I’ll say this first. Self-publishing is not another form of vanity publishing. However, a tweet mentioning self-publishing and vanity publishing got me thinking about publishing and the state of it.

Vanity publishing is one of those things frowned upon because of its predatory nature. To keep it simple, it works like this—you pay them, they produce something for far too much. There. That’s it. The long-winded version is that you pay them for the book cover, interior design, editing or whatever, but it’s all generally way overpriced and you really have no chance of making your money back, and they don’t care.

It’s insidious and legal.

However, I’m learning that not everyone sees vanity publishing the same way.

This is where I might piss some folks off. Look, I’m sorry in advance.

So, a traditional publisher invests in your work. That’s the point. They front some cash and resources. We like to say that for indie publishing, the author fronts the cash. The problem is that it could be made to look like self-publishing is vanity publishing, just on your own.

I know. Rough, right.

Right now, somebody is yelling at the screen, probably something about how much cheaper you can self-publish than go into deep debt with a vanity press. To that I say, from the outside looking in, it can be looked at as a cheaper form of vanity publishing. We all know better, but from the outside looking in it might not be so clear.

Even the process is incredibly similar for most folks. Self-publishing is just cheaper. Amazon gave us tools that vanity presses made us pay for. It probably seems, again, from the outside looking in, that self-publishing still just a workaround for being actually published. And we do hear these arguments still, don’t we? You know what they say. If you’re good enough, then why don’t they publish you? Or something to that effect. It’s offensive isn’t it?

So, again, no, I don’t think self-publishing is vanity publishing. But let me say this last thing, and then I’ll get to my point.

Some of us indie authors use vanity press language and motivations for our own work. The language is the language of something that’s, well, easy, or not necessarily earned. Not as good. So, obviously, this is where I get judgmental. It kills me to hear authors imply that words don’t matter as long as the reader finds it decent. My opinion is that folks who are trying to push limits and shine, they think words matter. Ideas matter, sentences, paragraphs, dialogue, characterization, tone, and setting. It all matters.  

Which leads to my point. Hey, we don’t talk about what we’re doing accurately.

First off, in my mind, there are no levels of publishing. To me, there are only available stories. But I will define the approach because each approach can be perfected in it’s own right; publishing is the outcome, but the method differs in noteworthy fashion.

There’s Traditional Publishing. I’m going to assume we all agree on what that is. It’s a process some authors dream about. Then there’s Vanity Publishing. Same traditional publishing author dream but there’s probably a substantial upfront cost. Then there’s Self-Publishing. Same dream as the other two but it can be as expensive as vanity publishing and have equal to no benefits. The author takes on, well, mostly everything. Even vanity presses remove the need for a publisher logo and ISBN, and many times, they develop your merch, albeit in crude fashion.

But there’s a version of publishing that we don’t talk about all the time, and it defines what I think is going on. What most of us do is Assisted Publishing. The example here is that you’re given the tools and you can make tons of decisions as far as product make-up and therefore have resources for other items needing development in the process. The tools come from, many times, the biggest companies on planet Earth—Google, Amazon, Apple, and Walmart (kobo) etc etc. These companies offer free tools for curation, and paths for distribution with their more matured technology.

I think of it as instead of going to proper restaurant, you go to a buffet. Everything is there and tastes great, only you go up and get it. Pay up front.

Hachette Books, as powerful as they are, their technology isn’t better than what indie authors are using today on the platforms of these tech monoliths.

With these monoliths assisting, authors need not worry about the selling platform, tracking sales or getting paid, and setting up a separate bank account for payment is an option you don’t need to worry about. These assisting companies will offer taxes for you. It essentially levels the playing field, with Amazon, for all intents and purposes, leading the way.

There. I said it.

Vanity publishing and self-publishing, from the outside looking in, can look similar. Assisted publishing, I think is a better term and speaks to what’s going on. Many of us in the writing community (not me, by the way), outsell traditionally published authors...because of the tools we were assisted with, not because we did it ourselves. We can debate what a tool is but it’s hard to debate where those tools came from and where they work best.