I don't see any trolls here. I see a discussion of the very real problems with vanity POD publishing. Don't play ostrich, Snook. Offer up some solutions and ideas on how to change things.
How can those problems be fixed, assuming they can be? Presumably someone who uses vanity POD publishing wants to have their book discovered, bought, read, liked. What needs to happen for that to occur?
Can the perception of poor quality in vanity POD books be changed?
Is there some mechanism that can be put in place for discovering, recognizing, and highlighting the few gems that are hiding in the heap? (There was one for a while...PODdy Mouth, but she has retired.) Is there a way outside of traditional publishing to filter these works so readers have some level of assurance that the work meets a minimum quality level? Not that anything is guaranteed since tastes vary so widely and even the traditional sector lets a few messes escape, as someone pointed out.
And another big issue...distribution and marketing. How can a writer who uses vanity POD publishing get their books in front of potential readers who might buy them? Or noticed by agents and traditional publishers? Right now most of these books are promoted/advertised on a couple of internet sites that are either blogs no one will know how to, or have any reason to find, or on huge sites like Amazon where they become one very small cog in a machine that has millions of them. How can a vanity POD author make their book stand out from the crowd?
When I vanity published my book using POD and electronic downloads, I managed to get it highlighted by PODdy Mouth, made it to the finals in the EPPIEs, and had several very nice online reviews. The difference these things made in my sales? None. The agents who noticed and inquired about the work as a result of these things? None.
So what are the solutions? I gave vanity POD publishing my best shot and I'm at a loss to come up with any answers. I'm not sure there are any.
I do think nonfiction stands a better chance of getting noticed than fiction, assuming the nonfiction work is about very hot, popular, or controversial topic.
Anyone else have any thoughts or ideas?
Beth