partnership

Hi Colin,

No personal experience, but yes, they certainly look like vanity publishers although they use the term 'hybrid publisher'. Basically, they will publish your book if you contribute to the costs. Just had a quick look at their website but couldn't find any mention of what those costs might be.

Before you decide to sign the contract I would advise you to check if your payment will cover all necessary editing, formatting, design, distribution, marketing etc. Or will some of these things be added later as 'extras'?

Self-publishing - even if you need to hire a professional editor/ designer/ cover artist to help you - might be a cheaper alternative? There are plenty of other publishing services companies that are more upfront about what they charge and what their services include.

Useful info here: http://vanitypublishing.info/index.html

Hi Colin,

Vanity publishing means paying someone to publish your book. It used to be considered a thing that people did who had failed to get a 'proper contract', but that's less the case now that people can bring out their books independently in all sorts of ways.

The problems arise when the said publisher gets you to pay upfront, sometimes promising you sales - which no-one can do - and doing very little for the money. Bear in mind that they are a business and they exist to make a profit. They can do this by charging fees upfront, knowing that they will never make such a some through sales - and it could be suggested that, having made that money, they have no incentive to take any further risk. They cannot guarantee that your book will sell, or sell in any quantity at all, so what they ask for will cover their costs and their mark-up.

You need to ask certain questions, first and foremost being what will you get for the money you put in?

Who will edit your novel? Who will pay for the cover design? Who will format it? Where will they sell it? (That's to be looked at in detail, by the way, as again they can't promise to get your book into mainstream bookstores.) What publicity budget do they have, or are you expected to do all that yourself? Even trad publishers expect new writers to cover these costs, rather than risk losses.

What size print run do they envisage, or is it POD? (If the latter, they will only ever print what's ordered, so keeping costs down to potentially nil.)

A partnership contract is still paying them money to publish your book, but under another name that sounds better. Ask what proportion of the costs will your contribution be: that needs to be spelt out.

Try googling any company and ' publishing problems' and see what comes up, and then to make your own decision as to whether this is the way you want to go. Go to Amazon and do a check for books published by the company concerned, and see if you know any of the names. Do you like the look of the books, and is the content well-edited? It's easy enough to check.

Never sign any contract without getting someone to go through it with you, and make sure that you have full knowledge of what is being offered. It's so tempting to think, 'I've got a publishing contract!' and leap blindly into it - which is what some companies are (literally) banking on.

As to how much it costs a publisher to produce a book, how long is a piece of string? There are too many variables to give a figure.

Good luck,

Lorraine