Textbook Authorship

Academic Self-Publishing--2

Subsidy publishers vary in their approach to the lucrative self-publishing market. Some simply prey upon unwary authors; others straightforwardly explain how to use their services appropriately. Personal, family, church, academic, and organizational records, history, biography, and memoir are appropriate uses, for example, as the goal of distribution usually is non-commercial and the intended market is restricted or small. These self-published works do not even need an ISBN if they are not intended for distribution to the trade.

Some subsidy presses say they screen for quality and may or may not accept manuscripts. These houses may have sales catalogs and use books self-published under their imprint to build a branded reputation for their company, making screening a good idea. However, most vanity publishers, including companies billing themselves as “turn-key publishers,” will publish anything you send them, without comment. They may or may not offer extra paid services of copyediting, ghostwriting, or reviewing. Poor quality of content, among other things, is what has made self-published works unwelcome in the trade.

For academics self-publishing with vanity presses, however, the issue may be lack of professional peer review rather than of trade acceptance. Peer review is essential for vetting or sanctioning scholarly work as authoritative, accurate, etc. Print or online publications that lack any kind of review process tend to be ignored, justly or not, in the academic community. I'll discuss this limitation further in a subsequent post.

Some self-publishing houses say they offer marketing, promotion, and distribution services—which you pay for--and seem to be well connected. They make money at your expense, however, some offering you a royalty as little as 20% on your work in exchange for their efforts. Thus, a house can double-dip without making any capital investment at all. At no expense to itself, it can make money from you and then turn around and make money from your book.

Reputable subsidy publishers are direct and clear about what they can and cannot accomplish for you and your publication. Some claim you can self-publish for free. Disreputable companies claim they can profitably distribute your self-published book nationally or internationally and get you on Oprah.

Labels: self-publishing, subsidy publishing, subvention, vanity press

posted by Mary Ellen Lepionka @ 10:24 AM