Writers Woe Wednesday: What is indie / vanity publishing?

 What is indie / Vanity publishing?

Sundari Venkatraman answers this question by 
Vasantha Vivek

What is Indie / Vanity Publishing?

A big hello from TBC. This is Rubina Ramesh and our motto is only one that we want to bring facts in front of young and aspiring writers. Sharing our knowledge about writing, marketing, and publishing your book. I have had friends and relatives who have asked me this question, ‘What is indie/vanity publishing?’ Even after knowing the answers, have gone ahead and done exactly that. I was curious about what prompted them to do so and all of them said the same thing: It makes our life easy. 

If just seeing your name on the cover of the book is your ultimate destination, then please go ahead and do it.  Otherwise, no. This might be an easy path but it is a path of no returns. You must know what exactly is a Traditional Publisher, Indie Publisher, Indie Authors and Vanity Publisher. Knowing about each of the above will help you to reach an educated decision. Don't be hasty. You are a writer. You have shown patience while writing the book, now why throw it away to a pack of wolves. Know what is out there - before deciding what line to take.

I don't profess to be Ms. Know All. I am a learner of this craft like you all. So whatever I know I will share and what I don't we will ask the experts.  If they can't answer, don't worry - we will get the answers for you. :D We are very good at that. 

Vasantha, thanks for asking this question. Very relevant in our writer's world today. Thanks, Sundari Venkatraman for choosing to answer this question. We could not think of anyone better than you for you have experienced both the worlds and some more. 

Answer by Sundari Venkatraman

	Indie Publishing	Vanity Publishing
1.	Indie means Independent. It is called indie or self-publishing when an author is also the publisher of her book. Indie also means that you call all the shots. You can publish the book when you want. If ever, you are unhappy with the result, you can simply pull the plug, at a given point in time, with absolutely no financial loss.	Vanity publishing is when you pay to have your book published. This is most definitely NOT recommended since the author will never see any return on investment, ever. It gets worse when the author promises, on paper, to sign up for all subsequent works by the author with this same publisher. READ all the print – both large and fine – when you sign up for something. Vanity publishing literally means you are catering to your vanity by throwing away good money. Since this kind of publisher has already made his money through you, he’s not going to make any effort to edit, proof or market your book. There is no ‘good’ vanity publisher out there. They are all cheats. After a point, the author finds herself landed with many copies of her own books and a smaller bank balance, along with 100% frustration. Believe me, I, along with a number of authors, have undergone this experience.
2.	Free	You pay through your nose
3.	You are responsible for editing, proofing, cover design and marketing of your book.	While the vanity publishing house tells you that they take responsibility for the same things, there’s no guarantee, since they have already made the money. They are all con artists. I know it’s a sweeping statement, but it’s the truth.
4.	I have dealt with Amazon KDP and so will talk from that viewpoint. You get to know your sale every hour, on the hour. You can see the charts climbing on your dashboard.	You don’t really know, ever, whether your books are selling or not.
5.	You get paid, two months after the sale happens, from Amazon.com & Amazon.in. From the other countries, you receive a cheque after you arrive at a consolidated figure of 100 units in that country’s currency.	There’s no guarantee that you will ever see royalty, even after investing a lot of money.

You can get some more information from: http://www.vanitypublishing.info/ 

 Now I would like to invite the readers/ writers to share their view as a comment below. Share your experiences so that new writers can make an educated guess. If you don't want to reveal your name, send us an email at tbcblogtours@gmail.com We promise never to share your name and will post your views as a comment below us. Your views are very much needed for writers who are duped into paying a lumpsum of money to the publishers, who make false promises and never do anything about it. 

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