Vanity Presses Are Scams
. . . and other inaccurate takes you'll see on the internet
What I’ve Seen
In my heyday of cold-call freelance editorial work (that’s a mouthful of a phrase), I went into subreddits to advertise to the good people of Reddit.com. As I read the posts, I noticed a common prejudice against vanity presses and other hybrid publishers: They’re scammers.
Vanity presses charge the author for the services involved in the publishing process: editing, layout, proofreading, and cover art, to name a few steps. They are not so involved in the process after the book goes to print. That is left largely up to the author, who gets the books and must find a way to get them sold and turn a profit.
These presses have the potential to cheat an author out of his earnings before the book gets an opportunity to take off. The author pays hand-over-fist for the services, and then they’re in debt with a book to market. Not a winning proposition.
Hybrid publishers do much the same thing, except they assist with marketing and share in the profits from the book sales. The author ends up in a similar position, with little money and making even less from the lackluster marketing push and shared profits.
This is very different from traditional publishers, who pay the author for the privilege of their manuscript via an advance, and then do the work of getting it to print for free. All they ask for is a much larger share in the profit from sales to compensate them for their hard work and excellent marketing connections.
And, of course, an author can always self-publish, putting all of the work and all of the profit into their own hands.
At least, that’s the way I saw it put on Reddit, and sometimes on Substack.
Different Structures for Different Needs
The way I see it, having worked with traditional publishers for six years, attempted to start a vanity press, and dabbled in self-publishing and work with individual authors, there are lots of ways to get a book published. The one you choose depends on your needs; no one way is a naturally “scammy” way to do it.
Vanity and Hybrid
Take a vanity press. If you have money to spend, already have an audience, and want to make sure that your book gets the attention it deserves, you may gravitate toward this business model.
Vanity and hybrid presses are immediately incentivized to do well because they are paid immediately at each step. They have the money, and so they’re on the hook for the work.
When an author pays a vanity or hybrid press, it’s either for one step in the process or for a very tightly defined set of services, which makes things cleaner on that end.
And then the cash-abundant, audience-abundant author is easily able to market the finished product and recoup more than 100% of their investment, because the book sale profit is their own.
For a public speaker, established author, or influencer, this can be a low-effort, high reward way to publish. For the “starving artist” types, it looks like a scam, because the payout from sales is far from guaranteed without a traditional publisher’s marketing arm.
Traditional
Traditional publishing serves authors who are just starting out, don’t have a lot of liquid cash, or are looking for a quick stimulus and aren’t so concerned about creative control. It’s also great for those who want to be 100% sure that their book has all the resources to succeed with a wide audience.
It’s wonderful to receive an advance right at the start of the process, just for having a promising idea and a decent manuscript. The publishing company is invested in the book from the get-go, and they want to see it sell because that’s how they’ll recoup their investment.
A traditional publisher can shift publication according to their own calendar and alter the creative message of the book a bit. If the author is mostly concerned with a successful launch and making a name for himself, though, it’s not a bad route.
The resources and connections of a traditional publishing company are rarely outmatched by hybrids, vanity presses, or individuals.
Self-Publishing
If an author wants 100% creative control and rights, as well as 100% of the profit from book sales, there’s nothing like self-publishing. I tried to make this happen with a vanity press, and even if I had wanted to continue (the vision shifted), it wouldn’t have matched it to the degree of self-publishing.
Those who don’t mind extending the publication process, figuring out some things on their own, or experimenting with every step of the process are great fits for self-publishing. There are also those who want a small print run and know the industry well enough to get it done themselves.
And then there are the ones who want their hand on every step of the process to such a minute degree that it only makes sense to mix and match services until something is made that couldn’t be created by a company with a standardized process.
The Reality of the Industry
In the end, an author can do whatever she wants. She can get her book out there using whatever process. The point is to have and sell a book. What publishing company structure is used depends on the priorities of the author.
Are certain structures more likely to have bad actors? I don’t think so.
Are certain structures riskier than others? I can see an argument for that, although it depends on which risk you’re talking about.
When thinking about what the best way to publish will be for you, though, the answers will shift based on how you define your own priorities and standards.
How interested are you in spending and making money? How much do you care about creative control? How involved do you want to be in each part of the process? How much marketing do you want to do?
That’s what determines whether or not a structure is a good fit. Not so much the advice of strangers on the internet, as much fun as it is to solicit it.
Publishing-Worthy is about what makes writing worth publishing, and it’s also a place where I publish my own work that I consider worth publishing.