Quote:
Originally Posted by Little.Egret
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(Self publishing wasn't unknown back then, authors could arrange to print "on commission").
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Yeah, I should have realized that. Just because modern digital, POD book printers didn't exist then doesn't mean that people couldn't have their books printed. I didn't know about the "on commission" scenario. But "vanity publishers" have existed for a long time.
Some people who would send their manuscripts to many established, traditional publishers would do so only to have all of the publishers reject their manuscripts. These people were just sure that they had produced the Great American Novels. So, they would take their manuscripts to the vanity publishers (there is another common word for them, but I've forgotten it). The authors would pay the entire cost of the printing (but get all of the profits, if there were any). The authors had to do their own marketing to the bookstores. Basically all that the vanity publishers seemed to be, were were book printers.
There may have been some of these books that succeeded. I would think that it was because traditional publishers happened to see them, found out that they were hot sellers, and decided to offer the authors a (real) publishing deal. But, I can't think of one which that happened to.
Two of my aunts went the vanity publishing route. The one aunt's book was horrible--I don't own a copy, and have passed up opportunities to get one free. The other aunt wasn't interested in making a national bestseller. After the kids all grew up, and she retired, she just liked writing things and just had somebody print her books when she got through with them. Hers needed some polish, but were not too bad. Libraries all around the area put them in their collections, etc. And she sold quite a few.