I’ve been reading some interesting takes on what self-publishing, vanity publishing, and POD publishing really are.

Apparently*:

…starting your own company to self-publish your own work using whichever form of small-run printing and distribution is fine. That’s ‘real’ publishing with a publisher.

…starting your own company to publish others and using POD formats is subsidy publishing.

…using POD and e-book services such as the entity formerly known as BookSurge (aka Createspace), LSI, Lulu, Smashwords and KDP to self-publish or publish others is vanity publishing.

* NOT my opinions.

These are mine:

First of all, said opinionated people need to look at the full picture, rather than a corner of it. POD – print on demand – outfits are NOT publishers, for the most part they are printing companies.

Print – putting ink to paper and binding between heavier paper constituting a book.

Publish – processing a manuscript from final draft through edits, design consultation, through to printing and distribution.

Some companies may have services that yes, would count them as a “real” publisher if they didn’t charge for them. I agree that in those cases authors are better off finding independent editors and designers, as the ones hired by those companies are often… not as good, or may even be non-existent. I have heard tales of the authors books coming back either full of errors that weren’t there previous (Lulu), or not changed at all (PA). There is a fine and blurry line between all of these when it comes to various printing companies that are most often utilized by the small press.

Here are my opinions on the self-pub, sub-pub, vanity-pub directions. Take ‘em, leave ‘em, tell me I’m wrong. I had people in this longer than me tell me this is how it is, and they did it a lot longer ago than some of you have been in the business of writing/publishing.

If an author has their book professionally edited, designed and formatted (or not, as the case is sometimes) then proceeds to process it on their own through a printing company, either print on demand or small runs, that is self-publishing. Some go as far as to create an entity as ‘publisher’ – personally I have not**.

If an author takes their book to a publisher and it is accepted, edited, designed and released all for a partial fee upfront, or that is earned back for the company by retention of royalties, that is subsidy publishing. By partial I mean if the book costs a total of $1000 to put out in a small run – or even less if the book is print on demand, the author foots half to three-quarters of the costs, while the company bears the remaining costs.

When an author takes their book to a publisher who requests the full costs of the production of the book up-front or via withheld royalties, that is vanity publishing.

For each of these cases, printers like Createspace, LSI, and Lulu can accommodate the author, from what I’ve seen.

What gets my dander up reading opinions like those I opened this post with, is that it puts Belfire and other small press companies like it under the heading of subsidy/vanity publisher. If that were the case, I would not be facing some pretty dire damn decisions for the coming weeks, because a fair few of our titles haven’t made back the costs I put into them – either personally or through our investors funds.

Belfire has never once withheld money owed the author to recover costs of production, though as our belts tightened some corners needed to be brought in as well. Still, the author is out nothing unless he or she has paid more than we allow for reimbursement for personal cover art or promotional material. We do not charge up front, we do not withhold.

One point that really cut my nerves was one woman stating those opening opinions as absolute fact, AND stating that people who self-publish are living a fool’s dream – though she has created her own company to self-publish.

I don’t generally point these things out, and just ride my tide of distaste from afar. This time though, it was enough to shake me into speaking, because Belfire is going through what a lot of other small companies are going through – tough financial times. Sales are down, costs are up. Postal services are costing more and are less than amicable or reliable, doubling costs yet again.

Yet we’re still trying to find a way to keep afloat, without cancelling contracts, without cutting any more corners, certainly without charging our authors upfront. To be lumped with other companies that DO charge or retain, that feels like a thinly veiled insult to those of us who do fight for ‘traditional’ small-press publishing.

** Only a minimal amount of my work is published through Belfire, and that is mainly through the occasional foreward, shorts in the TNBP series, etc. I have self-published Yule & Litha and have liked the experiences well enough that I will do more self-publishing.

Outside of Belfire, and under my own name.