Vanity Publishing – Is it always bad? Is it always a scam?

What is Vanity Publishing?

Vanity publishing is also known as Subsidy publishing. The vanity presses or subsidy publishers offer writers and authors to bring their rough manuscript to them for production services such as cover design and editing.

Why Authors Think Vanity Publishing Is Bad?

Definitely, you have to pay the fee for editing and cover design which is acceptable but paying additionally for publisher’s royalty is unethical. The publishers are entitled to receive an additional royalty as far as your book will sell. An ISBN code is assigned to your book by the publisher. The publishers set the price of your book themselves, so, don’t get a shock if your book set with the higher price than you think.

Many authors or writers don’t select vanity presses like commercial publishers and that is why vanity presses are not conferring the recognition as well as prestige in the same way just like commercial publishers. Many of you think that vanity presses are a scam but it is not always bad or a scam. It may be benefited for you as it gives an author more independence than mainstream publishing. However, they charge the higher fee than others.

Some people think vanity presses a scam, as I told you above. But I think it’s not bad all the time. Some of the vanity publishers work correctly for you but maybe others are scammers. This is right because most of the vanity publishers describe themselves as a traditional publisher or many times they may omit the fee from their websites. In this way, they charge higher than other publishers. This is why many authors are confused about selecting the right publisher.

Extra Charges by Vanity Publishers:

Below is the list of the extra charges that vanity publishers charge the authors.

· Pre-purchase requirement

· Pre-sale requirement

· Fees for additional services other than basics of publication

· Fees for publication other than binding or printing

· Deposit fee or a setup fee

· Withheld royalties

Unlike commercial publishers, vanity publishers are not intended with the general public market as they have less interested members from the general public. For promotion purposes, some of the authors buy the copies of their published book to give them away to the general public themselves.

Vanity Publishing Is Not Always Bad Or Scam!

It is difficult to find out the best vanity publisher but if you are really interested in a vanity publisher then you need to check with SiteAdvisor and Mywot for finding the trusted publisher for your manuscript. These are the most trusted sites which give you the authenticity of the publisher. The rest is up to you to decide.