: Re: Which well-established vanity publishers offer publishing for money and how much money is enough? I know that you need an agent to communicate publishing with big guys like Random House etc.

@Murray165

Vote Up Vote Down

There are a couple of problems in answering your question. The first has to do with finding a reputable vanity publisher who can and will successfully distribute your book to the big books stores you appear to desire. Unfortunately, pretty much all vanity publishers have a bad reputation, and that fact alone has resulted in pretty much all big name book stores refusing to stock any books they publish. It doesn't really matter how good your book might be, the bad reputation of the vanity publishers will prevent the book stores from taking a chance and trying to stock your book.

The second problem is the actual process of getting your book into the book stores. Just like the big name publishers, the big name book stores have a reputation to uphold. They have to be very selective about which books they stock, because they not only have to protect their reputation, they also have to actually sell books, which is more important. They rely on the big name publishers to select the books most likely to sell, and they are much less likely to take a chance on a new and unproven writer.

Quite frankly, I agree with John Smithers that your best option may be to self-publish your book. If you are willing to spend that much money, then you should be able to accomplish your goals by going with self-publishing. If your book picks up a following and you can prove that people are interested in it, then every book store will want to carry it, even if it is self-published. Not only that, but you may find that some of the big name publishers are willing to take a chance on it as well.

Bottom line, you need to write a great book. Then it is up to you to decide whether to go through an agent to get it published traditionally or just handle all of that yourself. Ultimately, you have to prove yourself to someone, whether it is an agent, an editor, or the fan base you build through self-publishing.

(0)

Login to post a comment!