Publisher vs Vanity Press vs e Publish

[SCARPA]

Would love to hear anybody's comments / experience with any / all of the above publishng routes.

[Darwinist]

Serious writers vs Failed writers vs Poor Failed writers

Should be interesting... discuss.

Actually ePublish is pretty broad, are you indicating that the person posts it themselves on their own website, like a vanity thing - or do you mean someone who submits to an online journal of some type who publishes it online in return.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Publishing is about making money for publishers and authors.

Vanity publishing is about making money from authors.

[SCARPA]

Personally I know equally gifted writers in all three. But yes their may be a greater proportion of less crafted writers in the last two. As for myself, I am shooting for a Publisher. Plan B would be through a "vanity press or print shop, where I simpley hire someone to print and bind my book. Their profit stops there. The authors profit is whatever mark up they want to put on it. Problem is its $5,000 - $10,000 up front out of pocket. I am not personally a big fan of e-publishing but I am just a sucker for hardcopy.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Personally I know equally gifted writers in all three. But yes their may be a greater proportion of less crafted writers in the last two. As for myself, I am shooting for a Publisher. Plan B would be through a "vanity press or print shop, where I simpley hire someone to print and bind my book. Their profit stops there. The authors profit is whatever mark up they want to put on it. Problem is its $5,000 - $10,000 up front out of pocket. I am not personally a big fan of e-publishing but I am just a sucker for hardcopy.

If you fancy the notion of paying ten grand to see your work in print, far be it from me to stop you; I'd advise looking back trhough a reliable source of information about vanity publishing scams such as Making Light to check out any notable examples.

I'm still holding out to sell some of my fiction professionally.

[Kris_W]

There are a lot of unethical publishers out there. The media (Paper vs. Pixels) doesn’t make much of a difference.  Start with reading these:
http://www.invirtuo.cc/prededitors/
http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/
http://misssnark.blogspot.com/ (Yes, I know it isn’t being updated any more – read it anyway)

[SCARPA]

Thanks for the info.

[Yeratel]

Thanks for the info.

P.N. Elrod is a writer who is known for being very helpful to new authors starting out. She has a lot of that information in the FAQ section of her Website: http://vampwriter.com/FAQ-WRITING.htm

[KevinEvans]

I have extensive E published work, but I won't publish or submit work, unless they pay SFWA rates....

Regards,
Kevin

[The Dread Pharaoh Roberts]

A vanity press won't even edit your work, much less help you market it or get it put on any bookstore shelves.  Unless you're going to sell the book yourself, I wouldn't go that direction.  Something I was told by a very successful author is "the author should only sign the check on the back."  If you gotta pay for it, it's probably a scam.

[Murphy's Stunt Double]

A vanity press won't even edit your work, much less help you market it or get it put on any bookstore shelves.  Unless you're going to sell the book yourself, I wouldn't go that direction.  Something I was told by a very successful author is "the author should only sign the check on the back."  If you gotta pay for it, it's probably a scam.

Words to live by. I like it!