DIFFERENT WAYS TO PUBLISH – VANITY PRESS

Recently I taught a class on the many different ways to publish your manuscript. I wanted to share with you some of the things I learned in the research I did for the class. There are many ways to publish your novel, and some of them are not the best. Vanity Press is one of them.

When I think about publishing through a vanity press, I think about a snake oil salesman. Someone who wants to talk you into doing something that is a scam, or as we say in East Tennessee,  \”someone is pulling the wool over your eyes.\” Not all vanity presses are questionable, but several are.

What is a vanity press? A vanity press charges you to publish your book. They promise to publish the book and give you a certain number of copies. The copies depend on the level of publishing you select. The price can run between $2,000 and $20,000. It depends on how many books you want and the perks you want with the publishing.

When I began writing, I started looking at ways to publish. One company I searched was a vanity press. This company was an offshoot of a major publisher. They told me if the company liked the book, this major company might take it. That is after I would pay the money to have it vanity published. The word \”might\” bothered me like a broken toenail. The more I thought of it, the more I decided this was definitely a vanity press. They were selling me a pack of goods.

In preparation for the class I read an article by someone who had investigated this company also. They showed the difference in the price to publish a book, and the prices the vanity press was charging.

I have owned a small press for several years. We received one proposal from an author, and when I searched Amazon, I found the book on Amazon. He had published with a vanity press. He, like so many I\’ve talked to, has a basement full of books. We saw what he had done and backed out of the contract. He lied to us when he told us it had never been published before. Remember when you go to a vanity press, you are burning your bridges behind you. Publishers will not publish a book that has been published with a vanity press.

A vanity press does not edit your book. They may or may not put it on Amazon. Most of the time you have to put it on Amazon to sell yourself, but you will get all of the royalties. You should never be charged to publish your book, edit your book, or put your book on Amazon.

Yes, there are some legit vanity presses, but a few companies have darkened the name. There are pitfalls to going with a vanity press. You pay a lot of money for books that you have to sell yourself. Don\’t be taken in by them.