Ok, I get it, all of us aspiring authors want to get into the market and have our books published so our friends and family can see and buy it. We want that feeling of being marveled by our friends and by the public. Many people say that publishing a book cost money, that is total bullshit! No! it does not if you know what you're doing and you're willing to do the work yourself. Trust me it's worth it and you will feel much better about yourself, plus you might make a lot more money this way besides traditional publishing.

 

However, that's not what I'm here to talk about. No, I'm here to talk about a third option of publishing your book and in my opinion one, you shouldn't even consider. It's the dreaded "Vanity Publishing" option, the words are enough to strike fear into hardened veterans, who have learned enough about the publishing world. It's the rookies out there or the poor person who has a dream of being an author trying to accomplish their dream not knowing the true consequences of the cutthroat world of publishing. It's those people that I need to get this message across because I refuse to let these scumbags rob not only these people of their hard-earned money but also their dream. I will not stand for that, NO! NO! NO!

 

Ok, let me calm down and explain what Vanity Publishing is. I'm sure you have an idea of what it is based on the above compare and contrast chart on the top. However, that's only the tip of the iceberg, my friends. Oh no... you see vanity presses will charge you thousands of dollars just to get your book out there, something you can do yourself for almost nothing. To add insult to injury the customer service of these companies is terrible and borderline disgusting, I read some people were being "bullied" by rude representatives. These wannabe publishers push you with "too good to be true" offers to market your book, some even go as far as getting your book to the Oprah Winfrey's Book Club for about $80! Guess what happens? Nothing... nothing but crickets they have your money and you get no results. They come out with some lousy excuse such as, "Your book was rejected or something happened." While in reality the only thing that happened was that you were robbed of your money

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The biggest sin of all is the fact you have to pay thousand, not even hundreds of dollars just to call yourself a "Published Author" and to be honest that's all you're going to be if you go vanity. These companies will make your product poorly to the point where your paperbacks will be ripped, they will have blotches inside of the book or worse on your beautiful cover. Oh wait it gets even better, not only your product will look poor, it will have poor formatting making your book look very unprofessional. If your book is going to look that bad at least do it yourself and not spend your entire life savings on it. Thought it couldn't get any worse, well it does get worse. These crooks will overprice your book right out of the market to the point where your friends, family and even yourself won't want to buy it. Yes, the markup is that bad! If that doesn't piss you off, maybe this will these companies especially AuthorHouse and America Star Books will format your book purposely to their favor so that they can have a "legitimate" excuse to mark up the price. I have seen paperbacks priced at $25, hardcovers up to $35 and e-books up to $10 and the book quality isn't up to par with those prices. Not even a triple-a title would be worth that much!

Do I dare say the experience gets even worse? I'm afraid it does get worse. With many of these companies, you give up the rights to your work, which means that book isn't yours anymore. Due to the book not being yours these people get to control the price of your book and you don't have the power to change the prices unless you pay an expensive fee. Finally, yes finally if you want your rights to your work back, you have to pay a huge balloon payment just to buy yourself out of the contract for your book that you worked so hard to write. Did I mention these companies will continue to pressure you to buy into their worthless marketing tools that only markets to only one thing, their pockets! Also, they provide no access to wholesalers and expect you to purchase large quantities of your book just for a lousy discount or to "distribute" them to big name authors, TV shows, and even Hollywood only to see the promise is nothing but pure bullshit!

Below are some of the biggest vanity publishers out there, please do not be in a rush to become a "Published Author" because I can almost promise you that's all you will be. You'll be lucky to sell any copies to your friends or family. Do your due diligence and just work your butt off and learn how to do your own editing, book covers, and formatting or look for an actual agent that will represent you. That's because Vanity Publishing is not the way to go for, even for the one who has thousands to spend their money on! Look elsewhere, you've been warned!