Electronic Publishing: The Perfect Device for Vanity Publishers
© Roxianne Moore
And Now for the Bad News about E-Publishers
Last week, I looked at electronic publishing to show how it could boost a writer's career and open up new options. This week, I'd like to look at other aspects of e-publishing.
Electronic publishing may boost your writing career or bust your budget. Just as in the world of print publishing, you'll find reputable publishers who pay royalties and vanity publishers who charge huge fees and do nothing to sell your book.
A few things that send up a warning flag:
- A huge classified ad in a magazine or online shouting "AUTHORS WANTED!"
- No contract: Many e-zines and electronic book publishers offer no contract, so you have no clearly defined rights.
- No remuneration. Sure, some small e-zines publish your work without compensation, just as literary magazines often did in the past. But most reputable publishers will have offer a set fee or royalties.
- A request for payment. If you're asked to pay anything, such as a reading fee or editing fee, RUN! While printed literary mags often request a submission fee to cover costs (most are run on a shoestring and a minuscule grant), electronic publishers shouldn't need funds to cover printing costs. Their profits should come from SALES, not fees.
- A contract asking for all rights. Never sign over all rights. As the publishing world changes and adapts to new technology, you could be losing rights to ever re-sell your work, which could be available online forever.
- No provisions for marketing your work. If it isn't sold, even if they claim to pay royalities, you get nothing.
- A statement to the effect that no work is rejected. If they'll publish anything, possibly without even reading it, the opus you've spent years polishing will be lumped in with mediocre writing and rambling rants.
- No indication of the publishing format. E-books are published in several different ways: diskettes or CD-ROM collections sent by mail, e-mailed text files, or direct downloads. Make sure you know what formats the publisher uses. If a reader must buy an entire CD-ROM collection to read your book, you'll have fewer sales. The same goes if they must wait for a disk (though many are willing to wait), or if they must send a check because the publisher doesn't accept credit cards.
Don't think these are exaggerated examples. I have examples straight from the horse's mouth.
One publisher's claims (all warning signs):
- We charge no startup fees for established authors (implying there are fees for "unknowns").
