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Twighlight Manor Press



Last Updated: 9/26/2007

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Gender: Female
Status: Single
Age: 34
Sign: Leo

State: Maine
Country: US
Signup Date: 5/13/2007

Who Gives Kudos:

Darlene Cyp.. (1)
J.L. Benet (1)
Thursday, May 31, 2007 

Current mood:  contemplative
Category: Writing and Poetry
A question I see time and time again is: Is *name of business here* a self-publisher, vanity press, or traditional publisher? How do I tell the difference?

While there are many branches of the publishing tree, these 3 are the big limbs, from which all the branches shoot off of. Here is how to tell them apart:

A self publisher, is an author who gets a business license, buys the ISBN #s, hires a printing press (print shop/printer) to print the books, than sells them themselves... the author keeps 100% of the profits, because no one pays royalties; you keep 100% of the copyright (which btw, does not cost a penny)... you market the book and distribute it through local bookstores and Amazon.com

A vanity press is a print shop/printer/printing press, that does that for you, they usually ask you to pay money for them to edit your MS, they also charge you if you want a color cover, (often they charge you for such things as "the right to keep your copyright", or the ISBN #, in addition to the cost of everything else they charge) and than pays you a percentage (royalty), after you first pay them for the books... the royalty they pay, though it may sound high, is actually very low, because you don't see that money until after they have deducted what you "owe them" for printing the books... in short, they make money, while you go broke, and you may or may not get to keep the rights to your book, depending on how much money you paid to buy your own rights back from them... you market the book and distribute it through local bookstores and Amazon.com

A traditional publisher, hires editors who read your MS which you send to them; they receive thousands of MSs each week, so it may take up to 2 years before they get around to reading it; after they read it, they either reject it or accept it; if they accept it, you well be sent a contact (and often with a recommendation that you go over it with your literary agent/lawyer before you sign it). Once you sign the contract and send it back, than the publisher's lawyer checks it to be certain that all is in order (and done legally). The publisher is given the temporary copyright allowing them to print and distribute your book to the public... they hire and editor to type set and spell check your MS, than they hire an artist to create the cover art, they distribute the book to bookstores worldwide, you never own them a cent, they pay you royalties

In other words:

Self publishing is you starting your own business (a publishing house) and earning an income.

Vanity press is you doing a lot of hard work, getting your book printed, and getting scammed out of the money that should be yours, while they get rich and leave you with nothing.

Traditional publishing is you hiring a business to do the work for you and you both earn an income.


I hope this helps.

~~EK
7:40 PM
 
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Darlene Cypser

 
I think you really have left out two major categories that are very important today:

Print-on-Demand Publishers: These are a new phenomenon. Unlike vanity publishers where you have to cough $X upfront for Y of books which may end up mostly in your closet, POD publisher only print books as they are ordered. That keeps the costs down. But it still is more costly than printing it yourself and some of them do try to scam you. One of the biggest drawbacks is that they don't do any editing or proofing. That is all the author's responsibility.

Small Press Publishers: These are like the big traditional publishers but are a lot smaller. They publisher fewer books and have fewer distribution connections but they are real publishers with editors etc. They often response faster and publish faster than the large publishers. Unfortunately, some POD publishers and Vanity publishers pretend they are Small Press Publishers until you get down to the paperwork.

Re: Traditional publishers - You aren't really hiring them. You are licensing them (allowing them) to reproduce your work as a product. They should really only get a "license" (permission) and not a "temporary copyright."
 
Posted by Darlene Cypser on Wednesday, July 18, 2007 - 10:41 PM
[Reply to this] 
Twighlight Manor Press

 
I didn't include them 'cause they can both come under one (or more) of the other three. Most self-publishers today are using Print-on-Demand, esp. via LuLu.com. Likewise several Small Presses use this method as well. Some self-publishers, start a Small Press (like I did... that's how TMPress got started).

There's also work-for-hire, where a publisher pays you a one-time-fee to write a book about a copyrighted character (such as Disney storybooks), that's another branch to explor too. Though you rarely get your name on the book, and you can't tell your friends you wrote the book, because the company takes all the create. This is like being a ghost-writer.

Thanks for adding this comment. You're right about the POD lack of editing, etc. I love to promote self-publishers, small presses, and PODs, but I really have a hard time finding any that are "good". Meaning that, the book wasn't edited, not that it wasn't a good story. It can be a huge pothole in the road of the self-publisher if they don't get help with the editing.


Print-on-Demand & Small Press are what we do actually. We started out with low run limited editions, all hand sewn, hand bound, and often handwritten instead of printed; because of this, our older books often had only 5 copies ever printed. It takes about 2 months to make a single volume useing this method. It's more custom work. This year is our first year useing POD. (Was supposed to be last year, but a flood destroied our building, and set us back while we rebuild... we are on "hold" until we can get a building again, which is taking longer than we had hoped. )
 
Posted by Twighlight Manor Press on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 7:22 PM
[Reply to this] 
Twighlight Manor Press

 
I do have a problem with forgetting to check my post before I post it ...and me talking about editing in that comment... sheesh!

LOL!
 
Posted by Twighlight Manor Press on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 7:24 PM
[Reply to this] 
J.L. Benet
Aaron Bennett

 
Some of the things you mention regarding copyright are a little off.
"you keep 100% of the copyright (which btw, does not cost a penny)"
Are you going by the copyright that is established the second you put it to paper? While that is technically true, it offers you no protection whatsoever. To actually register a copyright, you need to send a form into the U.S. Copyright Office, and pay $45.
http://www.copyright.gov/

"The publisher is given the temporary copyright allowing them to print and distribute your book to the public."
The publisher is never given copyright (unless it's a work for hire). Not even on a temporary basis. What the publisher is given is permission from the copyright holder to exercise certain rights in regards to the work in question. I.e. First North American Print Rights, or E-book rights, or World Reprint Rights. Those rights not expressly given in the contract are still owned by the copyright holder. This means that I can sign a contract with a mass-market publisher for North American Print Rights, then sign another contract with a publisher in Hungary for rights to the work in translation (limited to Hungarian), get another publisher who will put the book out in German, have a signed/limited edition done by a small press publiser, and have a film studio option the film rights. The actual copyright of the work was never transferred in any of these instances.

"Traditional publishing is you hiring a business to do the work for you and you both earn an income."
Traditional publishing is them paying you for a product, which they will turn around and sell, trying to make them money. If you hired the business to work for you, that would be vanity publishing.
 
Posted by J.L. Benet on Friday, July 27, 2007 - 2:08 AM
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