According to the British Advertising Standards Agency Authority Advice Note on Vanity Publishing, July 1997, a vanity publisher is:
"any company which charges a client to publish a book or offers to include short stories, poems or other literary or artistic material in an anthology and then invites those included in it to buy a copy of that anthology."
This is I believe somewhat misleading, as it seems to indicate that any company that charges for publishing services in whatever format, whether they be short print run self publishing or print on demand, is automatically labelled as vanity press regardless of their intent. This is clearly not the case, as thousands of satisfied customers attest. My own somewhat broader definition then is as follows:
"a company that wilfully misleads with regard to the services that they offer, including costs and the level of success that the author can reasonably expect"
The trouble begins when providers are less than honest about the services that they offer and the claims that they make. Having said this, if authors had taken the time and trouble to understand how publishing works and had been a little more streetwise and read between the lines, then they may have seen through the hype.
Print on demand is a relatively new innovation, often misleadingly termed as vanity press. What exactly is though print on demand, and is fair to label it in this way?
Print on demand is a term used to describe a form of digital printing technology that allows a book to be printed and bound to order or on demand, within a matter of minutes. The books are stored as a digital file at the printer's headquarters for a small annual fee and the books printed 'on demand' as and when the orders come in. POD technology makes it easy and cost-effective for authors and publishers to test the market by printing books a few at a time or in small batches rather in the traditionally larger print runs of several hundred or thousand copies.
Unfortunately for a variety of reasons, those in the book trade are often hostile towards such books, even though they often use print on demand technology in order to maintain their own back lists or to print advance copies when they cannot justify the cost of warehousing. The main complaint seems to be that the books are badly written and produced. It is however no more fair to assume that all such books are the same that it is to assume that all black men are muggers (or athletes).
POD providers typically accept most forms of manuscripts, provided they do not contain for example pornography or libellous statements. Such providers are increasingly run by former editors and those who have themselves worked in commercial publishing and journalism, while others are run by successful self published authors in their own right.
They typically offer a range of different packages where the author pays for the level of service that he or she needs. These include such services as text formatting, ISBN registration, legal library deposits and distribution - in the UK via Gardners and Bertrams, but also online. Services such as editing, proof reading, indexing and bespoke cover design are often available for an extra fee. Such services are usually contracted out to freelancers, many of whom may also work for the larger commercial publishers.
Strictly speaking, POD is not the same as true self publishing, since the term refers to a method of printing rather than actual supply. The author him or herself is NOT the publisher, since it is not their name that is registered but that of the POD provider. Some may say that they allow you to publish under your own imprint, but this will be registered as an imprint of the provider at their address rather than your own. POD companies though do provide an affordable means for those wishing to see their books in print but without the space or the wherewithal to store and distribute themselves. Most authors choose it for these very reasons.
Although the provider is the registered publisher, all rights are retained by the author who is free to take the work elsewhere should an offer be made from a commercial publisher. There is in theory no reason why a book should not be available via POD in one territory and commercially published in another, perhaps in different languages, or even as an e-book.
The POD provider, as the publisher, manages fulfilment and distribution on behalf of the author in exchange for a percentage of royalties. This varies enormously and can be as high as 80 percent. The cynic will point out that the provider is in effect being paid twice, once when the books are published and again when they are sold, yet the publisher is perfectly entitled to do this. This payment is after all for services rendered, and to most authors is money well spent, since it leaves them free to concentrate on marketing and writing the next book, not to mention maintaining their careers and family relationships.
Print costs are slightly higher for print on demand books, at around 1 penny per page, with between 70 and 80 pence for the cover, and this is reflected in the cover price. Although it may seem that such books are more expensive, it only seems this way because the high discounting and the abolition of the Net Book Price agreement helps to keep prices of commercially published books artificially low. It is a sad fact of life that there is very little value placed on the written word. A painting which took a matter of hours to produce can be sold for several hundreds of pounds, yet a book which took five years to write sells for less than £10.
Depending on length, a POD book can cost more than twice as much as its offset counterpart to produce. It is though the author who sets the price rather than the publisher and this is dictated by page size as much as anything else. POD books then often come in larger sizes than the standard paperbacks, since the bigger the pages the less that are needed.
By far the biggest problem though that POD authors have to face is in regard to the supply chain. Book stores typically order books through a wholesaler, usually at high discounts of 40 percent or more. Wholesalers obtain their books in two ways; either as a special order where the book is ordered from the publisher as and when orders come in, or as a stocked title which they keep in their own warehouse as part of their inventory. Stocked titles are additionally available via sale or return. In other words, the book seller is able to return unsold stock back to the wholesaler for full credit at anything up to one year after the initial sale.
POD books are rarely if ever available on such terms because for the publishing provider it is considered too much of a risk. However, wholesalers do keep a careful eye on what is selling and how much, and if an author is prepared to help themselves by telephoning book stores and actively promoting their work, then there is at least a reasonable chance of their work becoming available on such terms.
Some POD providers offer a type of insurance policy, whereby the author is insured against such losses. From the outsiders viewpoint this would seem to be a good idea, but when one sees the costs involved, and the high number of sales that the author would have to generate in order to pay for this policy then it becomes less viable. The smart POD author concentrates on generating as much free publicity as possible and capitalising on this to achieve firm sales within a given area.
They would also be wise to remember that although returnability does lessen the risk for book stores and increases the chances of being stocked, there is only a certain proportion of stock that can be returned. In practise, once sold, very few books are actually returned.
Any marketing that does take place is largely down to the author him or herself. Most POD providers, while they are willing to advise and put their authors in touch with outside help (for a fee), are unwilling to cut into their own profits by becoming directly involved. The books will be made available for ordering through the usual wholesalers and websites, but it is the author's job to tell the world about their work and get out there and sell it.
The wise POD author, if they have done their homework and taken the time to understand how the industry works, will be prepared for this. It is not all negative, but can be turned to the authors advantage, as it means that the author can work at their own pace in order to publicise their work, thus increasing its shelf life, rather than being forced to undertake forms of publicity that they are not ready for or comfortable with. Remember that POD books, provided you pay your annual fee, need never go out of print.
Unfortunately there are still many POD providers who turn out shoddy books which are poorly edited due to inexperienced staff. These give the bona fide operations a bad name, and unfortunately mud sticks. This is why it is vital for would-be POD authors to carry out their own research by asking the right questions and talking to other such authors in order to share their experiences.
At the end of the day, it boils down to personal responsibility. The majority of disgruntled authors are only in this position because they failed to carry out such checks or understand how the publishing industry works.
The book buying public cares very little as to how the book they are reading was produced, only that it is interesting, affordable and well written. The industry though is not so accommodating. Many booksellers and reviewers, especially in the US automatically assume that POD books are badly written and harbour the misperception that if they were any good then they would have been commercially published. This is just not the case and is an unfair and blatant form of discrimination. It is however something that all POD authors need to be aware of.
It is up to us as POD authors to prove that our books are just as good and can compete on equal terms. The POD author does though, by and large, have to work ten times harder in order to get noticed and be taken seriously. If you are determined enough and prepared to work hard, then there is no reason why your book cannot become successful.
