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Many more people than you might think believe that they have a book or two inside of them, and they are yearning to get it out. In fact, on a regular basis I get e-mails from folks asking for help or information on how to write and publish a book or ebook.

These folks aren’t planning to be the next Hemingway or anything like that – they’re just regular people who have a story to tell or some information to share. A few of the optimists are hoping to write the next block-buster novel, but the majority of them have much more humble writing/publishing ambitions. They want to write about such subjects as: their family, their kids, their job, their hobby, their invention, their pet, their travels, their personal experiences, etc.

This article is an excerpt from my book/ebook Instant Book Writing Kithttp://InstantBookWritingKit.com

If you’ve surfed around the Net looking for help getting your book/ebook published you’ve probably run across one or more of the so-called “vanity” publishers. Since you’re reading this, there’s a chance that you haven’t yet signed up with one of those outfits – and that’s good news for you!

BEWARE: If you are a new or aspiring writer and/or self-publisher you are being targeted by scores of “vanity” publishers which populate the Internet. These outfits want you to sign up with them so that they can pocket 90% or more of the proceeds from sales of YOUR book. Sorry, but that’s the sad truth!

So, “What exactly is a vanity publisher…” you ask? Keep on reading…

The word “vanity” is defined in the dictionary as “…conceit and desire for admiration because of one’s personal achievements…”. Accordingly, these publishers are known as “vanity” publishers because they focus on this “desire” and offer anyone who has written a book, the ability to get it printed and published, and out into the public domain.

The vanity publishers are well aware that anyone who has labored hard to write a book will do almost anything to get it published. They are also aware that the chance of one’s book/ebook being picked-up by one of the established publishing houses is slim, at best. This knowledge gives them a lot of leverage.

That’s why they tend to target first time authors, and focus on their often desperate need to get published.

How To Identify A “Vanity Publisher” At First Glance:

• They are so-called “publishing houses” that focus on first-time amateur authors and tell them that they will accept ANY manuscript and get it published, no matter what.
  
  
• They promise to publish your book for free or at very low cost. (and they will – but with a few little catches).
  
  
• They offer many supposedly low cost ancillary services such as proofing, editing, graphics, marketing, etc., “should you ever need them.”
  
  
• Each one claims that it is somehow “different” from all of those “other” vanity publishers.

Essentially, these operators use a type of “loss-leader” approach, offering you all kinds of benefits up-front so you’ll sign a contract with them. Once you’ve signed on the dotted-line they have achieved their goal because they will then have a “lock” on 90% or more of your book sales revenues for the foreseeable future.

The Little-Known Truth About Vanity Publishers:

• They often require “exclusive rights” to your book/ebook so only they will be able to sell/distribute it – normally for a period of years.
  
  
• They pay you very low royalties, usually about 7% to 10% of the cover price, and they keep the rest.
  
  
• They sometimes charge the author incrementally for various support services such as editing, proof-reading, design, graphics, marketing support, etc.
  
  
• Many of them make their money by charging the author substantial printing costs whenever the author needs additional copies of their own book to distribute to their buyers. (e.g. only 10% to 30% off of cover price).
  
  
• Most have little or no distribution network, and are counting on you, the author, to find your own buyers.

So, whatever you do, DO NOT sign up with one of these outfits WITHOUT at least requesting a copy of the contract, and then reading it in careful detail!

The Bottom Line On Vanity Publishers:

• Vanity publishers will indeed get your book “published”, and eventually you will hold a copy in your hands.
• From sign-up, until your book is ready, there’s a good chance it will cost you many months and many hundreds of dollars.
  
  
• You will make very little money from book sales, if any, due to a combination of: “unforeseen” publishing/printing expenses, lack of a significant publisher distribution network, and paltry royalty payments.

In the end, what a vanity publisher really wants is the exclusive rights to print and/or distribute the hard-earned fruits of your writing labors… YOUR BOOK. After all, it costs them next to nothing to print your book because they already have the resources and technology in-place, in any case. In exchange, they get as much as 90% of the proceeds from each sale of YOUR book!

So, if you are serious about selling more than a few dozen copies of your book to friends, family and acquaintances, I strongly advise you to avoid these vanity publisher outfits like the plague.

It was when I realized exactly what vanity publishers are all about, and how they operate, that I decided to develop what I have dubbed the Online Publishing Model. Using that approach to self-publishing allows people to take charge of their own book. In fact, the OPM shows you exactly how to publish, distribute and market your book/ebook online so that YOU will be in control, and NOT at the mercy of the exploitive “vanity publishers”.

If you’re looking for a successful publishing experience, you might want to give this independent approach to self-publishing using the Online Publishing Model some serious consideration.

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(C) Shaun Fawcett is the author of numerous how-to books on everyday practical writing help. He also writes about how to create and publish books and ebooks, including his popular book that explains how to implement and profit from the Online Publishing Model:
http://InstantBookWritingKit.com

As many small-time authors and self-publishers have discovered the hard way, the traditional book publishing model is fraught with problems that conspire against an individual author/publisher making a decent living from their work.

Believe me, I have plenty of personal experience with this highly dysfunctional conventional publishing model; one that has caused me to waste hundreds of hours of my time and lose thousands of dollars in sales.

The traditional model normally involves two basic choices: 1) use a commercial publisher, or 2) self-publish.

THE COMMERCIAL PUBLISHER ROUTE
This option involves the author submitting book proposals or full manuscripts to commercial publishing houses in hope of acceptance.

Once a manuscript is accepted by a publishing house (the vast majority are not accepted) a contract is signed between the author and the publishing house. This kicks-off a time- consuming and often complex process involving printers, shippers, wholesalers, distributors, marketers, and finally, booksellers, all managed on the author’s behalf by the publishing house.

Typically, it takes anywhere from 18 to 24 months from the time the author finishes a book manuscript, until the actual book gets onto the bookshelves.

THE SELF-PUBLISHING ROUTE
The self-publishing option is one in which the author eliminates some of the middlemen and manages the overall publishing, distribution and marketing processes him/herself.

This option gives the author much more personal control of the whole process and allows him/her to earn more money per copy than through a commercial publisher. It also involves a lot of work by the self-publisher who is responsible for performing all of the functions and services that a commercial publisher would normally look after.

This model is normally less time-consuming in terms of elapsed time, since there is no manuscript submission and approval process involved. On average, the self-publishing process can save 6 to 12 months over the commercial publisher model.

THE SHOCKING DOWNSIDES OF TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING
Based on my first-hand experience with the North American book publishing and distribution industry, I have to say that it is one of the most archaic and poorly run business models that I have ever encountered. The entire industry seems to be decades behind current-day business practices of other industries.

Very few people know from the outset what they’re getting into when they choose to publish their book via the traditional publishing route. They have no idea at the beginning just how backward, outdated and dysfunctional the entire conventional book publishing industry business model really is.

Here’s what the conventional book publishing industry WILL NOT spell out to you before you sign-up…

Give Away Half Your Book’s Value Up-Front
If your book’s cover price is, say $30, you will be forced to discount at least 40% to 60% right off the top when selling your book to wholesalers and retailers. So, you’ll really be working from an actual price of somewhere between $12 and $18 — not the $30 you first thought.

Don’t Count On Making Big Bucks
If you choose the commercial publisher option, the best you can hope to receive for your book is a royalty somewhere between 6% and 10% of the “net”. The “net” is the amount the publisher receives AFTER discounting to retailers.

Example; cover price = $30; discount to large retail chain = $15 (i.e. 50%). Your cut would be somewhere between $0.90 and $1.50 per sale. So, for selling 3,000 copies (a very good sales figure) you would receive a grand total of somewhere between $2,700 and $4,500!

You’ll Have To Write Lots Of Books
If you choose the self-publishing option your main distributor will pay you somewhere around 45% of the cover price of your book. Using our $30 cover price example; that works out to $13.50 per sale that goes to you under this scenario. Then you have to deduct your costs which include: printing the book, overheads, and marketing, publicity and advertising expenses.

Example: cover price = $30; distributor payment to you at 45% of cover = $13.50, before expenses. Deduct: printing costs – $3.50; overheads – $1.00; marketing, advertising, publicity – $1.00 = ($13.50-$5.50) = $8.00 per book sale. So, for selling 3,000 copies you would make only $24,000.

And don’t forget, this option involves your ongoing direct personal time and effort involvement.

Wait Forever To Get Paid
Typically, you will have to wait between 90 days and 120 days after an actual book sale before you will receive your payment for that sale. I still shake my head at this one. How does the publishing industry get away with such an archaic practice in the 21st Century?

In normal business the standard wait for payment is usually 30 days, sometimes as much as 60 days; but 90 to 120 days to pay a poor struggling author? It’s a crying shame that they still manage to get away with it. This kind of payment delay is the norm, whether you go through a commercial publisher or if you’re a self-publisher.

Issue 100% Refunds On Unsold Books
A trademark feature of the conventional book publishing industry is the way in which it deals with “returns”. In almost all cases — publishers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers – they maintain the right to return unsold books to you, the author, for a 100% refund, even many months later!

Example: Say you sell 200 copies of your book to a particular retail chain through your publisher (commercial publisher model) or through your distributor (self-publisher model). Then, let’s say that after five months, various stores in that retail chain find that 45 unsold copies of your book are still on their shelves. The retailer would simply send those books back to your publisher or distributor for a 100% refund. That company would would then routinely pay that retail chain a 100% refund for each book returned and in-turn would deduct that total amount from your account!

I’m not kidding folks, this is how it really works!

There is absolutely NO incentive for bookstores or publishers/distributors to make any extra effort whatsoever to move your book off their shelves since they know you will provide a 100% rebate for all “returns” in any case. Go figure?

Pay Them Extra Money… Just In Case
And just to add insult to injury, many publishers and distributors will also withhold funds from your regular royalty payments (20% or more) as insurance to cover the costs of possible future returns.

So, not only do you get paid 90 to 120 days late, you will NOT receive the full amount to which you are entitled, as your publisher/distributor hedges against the possibility of eventual returns of unsold and/or damaged books months down the line.

Get Stuck In Someone Else’s Time Cycle
Most commercial publishers operate on a time-frame of 18 to 24 months from approved/accepted manuscript until the book is released for sale. If you are a self-publisher you can whittle this down to maybe 3 to 6 months depending on when your book is ready vis a vis your distributor’s catalog publication schedule.

If you time it perfectly, or just get lucky, there might only be 6 to 8 weeks between your book being ready to ship and it getting it onto store shelves.
For an alternative publishing model… Click Here
BOTTOM LINE ON TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING
In addition to the foregoing, there are other problems with the traditional book publishing model which I won’t go into here. So, as you can see, from an author’s point of view it is a highly dysfunctional, badly flawed business model that wouldn’t survive in most industries.

In fact, the system is so stacked against the average author I’m amazed that some people actually try to eke out an ongoing living in that thankless industry. I guess they feel they have no other choice, or they are hoping against the odds that they will one day get lucky and pen a mega best-seller.

So, if you are an aspiring author, and you’re hoping to make a modest living writing and publishing your own books or ebooks — the traditional book publishing and distribution model is definitely NOT the way to go.

The good news is that over the past couple of years a new publishing model has evolved that eliminates all of the negative aspects of the traditional publishing model and adds a number of additional benefits. It’s called the “Online Publishing Model”.

The OPM is a combination of online digital download delivery and print-on-demand (POD) hard copy publishing that sidesteps almost all of the pitfalls of the traditional book publishing model.

It offers small-time authors/publishers an excellent alternative that will give them more control, and will increase their sales and profits by using little known online channels when publishing their books/ebooks.

So, if you are one of the tens of thousands of small time authors and/or self-publishers who are being victimized by the traditional book publishing industry, you might want to seriously investigate what alternatives are now available to you using the new approaches to online-based book selling and distribution.

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(C) Shaun Fawcett is the author of numerous how-to books on everyday practical writing. He also writes about how to create and publish books and ebooks, including his popular book that explains how to implement and profit from the Online Publishing Model:
http://InstantBookWritingKit.com