- Joined
- Nov 5, 2008
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- merrihiatt.com
Thanks, Jason! The icky part is that some of PA's "special offers" almost sound this bad. Ack!
By definition, a vanity press is deceptive. If it is not deceptive, it is something else. The whole point of a vanity press is to exploit the author's vanity (and gullibility).
That is of course true of vanity presses. The author, not readers, is their target.OK, you are using a different definition of "vanity press" than I was thinking of. To me, a vanity press is simply one whose target customer is the author rather than the general public. . . . .
Lulu also sells straight printing services (as intermediary between author and the actual printer, typically Lightning Source). And it sells a whole range of subsidy publishing services. It is sui generis.. . . Lulu would qualify as a "vanity press" by my definition. . . .
There are certainly cases where vanity publishing is a good idea. I will just never accept that it is a good idea in mainstream fiction.
You seem to conflate self-publishing with vanity publishing. I don't.My definition of all self-publishing/vanity-publishing is who makes the decision to publish a book?. . . .
At least there's no way to have e-books "on hand" in bulk.
Oh. Dear. This cannot end well for PA authors.
Dunno.Could they be charging for release displays, too?