Self-Publishing & Vanity Press
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
Another avenue for publication is self-publishing. There are two options in self-publishing, desk-top publishing or vanity presses. In desk-top publishing, the author publishes the book from start to finish, doing all printing, copyrighting, marketing, etc. All sales and receipts are hers too. One way to do this is to market a self-published book from a website. Everyone has heard the tale of one successful self-publication, such as The Celestine Prophesies (1996) by James Redfield, which became such a smash hit that Time/Warner finally picked up the tab for further publication. However, these tales are the exception. Self-published writers usually find that they are less successful with self-publication, but at least the book was published. Breaking even or making a small amount of money is the norm in self-publishing. The only way writers have success with self-publishing is when a large enough amount of money is available for consistent and well strategized advertising. Most writers do not have this amount to market a book.
Vanity publishers are presses who charge a fee to print and bind your book. Like vanity presses, subsidy publishers also charge a fee to print and bind an author’s book, but they may also contribute a portion of the cost, as well as adjunct services, such as editing, warehousing, distribution or marketing. Beware of vanity publishers, as they have been known to take money for services they fail to provide. Do your homework before making any arrangements to have a vanity or subsidy publisher print your book.
One advantage of self-publishing over vanity publishing is that it’s more cost-effective and, because the author has control over the finished product, the quality is often superior. “And unlike subsidy publishing, the completed books are the writer’s property, and the writer keeps 100% of sales proceeds.” www.sfwa.org
The Internet is a place where you will find a number of publishers. Look for e-publishers that do not charge an up-front fee and be wary of any sites that charge to publish you. Most legitimate publishers, and agents for that matter, do not charge a reading fee or fee for publication. The only publishers do that are the vanities mentioned above.
A buyer can download an e-book for a fee, or purchase it as a Print on Demand, which means that when you order the book, it is printed. These printed books are usually trade sized paperbacks and are sent via mail by the purchaser.
In Reader’s E-Book Primer (2000), p.1, Jamie Engle says, “Electronic books, or e-books, are books in computer file format and read on all types of computers, including handheld devices designed specifically for reading e-books.” So far, e-books are not as popular, or as widely read as their print counterparts, so I recommend you publish online only as a last resort.