- tell you how well written your book is. He will
discuss with you the true market potential of what you have
written and how you can best present your book to the public.
He will explain about such things as the function and use
of an ISBN number and bar code, and the need for your book
(if it is to go on general sale) to be shelf-friendly in
appearance.
- tell you how much better his services are than his competitors
and swamp you with reams of review cuttings of other books
he’s published. He will simply tell you what services
he offers. Bear in mind that although it is important to
send out review copies, they normally do not sell books
in any significant numbers. Your publisher should, either
himself or through an agent, be sending copies of covers
(in the first instance) to book buyers and library suppliers
well in advance of your publication date.
- tell you he offers a 'subsidy' or 'co-partnership' or
'joint-venture' publishing service; or any other term that
implies he provides a financial commitment of his own to
your book - none do. All vanity publishers are in
the business of making money, they are not philanthropic
nor will a genuine one try to give you the false impression
that he is.
- tell you that their way is the only way for you to be
published and that this or that, author in the past had
to pay to see his work in print. They did pay to see
their work in print, but not as one of today’s vanity publishers
would have you do.
- tell you that, because your work has been accepted on
merit, it is to appear in an anthology, then offer to sell
you a copy (which he says you don’t have to buy) at a 'special
discount price.' He will give you a fee to publish
your poem, or offer you a free copy of the anthology, or
both.
- tell you that their anthology is to appear in libraries,
and will be on sale in bookshops, when it is read -
almost without exception - only by those who appear in
it and their families.
- (in the UK) tell you that he registers your book
with Whitakers and also sends a copy of your book to the
British Library and (a list of) various universities, as
though this was a service for which you should be grateful. Publishers
have to register every book published in the United Kingdom
with Nielsen, and also have to send one copy to The British
Library and 5 copies to the Copyright Receipt Office in
Edinburgh, which distributes them to the major universities
in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
- offer to publish 'as many copies as the market demands'
or 'x number of copies' while you receive only a few 'free'
copies. A good vanity publisher will agree to publish
a fixed number of copies for you at a fixed price, and
will explain to you that once you've had your manuscript
typeset and good quality plates made, you can always have
more copies if necessary after your first run - have too
many as that first run, and your grandchildren will still
be trying to get rid of them from your loft 10 years after
you’re dead!
- tell you what a wonderful marketing department he has
and that because of their hard work you will recoup your
large outlay through its royalties, which are 'higher than
anyone else will offer you' and then give you a breakdown
of how those royalties work and what they are likely to
be. Which paragraph usually makes little sense - even to
a highly trained Accountant. A good vanity publisher will
make sure you understand that the chances of recovering
anything other than a very small part of your initial outlay
is very negligible as the marketing possibilities for a
book by an unknown author are invariably poor and very
seldom amount to much more than a launch and promotional
follow-up in your own locality.
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