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!