Basically as of late it has been chosen by such go - it - alone folk as a counter label to «self - published» or «
vanity press published.»
But if somehow there's supposed to be a strong connect between waves and waves of
vanity press published or self - published PRINT books and bookstores, I fail to see how, exactly, it's going to evolve.
They want to attract people to their marketplace and other services for which they will charge money, but they're not (so far) offering
vanity press publishing services.
For tens of thousands of authors every year,
this vanity press publishing model has been... [Read more...]
Well, the greatest trick that vanity press publishers try to pull off every day is claiming that
vanity press publishing is self publishing.
I can remember when
vanity press publishing was considered an opportunity to print your book and with luck lead to being discovered and reprinted by a publishing house and eventually make money!
Not exact matches
For decades it was dismissed as the desperate refuge of authors rejected by
publishing houses, wannabes who paid a fee to a musty
vanity press that would dutifully typeset their words and transform them into a few boxes of books that the «writers» could hand out to their friends.
I started the day with the «nuts and bolts» of self -
publishing (and yes, a short rant on the evils of the
vanity presses).
I'm not a big fan of self -
publishing, and I certainly want to steer you away from
vanity presses.
And they don't encourage authors whose works aren't good enough for traditional
publishing to go get printed by those
vanity presses.
A
vanity press which charges you thousands of dollars to
publish your book might seem faster, but you lose a lot of choice with what they have to offer.
Please note that due to immense backlog, we no longer review self -
published and
vanity press works.»
Now that established authors are moving over to the indie book market, self -
publishing is gradually separating itself from the bad stigma of
vanity presses and carving its own unique identity.
If you are going to be an independent or small publisher, if you are going to take on the time, expense and trouble of
publishing your own book instead of letting a
vanity press do it for you, you need to know the following about the name of your endeavor:
That can seem exhausting, so many people prefer to sign with a
vanity press or «boutique
publishing agency» that sells services.
Around 2007, just when most people were starting to think you couldn't find anything in the
publishing world worse than a typical
vanity press, Author Solutions proved us all wrong.
This
vanity press and its numerous imprints are the full - blown cystic acne of the
publishing world.
Just as self -
published writers don't like to think of themselves as
vanity presses.»
Before you resign yourself to self -
publishing or
vanity press, do your homework and look into the world of small, independent, publishers.
As self -
publishing shrugs off its «
vanity press» stigma and becomes recognized as a bonafide and lucrative option, more and more traditionally
published authors are finding that going indie just makes more sense.
In a recent WBJB
Publishing Basics Radio interview with Jan Nathan, the Executive Director of PMA, Jan was asked the question, «What type of publishing (vanity, subsidy, traditional, small press, independent) best describe places like Author House, Xlibris and
Publishing Basics Radio interview with Jan Nathan, the Executive Director of PMA, Jan was asked the question, «What type of
publishing (vanity, subsidy, traditional, small press, independent) best describe places like Author House, Xlibris and
publishing (
vanity, subsidy, traditional, small
press, independent) best describe places like Author House, Xlibris and IUniverse?
What gets me with this comment is the misconception the commenter has about just what self -
published authors are and what
vanity presses are.
One of the biggest deterrents to self -
publishing is not the enormous amount of effort it will take to edit, format and market your own book, but rather the stigma surrounding self -
publishing and the closely linked «
vanity»
presses.
The only part of the self -
publishing process that has more charlatans than the
vanity press business as a whole is the book marketing business, in particular.
A
vanity press is something where you pay money for someone else to
publish your book.
a. Your book will be taken more seriously than if it is listed in all the databases as
published by a
vanity press or CreateSpace.
In the
vanity press business, there are a few honorable exceptions to the belief that it's fraught with peril; for far too many authors, though, the experience mirrors that of the authors who filed more than 800 complaints against Tate
Publishing and Music.
In the past, if you wanted to
publish a book you had to do it from a
vanity press or land a deal with a traditional publisher.
I also think most authors are not going to be prepared to license their rights to a
publishing service which takes the rewards of an upper - end traditional publisher while taking on obligations similar to a hands - off self -
publishing service or
vanity press in return.
Store owners hated these
vanity -
press people almost as much as they hated a young traditionally
published writer with a handful of bookmarks.
There are a number of models, and in my experience what sets them apart from
vanity presses is that they're run like
publishing companies.
Don't for one minute confuse self -
publishing with
vanity press.
Their publisher * name * (not some weird just self
publish vanity press) has value to these authors, not to readers.
If the
publishing house is putting ads on web pages, it is an almost certainly a
vanity press.
Should you try to get a traditional publisher like Random House, self -
publish, or work with a
vanity press?
When Ray first entered the
publishing industry, authors relied on «
vanity presses» to produce their work — many of whom would charge $ 15,000 or more and leave the author's garage filled with hundreds of books.
Adsett told Weekly Book Newsletter (WBN) that the aspects of the contract she was most concerned about were not replicated in commercial
publishing contracts or in «common
vanity press contracts».
The other option is going with a company, either a self -
publishing company or a
vanity press, to help you
publish your book.
For most of
publishing's history, if an author wanted to self -
publish, she had to invest thousands of dollars with a so - called «
vanity»
press, or study up on how to be an independent
publishing entrepreneur.
As authors moved towards circumventing traditional publishers or small
presses who required that a book be accepted in order to be
published in return for payment (one hopes), we saw the advent of
vanity presses and assorted
publishing opportunists.
Looking at the list of previous winners in one contest site, I noticed that every book category had winners
published by a
vanity press with a shady and notorious reputation.
I had just begun reading about what they are and the services they provide and was struggling to really find the line that separates these services from self -
publishing /
vanity press types of situations.
For example Penguin Books started a Book Country imprint which has been criticized as a
vanity press that preys on authors who want to be «affiliated» with the
publishing leviathan.
Literary Agent Undercover is built upon the simple idea that it's much better to «get paid to
publish» instead of «pay to
publish» and waste years of your life (and possibly thousands — or tens of thousands — of dollars self -
publishing or working with
vanity presses.
A Note about the Brand Name: If you see a big name traditional publisher tied to a
vanity press, here's what you need to know: it's still a
vanity press if you're paying for their services or their books or to be
published.
I've pulled together a short list of websites that every author should check out prior to signing any contract with any publisher — traditional, self -
publishing,
vanity press, or co-publisher.
I prefer the term «indie -
published» because it avoids the taint of the «
vanity press» that people associate with self -
publishing.
E-book technology has helped make indie
publishing a genuine power and a viable option, but there are still indie writers — not victims of
vanity presses — who also list on places like Lulu out of respect for the small but definite market sales they can get from paper book readers.
Control and management of your metadata is one of the chief benefits of being a self -
published indie author and this control gives you a huge advantage over larger publishers, and even what you can achieve using a
vanity press.
The overwhelming majority of the people that I run into who have any experience with one of these
vanity presses not only know nothing about how
publishing works, but need to be completely «deprogrammed» and made to start all over or it just doesn't work.