Vanity PublishingVanity publishing is a kind of publishing every serious author should avoid at all costs. How do you know if you're dealing with a vanity publisher?It's very simple. A real publisher will never ask you to pay them for the privilege of being published. Why not? Because publishers, real publishers, will not accept your work for publication unless they are convinced that they will make money from it. There is no reason to ask you to pay them, because they will make money on the merits of a well-constructed piece of writing. Vanity Publishers, on the other hand, will ask you to pay them an up-front fee for the publication. They don't care if your work is of good quality, because they don't care if it sells. Why don't they care? Because you are paying the up-front costs, plus a tidy profit for them. If your book never sells, it's no matter to them. In fact, considering that they don't bother looking at the quality of your writing, they are probably assuming that it won't sell - except to friends and relatives who feel obligated to purchase your book out of a sense of loyalty. Do not let a publisher talk you into paying them for the privilege of publishing your book. If the book is of high enough quality that people will want to buy and read it, it is their privilege to publish. And if it is not of sufficient quality to interest a publisher...doesn't that mean it's pure vanity on your part to think it's worth your hard-earned money to have it published anyway? Advice for Self-PublishersBeware of Vanity PublishingHow to Advertise Your Book Book Covers and Graphic Design E-Publishing for Kindle or Nook A Fun Quiz: Find the Mistakes! | ||||||||||
Laura Twitchell of Portland Proof
Satisfied Clients
"As a writer and author, I have long valued the services of a good proofreader. It is enough to research and compose without worrying about crossing every t and dotting every i!"In my latest project, I found the services of Portland Proof to be invaluable in creating a quality work that is both readable and accurate. Laura gets an A+ for her attention to detail and ability to polish a sentence or a paragraph."
~Bob Briggs, author of Around Hallowell
"As the administrator and moderator of a popular creative writing website (Fifteen Minutes of Fiction) I knew that when the time came to publish our first anthology of stories and poems, proofreading would be a daunting task. Many styles of writing, combined with many ability levels (both adults and children had writings included in the anthology) required a sharp eye and a keen understanding of grammar, punctuation and style. Laura was more than equal to the task, and helped us produce what is undoubtedly one of the finest anthologies of amateur creative writing in print. The project would have been impossible without her."
~Douglas Twitchell, FMOF Administrator
