by Sam Warren
Subsidized publishing, commonly called vanity publishing, is when instead of the publisher paying you, you pay the publisher to publish your book. In this way the publisher is guaranteed to make a profit and the author is guaranteed to have a book published. Whether or not it sells is another story.
Many authors have been victimized by vanity or subsidy publishers. In a recent article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, a number of local San Diego subsidy publishers were mentioned. If a subsidy publisher guarantees that your book is going to be a success, don’t believe them.
Just because a chicken is a bird, doesn’t mean that it can be made it fly like an eagle. Unless an author is very wealthy, the only person who can make their books sell is themselves. It takes much more time and effort to sell a book than to write it. The odds are that if they go to a subsidized publisher, it is very unlikely they will be able to realize any profit from their work..
Authors go to one of the vanity publishers because they were unable (or did not have the time) to get a main-stream publisher to publish their book. Some authors paper their walls with rejection slips from main-stream publishers. However, even though the odds are against their having a best seller, it may be improbable but it is not impossible. Some people do win the California Lottery.
Many famous authors and their books were rejected multiple times. Publishers turned down Richard Bach’s Johnathan Livingston Seagull no less than 140 times; Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind received 38 “no’s,” while Stephen King’s Carrie was turned down 30 times. J. K. Rowling’s original work was pooh poohed by 12 publishers...guess who’s kicking themselves now that they passed on Harry Potter? And E. E. Cummings first work, The Enormous Room, now considered a masterpiece, was ultimately self-published . . . and dedicated to the 15 publishers who rejected it.
One way you can have a book that sells, is to find a niche first and fill it. Although I lost money by writing and publishing a family guide book, Having Fun in Tijuana, I made money and reprinted Red Lights of Baja and Sin Diego, which were written for the adult market.
A subsidized publisher is ideal for an author who wants the prestige of being a publisher author, of leaving something for their families, or sell during lectures or classes. In addition, if an author wants a major publisher to look at their book, it is a great help if they can show that their book sold well as a self-published or subsidized book.
It can also be less expensive than if they were going to have a number of review copies printed by Kinko’s. With print on demand, it is also cheaper if the author finds errors that necessitate changes in their book before thousands of copies are printed.
My own company, Bookwarren Publishing Services, only promises your book will be published; it will be on Amazon; it will be available to be ordered by most bookstores; and you can order as many copies on print on demand at a publishers price that you want.
In addition, it can be made it into an eBook and I guarantee one or more eBookstore will carry it. This can be done with either your publisher helping you to self-publish or to publish it for you.
All a subsidized publisher should promise you is that they will take the hassle out of publishing. In our case, we have a publisher's master ISBN, business license, fictitious business name, accounting system, etc. All of which you will need if you self publish. However, if you book sells, we take a percentage for managing your royalties.
But I recommend an author have an agreement with their subsidy publisher which states if their book sells, the author can cancel the contract and have a main line publisher take over publishing.
Nothing would make me happier than if I can say I helped a successful author get started.
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This article may be republished by anyone who gives the author credit and that it was first published by the San Diego WriteWay.