Let the Writer Beware – Don’t Get Sucked in By a Vanity Press

I try to keep my posts here more reader-focused. It really is my hope that over time readers will come here to connect and interact with me (and others who enjoy my books). Plus, I don’t feel that I have all that much to offer in the “how to be a writer” realm (honestly here’s my advice: sit down and write. Repeat.) But I’ve had two conversations lately that have left me scratching my head and I feel like I need to at least put my thoughts out there for anyone who might stumble across this. Basically my point is this: you should never, and I truly mean NEVER have to pay to have a book published. This includes a commitment to purchase a set number of copies of your books. Any “publisher” that asks you to do this is, plain and simple, a vanity press. Apparently these days, vanity presses, having grown tired of the bad press associated with the term, have changed their name to “partnership publishers.” So keep that in mind if you’re beginning to shop for a publisher.

So you might be asking yourself why it matters. Here are my reasons in no particular order:

• Folks who know about the publishing world (other writers, other publishers, etc.) don’t respect the vanity presses. They’re viewed as predatory.
• You don’t get the kind of quality editing from a vanity press that you get from a traditional, royalty-paying press. Even a small press is going to give you a professional edit. With a vanity press, you’re paying them up front and you get what you get. Now, you might luck out and get a good edit, but it’s like throwing darts, they might just publish what you send the way you send it – because they don’t care. They have your money.
• You don’t get quality cover art from a vanity press. Again, they’ve got your money up front, there’s no need for them to do anything beyond the bare minimum after that. They have no risk associated with producing your book, so it’s in their best interest to spend as little time and money producing that book, because they want to maximize their profit, most of which comes out of the money you gave them up front.
• I’ll say it again – they have no reason to put time and effort into your book. You’ve paid up front, they’ve made their money. At this point, they don’t really care if your book sells – that’s all on you. In traditional publishing the publisher assumes the risk and, therefore, puts forth a lot of effort to make it worth their while to have done so.
• For way less than most vanity presses are charging these days (in the $5K-10K range from the two who’ve been suckered lately), you can hire a freelance editor and get a freelance (and very professional) cover done (high end I’d say $1K total) and self-publish. There’s no stigma (or practically none) associated with being self-published today. And you want your book to succeed more than anyone else ever will (even a traditional publisher.) Honestly, if you’re struggling to find a traditional publisher, I’d encourage you to self-pub long before I’d ever suggest you investigate a vanity press.

There are people out there who are desperate to take advantage of someone’s desire to be published. Please be careful! And if you talk to someone and they start mentioning a required number of copies the author has to purchase or any other kind of fee to be published, run far, far away. (And keep in mind that even if you have an agent you might have to tell your agent you’re running – one of the folks I was talking to has a reasonably well-known agent who was actually suggesting the vanity press. It boggled my mind. It also let me scratch one agency off my list of people I’m keeping an eye on for down the road.)

You shouldn’t pay to be published. Do your research and keep your eyes open and don’t be afraid to walk away if you find you’ve inadvertently been talking to a predatory press.