vanity publishing – Page 2 – Patricia J. Parsons

“So what are you writing now?”

This is a question I often hear from friends, relatives and colleagues alike. They know that I’ve written a dozen or so books – among other things – but I don’t really think they get me as a writer. I’m a hybrid writer. Or at least that’s the word I used to use. Maybe I’m just a promiscuous writer. You see, I write both fiction and non-fiction, and I publish mostly through traditional publishers (which are…?) and independently (whatever does that mean…?).

So, what am I writing right now? I have a fiction (sort of lifestyle satire again, but then what does that mean?) piece on the go, but the book I’m supposed to be writing is on writing and publishing in the twenty-first century using both research and my experiences. This latter piece has me thinking about definitions of the confusing array of terms in the new world of publishing. Since I’m a strong believer that we need a common understanding of terminology before we can discuss any issue, I thought I’d develop a glossary of terms – and I thought I’d share it with you as a work-in-progress.

So, herewith (great word, isn’t it?) I offer you the working definitions of publishing-related terms that I’ll be using in my upcoming book.

Author

An author is someone who has published a book, article, paper, poem, report etc. The act of publication is what differentiates between someone who is engaged in the act of writing and an actual author. Method of publication does not matter.

Traditional Publisher

A so-called traditional book publisher is an organization that takes the financial responsibility for all aspects of publication including acquisition, editing, publishing, distributing and promoting. Consequently, this publisher garners a hugely larger percentage of the book receipts than does the author of said piece. Traditional publishers often make their publishing decisions from an array of solicited and unsolicited manuscripts based on their prediction about marketability. Judging from the number of traditionally acquired flops, they are not very good at making these decisions (You probably know that J. K. Rowling’s original Harry Potter manuscript was rejected at least a dozen times. See “30 famous authors whose works were rejected (repeatedly, and sometimes rudely by publishers”).

Trade Publisher

A trade publisher is, in contrast to a scholarly press, for example, a traditional publisher that produces books for what is referred to as a ‘trade audience.’ A trade audience is you and me in our everyday lives. A trade publisher might specialize in fiction of a certain type or non-fiction – but only non-fiction that has a wide appeal.

Literary Publisher

This is a term that I struggle with. A self-proclaimed literary publisher will be able to tell you, nose in the air, precisely what they do. However, looking in from the outside, it is not quite so clear. So, for my purposes, I am defining a literary publisher as a traditional publisher, usually of the independent variety (see below) who refuses to wear the title of trade publisher, believing that his or her works are a cut above in artistic or literary merit.

Vanity Publishing

Vanity publishing is when an author pays an organization a large sum of money up front for the following services: editing (sometimes), formatting (usually), cover design (if you’re lucky), printing and binding (always), distribution (only if you count filling the author’s personal orders) and marketing (not on your life). Of course, it is self-publishing. The term may have been used as early as the 1940’s, but self-proclaimed Vanity Publishing expert Jonathan Clifford seems to think he coined it in 1959.[1] The term is never used in a positive way, just as the word itself would suggest. As I discussed in a previous post where I admitted to vanity publishing one of my earliest books, “Presumably it was vain for an author to pay to have his or her book published. I’ve never been sure why it isn’t ‘vanity recording’ when a musician pays to have a CD recorded and subsequently distributed…” The term is often used when making snide remarks about the inferiority of self-published work. Note: Vanity Publishers always publish(ed) works under their own imprint.

Self-Publishing

Self-publishing differentiates itself from vanity publishing in that the term vanity has been dropped. That’s really all there is to it. Make no mistake about it: self-publishing is vanity publishing without the moniker. The twenty-first century has provided self-publishers with a digital world wherein the possibilities are almost endless. Self-published books can be as bad as most publishing snobs always thought vanity-published books to be, or, equally, may be as good as any book out there. Self- publishing is differentiated from traditional publishing in that the author takes complete financial responsibility for the editing, publishing, distribution and marketing aspects of authorship and reaps the lion’s share of the benefits. It need not have the stench of “vanity” about it. But it might. Note: Self-publishing need not be done under the imprint of another entity such as a publisher.

Subsidy Publishing

Subsidy publishing is characterized by a financial subsidy that is provided to an author to partially cover the costs of publishing. The subsequent publishing is usually done through a traditional publisher. Some people suggest that subsidy publishing is the same as vanity or self-publishing. However, that ignores the situations where subsidies are offered by non-profit or governmental organization to support the publication of the work of academics in a scholarly publishing world where there is no money to be made, but costs to be covered. Thus, I think it needs its own category.

Independent Publisher

This is a tricky one because there is a difference between being an independent publisher and the act of publishing independently (see below). For my purposes, an independent publisher is one that uses a traditional publishing model of acquiring work from an author and shouldering the burden of the financial responsibilities while at the same time maintaining independence from the big, corporate publishing houses.

Supported Self-Publishing

Supported self-publishing is a business model where a publisher provides services to a self-publishing author at a cost. Packages are offered and services can be purchased a la carte depending on the size of the company. There are large, corporate ones who try to sell a variety of expensive services (they make their money from selling services to authors, rather than on selling books. In fact, this business model does not even require them to sell books – their profit streams accrue from selling unsuspecting authors services, that after the editing is paid for, they don’t actually need). A whole cottage industry of services to self-publishing authors has spring up – for better or for worse.

Publishing Independently (also known as Self-Publishing)

When an author decides to forego the submission-rejection-submission-rejection merry-go-round of the traditional publishing world, he or she steps into the process of publishing independently. The author takes full financial responsibility and can choose from a variety of types and sizes of self-publishing and supported self-publishing platforms. The possibilities are endless: from companies who will simply print your book n demand (e.g. Lulu or Createspace), or distribute it electronically (e.g. Smashwords), offering only if you want it other services, to large behemoths like iUniverse who sell a wide variety of expensive packages and individual services and will continue to market to you even after you’ve said ‘no’ if you publish with them.

Indie Author

This is a widely used term among ‘indie authors’ themselves and for my purposes refers to anyone who chooses to publish without benefit of a traditional publisher. It is neither a positive term, nor is it a negative term – it is simply a term. It does not refer to an author who publishes through an independent publisher as I have defined it.

E-Publishing

E-publishing is digital electronic publishing where both the process and the product are digital. Traditional publishers, independent traditional publishers, self-publishers etc. can all utilize the concept of publishing for electronic distribution. When e-publishing first began, it was often a route that was taken after a book was published in hard copy. Today, more and more books (and journals and magazines etc.) are available only electronically.

Cooperative Publishing

Cooperative publishing is a publishing process independent of the traditional model where authors form a cooperative in which each one contributes financially and in writing-editing capacities to publishing works by each member of the cooperative. As I said in a previous post on cooperative publishing:

“Some people who have written about cooperative publishing consider it to be a publishing model that represents the middle ground between traditional and print-on-demand publishing. Although this might represent cooperation between an author (who pays) and a “publisher” who is contracted by the author, it still says self-publishing to me. The model of cooperative publishing I’m suggesting here is based on a business co-op model where, as the CCA says, the business (in this case the publisher) is owned by the members who use its services. In the case of a publishing co-op that I’m suggesting is worth exploring, the owners both use the services and are the “employees.”

In terms of financial compensation, the members of the co-op all take the same percentage of the royalties from any of the publications.

Hybrid Publishing

I think that it’s safe to say that there is much confusion between the terms hybrid publishing and hybrid author. Unless we can make a clear differentiation, then we can’t communicate about it as I mentioned at the outset of this glossary. So, I’m going to go with a clear demarcation between the two. Hybrid publishing is a situation wherein a publisher has a model that has aspects of both self-publishing and traditional publishing where everyone (from editors to marketers) gets a percentage of the royalties but that the author is not asked to pay for publishing costs. David Vinjuarmi, who often writes about publishing, did a piece in Forbes on hybrid publishing that I think covers many of the bases. For his piece see: “How Hybrid Publishers Innovate To Succeed.

Hybrid Author

A hybrid author is one who has published books and/or other pieces through both the traditional publishing model and via a self-publishing route.

That’s me. I’m a hybrid author. However, I’m also a promiscuous one: an author who publishes in a number of genres.

Let me know if you think the glossary is helpful – and if you’d like to see other concepts added. P.

[1] Neil Nixon. 2011. How to get a break as a writer: Making money from words and ideas. Troubador Publishing (U.K.) . p. 311. See also the archived web site Vanity Publishing http://www.vanitypublishing.info/.

confessions — My "first" novel published by the now defunct Carlton Press, New York

It’s time for me to begin to come clean about a part of my publishing backstory that I have yet to explore. That is the story about my relationship with editors and publishers. Apart from my periodic arguments with editors about comma placement or the use of the singular verb after “one of” (I lost that argument – seems that there are several different rules none of which I was privy to prior to meeting this particularly particular editor), my relationships have been based on a serious skepticism (on my part) about their ability to recognize a quality book or predict whether or not a book will sell. If an editor loves a submitted manuscript, he or she might go ahead and publish. That doesn’t mean anyone else will like it! I am also skeptical about their ability to actually sell a book. I’ll start at the beginning.

If you visit my web site that gives you chapter and verse on my books and other assorted writing through the years, you’ll see that my work has been published by a variety of publishers – different countries, different sizes, different missions – and even different publishing models.

Two of my co-authored books were actually published by the same publisher – and it’s that publisher that has me thinking about my journey through the publishing business over the past twenty-plus years. I’m thinking about it now because I have a book at this publisher again – a book that is half way through the review process, with positive signs all around, when the editor who is enthusiastically responsible for the project resigns to take up a new (and presumably more lucrative) position with another publisher. I can’t blame him, but I was informed about his imminent departure only two weeks in advance, and that was weeks before Christmas. I’ve heard nothing from the publisher since. Hello! Author out here! Anybody listening? If the percentage that an author receives from book sales is any indicator, I’d have to say that authors who are not famous (i.e. do not have name beginning with, let’s say for example “O”) are the lowest on the totem pole. Apart from how hard this is on one’s (my) ego, it just seems wrong to me.

So…back to the backstory. My first book was published by a small non-fiction, trade-book publisher in Toronto – that has since gone bankrupt. This isn’t surprising – happens to publishing houses all the time. Let that be a cautionary note to authors. But I’ve told that story before.

Since then, I’ve offered my books to a variety of publishers, many of which have actually offered contracts and eventually published them. But I’ve also ventured into self-publishing. Oh, yes. Self-publishing.

Before self-publishing had any kind of credibility (one of my assumptions here is that it has risen a notch or two on the cred barometer in recent years,) it was referred to strictly as ‘vanity publishing.’ Presumably it was vain for an author to pay to have his or her book published. I’ve never been sure why it isn’t ‘vanity recording’ when a musician pays to have a CD recorded and subsequently distributed, but I digress.

According to him, a man by the name of Jonathan Clifford coined the phrase vanity publishing around 1960.[1] Clifford’s lifetime crusade was for honesty in the vanity publishing world. It is true that over the years, authors who could not get – or did not try to get – mainstream publishers (more about that breed later) would pay to have their work produced, and those vanity publishers would suggest to the authors that they could, perhaps, just maybe, probably get rich. That was the problem. As Clifford says:

If you cannot find a mainstream publisher to publish your work at their expense, you must look on the whole process of publishing not as money invested to make you a return, but as money spent on a pleasurable hobby which you have enjoyed and which has provided you with well-manufactured copies of your book. If you do also manage to make a small profit, then that should be looked upon as an unforeseen and unexpected bonus![2]

Today, the notion of the vanity press (versus other self-publishing options) seems to be tied into the issue of promises made by these entities – promises that they cannot possibly keep – and into their lack of editing. So, the term self-publishing has arisen and seems to have taken on a less pejorative connotation.

Self-publishing, from the author’s point of view though, is exactly the same as vanity publishing. The author pays. And any author who thinks a publisher, regardless of whether they make you pay or they pay you, can predict much less guarantee sales success of your book, is naïve in the extreme. Unless you have a name that is widely recognized, there is no way to predict sales. This is where my personal skepticism begins to creep into the relationship between author and publisher. But, what seems like a hundred years ago now, I did take up with one of those vanity publishers two years after my first non-fiction book was published by a ‘real’ publisher.

The book was called Confessions of Failed Yuppie. Yup. And it was funny. Without benefit of even a modicum of editing (not one syllable was altered nor one typo corrected), this vanity press took my substantial fee and provided me with two cartons of the 130-page, hard-covered books. I was thrilled. But something kept me from mentioning its provenance to anyone– although I’m not sure anyone would have cared. Many of my friends read the book and told me that they were amused. I even still get a small check every year from the Public Lending Right Commission because there are copies of it in libraries across the country. Anyone want to read it? [Side note: literary blogger Donigan Merrit tells the story in his blog entry dated September 8, 2011 that his first job out of undergrad was as a copy-editor for Carlton Press. It never occurred to me that they employed any!]

So, what’s wrong with this kind of model? What makes a vanity-published book, or a self-published book less worthy than a book published via the more traditional publishers? In a word, quality – but not necessarily quality of the content, story, theme or writing. Quality of the editing. Vanity publishers never offered editors. That’s where today’s self-publishing models differ from their predecessors. Today’s self-publishers often offer editing services – but you’ll have to pay for them.

Next week…Adventures in self-publishing.

Want a laugh? Here’s the back cover of Confessions of a Failed Yuppie. Remember that it was 1991…