Author: Bill
1. Vanity Publishing
In my last post, I tried to make a distinction between vanity publishing and self-publishing. I also tried, with limited success, to convince the readers that the very word vanity is insulting. What I don’t understand and I hope someone will explain it to me, is why authors, particularly those who paid their dues and know how difficult it is to succeed in publishing, would want to continue labeling other authors with the demeaning term vanity.
Just because an author wants to print and distribute a book to a limited audience doesn’t make them vain. Family histories, poetry, even cookbooks usually come about as a labor of love. I thought about Love Publishing as a possibility and then decided it would probably be misinterpreted as an euphemism for romance or sex.
Instead I suggest that we re-name this type of publishing as limited. Limited Publishing instead of vanity is kinder, and really more accurate, don’t you agree?
2. Self-Publishing
New authors are vulnerable and there are plenty of people just waiting to fleece them. Whether they are wolves or knaves doesn’t really matter–the point is RUN away from them as fast as you can.
I have nothing but scorn for those publishing businesses that prey on the dreams of new authors to tap their wallets and bleed them dry. There is an abundance of trip-ups and traps in alternative publishing. One tip-off is praise that is too lavish. Once they say the book will only need light editing–watch out. Stephen King in his Author’s Note at the end of his recent book Dome, wrote “Nan Graham edited the book down from the original dinosaur to a beast of slightly more manageable size; every page of the manuscript was marked with her changes.” If Stephen King requires heavy editing, what do you suppose a fledgling author might need?
Many claim that they will produce your book and market it through catalogs or other means. Authors write to me about using these services and discovering, too late, that they are just a number, a notch in the publisher’s belt. After signing on the dotted line and paying their fees they were turned over to employees with questionable skills. One author told me that when speaking with a graphic designer she was told to peruse clip art and select her own graphic for the cover.
This author sent me a copy of her book. I read it cover-to-cover because I wanted to know for myself if it was a worthy book. It was. It was an excellent book. The cover art, however, violated all of the basic rules of good graphic design. It utilized four different type fonts, and the graphic was a small smiley face. The design fought the intention of the book. The book’s message was serious and the cover was silly. There were other problems with the inside layout too. So the author paid good money to get her book produced and she should have kept it in the bank instead. Remember no one will buy your book if they can’t get past the cover.
Don’t, please don’t, place your precious manuscript into the hands of publishing grist mills who hire the incompetent, the unknowledgeable, or inexperienced just to keep their costs down.
A bargain price should be your first tip-off. When they offer you a special deal or are having a sale, run the other way. These companies do not care about you or your book, their only concern is that you give them money and they produce it as cheaply as possible so they can maximize their profits.
If your ultimate goal is to someday sell your self-published book to a traditional publisher, you won’t impress anyone if your book appears to be sub-par. Doesn’t your book deserve the best chance of success you can give it?
Posted in Book Distribution, Book Production, Book Sales, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Traditional Publishing | 
Tags: Author, Author's Note, Bargain Price, Book, Book Cover, Catalogs, Clip Art, Cookbooks, Cover-To-Cover, Design, Distribute, Dome, Edited, Editing, Family Histories, Fledgling Author, Good Money, Graphic, Graphic Designer, Grist Mills, Heavy Editing, Knaves, Labor of Love, Layout, Limited, Limited Audience, Limited Publishing, Love Publishing, Manuscript, Market, Nan Grahm, Poetry, Print, Produce, Publishing Businesses, Romance, Sale, Self-Publishing, Serious, Sex, Silly, Special Deal, Stephen King, Sub-par, Success, Tip-off, Traditional Publisher, Traps, Trip-ups, Type Fonts, Vanity, Vanity Publishing, Wolves
If you only want a nice book with your name on it for your coffee table, then a vanity publisher is OK. But, don’t expect to see your book on the shelf of your local bookstore. If you want people to read your book and you don’t know how to sell them on your own, you might wish to wait for a trade publisher – for as long as it takes. If your book is well written and marketable, you have a good chance to be published by a trade publisher.
Step one is developing a terrific book proposal. Proposals must include very specific information in a very precise format. Fail to do this and you will likely be rejected immediately. At a minimum, your proposal must include a table of contents, sales attributes, author biography, synopsis, chapter titles, market analysis, competitive analysis, and marketing strategies. Some publishers require additional information. Read their submission guidelines very carefully. Each portion of this proposal is critical. Take your time and try to use at least one page for each content topic. The synopsis might require several pages. Sometimes the publisher will request several chapters, or the first three chapters. Read their submission requirements very carefully. Publishers receive hundreds of proposals daily and they will gladly delete yours if you fail to follow directions carefully, or fail to provide all of the information required in the guidelines.
Do not be discouraged. Being published is a numbers game. You might need to send out 100 proposals to get one acceptance and you might need to get three acceptances before you are satisfied with a publishing offer. I had five publishing offers for Jacob’s Courage before I was satisfied that I had the best offer. That means you might need to send out 300 proposals to receive just the right offer. You will want a publishing company well suited to your book and with the right financial arrangements.
Marketing is time consuming and often frustrating. But do not count on your publisher to do everything, particularly if you are a new author. Expect your publisher to contract with distributors and place your book on Amazon. But, unless your name is Stephen King, expect to do a lot of your own sales work. Be willing to conduct viral, electronic and web page marketing on your own. Use social networking sites. Create Blogs and write on other people’s Blogs. The harder your effort, the larger your royalty checks will be.
Learn more about how to be trade-published and how to market your book at htt://cweinblatt.wordpress.com/.
Charles Wenblatt
Author, jacob’s Courage
http://jacobscourage.wordpress.com/
Thank you for confirming what I’ve been telling people as well. Do not fall prey. However, how does a self-published author recoup the funds spent, promoting their book when bookstores won’t even consider them? Or little stores want a huge discount which means I sell my book at a loss, they make a profit. What I did was created literacy programs to help fund my publishing. Of course, it’s going to take lots of signed agreements for my programs to recoup the thousands I spent publishing my own books. Had I been able to afford to print thousands, sure…the per rate would have decreased. But, then, I’d have thousands of dollars expended and thousands of books sitting on my shelf. Catch 22 in my eyes.
I appreciate this article especially since now I am being bombarded by a number of book publishers offering “specials” and “huge discounts”.
It may be unprofessional to ask for more specific information, but could you give some clues as to which companies in particular to especially avoid, because I do know some authors who have sucessfully self published with some of the ones currently offering discounts.
Thanks so much for your advice.
Sincerely,
MMSwift
Dear Mari,
I discovered a website sponsored by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America and it is called “Writer Beware.” It is filled with specific information about publishers, agents, and scams. http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/
One vision I have for Red Hen is that we will attract enough members who have experienced the good, bad and the ugly that we can build a real-time data base to help authors. We envision a time when the Red Hen Association logo will appear on the marketing of recommended services. Those who don’t pass muster, of course, would not be allowed to use the mark.
Furthermore, I would like to see the mark available to self-publishing authors who have demonstrated high levels of quality. Part of what we are trying to do is raise the credibility and respect for self-publishers, I think you do that by encouraging professionalism and setting standards.
In addition to “Writers Beware”, I recommend “Preditors and Editors (http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/).
Great article! I too preach the message to authors to watch out and be aware as they go into publishing. One author I was chatting with recently was going to publish through Tate. I convinced her to keep looking and if needed come back to Tate. I also mentioned the San Francisco Writer’s conference to her because it is a bunch of agents, editors and writers meeting and sharing ideas. (www.sfwriters.org) She looked into a flight from Florida a hotel for the trip and her entry fee. That all totals over $1,000. She said it was still less than what Tate was asking her to spend. *sigh*
I’m actually trying to gather information to determine if self-published or limited published
authors are seeing a return on their publishing investment. I have a hypothesis from speaking to many authors over the years that there are too many authors spending thousands of dollars and not seeing a return that justifies the expense asked. If you’re willing to help me gather numbers, please send a message to sabrina -at sign -sabrinasumsion -dot -com.
Thanks again for your valuable article Bill!
Yes, right…. how about mentioning LULU, which is publishing on demand and charges almost nothing. The deal gave me gets me in every bookstore that uses an ISBN, and I paid not one cent for the service. The gates are open on the agent game. From Walt Whitman to Thomas Paine to many others — radicals have to have the right to publish outside of the suck-ass genre that the publishers want. After having my book turned down twice, I started a blog and have had over a million readers. I have turned down more calls from agents and movie stars than you would believe. I say, if you want to get published, go with LULU and forget about these dino’s who have published their elitist tracts long enough.
I published through an “indie” publisher and, so far, have been very pleased. I have no problems with doing my own marketing and promoting my work–after all, who knows it better than I do? I have been fortunate enough to make back the initial investment plus on my first novel, and am currently working on being close to the same on my second. I agree that any new author looking to “self-publish” should definitely do his/her homework and find a reputable publisher, talk to other authors who have used said publisher, and check all credentials before making an investment. There are definitely many who prey on fledgling, unsuspecting authors who are unfamiliar with the industry. My books are both national award-winners, and I am glad I went the route that I did with the option to submit to a trade publisher whenever I may wish to do so. On another note, editing is of the utmost importance if you do wish your SP book to make it in the big literary world. I believe that if you are willing to make the extra effort, you can have success regardless of how you decide to publish.
My experience with authors who not only take pleasure in using the term “vanity” but also lump anything not published by a large NY house as not *really* published leads me to one conclusion: these authors spent years querying agents and more years waiting for that elusive book contract, and anyone who pays to have their work published is taking the “easy way out.” It’s cheating. And cheaters are never welcome in the club.
I don’t agree with that perspective (I consider it right in line with snobbery), but it’s there and it’s strong and it’s something that all of us who are not big NY publishing houses are going to have to deal with somehow.
All excellent advice above, Bill. I think we are two people doing the same kind of thing for our authors. I like your Linked In site – have just discovered it. Just getting out on the internet more myself . . .
Two additional concepts:
1. The name we’ve coined for what we help authors do is “custom publishing.” Because each author works out their own “custom” plan – and we do only what the author would like us to, thus saving money. We only charge for consulting time, or graphics design, or jobbing the reproduction to a printer. We take no percentage of the book. This also saves the author time and money. We’ll even work within a budget, then hold everything until the author is ready to resume, if they need. When the author is finished, depending on how they sell their books – the profit can be all theirs – not just a small percentage of each book.
2. Also, it’s important to understand “self” publishing. This SHOULD mean that authors own the ISBN number THEMSELVES. If your “self” publisher uses their own ISBN number, even though they tell you that you still hold all the rights to your book – then the REAL publisher is THEM. The organization contacted when there is interest in your book – is the PUBLISHER, not the author – since it’s assumed they hold the rights. Sometimes you have to “buy back” the book. Often while you keep the text, you’ll lose the cover design, and/or layout design as the publisher considers that their own. Check any contract carefully.
NOTE: We are working on a chart, which will be on our web site early February 2010, which will compare the largest of the “self-publishing” companies. I agree with Bill – that information should be out there for aspiring authors. We could include critiques from authors as they come in too. That would help weed out the less ethical ones. (Touchstone-Com.com) We can all work together to get the information out there.
I’d suggest there’s still a place for the term “vanity press”… those companies who delude authors into thinking they’ve got a “real” publishing contract that will get them onto the bestseller lists but then gouge those writers with fees resulting in the author having a couple boxes of books and no distribution or marketing assistance. These same companies don’t care a bit about the quality of the writing, typically accept anything that flies over the transom and add little or no value. I have nothing but scorn for them.