Anonymous Patron writes “While “vanity” and other variations of self-publishing are often looked down upon, it’s still a way to get into print. But those with hopes of leveraging their books into something bigger face a tough reality.
The Greater Baton Rouge Business Report Has a good look at How three local authors took books from concept to customer in the hit-or-miss world of self-publishing.”
Self-publishing isn’t necessarily “vanity”
The article itself was good; too bad they included a misguided remark about vanity publishing.
Of the three examples shown, one was PoD publishing (BookSurge) and two were new small publishers, two of the tens of thousands of tiny publishers that counter the trend toward just a few huge publishers. None was what I consider to be vanity publishing.
Vanity publishing does–or did–have a fairly specific definition: “Publishers” who are “looking for fresh writers” and seem to accept pretty much anything they get, and ask for a little help from the writer in terms of a few thousand dollars toward the publishing cost. The author convinces themself that they’ve been published by a Real Publisher, gets a few copies of a book (which may only be printed in a few copies), and is out big bucks. [A recent LISNews story concerned a “publisher” who appears to be a vanity publisher, sometimes also called a subsidy publisher.]
Self-publishing, on the other hand, is an old and honorable practice that’s just a whole lot easier and cheaper these days, particularly if you use the Publish-on-Demand route. You know you’re not being published by Some Name Publisher; you know nobody but you is going to publicize your book or anything of the sort…but, on the other hand, you’re paying for production (and, with services like Cafe Press, Lulu, and the like, handling)–not hoping for royalties. You own all the rights; you get all the profits; if all goes well, you can either turn the single book into a “small publisher” situation (as in one of the three stories) or sell the manuscript to a traditional publisher for broader distribution (but a lot less revenue per book).
Unfortunately, quite a few people lump all non-traditional publishing in with vanity presses. That’s a shame.