I don't remember the name of the anthology. I don't remember how I became aware of the anthology. It was probably a letter that came in the mail, inviting me to publish my poetry.
Publish! Well, of course, I wanted to publish my poetry. That's every writer's dream, right? To get published.
So I meticulously chose a poem. I even gathered up several of my poems and took them to my English teacher at school (I think I was in tenth grade) to ask her advice on which poem I should send in. She sat with me for a few minutes after school and gave me what I thought was some sound advice. So I chose a poem and sent it to the publisher. Then, a while later, a shiny hard-bound book came in the mail. A book my parents had purchased because they knew my poem would appear in it and they couldn't wait to see their little's girl's words in print.
Fast forward a year or so. We get another letter in the mail, from the same publisher. This time they want to publish a collection of my poetry. That's right. An entire book of just my poems! I naturally wanted to do it.
This time I had a better authority to turn to for help than just my English teacher. You see, by this point, I had met my husband and we had been dating for a few months. And his grandmother was a poet. A fairly serious one at that. I knew she would be able to look over my work and tell me which poems were most worthy of publication.
The next time we went over to her house, I carried a bundle of my precious words with me. Nervously, I approached her, told her about the publication opportunity, and asked if she'd look over my poems and give me her thoughts. Then she gave me "the look." You know the one I'm talking about. The one where an elderly person tilts her head down so she can get a really good look at you over the rims of her spectacles? Yeah. That look.
The first words out of her mouth were, "Do you know what a scam that is?" No, "Congratulations!" No, "Good for you for pursuing your dream of being a writer!" Just, "Do you know what a scam that is?" I was speechless. After all, in truth, I did not know what a scam it was. I had no idea.
She explained to me that my parents and I would likely be the only people to ever see this "book" that was being printed. This publishing company was not in the business of marketing books for their authors. Publishing with them would never get my work onto the shelves of Barnes & Noble. They were just after my money.
"But," she said, "if it means that much to you just to see your words in print, go ahead and do it."
Welcome to the world of the vanity publishing house.
No wonder there has been such a stigma attached to self publishing.
Fast forward about twenty years, and self publishing has taken on a whole new meaning. It is no longer a scam. In fact, for many people, it has been a quite lucrative business opportunity.
So what's the main difference between self publishing and vanity publishing? It's primarily a difference in the mindset of the authors. Vanity publishers came about because people saw an opportunity to make money off of aspiring authors who knew, because it was the truth at the time, that the only way to get their work out there was to go through a third party publisher. Today's self published authors are the publishers. It's not so much publishing a book as it is starting a business. And, as I said above, some people are doing some darn good business.
No, the self publishing world is not perfect. But neither is the traditional publishing world. And, yes, the relative ease with which today's authors can put their books on the market opens the door for a lot of poor quality work. I'm not blind to that. It's why I always read the sample chapters on Amazon before committing to buying an indie book. With the business being, for the most part, unregulated, you can never be sure what you're getting when you decide to read a self published eBook.
But I stand firm on my assertion that we are no longer living in the days of vanity publishing. You see, at one time virtually the only people who chose to self publish were those who knew they weren't good enough to go the traditional route. But they wanted to see their work in print. Maybe they wanted nice, hardbound volumes of their stories to give out to friends and family at Christmas. Maybe they wanted a collection of poems written by the little old ladies of the community to sell at a church fundraiser. Whatever the reason, everyone was aware of one rule. If you were a serious writer, you did not self publish.
Nowadays, a lot of self published authors are very serious about their writing careers. There are even awards, some fairly prestigious ones, for self published books. Heck, indie books are eligible for the Pulitzer. Imagine the boost our reputation would receive if one of us ever won that award!
Don't misunderstand me. I do see the other side of the argument. I get the point the naysayers are trying to make. Getting a book noticed, and then printed and distributed, by a major publishing house carries with it a level of prestige that indie publishing will never have. After all, there's a huge difference between saying, "I thought my book was good, so I published it," and saying, "This agent, and then this editor, both well respected people in the literary world, thought my book was good, so it's going to be published." Being your own gatekeeper does strip you of a certain number of bragging rights. But, for me, that's where those awards come in. Submitting to contests is a big part of my marketing plan for my books (though I don't know if I'm bold enough to go for the Pulitzer!) because if I ever win one, that's third-party validation that my books are, indeed, worth the money I'm charging for them. So I've swapped one querying process for another. The difference is, while I wait for some literary expert to take a shine to my work, I can already be selling it in the digital marketplace.
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