Predatory Publisher V. Virtuistic Vanity

For the last month I have had to sit on my butt and do nothing, but that time has allowed me to search the internet, and read. I have been unable to type, and writing is impossible. Kudos once more to my wife for helping me type this out. This article is brought to you by the one armed bandit, lol.

Anyway, in last few weeks I have come across a lot of self published books and a lot of publishers that cater to vanity or print on demand. The market has changed over the last ten years. Self publishing is not the bane of the writer's existence any longer and does not necessarily keep a writer from getting a deal with a real publisher.

The problem I have been seeing is that there are a lot of vanity publishers that are still in the game to rip writers off. One instance came on FaceBook. I found a page called the Hay Writers Workshop. Wow, this is great, an online workshop for writers. Then I started seeing them post about a vanity imprint. After a little research I find that they are the publisher themselves and not a "workshop" as they billed themselves.

Now, I have been told since then that they are legitimate, and further research did not turn up any warnings about them. The issue I have is that their information was non-existent. No website, no email, no phone....AND they listed the workshop as a website and not a company.

This is all very misleading. If you're a company that wants me to pay you to publish my book, then tell me so. If you are a workshop then go for it, but lying by omission is still lying. Lying is misrepresentation. I would never use a company whose first contact with me was to lie about who they are.

I think that goes for anyone and anything in life. If you start out a relationship by lying, then lying is all you can expect. I am not good with that. So to those of you out there who are not in this for the money. You just want to see your writing published. GO FOR IT! There plenty of legitimate vanity publishers out there that can deliver what you need and will help you and be honest through the whole process.

Beware of the vultures! They are out there as well, and the worst thing that can happen is that you lose the rights to something you've put your heart and soul into. For anyone that cares and is interested in self publishing, I recommend your first step should be to visit www.pred-ed.com . This site is called Predators and Editors ( their spelling not mine, must be a website issue). They have an in depth list of trusted an untrusted agents and publishers, contests, attorneys and just about everything else that has something to do with getting your work published.

This is not a new site, but one that people overlook. It can save a lot of heartache. Good luck and good writing.