-
List of Vanity Publishers
Hi,
I recently Googled “literary agent, children’s books UK,” and several enticing ads popped up asking for submissions. My first impression was that if they are actively advertising for books, surely my odds of getting picked up must be better. It’s been a challenge finding an agent so far, and this seemed like a decent option. Besides, why bother with an agent if I can submit to a publisher directly?
One ad was for Austin Macauley Publishers. However, I’m naturally quite skeptical, and when I noticed one of their Google reviews was from an author who had “done some digging” and rejected their offer, I thought I should do some research myself. This led me to Harry’s article about them, which is pretty damning.
That said, there are still plenty more ads and avenues to explore. I was wondering if anyone has a list of vanity publishers, so I can avoid needing to scrutinize the fine print on all of them?
-
8 Replies
-
You don’t need a vanity publisher. You can either follow instructions and upload on Amazon’s Kindle publishing. All free and the tutorial guide you. Or you can go hybrid. Plenty of good ones out there. It depends on how much you want to spend.
-
Thanks for the reply. Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I wanted a list so I’d know who to avoid. Yes KDP looks great actually, that’s definitely a route I’m look into. I’ve already designs some cover artwork I’m really happy with, which I’ve also used on my website https://tomfreeman.me/. Thanks.
-
This reply was modified 2 months, 2 weeks ago by Tom Freeman.
-
This reply was modified 2 months, 2 weeks ago by
-
-
Hi Tom,
I stumbled upon this website that might be of interest to you – it has a list of vanity publishers.
https://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/writer-beware/
Emma
-
Thanks, that’s really helpful. I’ll take a look. Also the link to the SFWA looks interesting as well. Are you a member?
-
No, I’m not a member – I write mostly women’s fic, but also dabble a bit in crime. I just came across the site when I was looking up vanity presses, and found the Writer’s Beware stuff really informative.
-
-
Might be worth noting the difference between Vanity and Hybrid publishers. Vanity leave you with a pile of books for you to sell. Hybrid are print on demand and are more likely to get you into bookshops. DIY online is free but loads and loads of work which take you away from writing. Best bet is a hybrid which does formatting, cover and marketing, puts you in the main distributor catalogues and costs less than £1000. They do exist … useful article on publishers: https://tweedlecoate.co.uk/guides/the-tweedlecoate-guide-to-publishers/
-
Hi Tom. My view of vanity publishing is in line with Harry’s.
To me, vanity publishing gives you no sense of the true worth of your work. They’ll publish anything if you pay for it. Conversely, conventional publishing (with all its many frustrations) provides the security of an organisation believing your work is good enough for them to invest in. I’d say, don’t do vanity.
Alan
