..please..what is a scam (in publishing)?

Question

some said here that if a publisher asks me the money in order to publish a book, it is a scam..
so what is a scam?

as i noticed, many traditional writers said that they do not accept unsolicitated manuscripts..because they received 1000 a month..
so it looks natural that the man will go to a self publishing house..where he pays for publishing his book?can somebody explain?
i don't know there in america.

if there were no self publishing houses there were fewer writers on the market..Not all the writers cannot enter the traditional publishing houses..
can somebody explaim me what is a scam?
you want to say that they ask me the money without publishing my book..?well that is robbery ..official robbery.
shall i send them the money oinly after they publish it or what shall i do?

if they publish it..what else do i need..?it means it is a honest deal, isn't it?

Answer 1

Yes, there would be fewer books on the market, but they would be books that had passed through agents, publishers and editors and were of quality. They would be books that sold a great number of copies. The average sales of a vanity press book is less than 100 copies and you will have to sell a heck of a lot more books than that before you start receiving any of that money. When you do, it will be pennies.

Vanity press is the old term for what is now called self publishing. They used to call it vanity publishing because every nut job with a conspiracy theory or a weird book that no traditional publisher would touch, published themselves just to see their name on the cover of a book. Hence the term "vanity". Now, they use the more gentile term "self publishing" - same thing.

There is no "FREE" vanity publishing. You pay for everything from editing to set up fees to your ISBN number (assuming they offer one - many do not).

Here is the catch. Your book will NEVER be sold in bookstores. Not unless YOU spend about ten thousand letters to every bookstore you can find listed and beg them to carry your book - at your personal expense. You can get in your car with a box of your books (that YOU paid for) and travel across the country handing out free copies to the buyers at bookstores and trying to get them to carry your books. Or you can hire a marketing firm at great expense to do that for you. But on the abverage, self published books are not sold in bookstores.

If you have an ISBN number, they will be available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.com - but who will know to buy them? Your family and friends. So expect about 2/3 of your family and friends to buy your books - accounting for most of your total sales. If you don't have an ISBN number, your book will only be available on the self -publisher's site. Where, like so many before you, you are at the mercy of their accounting department. If they tell you they sold ten copies, how do you prove otherwise?

Further, most self publishers have lost so many lawsuits that they will be paying off authors for the next million years. Now, I have noticed lately that they are banding together - several smaller ones have been bought up by bigger, worse ones. The self publishing industry preys on young authors especially by stressing the word FREE and telling them they do not need parents to sign forms. Kids see it as a quick and easy solution to getting that book published without facing the rejection letters from traditional publishers. Self publishers will publish ANYTHING. I could publish the Chinatown phone book just as long as my check cleared. They do not read the content, they do not care about the content. They just care about printing your books and collecting your money.

I read a quote recently from a very well known self publisher that starts with an L saying they would rather sell 100 copies of 5 million books than 5 million copies of 100 books. How does that help YOU as the author? They don't care about you. They are seeking volume. That is all. Your sales do not concern them one iota.

There is no such thing as a good self publishing experience. They send people to sites like this to write posts saying what a wonderful experience that they had. They are called "sockpuppets" in the industry. They are fakes here to lure kids into signing.

In the publishing business, there is a well known man named James Macdonald. He runs a site called Absolute Write Water Cooler Bewares and Background Checks Forum. You can go there and check on any publisher and agent on earth. If you can't find them listed, write to Uncle Jim and he will help you. He has a "Law" that says "the money should flow in the direction of the author - not the other way". With self publishing, it flows the other way. How does that help YOU?

You can also check with Preditors and Editors, Writers Wall, Anne Crispin's Site, Writer Beware, Science Fiction Association, and many other sites where people who advocate in favor of writers post regarding self publishing. You will see the same names over and over again listed as the Top Ten Worst Publishers and Top Ten Worst Agents. Stay away from them. It is no personal vendetta when the same names show up on all lists.

You will also find that here I star all good Q and A regarding publishing and writing. I have written many times about the dangers of self publishing.So have many others. Trust us. We have been there. We have learned our lessons the hard way. Print out a batch of Q and A that interest you and study them.

Then spend 30 bucks and go to any bookstore and buy yourself a copy of Writers Market and start reading it cover to cover. Learn TRADITIONAL publishing - the right way.

Answer me this. Are you proud of yourself and of your work? Than you owe it to yourself to spend at least twice the length of time you did writing it trying to publish it traditionally before you revert to cheaply made, poorly printed self published books that won't sell. Would you like me to tell you the lowest number of sales I have ever seen fro a self published book. THREE ... That is right - THREE copies. Is that what you want for your book? Who does? Sure you will get rejection letters - that is the nature of the business - Gone with the Wind got 50. But eventually it broke through. You will too if your work is quality.

Learn to advocate for yourself. Learn to learn from others experience. We are here to help you avoid those pitfalls. Those of us who advocate for publishers have seen it all. We know of what we speak. At Absolute Write Water Cooler there are 57 THOUSAND posts against Publish America and yet they were allowed to be on Dr Phil only last week. Don't believe a word of it.

Sell your book traditionally in a manner in which you can be proud and where your book will be sold and marketed by a reputable traditional publisher. Don't become letter 57,001 at Absolute Write.

Traditional publishing is the only way to go.

Pax - C
29 minutes ago - Edit - Delete

Answer 2

It is not an honest deal. Vanity presses publish ANYTHING regardless of quality. Vanity publishing is like giving yourself a blue ribbon in a contest in which you are the only contestant. Nobody cares. It means nothing.

Your English is extremely poor and you seem to have difficulty constructing sentences. You are the type of person vanity presses love. Honestly, no reader would buy your book because you have no writing ability. Just because you want to publish doesn't mean a publisher should feel obligated. Heck, I want to be a runway model, but I'm not a size 4. I bet I can pay someone to let me pretend I am, but it would mean NOTHING in the fashion industry.

Answer 3

They will publish a few copies and that's it. They will not publicize it or pay you anything. You will have to pay them. It is called a vanity press. You want to see your book published and they will do that and nothing more at a high cost to you.