Vanity Press or Self-Publisher - What is the Difference?

Just a few years ago the distinction between self-publishing and vanity publishing was fairly clear. You pay someone to publish your book, that’s vanity, right? You set up your own company to publish your book yourself – that’s self-publishing. Easy. Now though I think the distinction is becoming blurred.

So what’s changed? Well the advances in print-on-demand technology coupled with the development of simple template-based solutions to creating a book file (by that I mean a print-ready version of your book) have opened up the book publishing arena to anyone with a computer and internet connection. 

It has enabled companies to quickly move to provide complete book publishing services to authors keen to get into print and it has enabled authors to take control of the publication of their own book. This can only be a good thing, surely? Well yes and no.

  The reason vanity presses ended up with such a bad reputation is because by and large they exploited an author’s desire to have their book published, often conning them into thinking that their book was actually being published by a commercial press – even though they were paying for it. Well it’s no surprise to know that those companies still exist and are still exploiting authors but the good news is there are many more who are offering a good and valuable service to help authors publish their book.

But how do you know who is who?

Just because a company asks you to pay to have your book published, it doesn’t mean they are a vanity press. Historically it doesn’t mean they are a self-publisher either, but something in between. And why shouldn’t there be something in between? There is no need to squeeze the industry into preconceived pigeonholes and if a company can create and publish your book, making it available through certain retail channels and that is what you want then why shouldn’t you pay for it? Why is that vanity? When a business pays to advertise its product or service we don’t accuse them of vanity – it’s business and whether you are hoping to carve out a career in writing, attract a publisher or agent or simply bind a few copies of your life story for your kids then why not?

Whatever the semantics of the debate, the fact is that the publishing landscape has changed and is changing, making it easier than ever to take the publishing of your book into your own hands. What matters is that you, as author are aware of the options available to you if you are thinking of publishing your own book and that you are clear about how each option works, what is expected from you and what you can expect to achieve at the end of it.

A good self-publishing service will make those options clear to you, a bad one won’t. This, then is the difference that matters now.