We live in a world where scammers lurk around every digital corner. There are virus threat scams, banking scams, fake websites, and click-bait ads. Everything imaginable can be used by The Bad Guys to con you out of your money.
Including publishing your book.
If you take anything away from this article, let it be this: PUBLISHING, of any kind, IS FREE!
“But Rissa, what about cover art, and editing, and blah blah blah?”
ALSO FREE! For both traditional and self-published authors. The process is 100% free.
How Do You Find Free Publishing Resources?
The quick answer is: just Google what you need, plus the word “Free”. Chances are, if you need something, there’s a website that will help you do it for free.
Need a book cover, try Canva or Visme.
Need an editor, try Grammarly or Quillbot.
Need to convert your manuscript to an eBook? Try Calibre or Adobe (yes ‘that’ Adobe). Even KDP can now convert and code an eBook format for you from your manuscript.
100% free.
To self-publish, you only need …
- A cover image (KDP will tell you the dimensions and resolution to plop into whichever website you use)
- Your manuscript in either a word processor document (like from Google docs or Microsoft Word) or a PDF file.
Both KDP and IngramSpark will walk you through creating both the physical book (hardcover and trade paperback) and eBook for eReaders.
You can, of course, pay for these services, such as manuscript editing and cover art. But when it comes to handing the cover and interior over to be published, this process is absolutely free. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a scam.
Vanity Presses are infecting the publishing world like a virus. These services offer you the world–they will piece together the cover, the interior mater/manuscript, and publish your novel, all in a process they make out to be super-scary and oh-so-difficult.
It’s really not. And this is coming from the poor unfortunate girl who had to wade through the horrors of the CreateSpace hot mess to self-pub her first novel!
Whether you are self-publishing or traditionally publishing, the process is always free for the author. Publishers pay YOU. If you pay the publisher, even a penny, it’s a scam.
What is a Vanity Press?
Any publisher that asks the writer to pay upfront to publish is a Vanity Press. Why is this a scam? Because they’re asking you to pay the press to do something you can do for free. As mentioned above, everything from editing to publishing an ebook or physical book is free. There’s a price only if you choose to pay for it, and those items should never be more than editing or cover art.
In the end, you are paying thousands of dollars for the vanity of holding a physical copy of your book . . . which services such as KDP and IngramSpark can do for you for free.
Are Self-Publishing and Vanity Publishing the Same?
Yes, they are. So why pay for the opportunity? You, the author, bypass literary agents and publishing houses to take your book directly to market. These two publishing methods follow the same workflow, involve the same processes, and need the same tools to publish.
The difference in the two comes down to who controls the publishing process and who owns the rights to your book. Self-publishing, as the name implies, keeps full control of the literary rights and content with the author. With vanity presses, often the author is giving up the literary rights and a sum of money over to a 3rd party to, in essence, self-publish for the author. The ‘publisher’ then controls your book, not you. The ‘publisher’ then retains the rights to your book (depending on the contract). This is why it’s a scam. The vanity press takes your money, takes your rights, and takes control of the manuscript.
Think about a vanity press like this: It’s like paying someone to drive your car through a fast food drive-thru to order you a value meal. And they keep the car in the end.
Are There Trustworthy Vanity Presses?
Yes, there are! But these are not called vanity presses, they are considered hybrid publishers. Like self-publishing, the author is still bypassing literary agents and traditional publishing houses, but the author and the press now share any costs needed to publish the book–things like editing and cover art.
And why is hybrid not a scam but vanity is? Because a hybrid publisher has skin in the game. The hybrid publisher invests in your novel, in much the same way a traditional publisher would. The hybrid publisher and the author share a percentage of any costs agreed to, and also share a percentage of the sales/royalties. This can be advantageous if an author needs in-depth editing services for the manuscript, needs to pay a cover artist, or needs help with publishing.
A hybrid publisher can help share the costs an author chooses to undertake in the process of publishing a novel.
When Do I Know It’s a Scam?
As soon as you, as the author, are asked for money, it’s a scam.
If some someone contacts you unsolicited, it’s a scam.
Now, keep in mind, if you have gone out of your way to research a hybrid publisher and sign up, you should make sure to acquaint yourself with the terms of your contract to see what the publisher pays for, what you pay for, and what you both pay for.
Is Indie Publishing like Hybrid Publishing?
Small traditional publishing houses are called indie publishers, or small-press publishers. These publishers tend to work with new authors, or indie authors, and authors who are making the leap from self-publishing to traditional publishing.
Indie publishers are traditional publishers, in that indie publishers will pay you for the rights to publish your novel. The difference between indie and hybrid is that the author doesn’t pay anything to the publisher. The indie press takes on all responsibility for publishing the novel.
Indie publishers tend to move faster than traditional publishers and have all the perks and opportunities, but sometimes with smaller advances (the payment the author gets when the publisher buys their manuscript). The great thing about indie publishers is that a good deal of them do not go through an agent to find manuscripts–the author pitches the story right to the press, and then the press decides if they want to work with the author or not.
Whichever publishing route you choose to take, just remember: the process is free unless you choose to pay for a piece of it. Yog’s Law states that money flows towards the writer, not away.
Any form of publishing can seem big and scary at first, but it really isn’t. There is a huge community of fellow writers out there willing to help out. If you need support, check out Facebook Groups and Reddit subs. Here are some great subs that can help out:
https://www.reddit.com/r/writing
https://www.reddit.com/r/authors
https://www.reddit.com/r/selfpublish
And remember, writing is supposed to be fun! Enjoy the process, just make sure to watch out for yourself.
– Rissa
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