Vanity- vs. Self-Publishing

Two points: Vanity Publishing is just that -- Vanity. Self-Publishing is for those of us who need to publish crafted, polished work that is out of the Publishing Mill (not mass market material).

I am currently adapting a 'novel' into a script. It was 'published' because he could, through one of the legitimate 'vanity' options, Creataspace (self pub arm of Amazon). That said, it is a rough piece of work. He didn't pay to have it edited, and so it is largely unreadable. I am trudging through it because he is the son of a (now gone) friend who helped me in the past.

On the other side is Self-Publishing. That is what I am currently undertaking to do. For that/ towards that end, I have created my own literary imprint (taking the steps to insure that it is as professional as I can make it). I have designed my own Cover (because I am also a fine artist). I laid the interior out being a former graphic artist. I am needing editing because a professional friend says it needs it. My Friends' son did not pay to have it either professionally laid out or edited, therefore it is not going to be 'sell-able' for the near term future.

This is the pit of Vanity Publishing. You can pay to have your 'book' made into a very nice looking book. But as the old saying "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear" comes to mind. Vanity P goes to the 'my story is fantastic, and it's gonna sell a whole lotta copies' person. Everybody has a story to tell, but does it reach beyond their personal world to universal themes? And can they write? This last one is a big one. The Writers Guild of America Registration office is full of 'scripts' better used as doorstops. Poorly written, conceived and executed. The Vanity Presses attract the same 'quality.'

I've been writing for thirty (well, if I consider my first 'short story' **much** longer than that) and have written several thousand pages, and not a couple of hundred, and my work still needs editing. Most Vanity Publishers are not going to go to that extent because... They're not professional writers. They're just a Schmo with a Sto(rey). Interesting to friends and family (my friend's book has sold all of four copies -- one of those to me for adapting purposes), but to very few others. Most people can't discern if their writing is good. There but for Vanity go they...

That said, "Chicken Soup" and "Conversations with God" were both self-published. We all know how that went. Hard work and extra-ordinary material from professionals found their respective markets and were then picked up by traditional publishing houses -- the Dream for all Writers in Self Publishing (when our books are professionally done and contain striking, and not overly familiar, content. I present to you... Self-Publishing.