Lars Eighner's Homepage Writers' Workshop FAQ: Q. What is the difference between vanity publishing and self-publishing?

Q. What is the difference between vanity publishing and self-publishing?

A. Self-publishing is often as much in vain as vanity publishing, but there are some important differences.

When you self-publish, you arrange to have your manuscript typeset, you take bids from printers and bookbinders and have the book printed and bound, you attempt to get the distributors who handle books from small publishers to include your offering in their catalogues, and of course, all the publicity work is up to you.

A vanity press sells you a package of services which includes most of the above tasks.

Although it would seem that using a vanity press would be easier, the truth is vanity presses cannot do some of the harder tasks any better than you can--and the services you could perform for yourself are grossly overpriced when done by the vanity press.

The problem is distribution and publicity. The vanity press has no advantages, and that they are a vanity press will be enough to cause most critics and bookstores to send their review copies and catalogues directly to the circular file. If you don't have a commercial publisher you will have to do most of the work of selling your book yourself -- and a lot of that work will be that of selling yourself. You will have to learn to write press releases, you will have to send them out, you will have to charm local talk-show hosts into putting you on the air, you will have to beg stores to take a few of your books on consignment, you will have to carry books around with you, and you will have to try to sell the books to whomever you can. A vanity press won't do these things for you and won't be effective at what they say they do.

Vanity presses will not do any better with the production of the book. Typesetting, printing, and binding are extremely price-competitive businesses. You will save money if you take bids for these services instead of buying a package from a vanity press. Moreover, if you have a high quality printer, desktop publishing software, and the skills to use them, you might avoid paying for typesetting. Yes, people who know what to look for will be able to tell the difference, but we have come along a long way since every large font revealed "jaggies" (stairsteps) on every curve or slanted line.

Moreover, there are a number of sleazy organizations purporting to be vanity publishers which do not even deliver the overpriced services they promise.

The odds are very long against recovering any significant part of an investment in either self-publishing or vanity publishing. But as it would take as much work and luck to succeed with a vanity press, self-publishing is the better choice for someone who can't get published by conventional means and insists on risking his or her own money.