Over the last few years, I've become very concerned about the rush to get books published by any means whatsoever – often vanity, of course. Many people are self-publishing, and it's becoming a huge business. Most are vanity published (they pay a company to publish them); others are what I call independent publishers, meaning they own the ISBN, hire layout people and editors, etc. etc. Along with others, I've done my best to educate people, but it's rough going.
A few weeks ago, I was horrified when Thomas Nelson created an imprint which is to be connected to Author Solutions, a company that owns a number of vanity presses. Now Harlequin has followed suit. All I can say is Author Solutions must have an amazing sales team to convince these two large publishing houses to add vanity publishing to their list of products.
Other people have had lots to say about this. A few are:
What concerns me even more than the growing popularity of vanity publishing is the question of why authors are so willing to send their money to vanity publishers in the first place.
I think there are three key factors that need to be addressed.
1. Many people have simply given up on ever getting published by the traditional publishing industry. It's a bit of a maze – way too hard to make inroads and get known. How do you get a publisher? How do you get an agent? It's a crazy, who- do-you-know merry-go-round. Canadian authors who are Christian particularly feel lost.
2. We live in an instant society. Getting a book published in traditional ways can take years. A vanity press can get you a book in two or three months. I have seen several books that could have been spectacular with the right editing and so forth. Instead, they were delivered to a vanity mill and came out pretty well "as is." The author will likely never know what might have been. The primary concern was "I want it now."
3. I think Christian writers are particularly willing to self-publish because they're doing this more as a ministry than a business venture, and therefore are willing to ignore the big picture, set aside the business model, and hope that God will make it all work out somehow. Unfortunately, they are likely to wind up with a bunch of books they can't sell and a feeling of failure.
Don't get me wrong. i have no problem with independent publishing, where you know what you're doing and have a marketing plan, and you own the ISBN and you hire editors, printers, etc. Or even people who pay for their book to be manufactured after they look at all aspects. My problem is with companies who make it sound as if you are being published by a royalty paying publisher when in fact it is you, the author, paying for everything and not realizing until they have the product in hand that it isn't good enough, is too expensive, and isn't going to get into bookstore.
The publishing industry is currently in the midst of a huge upheaval. I don't know what the ultimate answers are. As an author myself, I don't even feel I know what to do next myself. Or if I even want to keep writing. What good is writing as a ministry if no one is reading what yo write? I feel very frustrated. It's all murky and kind of dismal.
But one thing I do believe, and that is that it's time the intelligent, dedicated, growing authors stop simply following the system and start working together to create a new system.
