I don't think you're missing the point between self publishing and vanity publishing at all.
Well, vanity publishing is just a sub-set of SELF publishing. There are lots of companies out there who let you use their press name, so it's not something you set up yourself - but who will basically print anything you send to them.
I've had friends who self-pubbed on a small scale and were happy, but they had small scale goals. One put out a collection of her erotica which wouldn't have fit with anyone category because some stories were hetero, some gay, some were kink, some were vanilla. I had another who published her first NaNoWriMo novel which was a fanfic to profic conversion with a self-publishing company that lets you keep copies online for download - and she was happy that she could pimp it out to a few limited people on boards in that fandom and what not so they could pay and download it because it was related to their interests.
And in those cases, they had no reason to try to hassle with agents, presses, etc. But they also had no expectations of profits or big distribution, either.
But Harlequin isn't targeting those folks, they're targeting people like me who want professional publication and who, unlike me, may not realize that a self-pub and/or vanity press is highly unlikely to be professional quality or net much success for the creator.
I see many of those hopeful authors being too afraid to say no thanks, I'll keep shopping this around and succumbing to the pressure to cough up a "nominal fee" for publication.
I agree, and I think there was some discussion that Harlequin did have plans to do that (I can't find the links, sorry, so I can't confirm 100%) - but I also think that Harlequin is also unfairly trading on a name that's been trusted as a reputable, legitimate, big name publisher for decades to lure people in. Even if they change the imprint name, knowing it's attached to Harlequin seems to be an implicit promise of it being better than something, like, PublishAmerica. And it's not.
I don't think it's just the naive/impatient who stand to get taken advantage of. Because even first timers who've done their homework might get suckered in. They tell you to beware of predatory agents and vanity publishing - but when it comes from a household name company like Harlequin, a lot of otherwise smart people might let their guard down.
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Date: 2009-11-21 07:32 pm (UTC)Well, vanity publishing is just a sub-set of SELF publishing. There are lots of companies out there who let you use their press name, so it's not something you set up yourself - but who will basically print anything you send to them.
I've had friends who self-pubbed on a small scale and were happy, but they had small scale goals. One put out a collection of her erotica which wouldn't have fit with anyone category because some stories were hetero, some gay, some were kink, some were vanilla. I had another who published her first NaNoWriMo novel which was a fanfic to profic conversion with a self-publishing company that lets you keep copies online for download - and she was happy that she could pimp it out to a few limited people on boards in that fandom and what not so they could pay and download it because it was related to their interests.
And in those cases, they had no reason to try to hassle with agents, presses, etc. But they also had no expectations of profits or big distribution, either.
But Harlequin isn't targeting those folks, they're targeting people like me who want professional publication and who, unlike me, may not realize that a self-pub and/or vanity press is highly unlikely to be professional quality or net much success for the creator.
I see many of those hopeful authors being too afraid to say no thanks, I'll keep shopping this around and succumbing to the pressure to cough up a "nominal fee" for publication.
I agree, and I think there was some discussion that Harlequin did have plans to do that (I can't find the links, sorry, so I can't confirm 100%) - but I also think that Harlequin is also unfairly trading on a name that's been trusted as a reputable, legitimate, big name publisher for decades to lure people in. Even if they change the imprint name, knowing it's attached to Harlequin seems to be an implicit promise of it being better than something, like, PublishAmerica. And it's not.
I don't think it's just the naive/impatient who stand to get taken advantage of. Because even first timers who've done their homework might get suckered in. They tell you to beware of predatory agents and vanity publishing - but when it comes from a household name company like Harlequin, a lot of otherwise smart people might let their guard down.