Industry Tips
Vanity Publishing/Publishers
According to the Council of BBBs, vanity publishing differs from conventional publishing in that the vanity book publisher requires the author to underwrite either a partial or the total amount of the cost of publishing and promoting the book.
Persons who deal with vanity publishers should recognize that their book may have little or no commercial possibilities, especially if their manuscripts have already been rejected by a number of the better-known publishing houses. Such authors should realistically expect no more than the self-satisfaction that any author would derive from seeing his book in print.
Biographical directories are patterned after the "Who's Who" publications. Various publishers solicit the biographies of persons for inclusion in directories, which may bear prestigious sounding titles. The solicitation is typically accompanied by a request for a "membership fee" or for an order of one or more copies of the projected directory.