| Vanity publishers with a new face. In the last few | | | | Ingram. "Available" means someone will have to |
| years, a new breed of vanity publishers has | | | | walk in, ask for and order your book. |
| emerged. They typically say they will pay all | | | | If you have the money, you might be successful |
| publishing costs including cover design, interior | | | | with one of the new breed of vanity publishers. I |
| layout, editing and printing. All you, the author, are | | | | actually got one such publisher down from 2000 |
| required to do is purchase 2000 books (the | | | | to only 500 mandatory book purchases. I am |
| average minimum) at 50% discount. Sounds good, | | | | mildly considering the offer. My personal purchases |
| right? | | | | would cost me 50% of the retail price, which is |
| At $12.00 retail, the 50% discount price is $6.00. | | | | more than I want to pay for personal stock |
| Multiply that times 2000 books and you will need | | | | (because I know the actual print cost). |
| to come up with $12,000. The publisher will print | | | | Furthermore, they will insist on providing their own |
| 2000books offset for about $1.50 each ($3000) | | | | ISBN and that gives them the publishing rights |
| and pocket $9,000. You can self-publish and buy | | | | (See my Ezine article, Why you need your own |
| the same professional level of cover and interior | | | | ISBN). However, the strong possibility of your |
| design, editing and print 2000 books for $4500 | | | | book making it to bookshelves is enticing and |
| using the same printer (a savings of about $7500). | | | | justifies using their ISBN. |
| In all fairness, one or two of these new publishers | | | | Traditional publishers will publish your book at no |
| can get your book on the shelf in bookstores. | | | | cost, but you will have to do most of your own |
| Tommy Tenney sold over two million copies of | | | | marketing. You will also have a much harder time |
| The God Chasers, putting his publisher, Destiny | | | | getting a traditional publisher to take you on. The |
| Image, on the publishing map. You should ask if | | | | new vanity publisher may be worth your |
| the publisher has a sales force that will personally | | | | consideration. Just do your homework and ask |
| pitch your book to bookstores, not just make it | | | | lots of questions. |
| "available" to 25,000 bookstores by listing it with | | | | |