The New Normal?

fter Penguin Publishing got into some hot water for their self publishing service, which I initially hailed as brilliant until I researched more, I wondered if other publishers would do the same. Well wonder no more because Simon and Schuster has just announced their plans for a self publishing solution. But don’t get too excited, like the Penguin option Simon and Schuster is not self publishing per se as much as it is vanity publishing with prices reaching as high as a whopping $25,000 for business book package according to the NYTimes. With no ties to Simon and Schuster however it seems difficult to justify the price. Sure the book will have professionals working on it, or at least so they claim but, what do you get for really get for that price? The least expensive package is roughly the same as the second cheapest MacBook Pro. $1599. And is only for a children’s book. Assuming you want to publish an actual full length novel you can expect that it would probably be around $3,000-$10,000. (I’m guessing). Sure you are getting the distribution of Author Solutions who Simon and Schuster created this deal with, but that is still no guarantee of anything. It’s also worth noting that Author Solutions is currently owned by Penguin Publishing who is of course a competitor of Simon and Schuster. Author Solutions also owns the self publishing imprints, iUniverse, Author House, Xlibris (who is known for their own very expensive publishing packages) and Trafford (among others). Over the years, Author House has been embroiled in several scam complaints and were the subject of a lawsuit in 2006 (the lawsuit was of course an issue of libel, not necessarily of being a scam) but a quick Google search of Author House will produce many results for Author House and Scam. The popular site Preditors and Editors (which I found through Writer’s Digest) lists both Author Solutions and Author House in particular as Not Recommended. And as vanity publishers, which is a very important distinction. Calling this new venture that charges such an incredible amount ‘self publishing’ can be confusing for new writers who want to self publish and believe that it has to be expensive. I have been, admittedly fortunate in a lot of respects with regards to how much this venture has cost me and though the return on investment has not been high (as of yet) with all of the scandal that has surrounded Author Solutions and it’s subsidiaries for years now and continuous blog posts from frustrated authors who have dealt with them, it’s a wonder what Penguin and Simon and Schuster were thinking? Ultimately when considering in what way you should publish your first novel one has to consider a cost-benefit analysis. Can you reasonably put a price on your book, and if you could would it be $1600? Considering that most self published books probably never make that back, I suspect you’d have to really weigh whether or not its worth it. I don’t like the idea that publishing should ever become a rich mans game. That isn’t right nor is it fair. Still with a major publishing house like Simon and Schuster behind them, and the second major publishing house to do so. One has to wonder… Is this the new normal in publishing? Or just a fluke? Who do you think will be next?