BEWARE of vanity publishers!

(The words and opinions of this blog are that of the author and her experiences. This is not professional advice, and should not be used in lieu of that.)

Who knew there were so many different ways to publish a book! This little blog is a side step to my self publishing series as I believe it is a very important topic to address, on its own with no distraction on my message. That message is…

YOU ABSOLUTELY DO NOT PAY MONEY TO HAVE SOMEONE PUBLISH YOUR BOOK FOR YOU!

Im talking about vanity publishers. What are vanity publishers you ask? Strap in, because I am going to drag them for the rest of this blog and tell you why with a small rant about traditional publishers sprinkled in too. But first, a quick overview of the types of publishing I’ll reference in this blog:

Traditional / commercial publishing - through your established print houses, where you or a literary agent on your behalf submits your manuscript, negotiates a contract, and publishes your work according to the proposed contract. Think Hays House, Scholastic, Penguin Random House, etc.

Self publishing - YOU are the publisher and your process is like the one I have outlined in my self publishing blog series. Writing, the art or sourcing the art, building the file, submitting to print house, marketing and selling the stock is YOU. You are the one stop shop, you’re just finding a print house.

Vanity publishing - In my opinion vanity publishing is a scam, preying on the inexperienced but aspirational. They take payment from you to publish your book. Technically, I guess it somewhere between self-publishing and traditional (commercial publishing). But is a scam. Also, it is a scam.

Some literary elitists look down on the concepts of both self and vanity publishing, and two things about that irk me.

Firstly, self publishing and vanity publishing should not be lumped together. Self publishing has provided a new opportunity for a previously gate-keepy and exclusionary industry, while vanity publishing is predatory and repeat after me again YOU ABSOLUTELY DO NOT PAY MONEY TO HAVE SOMEONE PUBLISH YOUR BOOK FOR YOU!

Second point is one that I touched on in point 1. The literary world is not a very warm industry or easy to enter, in fact I would call it exclusionary. Most publishers won’t speak to you directly and will only communicate through a literary agent, that you need to source and engage. But agents are just as hard to talk to, you submit your manuscript to their inbox and then hold your breath for next 3 months or more that they will get back to you. Well you just hope that you get a reply - and if you don’t then they’re not interested.

My beef with traditional / commercial publishers.

In my opinion (I’m saying this a lot), they have made it all but inaccessible for the average person to enter the industry. At the time I had finished My Brain is a Race Car I actually floated the idea with myself to approach a publisher with it. I visited the website of one of Australia’s largest publishing houses where under the submissions page in bold red letters it read: WE ARE NOT ACCEPTING MANUSCRIPTS FROM PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED AUTHORS. Wow, so exclusive. You need to be in the club before you want to apply to be in the club.

Another big publishing house didn’t even have a submissions section, just some vague article outlining the 4 steps to becoming a published author (not with them specifically, but in general) and just oozes brush off vibes. It’s so dejecting.

Yet, we see them continuously offer book deals to social media influencers . Now, I actually am not against influencers receiving book deals - influencers become that because people are interested in them as a person, so in a way it makes sense. I just feel this is lazy on the Publishers behalf as they are taking on people who already have media presence, and expect a lot of self marketing from the influencer. I think they rest on the laurels that follower count translates automatically to book sales. I just don’t see these influencers being supported and prepped the way they should be and to be honest, they are ultimately being taken advantage of by these publishing houses for a quick buck.

There needs to be a kinder and more inclusive process for manuscript submissions, or at the very least being able to contact a literary agent. Before anyone is like ‘they’d receive thousands of submissions every day then’ - um, ok? Its their BUSINESS. There are amazing books that are being missed, and if you want to talk corporate - big dollars that are being missed too.

There is also this presence that self publishing is dirty. It dooms you and your book from ever entering the traditional publishing world, as if it taints you and your work. I don’t know where that opinion has come from, but it lies thick under the surface of the industry and it makes sense to me that the only people threatened by self publsihing are traditional publishers. I was there, and had those thoughts, I have no idea why. I am not a literary professional, I never aspired to become a published author prior to creating a book for my daughter, yet I had those opinions. Now though, it would take the contract of a lifetime for me to change from being self published to becoming commercially published. I love being self published and without sounding self indulgent (as I firmly am aware that my books do so well thanks to my beautiful and supportive community), my books are doing really well. I’m sure they could do better under a publishing house, but at what risk? What cost? What loss?

Ok this rant went a little bit bigger than I thought, maybe I’m just hating from outside the club because I can’t even get in - but see the thing is, I’m not interested in getting in anymore. Now, back, to dragging Scam Publishing - oh, I mean Vanity Publishing.

How do I know if someone is a vanity publisher?

Simply, a vanity publisher charges the author to get the book printed. Usually there will be ‘packages’ ranging from a couple of thousand to 10 thousand or more - and remember, YOU ABSOLUTELY DO NOT PAY MONEY TO HAVE SOMEONE PUBLISH YOUR BOOK FOR YOU! They get in touch with you by offering you a free ‘Getting Published’ PDF resource where you have to submit contact details to receive it. Then comes the heavily pressuring phone calls with faux urgency listing hollow promises, irrelevant services as exclusive features, and access to information you can readily find on the internet for free.

Promises that sound too good to be true are unfortunately, exactly that. These promises are hollow and unfounded in proof, they relay it like its the standard experience for their authors but think of it being a unicorn potential - and unicorns aren’t real. Promises such as:

• Being a subset of a large publishing house and that if you want to get picked up by that large house you need to pay all that money and publish through them first. There is no proven advantage, nor is it guaranteed or automatically the first stop fishing pool for the large houses.

• Your book will be available in 10,000 bookshops around the world. What it means is that your book will have an ISBN, just like the one you purchased yourself for under $100. This ISBN will allow your book to be listed in a catalogue available to booksellers, and if somebody walks into a bookshop in Paris and says, 'I would like to buy a copy of (insert victim of vanity publishers book name here),' they will look that up in the catalogue and say, 'Yes, that's available, I can have that for you in a week, and we'll get that delivered.' It won’t be on 10, 000 shelves around the world.

• They will help you with marketing. No, you will receive PDFs and information about marketing your own book that you can find everywhere on the internet for free. Also, they charge you for it. Thats part of the exhorbitant fee. Oh, and they’ll probably keep charging you for it in your royalties - if you ever get them.

• Your book will be highly polished and a premium product. It will be no more polished than printing it independently. In fact I have read so many horror stories of it being less than ideal quality, offset pages, low resolution, cheap to the touch…

• Soul destroying contracts. These contracts allow for company expenditures to be paid for from your royalties. Things like taxis, restaurants, travel to ‘book fairs’, this is ABSOLUTELY NOT your responsibility or financial burden. These contracts will lock your book to them for extended periods so while you book is floundering under them, there is nothing you can do to support it or promote it elsewhere.

• The person on the call is not an editor. They are a sales person in a call centre. They do not have editorial knowledge and will not support you onwards from taking your money. In fact, I have heard that after continual and pressuring phone calls, once they have you locked in they are near impossible to contact by phone or email.

Check this quote from The Australian Society of Authors website:

“Such publishers exist from the fees that they receive from the payees, not from proceeds from sales of the book. They therefore have no motivation to market and sell copies of the book. Vanity publishers offer limited or no marketing service and transfer responsibility for the sales of the published book to the payee. They are merely an expensive production facility. If you are contemplating using a vanity publisher you should first consider self-publishing, which is likely to be both less expensive and more fruitful.”

Still unsure? Type the name of the company and reviews. You should do it for any company you decide to engage in. Trust me when you feel unsure or hesitant , you deep down already know. Still search as the words of warning that come from past victims will truly help you steer clear.

Why am I so opinionated on this?

I personally haven’t been victimised by a vanity publisher, but what grinds my gears more than anything in this world is creatives being taken advantage of. I see it all the time, I have experienced it multiple times - especially as an artist.

Oh my gosh it enrages me to a whole new level and the one thing that activates me from my typically neutral state. When someone creates there is passion, rawness, and intimacy in the piece. To have it taken advantage of, used, and /or undervalued is just the lowest act. A vanity publisher does all that, they are no help and is not better or above self publishing. They will not make your life easier and they are a SCAM.

I did have a phone call with a vanity publisher around a year ago. They called me one afternoon and really positioned themselves as a commercial publisher, I felt I was noticed and that my books had garnered the attention of an industry heavy hitter. Heavy on the ego petting.

Then the packages came about - $2999, $5999 0r $10999. This was an immediate red flag as I know authors receive advances, not bills.

When I asked them on that amount what are they offering me, they alluded to the fact that it would open the opportunity to be recognised by their publisher overlord. I asked what else, as I had completely formatted the book and built the files myself - something they claim to be a big portion of the contract cost. In repsonse they offered me $800 off…. of $10 999.

When I told the sales person my books sell well, even without asking numbers he said they will sell better under us. I asked how does he know that? What notable children’s books are under your management? That question was deflected and he said that my books will wither under me and eventually lose all their potential.

Thank you for sticking around for a long and empassioned read. If you have one key takeaway from this, and you should know what I am about to say, is…

YOU ABSOLUTELY DO NOT PAY MONEY TO HAVE SOMEONE PUBLISH YOUR BOOK FOR YOU!

Want to know more? Hear first hand accounts of victims of scam publishing?

Listen to this ABC radio investigation of Vanity Publishers by Hagar Cohen here.

Scour Reddit - this can actually be a great place of research in the right moments. There is a plethora of victims willing to share their words of warning and experience. Start here.

This detailed first hand account here.

Another detailed first hand account from a Vanity Publisher I’m lightly familiar with here.

Writers Weekly has compiled many, many, horrific reviews of a leading Vanity Publisher here. In fact there is a ‘Survivors of______’ Facebook page.

Oh, and finally I wanted to at least play some form of neutral ground and I typed in leading a leading known Vanity Publisher name + Success Story’ into Google to show the other side, rare as it may be. Alas, I could not find one first hand author account…