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Publishing Choices For Writers - Self-Publishing Vanity Presses (Part One)

Another type of publishing under the self-publishing umbrella is what is euphemistically called Vanity publishing or a Vanity press. A vanity publisher is one which will publish any book as long as an author is willing to pay for it. Because it is almost impossible for someone to get into a traditional publishing house as an unknown, vanity presses are very attractive to new authors.

The name vanity publishing stems from the fact that certain publishers, for a fee, will publish any work by appealing to an author's vanity. These authors would be willing to pay a fee to see their name in print, no matter what the quality of the manuscript. As such, vanity presses gained a reputation of being more interested in the money they got from the authors than in the quality of work since the author takes on not only all the costs but also all the risks of the success of their book. Basically then, vanity presses have nothing to lose by publishing any type of work.

This stigma attached to vanity publishers has only recently begun to be re-evaluated as the publishing industry's choices have expanded and new vanity presses have changed the vanity press business model. However, depending upon who you talk to and their outlook on vanity publishing, an author will need to look closely as to whether or not they want to choose to publish with a vanity publisher.

There are several keys to recognizing whether or not a company is a vanity publisher. The vanity publishing business model is based upon obtaining profits from being paid by the author rather than from any sales of a book. Since they will have already received their income from making the book, a true vanity publisher does not have to be concerned with the quality of the work they publish because they do not care whether or not the book ever sells.

A second key to look for when trying to determine whether an author wants to work with a vanity publisher are the services that are provided to help the author with their book. A true vanity publisher will offer no services to an author and will take a work and publish it "as is", no matter how many spelling or grammatical errors the work contains. If an author just wants to see their book in print, then this will not be an issue. However, if an author wants to have a book they are proud of displaying, then having the option to take advantage of editorial and design services is a necessity in any publisher they choose.

More recently, hybrid vanity publishing houses have emerged which are changing the way the public is looking at vanity publishing. Author House, IUniverse, Lulu, UPublish, Xlibris are all examples of hybrid vanity presses. Like vanity presses, they will publish any work for a fee, no matter the quality of the work with no editorial quality assurance review. However, these houses have added editorial and design services that an author can pay for, thus making them not true vanity houses, but rather vanity hybrids. If an author takes advantage of the editorial, cover design and layout services, these presses can produce excellent work.

Why would any author want to publish with a vanity house if it has such a bad reputation? In part two of this series about vanity publishing, I will discuss several reasons why a vanity press may be an appropriate option for an author.

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