Re: Self publishing
For a good definition of the terms, try
http://www.sfwa.org/beware/subsidypublishers.html from the Science Fiction
and Fantasy Writers of America.
For my own purposes, the main distinction between self publishing and
vanity/subsidy publishing is if the author covers all or some of the costs
incured in what that company does to publish the book AND that company shows
up as the publisher, then that company is a vanity or subsidy publisher.
I agree completely.
In self publishing, the author can farm out all aspects of the book from
layout, editing, printing, marketing and distribution and it's still self
publishing.
Again, I agree.
I've done work for several authors who essentially are small
presses publishing themselves and co-authors. One did it to keep his books
in print and got the rights back from the original publishers. He's now
branched out to one other author, also with a substantial backlist of books
published primarily in Asia. Of course, now we're into new territory in
defining what is the difference between a self published author and a small
press!
Most small presses began either as an effort to publish a classic work in a graphically exquisite edition (pretty much beginning with William Morris in the 1890s) or as a self-publishing enterprise. If you as an author convince someone who began by self-publishing and now has a private imprint to publish your book, guess what: you're now a commercially published author. The size of the press doesn't alter the basic transaction, which is that the publisher is taking responsibility for the editing and design and is taking on the risk of publishing you.
I had mentioned Trafford before as POD and not vanity ... and now think they
fall under the category of POD vanity press ... based on the definition that
"I'M" comfortable with. Others may have different comfort levels.
The point I raised the other day (perhaps not clearly enough) is that you can secure pure POD elsewhere for much less, if you wish to self-publish and determine that POD makes economic sense for you. Trafford's value-add is all in the area of vanity publishing.
From their website, it wasn't clear as to who showed up as the publisher soI emailed them saying that I have my own block of ISBN numbers (I do) and my
own press name (ditto).
Very quick response from "Trafford Publishing On-Demand Publishing Service":
in general, they use their own ISBN numbers for all the POD stuff and --
from the ISBN at least -- they show up as the publisher. You can use them as
a printer with only your own ISBN and press name, but you get all the books
for your own distribution. They said: "If you are purchasing the Legacy
Package (whereby you will be buying books from us and Trafford will not be
selling to the public or bookstores), then we can certainly use your ISBN
instead of the Trafford ISBN, and in fact, we can remove the majority of
Trafford references on the book."
Remove the 'majority' of Trafford references????
They offer some other options, none of which really fit my comfort level of
just paying a company to print MY book on demand and ship it off, with all
upfront and marketing costs covered by me and per-book costs covered in the
sale price. And, I don't see the problem with my company showing up as the
publisher AND the POD company being listed under fulfillment of orders or
some such.
Sounds like a plan.
Anyone done this?
I haven't done that but I certainly would. There is NO reason you can't be your own publisher. What a logo you could have for "Hickey Books"! <vbg>
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References:
RE: Self publishing: From: Laurel Hickey
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