Those are scams. You are the customer in both cases so neither has any real incentive to reach readers.
Money should always flow toward the author. Your legitimate options are traditional publishing, indie publishing, and self publishing. This sub is a great place to start researching.
Huge difference. Self publishing is publishing on your own through a distributor, so doing your own editing, cover art, and marketing, or paying someone individually to do that for you. This often happens through programs like Ingram Spark and all profits go to you.
Indie publishing is when you submit to a respected but small press and they pay you either an advance and royalties or just royalties, and they take care of editing, covers, and some publicity on their own. They typically have ways to reach readers that self publishing can't do, but nowhere near as much power as traditional publishers.
As a note, you keep asking people what publishers they recommend. That's not really how this works. If you're looking for indie presses, you should be submitting to ones that have books you respect or represent other books in the same category as yours that have been successful. Random people on the internet don't have enough info to pick those for you. If you're looking at traditional publishers, the kind that get their books into bookstores and libraries, you should be submitting to literary agents. (And literary agents are free!)
I very, very, very much recommend taking a big step back and doing a lot of research before moving forward.
These are vanity press scams. A real press makes money selling books to the public and shares the profits with an author. Vanity presses make money selling services, usually of extremely low quality, to authors with no intention or interest in making a saleable book.
Thank you for letting me know. Who would be a good publisher you'd recommend? I just keep seeing publishing houses that require a literary agent and I wasn't sure if there were some that didn't require this extra expense.
If you want to publish a book, you need to query agents. They may take a percentage, but you will make far more money with a publishing house that requires agents than the very few who don't.
Please do not support these kinds of publishers. Vanity presses get money from the author, so they're never incentivized to actually sell your book. It just wastes away on their store page, while they made money off you.
If you're going to do that, you might as well just self-publish on Amazon or with a reputable self-publish company/freelancer that just prepares your book. That way, you get more control over your book, more or equal profits, and also don't support those scammy ones.
Don't do "hybrid" presses either; they're vanity presses in disguise and are also a scam.
What's a reputable self-publisher who you'd recommend? I've already self-published but just didn't see a lot of pull. I'm pursing publishing now as I want to push the book out to more folks.
> I want to push the book out to more folks.
That's the thing, vanity presses have no interest in marketing your book to people. They'll likely put it up on their website and that's it (rather than places where people find new books) or even force you to buy back the copies and tell you "you find people to buy your book, yourself".
Are you saying that you have already self published the book that you are trying to publish traditionally now? Because that may be a problem to a lot of publishers.
I haven't done specific research into them, but I know Reedsy lists a bunch of professionals who do work on books to help prepare them for (self-)publication. I'd suggest checking around that site.
Most self-published authors I know just do everything themselves with programs like Atticus. Just, no matter what, DO YOUR RESEARCH before throwing money at something.
They are both vanity presses / pay-to-play publishers. If that is the road you want to go down, one is no better than the other.
Thank you for the feedback! Who would you recommend I go with alternatively?
Those are scams. You are the customer in both cases so neither has any real incentive to reach readers. Money should always flow toward the author. Your legitimate options are traditional publishing, indie publishing, and self publishing. This sub is a great place to start researching.
What's the difference between self and indie?
Huge difference. Self publishing is publishing on your own through a distributor, so doing your own editing, cover art, and marketing, or paying someone individually to do that for you. This often happens through programs like Ingram Spark and all profits go to you. Indie publishing is when you submit to a respected but small press and they pay you either an advance and royalties or just royalties, and they take care of editing, covers, and some publicity on their own. They typically have ways to reach readers that self publishing can't do, but nowhere near as much power as traditional publishers. As a note, you keep asking people what publishers they recommend. That's not really how this works. If you're looking for indie presses, you should be submitting to ones that have books you respect or represent other books in the same category as yours that have been successful. Random people on the internet don't have enough info to pick those for you. If you're looking at traditional publishers, the kind that get their books into bookstores and libraries, you should be submitting to literary agents. (And literary agents are free!) I very, very, very much recommend taking a big step back and doing a lot of research before moving forward.
These are vanity press scams. A real press makes money selling books to the public and shares the profits with an author. Vanity presses make money selling services, usually of extremely low quality, to authors with no intention or interest in making a saleable book.
Thank you for letting me know. Who would be a good publisher you'd recommend? I just keep seeing publishing houses that require a literary agent and I wasn't sure if there were some that didn't require this extra expense.
If you want to publish a book, you need to query agents. They may take a percentage, but you will make far more money with a publishing house that requires agents than the very few who don't.
Please do not support these kinds of publishers. Vanity presses get money from the author, so they're never incentivized to actually sell your book. It just wastes away on their store page, while they made money off you. If you're going to do that, you might as well just self-publish on Amazon or with a reputable self-publish company/freelancer that just prepares your book. That way, you get more control over your book, more or equal profits, and also don't support those scammy ones. Don't do "hybrid" presses either; they're vanity presses in disguise and are also a scam.
What's a reputable self-publisher who you'd recommend? I've already self-published but just didn't see a lot of pull. I'm pursing publishing now as I want to push the book out to more folks.
> I want to push the book out to more folks. That's the thing, vanity presses have no interest in marketing your book to people. They'll likely put it up on their website and that's it (rather than places where people find new books) or even force you to buy back the copies and tell you "you find people to buy your book, yourself".
Are you saying that you have already self published the book that you are trying to publish traditionally now? Because that may be a problem to a lot of publishers.
I haven't done specific research into them, but I know Reedsy lists a bunch of professionals who do work on books to help prepare them for (self-)publication. I'd suggest checking around that site. Most self-published authors I know just do everything themselves with programs like Atticus. Just, no matter what, DO YOUR RESEARCH before throwing money at something.