Why do I have to pay?

Well known authors are guaranteed book sales, unknowns are not. Depending on the type of publisher you approach and the nature of their business will determine if, and how much you pay.

What is Vanity Publishing?

This is where you specifically pay to have your book published for a few copies to hand out to your friends and family, there is generally no marketing or publicity deal included, although the term has been connected to Joint Venture Publishing.

How can I identify a Vanity Publisher?

In my experience this be determined by the type of agreement or contract you enter into.

If they do not require any up front payment and will produce quantities of your book and promote it to the book trade, they are a normal publisher.

If they require money and will produce a batch of books for you, family and friends it is Vanity Publishing.

If they require money to produce a sufficient quantity of your book for sale and intend to promote it to the book trade then it is Joint Venture publishing.

The general rule is that the author never pays to have their book published, the publisher pays the author!

What is Self Publishing?

This method of publishing is where you produce the manuscript, cover design and all other associated preparation and get an independent company to print a quantity of books. You then promote it and yourself to the book trade in the hope that you end up with a larger share of the pie.

I think this method of publishing takes a huge amount of self-belief, time and effort as you are effectively doing yourself what an experienced company would be doing for you.

How do royalty payments work?

This information will be in your contract from the publisher and varies quite greatly. This should be one of the things that you should consider before deciding on a publisher.