[Self-Publishing] — When a Vanity Publisher Claims It Isn’t a Vanity Publisher…

[The names and details in this post have been changed to protect the ignorant.]

An acquaintance of mine — let’s call him “Donny” — is excited because he just got published, and he’s asking all of his friends to buy his first book so they can support him. Donny’s always wanted to write a fantasy novel, and now he’s achieved that goal — he’s got a 206 page paperback novel available on Amazon.com and in bookstores for $24.95. He keeps telling me that if I buy a copy, he’ll sign it for me.

To which I responded… “Are you nuts?” Because I knew something about Donny’s book that he didn’t…

There are a lot of folks out there who want to get published — in fact, many of the people who visit this site are would-be authors who are frustrated with their inability to get picked up by one of the big trade publishers and who are instead thinking about self-publishing. That’s all good and well; self-publishing is a noble pursuit, and something I encourage, if you can support your efforts with adequate marketing and investment capital. But many writers would rather take the expedient route, and that’s where vanity publishers such as PublishAmerica step in to take advantage of people like my friend Donny.

As I’ve mentioned in several other articles, a publisher can generally be identified by:
1) Owning the ISBN to every book it publishers.
2) Assuming all the costs of production, printing and marketing.
3) Registering its products with the Copyright office.
4) Paying everyone involved for work published.
5) Having access to standard distribution channels within the book industry.

Anyone who claims to be a publisher but does not carry out these five activities probably falls into the category of being a Vanity Publisher or a Print-on-Demand Publisher (also known as a Print-on-Demand Broker). Since these terms have come to have negative connotations, some of these firms will swear up and down that they are not Vanity or POD publishers. But a little bit of research, along with some common sense, can help you not to make the mistake my friend Donny did when he decided to print his book through PublishAmerica, which definitely is a vanity publisher no matter how much its owners deny it.

Now, for those who haven’t read up on this company, here’s how it works. You submit your manuscript to PublishAmerica through the company’s website, and wait for an acceptance letter, which is soon followed by a contract. Once you sign the contract, PublishAmerica puts out a form letter press release announcing that you’ve been signed. In exchange for allowing them to publish your book, you get a $1 advance and two author’s copies. And from what I understand, you’re not allowed to republish your material anywhere else for 7 years. It’s not a good deal for an author, unless you just want your name on the cover of a printed book.

What initially tipped me off in Donny’s case was the fact that his 206 page novel was being sold for $24.95 in paperback. Donny’s excuse for this was that he’s a new author, which means his book will take longer to sell than a book by an established writer, so the publisher has to charge more money to make up for the difference. This makes perfect sense to Donny, because that’s how the publisher probably explained it to him. But think about what he’s saying here — the publisher is telling him that they’re going to charge more for his book because he’s not established? Why would readers pay more to read the work of a brand new author when they could spend a fraction of that $24.95 to read the work of someone well-known?

I told Donny I’d accept a copy of his book for review, and he told me I’d have to buy one if I wanted to read it. “Why can’t you just give me an author’s copy?” I asked. “You should have boxes of them.” But Donny doesn’t — another sign that he’s dealing with a vanity pub. A normal publisher overprints because of economies of scale — you can often print 5,000 books at half the unit price that you’d pay for 1,000 books, and that gives you five times as much product to sell. Often, receiving a set number of author’s copies is a standard part of a writer’s contract with the publisher. But vanity publishers don’t print in large runs, and they know that their clients are going to sell most of their copies to friends, family and co-workers. So, their authors either have to sell every copy of their books that they receive, or give them away at a loss.

Donny also wouldn’t tell me how many copies of his book PublishAmerica printed. At first, I thought it was because he didn’t know, but the more I asked him, the more evasive he got about it. He claims he can’t tell me due to his contract, which is probably untrue, but I have no doubt that he’s been told not to talk about his deal to outside parties. I explained to him that companies like PublishAmerica are known for very small initial print runs (100-500) , and that books after this run will probably be done on a POD basis, which means they’ll be slightly inferior in quality.

Of course, Donny insisted that wouldn’t happen; after all, since the book has an ISBN, you can buy it at Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com! We looked up his book, and sure enough, there it was, listed on Amazon, for $24.95, available for immediate shipping. We called the local B&N and they told us that they don’t carry the book, but that it can be ordered if we know the ISBN. Donny gave me one of those “I told you so” smirks. I asked him how he expected people to buy the book if they had to know his name, the title, or the ISBN just to order it. After all, I explained, PublishAmerica books don’t get reviewed by any reputable sources like Publisher’s Weekly or ALA Booklist. And PublishAmerica doesn’t mail out catalogs or send out sales reps like a trade publisher would. Donny muttered something about word-of-mouth advertising, and told me he was going to be doing lots of signings to promote the book.

“It’s a good book,” he said. “People will want it when they hear about it.”

I wish him luck. But I hope that others won’t fall into the same trap. If you want to be published, do the tried-and-true submission process, even if you get a lot of rejection letters. Or, better yet, if you think you’ve got a good product, self-publish, and reap the rewards on your own. But don’t get locked into an agreement to get some overpriced books printed up just so you can browbeat the people you know into buying them. That’s not what being an author is all about.

Still, don’t take my word for it. Here’s PublishAmerica’s website:

PublishAmerica

Here are some links you can check out if you want to learn more about PublishAmerica from people who have been published by them:

Writing Scraps

by Sean J. Jordan