There are basically two ways to publish a book:
- You can hire people to help you publish your book.
- Or you can pursue a publishing contract.
What you shouldn’t do is sign a contract with a “self-publisher”.
1. Hire Help
Savvy self publishing authors do hire people to help, especially editors and cover designers. None of us—not even editors—can edit our own work. Most of us shouldn’t attempt designing our own covers unless we have serious graphic design expertise.
There are several other services self published authors often hire external experts for:
- Formatting.
- Writing the book description.
- Website design and maintenance (if you don’t have a website, you need to join my Kick Start Your Author Platform Marketing Challenge.)
- Uploading files to online retailers.
No idea where to start? Check out Starting From Zero, a new free course from self-published author David Gaughran.
Note that there is one thing no reputable author or publisher ever pays for, and that is book reviews. But that’s a big topic, so I’ll save it for another post.
2. Go Traditional
I’ve covered this in previous posts here at ACW:
Large established trade publishers will generally offer an advance and a royalty. Note that the advance is an advance against future royalty payments, so if you’re offered a $1,000 advance and you earn $1 in royalty payments for every copy sold, you won’t get any royalty payments until the 1,001st copy of your book is sold (no, these are not typical advance or royalty payments. That would be too easy!).
A smaller publisher or a digital-only publisher might offer a royalty-only contract. This means no advance, but it also means you start earning royalty payments from the first book sold.
Don’t Sign With a Vanity Press (Please)
A vanity press is not the same as a traditional publisher. Instead of making their money by selling books to readers, they make their money by selling publishing and marketing services to authors. Unfortunately, too many of them prey on Christian authors. Writer Beware says:
Christian writers are more likely to trust a company that self-identifies as Christian … a perfect honey trap.
There are a few ways to spot a vanity press:
They require you to pay them (not the other way around).
A reputable trade publisher will never ask for money up front. A vanity press will, although they’ll never call themselves a vanity press. Instead, they’ll call themselves a traditional publisher or trade publisher. Or a co-operative press or a hybrid press or a partnership press.
Those are all terms designed to confuse you, persuade you that they are a legitimate trade publisher. But if they are asking you for money, they are not a trade publisher.
I’ve discussed vanity presses in several previous posts here at ACW:
If any publisher is asking you for money, please read these posts. Because the chances are that they are a vanity press, not a reputable trade publisher.
They require you to purchase hundreds of copies of your book.
A trade publisher may give you the option of purchasing author copies at a discount e.g. to use in your own promotional efforts, to give as gifts, or to onsell. They will not require you to purchase copies—it’s purely an option. Requiring you to purchase copies of your book makes them a vanity press.
They require you to pay for their marketing services.
A reputable trade publisher will require you to undertake some marketing at your own expense. For example, they may require you to have your own website which you develop and maintain. But they won’t insist on building your website for a fee. Nor will they insist on you paying for compulsory or optional marketing services (which are usually expensive and of dubious value).
It all comes back to the first rule of publishing:
Money flows from the publisher to the author. Not the other way around.
Anything else is vanity. Please don’t allow the desire for validation to blind you to the point of vanity.
Thank you. Very insightful about the Vanity Press Publishers. A number of my christian friends here in Australia are going this way as it sounds good to them and the firm purports to be christian so they feel safe. Thanks for the insights.
Its so sad that their are publishers who as you say purport to be christian. They do this to prey on christian writers to lull them into a false sense of Security. There is a publisher in America who’s owners are now in jail due to the fraudulent practices. They used the fact they were Christians supporting Christians but their goal was to become rich on other peoples hard work. I have American friends who lost a lot of money thanks to their antics. They got greedier the longer they were in business.
Unfortunately, Jenny is right – you can’t trust a publisher just because they say they are Christian. Tate Publishing is an unfortunate reminder of that.
Hi Jane, Please refer your writing friends to this post and also our Australasian Christian Writers Facebook Group. We are sad when we meet disillusioned authors after they’ve signed bad contracts. Researching the publishing industry is an important step to take before writers sign a contract. Thanks for commenting. 😊
Oh yes, I was published with Christian A H P before I had even heard of the term ‘vanity press’. I hadn’t joined any Christian writers organizations so hadn’t known anything about the publishing industry. I did not receive a penny in advance or royalty because they told me they didn’t do that with debut books. Oh well, that mistake opened my eyes to all the pitfalls ahead. Anyway, I contracted US designer/publisher, Roseanna White to do my covers & self-published my historical romance trilogy and was able to recoup the costs by selling at different venues.
I have another series almost ready after our well-known Kiwi editor, Iola Goulton, worked on them, but at this stage am waiting, like many others, to find an agent………
I am glad you found a much better publisher for you books. It is so sad that some companies use people to make money.
Thank you, Rita. Roseanna White did beautiful covers for you 🙂
Hi Rita, It’s disappointing to hear that there are many writers we know who have been caught up in these types of contractual arrangements. One of the blessings of indie publishing is that it has opened the door for authors who are looking for an alternative to traditional publishing for a range of reasons. Roseanna creates lovely covers. 😊