21-10-2016, 06:58 AM
(20-10-2016, 08:29 PM)Sparks Wrote: Then I hit on the much sneered at "vanity publishing," where I pay for them to be printed exactly as I like them, and sell them myself.
That's self publishing really, unless you are being ripped off by a "vanity publishing" house. CreateSpace owned by Amazon are about the cheapest, zero cost, except per copy which is reasonable, and bookstops, Amazon buyers, and Libraries can buy direct from CreateSpace and you get royalty. Then there is Smashwords (Publishes to Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc), Amazon and Google Playstore for eBooks.
Marketing is issue. However Traditional Publishers only do marketing for a tiny percentage of those they sign up, and then if you book isn't a success (less than 1% of trad published titles) it gets pulped or remaindered after two months.
There are "vanity publishing" scammers still, who charge people vast money to "publish", claim they will market, print off a run (often using a cheap 3rd party printer) and do nothing.