Vanity Presses

Newer writers may fall victim to vanity presses. What are these and how can you avoid them?

You may have submitted a poem and got a letter back praising your masterpiece. You ride a wave of exhilaration. After all, you are going to be a published poet! You are then told that, no doubt, you would like to have the anthology where your work will appear. You are invited to shell out for an expensive volume where your poem is sandwiched between other poor-quality offerings. Or you may receive an offer for your poem to be recorded. I remember that early in my career, I fell for this one and received a cassette where the "professional reader" sounded like he had partaken of some mind-altering substance. When he bumbled one of the lines in my poem, I knew I'd been had.

Another spin on this is that you submit your novel. You receive offers to publish your work but because of budgetary restrictions you are asked to make a contribution toward production costs. These letters or phone calls can be incredibly persuasive. But remember, they are designed to be just that. Dozens of examples will be provided of writers their company has worked with and published. You'll be told that these writers made a fortune from their books. You will most likely find though, that strangely enough, you haven't heard of these record-breaking authors.

If you are a writer, you should be paid for your work--not the other way around.