Don’t self-publish in vain!

Or, rather, don’t be fooled into thinking that “self-publishing” and “vanity press” mean the same thing.

Recently, we reported on “lies told by the self-publishing industry”. Here is some more advice on the same subject:

Fledgling co-author Sharon Lee posted to her LiveJournal yesterday a warning that those considering self-publishing should take to heart. It seems that Harlequin is starting a vanity-press arm, which will solicit authors of Harlequin-rejected manuscripts to pay for their stories’ publication.

Harlequin has been Sternly Chastised by the Romance Writers of America, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America,Novelists, Inc, and Mystery Writers of America. At last report, Harlequin was Hurt and Dismayed by this reaction and has promised to rename the imprint — which I see it has done — DellArte Press. See? All better! Now, no one knows it’s Harlequin behind the mirror.

Lee reminds her readers that there is a fundamental difference between self-publishing and “vanity press”: in self-publishing, you do the gruntwork of getting the book edited, printed, and publicized yourself, keeping editorial control over the process and keeping costs down. (Lee and her husband Steve Miller run their own small-press/self-publisher, SRM, so she speaks from experience in this regard.)

In vanity publishing, you pay through the nose for someone else to publish your book for you. You do not have control, you make them a healthy profit, and you still get stuck having to publicize it yourself.

And in the more traditional methods of publishing, they pay you—which is as it should be.

Even though self-publishing has come into its own over the last few years, and is not as disreputable as it once was, vanity presses continue to prey upon the unwary. If someone else wants you to pay them to publish your book, something is rotten in the state of Denmark.