Wednesday Writing: Is There a Difference Between Vanity and POD?

I read my fair share of advice blogs/columns. I’m one of those old idiots who believes he knows everything, and spends a lot of time every day learning those things he’s discovered he didn’t know, so he checks out the web advisors. The vast majority are sound as a pound. The advice they give is good, and should be heeded. They know a lot more than I do.

But now and again I come across one who clearly hasn’t a clue what he/she is talking about.

So what brought this particular rant on? It was a comment I read concerning POD publishing, and how everyone should be wary of it or it will end up costing you a fortune. What a lot of tosh. The person concerned obviously doesn’t know the difference between POD and vanity publishing.

POD stands for Print On Demand. In other words the publisher does not hold stocks of books and doesn’t really deal with High Street bookshops, which is just as well because where I live, we don’t have that many left. Instead, a book is printed when a reader demands (i.e. orders) it.

Vanity publishing, on the other hand, has been around almost as long the publishing industry.  It’s where a publisher is happy to take on your book regardless of quality, but subject to you forking out a large sum of money in advance. He gets his three grand, and that’s all he gives a toss about. He will do nothing to help sell your book, but he will expect you to take delivery of hundreds of copies, which you can store in your garage until you decide it’s time for a bonfire.

The terms are not necessarily mutually exclusive. A good number of vanity publishers utilise POD technology on the offchance that you may need to order more copies… presumably when the bonfire is going out.

However, just because a publisher works with POD does not make them a vanity publisher.

Some years ago, I worked with an American imprint, Virtual Tales. An upfront, thoroughly respectable publisher who liked my novel, and took it on. They designed a cover, they appointed an editor, and consulted with me at every stage of the process. And when the book was ready to go, they sent me a complimentary paperback copy.

Virtual Tales did not store books. They utilised POD. And yet, they never charged me a penny.

These days, aside from some self-published titles which no one else is crazy enough to take on, I work exclusively with Crooked Cat Publishing. When they receive my scripts, they pore over my work, making whatever additional edits they feel are necessary, they design a cover, and they consult with me on everything from that cover and those edits, right down to pricing. And when we’re ready to go, they send me a complimentary copy of the paperback.

To date, I’ve published no less than 14 paperback titles (and one exclusive e-book) with Crooked Cat, and the fifteenth, STAC Mystery #12, A Killing in the Family, is due soon. They’ve never charged me one penny.

And yet they utilise POD.

With an ever-increasing amount of business done over the internet, POD is the way forward for the smaller companies. It avoids filling a huge warehouse with thousands and thousands of copies of the books. It’s also kinder to the trees and avoids any number of unsold books being pulped and recycled into toilet rolls.

So there you have it. If you want to criticise the independent publishers, do so, but do your homework first, and if you’re not prepared to do that, at least learn the difference between vanity and POD.