BY LAURA COLLEGE

The difference between traditional publishing and vanity publishing, if you ask me, is pride. A traditional publisher pays you for your manuscript and continues to pay you royalties each time the book is scanned through a bookstore cash register. A vanity publisher, however, makes you pay for them to publish your manuscript, and you only make money if you manage to market the book sufficiently to gain public interest.

That almost never happens, by the way.

When I say that the difference between traditional publishing and vanity publishing lies with pride, I mean that no self-respecting writer pays someone else to publish their work. It’s backwards, and it makes no sense. Here, you’ve spent several months to several years pouring your heart and soul into a manuscript only to pour several hundred dollars into its publication. Something isn’t right with that scenario.

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While there are (very few) exceptions to this rule, if your manuscript isn’t picked up by a traditional publisher, it probably isn’t worth publishing at all. I don’t mean that in a cruel way, but publishers usually know what will sell. If they aren’t willing to take a chance on your novel, you should probably rewrite it.

When I write a book for a client, I never encourage vanity publishing because I know that my clients can earn a return on their investment with me by pursuing traditional publishing, as most other ghostwriters feel. When someone spends $5,000 – $20,000 on a manuscript, why should he or she pay another $1,500 – $5,000 to have it published by a vanity publisher, who won’t even market the book for them? Bookstores don’t carry books printed by vanity publishers, so the only access to these manuscripts is through the Internet.

If you have written a book and it is good enough to be published, pursue traditional publishing avenues first. If they don’t pan out, and you have your heart set on a published manuscript, you can go for a vanity or print on demand publisher.

Laura J. College is a professional ghostwriter with more than 10 years of experience writing fiction and non-fiction manuscripts. Her work can be found all over the Internet, and she is currently accepting ghostwriting clients. Check out her website.

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