Publishing Evolution #82: Print on Demand

Exercises:
1.Visit each of the websites listed above and see what they offer. Is it higher or the same as traditionally published books? Look at some of their published books. Have you read any of them? Would you?

I don’t think I’ve read many examples of this type of published book. And I don’t expect to unless it’s a substantial work, and specific to my interests, [like one I noticed about the pulp fiction hero, Doc Savage]. Vanity press titles always seemed pretty closely related to fanzines to me. I see descriptions of vanity press new releases on a regular basis, since I read the monthly issues of The Ingram Advance magazine, and see the Lightning Source section.

They never seem to be of the best quality, or on topics of much general interest, and usually have poor cover art. Most are by authors writing their life stories, or their deeply felt philosophies, or their metaphysical beliefs and dream visions of other worlds.
I don’t fault them for having the universal human desire to express themselves, or for feeling that their “story deserve to be told.”
I hope for their sake that writing their story fullfills them, without expecting others to have to read it.

2.What do you think of self publishing? As a reader, do you prefer books that have gone through the traditional route and have the confidence of a company’s financial backing, or do you not care how the book got printed, you’re just glad it did?
I enjoy book shopping a geat deal, so in a way I’m grateful that the traditional publishing route weeds the “all-too-common” stories from the market place and off the shelves that I like to brouse. And I appreciate the general level of quality and substance that mass production brings to published books.
But on the other hand I realize that I, myself, have been quite lucky in having had various outlets for my own self expression over the years. I’ve been published in a variety of works, I’ve performed in public many times, and now that I’m a home owner I enjoy “expessing my creative vision” in projects around my house and gardens. So I know the kind of self-expression thrill that vanity press authors are after and I shouldn’t really point fingers.