Books | Karisha Prescott

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What is Vanity Publishing?

Posted on 02 March 2010 by KarishaPrescott

Vanity Press or Vanity Publishing as it is commonly referred is self-funded publishing of a book by an independent author. This means that no matter the quality of the book, as long as the author has the money to do so, the book gets put out ‘on the presses’ and offered to readers.

There are publishing houses that specifically do Vanity Publishing. These publishing houses make a majority of their money by offering package deals and services to assist in producing a more polished product for the author. Such services could be anything from cover jacket design, editing services to marketing campaigns and placement in particular book stores around the country or even the world.

A lot of vanity publishing also offer ‘Print on Demand’ for their clients now, so that the self-funding, independent author no longer has to pay thousands of dollars to have first-prints run and then stored until sold, but can simply print one book each time one is ordered and have it drop shipped directly to the customer.

There has been a lot of speculation about the quality of work that gets published through vanity publishing, but there has also been a type of hysteria through the publishing world as authors wise up to their profit potential.

As publishing houses require more and more self-marketing, self-promotion and a building large platforms before contracts are signed, authors are wondering what the point to a traditional publisher is any more.

Are there pros and cons to both vanity publishing and traditional publishing? Yes. Do I have a preference? Personally, I am going with vanity publishing. Just a personal choice.

It is all about personal preference. Are you going to sit back and wait for approval from conservative low-risk-taking publishing houses or are you going to go full-steam-ahead on the book you have put so much time and confidence in?

More times than not, Vanity publishing is winning.

Digital publishing is especially winning as more authors become aware of the low demand for housing books, no supply to control and the relative zero-cost for materials beyond the invested time in writing, editing and marketing their book.

So Vanity Publishing has its place in the publishing world and I don’t think it is going anywhere any time soon.

What do you think? Do you think Vanity Publishing is a good thing or a bad thing? Do you think Traditional Publishing houses are at risk now that the ‘power is in the hands of the authors’ of the world?

Thanks for reading! I hope you have a great day and I would love to hear more on your thoughts about Vanity publishing!

Thanks again!

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English Final: Digital Book Burning

Posted on 21 December 2009 by KarishaPrescott

for the love of books by chocolate geek

Photo Credit: Chocolate Geek

The Following is the paper I turned in for my English 101 Final. Please respect my work. Do not plagiarize as the paper will come up in search results fairly easily. Cheating is wrong but above that, I know you have great ideas, great thoughts and you just need a little encouragement. This is me encouraging you. Everyone has a great paper in them. Write a paper you can be proud of and call your own. As always, thanks for reading!

Digital Book Burning

Book burning has spanned the ages but has never been more dangerous than today. From the 1700’s with the banning of literature supporting the United States rebellion against England, to book burning in support of Nazi regime, the most notable being May 10th, 1933 by German university students, books have been controlled most strictly where dictatorships have risen.

Dictators like Hitler knew the power that books held. By holding book burnings people attempt to stop the spread of ideas. Now we are upon an age, a digital age, when the books that hold the past are in danger. Not only is there the danger of books being eradicated with the push of a single button but the danger of our books becoming censored even as they sit on our digital book shelves. The numbing part is that no one will even know it is happening. This holds the most danger in experiments with institutions of higher learning switching from traditional textbooks to digital editions. (Mintz)

Traditionally, books would have to be sought out, gathered, piled and lit to burn publicly. There would always be a few copies that survived. These books were hidden away to provide insight into what was so terrible a threat to the authority that banned it. Sure, you could have had a knock at the door and a militant looking fellow could demand all copies be brought to a square, but it was somewhat easy to misplace or hide a copy.

Today, we are faced with a new threat. No longer will there be a knock at the door. Instead, the culprit will come through the window, thumb through your library and pick and choose what is appropriate. Sound outlandish? The same incident occurred on December 17, 2009, when corporate giant Amazon, who manages and distributes digital books, decided to go through a few selections on the Kindle reading devices owned around the world. Amazon deleted select titles without warning or notice. (Stone) “Justin Gawronski bought and was reading ‘1984′ as part of a summer assignment for school. Amazon deleted the book while he was reading it, causing him to see the ink disappear before the eyes as he was reading.” (Hood)

Digital piracy could mean something completely different in our time. Instead of thinking of a person stealing a bunch of music from a website, envision a website going through your library and automatically replacing a book you purchased with a ‘new, edited, cleaned’ version. Basically, you could go to sleep with one thing on your digital page and wake up to something entirely different. So the real threat is not in an entire edition disappearing, which is obvious and noticeable, but select passages altering without warning or reason. It is easy to see where something has been taken, but would you notice if the text in a section is just a little more to the left? Was something added or was something taken out?

The titles that were omitted from the libraries of every Kindle owner that had purchased them were none-other than Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell, as well as a few other titles. (Stone) The reason that this irony is an irony is that the book 1984 by George Orwell is about government totalitarian control, most especially over literature and books. It would, no doubt, leave a lasting impression on the young man, Gawronski, who was reading the title as it disappeared by the same situation the book was trying to shed light on. (Hood) The possibility of totalitarian control over literature is now a very real possibility and threat.

This all comes back to control and even government. A good example of this would be the book project spearheaded by conglomerate Google. Google Books is millions of books into a world-wide digitization project attempting a modern day replica of the Library of Alexandria from Greek history.

It is no surprise that France leads the fight against the spread of knowledge. “We won’t let ourselves be stripped of our heritage to the benefit of a big company, no matter how friendly, big or American it is,” were French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s thoughts on the matter. (Jarry) As Google continue to fight against accusations of attempting to build a perceived monopoly, you have to take a look at the market. Targeting public domain works and out-of-print works, Google is making books available to the world that would otherwise be forgotten in dusty, used bookstore stacks.

The future of books is a double edged sword. On the one hand we have the spread of knowledge, and on the other hand is the stifling and eradication of books. Both options grant complete control and great responsibility.

There may come precedents set by courts as time goes on, that slowly chisel the rights of publishers and there-by the rights of writers. As writers and journalists are attacked in the courtroom for things like slander, opinion, political views, and shedding light on atrocities, there will become a gradual shift. Instead of seeing an apology or retraction you won’t see anything. Things like court ordered edits that completely erase the initial intent of the author could become an unheard normalcy in the digital publishing world. That in mind, the latest endeavors of Amazon should worry the population far more than Google’s attempt at a mass library.

Over 200 universities, including Arizona State University, are in preliminary testing utilizing the same company that so casually deleted users’ books in the middle of the night, Amazon. In this experiment, students use a Kindle device which comes preloaded with their digital textbooks courtesy of Amazon, instead of their traditional books. A Kindle device may be lighter than traditional books and possibly less expensive in the long run but handing over control of educational texts to the company that readily pilfers digital libraries is not what I call a ‘great decision’. (Minz)

As companies and publishers begin serious contemplation about putting history books in collective digital archives, the population should be looking to authors. When it comes down to the integrity of a book, no one knows a book better than its author. Whether authors will defend their works at all costs or let laws censor and alter is yet to be seen. When the dust settles it would be nice to trust what you’re reading is what was originally written.

As far as digital books go, the whole threat is in not knowing the initial intent of the author. Government control on publishing houses, court orders to alter, edit or delete works with the push of a single button means that an original would be known only to the original author and no one else. The days of stowing away a book in hopes of saving it from the bon fire, appreciating the words that are feared by an authority and having the mind to save it for future lessons on literary control and abuse, would be days of the past.

Digital book burning is a very real situation, having already happened in the middle of the night and having gone almost unnoticed. (Stone) The contents of “1984″ are coming to potential prophecy less than a hundred years from when it was written and we may all be made fools by the end, having not heeded the warning. As book burning becomes a simple press of the delete key the world needs to look to the source, the author. The author is the only one that can say what was or was not intended. It is up to the authors to keep the integrity of their works. It is up to the author, and not much can be expected elsewhere, to keep the integrity of literature for the rest of the world.