It is natural for writers to be eager to get published
but it pays to be wary of the vanity publishers who will take your money
and give you very little in return. The term ‘vanity’ was coined by
campaigner Jonathan Clifford in 1959 to cover this kind of activity where
the author is effectively conned into paying over a sometimes quite
substantial sum by the publisher’s willingness to publish their book.
Once the money is handed over, the publisher produces the book, but often
very little is done to market it and the sales can be minuscule.
How can you tell whether a publisher who is enthusiastic about your work
is really a vanity publisher or the genuine article? Vanity publishers
describe their activities as ‘subsidy’ or ‘partnership’ publishing. They
often advertise for manuscripts, which no genuine publisher would do. In
fact, publishers are deluged with unsolicited manuscripts and have no
shortage of material submitted to them.
The real giveaway though is that you should not be paying a
publisher to bring out your work. Genuine publishers make their money
from selling books, so they have to select the books they take on to
achieve that end. They must be sure they can make money through
publishing a book, ie cover the costs of any editorial work,
publication, production, sales and distribution, as well as making a
contribution to their own overheads, and still make a profit on the
individual project.
The simplest way of detecting a vanity publisher is that they will
ask you to finance the cost of publishing your own book. Traditionally
the sums involved have often been in the region of £3,000 ($5,685), which
will usually include undertaking to print a set number of books. It can
also be hard to be sure that the publisher actually does print the numbers
of books they say they are going to. The real problem though is that
it’s even harder to detect whether or not any effort is made to promote
and sell your book. It is genuinely difficult to market unknown
authors, so the vanity publishers, along with other publishers, certainly
would find this hard going. The problem though is that they con you into
thinking that they will. They undertake to achieve a certain amount of
publicity and sales - and then don’t. By then the author has signed
the contract and paid over their money, so even if they are unhappy there
is little that can be done about it.
Anthologies
A rather less unpleasant form of vanity publishing is when the author
is expected to contribute to having their work placed in an anthology,
sometimes through buying books but also possibly through an upfront
payment. Although it is unwise to assume that the publisher really is as
enthusiastic about your work as they say they are, there’s no real harm in
getting involved in one of these projects if you understand what is going
on and want to see your work in the anthology – provided of course that
the cost is something you are prepared to pay. Don’t forget though that
this approach will affect the quality of the book as a whole, and you may
not be happy with the other material in the anthology.
Self-publishing
A distinction should also be drawn between vanity publishing and
self-publishing, where the author finances the publishing of their own
book. The author needs to understand that it will be down to them as the
self-publisher to promote and sell it. The good thing about
self-publishing is that it is very much cheaper than vanity publishing, as
it generally uses print on demand and books are only produced when they
are required. Equally importantly, the author is in charge and keeps
all their rights. This means that they continue to control their own
destiny and are not at the mercy of a possibly crooked publisher.
There are many ways of self-publishing your own book and this is to be
recommended if you really want to see it in print and would prefer not to
fall into the clutches of the vanity presses. Self-publishing will also
be very much cheaper.
So, in conclusion, watch out for the vanity presses, who seek to take
your money and offer you very little in return. If you want to read up on
this subject, Jonathan Clifford is the acknowledged expert and his website
has more specific information. His free Advice Pack gives more detail
about this and he will send it to you if you simply email him with your
address.
Self-publishing, Vanity Publishing and Private Publishing
WritersPrintshop self publishing service
Jonathan
Clifford’s site
Chris Holifield
