Quote:
Originally Posted by TGS
I'm wondering what it is that tips this over into "vanity publishing", which presumably is in some way dishonourable, and distinguishes it from independent publishing, which, by contrast, is highly honourable?  |
OK I'll try and explain although I agree that there is a lot of ambiguity in terminology.
For me what "tips this over" are statements like these:
- new program from Borders allows authors to (for a low fee of $90.00) publish on their platform. This fee dispenses an official ISBN number for
your soon to be bestseller.
- Barnes & Noble’s newly launched PubIt!, for example, lets authors post an existing e-book to its site for free and splits royalties,
while Borders is charging a fee to help authors create an e-book.
- “Everyone has a story to tell, pictures to share or advice to give. It turns out that those are
exactly the kinds of things people want to buy and read as eBooks,” said BookBrewer CEO Dan Pacheco (he obviously hasn't been to this site...)
- Webmasters and authors can easily intergrate the RSS feed as the text for the ebook and
start selling it on Borders new platform.
Anyone who has worked seriously on getting a book out there knows that it is a tremendous effort requiring months of hard work - that's after the writing is done.
Here it appears that the Border's CEO is saying, "Two clicks and you're a bestseller..."
I don't have an issue with getting a book printed for personal use or to give to family and friends. That is an appropriate use of a Vanity press (I think there're a lot easier ways to get a book printed, but that's just me).
I do have an issue when a poorly edited "book" (blog) is pushed out onto the market for sales to readers, because this will cause a backlash against self-published or "Indie" books.
Yes good stuff will rise to the top, and bad stuff will sink, however the height that something good has to rise just got higher with this ill-conceived notion. I hope their business tanks in a hurry.