Good morning, friends and fans!
In this five-part series of short articles aimed at fellow writers – but also at anyone who might be interested in the process of writing and publishing, I will dispense some pearls of wisdom garnered from my years of personal experience, about publishing (and self-publishing) in order to give you some insight into the game! Since I’m in South Africa, this will naturally have a uniquely South African perspective, so if this is what you’re looking for, grab a seat – and welcome!
We pick up from the previous article, “A Brief Introduction To Self-Publishing – Part 3“…
The big publishing companies still plod steadily along in their staid, “traditional” way, even though most of them have introduced “vanity press” sideline options – even in eBook formats, to try and access the untapped new digital author market in order to remain profitable. Profit, after all, is their key reason for existing. In the meantime however, other less traditional players have entered the market and risen to prominence, altering the playing field completely.
To further complicate understanding of the publishing field, terms such as “self-publishing”, “vanity press” and “indie publishing” further obfuscate matters. This appears to be caused by innocent confusion resulting in turn from a layman’s understanding of what is essentially an arcane field. I’ve even encountered fellow indie authors who struggle to tell the difference!
These terms are often used – or more precisely – understood interchangeably as meaning the same thing, when there are a few important differences that set them apart. (Please note that these are my own definitions summarized from my own research and experience in the field.)
Vanity press is an entity which demands payment in large sums (usually working out to many thousands of Rands for a single book) from the author in order to publish their book, but which holds the final control over the actual publishing process and appearance of the final product. A variety of services may be included in the contract, or even additional to the terms and costs of the contract, but these usually do not include marketing or distribution to book chains etc.
This used to include self-publishing authors as well before the advent of real self-publishing service providers or platforms from where an author could publish their own books for free while retaining full creative control and doing it all by themselves.
Self-Publishing Platforms are entities which provide self-publishing tools, media and avenues to self-publishing authors and even to small presses, be they traditional or indie in layout. While most of them provide basic and essential publishing and distribution services to clients completely free, most also provide other additional services (such as editing, formatting, cover design or marketing) at set fees – but the important part is that clients don’t have to use these if they don’t want to, or are able to perform these tasks themselves or via their own resources. Additionally, most of these service providers will get self-published books into the same distribution chains (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Walmart, etc.) and book store shelves as do mainstream publishers.
The key difference then between vanity press and self-publishing platforms is cost. Vanity press is prohibitively expensive to the author and provides limited or little to no distribution or marketing options.
Additionally, the waters are often muddied by vanity press entities who market themselves online as self-publishing platforms – even having online “self-publishing” wizards – while charging large amounts for every little service – even those which real self-publishing platforms provide for free, and delivering no discernable advantage over using free self-publishing service providers whatsoever.
A few more terms:
Indie publishers are entities which are typically “small presses” unaffiliated to any other publishing bodies or corporations, or are individuals who publish other people’s works (which may also include their own), who have full creative control over the final product – and which may operate using either a “vanity press” model (i.e. charging authors for all their services) or on the “traditional” model (contractual or royalty-based payments) in relation to the author. They may also operate as a publishing or publish on demand (P.O.D.) service provider solely in order to facilitate the author’s drive to self-publish.
(In other words, indie publishers are not always the “good guys” simply because they’re not part of a global corporation, or because they don’t demand $$$ to publish and distribute your book. I’ve dealt with some really dodgy indie publishers in the past as well.)
Self-publishing authors – in the most basic sense, a self-publishing author is someone who publishes their own books themselves – that is, they’ve written a book, and they’re not following the route of submitting it to a mainstream traditional publishing corporation to await their pleasure before being handed a lucrative contract with a $$$$ payout. Typically, they’re the type of author who’s already followed this route and been frustrated by its lack of progress and failure to deliver their desired outcome, and have decided to use whatever other means lie at their disposal – be it the unwise vanity press route – or the better road of the self-publishing platform – to get their books published and available.
This article is an excerpt from “A Guide To Self-Publishing In South Africa” by Christina Engela. If you like it, consider buying the book.
Indie (independent) authors are authors who adopt an approach to writing and publishing where the author holds the role of creative director of their own books from concept to completion and beyond. They generally do all the work of writing, editing, formatting, designing the cover and layout, and managing the distribution and marketing of the resulting eBooks and print copies themselves. They also publish their OWN works, ideally at zero cost, and retain full creative control over the final product, even if they also publish or distribute through small presses as well.
Once upon a time, the term “indie” or independent author, used to refer to authors who took their work to “vanity press” – because they had it published at their own cost – however that seems to have been before the advent of Print On Demand service providers.
It’s logical that the definition would obviously need to change to meet the needs of current circumstances, since self-publishing now can be FREE firstly, and secondly, the author RETAINS FULL CREATIVE CONTROL of their work and its final appearance and distribution.)
According to a definition given by the Alliance of Independent Authors,
“Being an indie author is primarily an approach to writing and publishing, a matter of self-definition. If you see yourself as the creative director of your books, from concept to completion and beyond, then you’re indie.”
This means that an author who writes his own book, designs everything – the cover, does his own formatting, publishes it through whatever channel or service provider, “and beyond” – according to this definition at least – can proudly wear the label of “indie author”.
Once this difference is understood, the meaning of “indie author” becomes clearer: Independent Author (and self-publisher).
In researching, I have noticed the general confusion around where self-publishing and “indie” authors fit in – and I was faced with an important question: Are they necessarily the same thing as “vanity press”?
The answer is a resounding NO!
Historically speaking, it’s more than likely that the concept of self-publishing evolved over time from the concept of “vanity press” – to distinguish itself from it to a point where today the two paradigms are simply irreconcilable.
Nowadays one would define small presses, indie publishers and independent press – as publishers that are not part of big corporations (according once again, to the Alliance of Independent Authors) “make up approximately half of the market share of the book publishing industry.”
Vanity press on the other hand, is still just vanity press. It starts there, and it ends there.
This shows the effect of self-publishing on what was previously essentially a monopolized field, owned and operated and exclusively dominated by “traditional” publishers! It also demonstrates how new technologies in the hands of the public have worked to break the “traditional” publisher’s monopolized strangle-hold on the industry, and why the “traditional” sector has been panicking – and also, unfortunately, why it’s so easy for an indie author to vanish in the crowd.
More about that next time, in part 5 of this series, when we explore the effects of the eBook revolution on publishing opportunities for writers!
Read more:
- A Brief Introduction To Self-Publishing: A 5 part series of articles introducing the reader to the concept of self-publishing.
- Forewords, Prologues, Prefaces & Introductions Explained: this explains the differences and similarities and when it is appropriate to use them and for what.
- The Interrobang – What Is It?!: What is the interrobang, where and when should it be used? Should it be used at all?
- Asterism Or Dinkus – What’s In A Name?: Do you still write in actual chapters? For god’s sake – why?
- Afterwords & Epilogs Explained: this explains what afterwords and epilogs are for and when it is appropriate to use them.
- Word Length – When Is A Novel, A Novel?: This explains the word lengths for different categories of book or story.
- Which Self-Publishing Platform – Or All Of Them?: An article about experimenting with which self-publishing distribution platforms to use concurrently. Also read the follow-up article: More Isn’t Always Better – My Self-publishing Platform Strategy Revisited.
- A Guide To Self-Publishing In South Africa – a guide to being an indie author in spite of being stuck in South Africa by Christina Engela.
- Some Great Resources For Writers: A collection of useful tools and articles giving advice to new writers trying to make their way in a minefield of obstacles.
Until next time, keep reading – and writing!
Cheers!
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All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019.