., 701 Smithfield Street, 3rd Floor, Pittsburgh, PA, 15222.