Shawn P. B. Robinson

Last week, we covered (briefly) how to identify a Vanity Publisher. This week, I want to cover a few considerations when looking at working with a vanity/subsidy publisher.

Here are some things to consider when dealing with a Subsidy Publisher:

1. Consider each benefit they are offering: Editing

Editing is a challenge–there’s no doubt about it! Everyone needs to make use of an editor. In fact, they are so important, you would be wise to ask a ton of different people to edit (and make great use of the really good ones) in addition to a paid editor.

On one of my books, I bet I had nearly 15 people read through it for the purpose of giving me feedback on everything from content to punctuation (from kids to a librarian to an editor). It’s EXTREMELY important.

When a Vanity/Subsidy Publisher offers to edit your book, you need to consider two things:

First, keep in mind that they may not be employing quality editors. They may… they may not. Find out if they are.
Second, finding a quality editor on your own is not difficult. I can recommend a few (Eric Shay Howard, Deborah A. Bowman, B. N. Harrison).

2. Consider each benefit they are offering: Marketing

Marketing is perhaps the most difficult part of Self-Publishing. When a Vanity/Subsidy Publisher offers all sorts of Marketing benefits, you need to seriously consider what they are actually offering.

Things like a “Press Release” or “Author Website Setup” or “Available for Sale in our Store” are not going to really give you much at all. You can do a press release yourself, but in my experience, it doesn’t really accomplish as much as you might think (if you were already a famous author… maybe it would be more valuable).

Including your book for sale in their store sounds great, but ask yourself when the last was that you bought a book from their store. Can I guess that it was never?

An author website sounds cool, but you might be dealing with a page where your book is listed for sale in their store and… again… how many books have you bought from their site?

A lot of the time, the marketing offered doesn’t go much beyond that. The marketing you think you’re getting is actually distribution, and we’ll talk about that now.

3. Consider each benefit they are offering: Distribution

If you’re new to self-publishing and I told you that I could make your book available to over 39,000 book stores, retailers, libraries and more and I’d only charge $???… it might sound like a good deal. But making your books available to everyone in the world is really, really easy these days. The hard part is getting people to buy them. 🙂

To make your book available to thousands and thousands of buyers just requires you to set your book up with Amazon (through KDP) and also through IngramSpark (one of the biggest distributors around). Amazon is free to setup and publish a book and IngramSpark charges $49, but you can get coupon codes and do it for free. You just need an ISBN.

Don’t be wowed by promises of making your book available to thousands of stores and more. It’s easy and it can be free (just the cost of an ISBN).

4. Consider each benefit they are offering: ISBNs

ISBNs are a difficult one for Self-Publishers because they can cost a lot of money (see series on ISBNs). Some countries, however, provide them for free and others will allow you to buy ISBNs in bulk. It’s generally worth it, but you can get around it by using a free ISBN if you are just sticking with Amazon.

If you go with a Vanity/Subsidy Publisher, they will provide you with an ISBN. This will save you a few bucks, but it also means they are the Publisher on Record. While you own your own work, they own their work. Your book formatting and a certain amount of control will be lost and if you want to go it alone at a later date, you will likely have to do all the formatting and artwork and everything again (but this time… all on your own).

5. Consider each benefit they are offering: Book Formatting

Book formatting is tricky and difficult. To get it right takes work.

However, there are a lot of helps out there (see Setting up Your Books: The Basics) and once you’ve set up one… you can sometimes just use that as a template and you’re good to go!

6. Consider each benefit they are offering: Cover Art

This can be a big one. It’s hard to find the right artist. Sometimes people do their own art and that can be a good thing… or a terrible thing.

But don’t expect too much custom work done in this area by a Vanity/Subsidy Publisher. You will likely get a stock photo with some text. It might look good and professional, but it might also look pretty plain. Just keep a close eye on what you’re getting.

7. Consider each benefit they are offering: Printing Costs

Here’s a big one. Since they are publishing your book and printing it, they will likely charge a fee to get it to you.

Sometimes authors who have worked with a Vanity/Subsidy Press have to buy their own books through places like Amazon (like a regular customer). Sometimes the Subsidy Publisher will provide you with author copies, but they will include their fee. This means a book that might retail for $10 (if you did the work yourself) will need to retail for $15. That’s a big difference in terms of book sales.

So, there you have it. Some information on how to recognize a Subsidy Publisher and some things to consider!

Again, don’t misunderstand me. Subsidy Publishers aren’t bad. You just need to know what you’re getting, what you’re not getting and what you’ll have to pay.

Shawn

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