History Main / VanityPublishing

It's worth noting that there are differences between a vanity press and a self-publisher. In self-publishing, the writer takes on the duties of editor and formatter himself, simply contracting with a printing firm to produce the physical book. Naturally, for similar reasons, many (but not all) self-published books also suck. Some do not, and some have to be self-published even though they're high quality and well written, because [[AudienceAlienatingPremise for some other reason, there's simply no way they could be expected to sell well]], e.g. the history of a corporation. (Would you be interested in the corporate history of BB&T Bank? Well, that bank has a history of itself, well-written and professionally produced, in the lobby of every branch for customers to read. Even though the book is well done, seriously, nobody in the general public would be interested in buying it.)

It's worth noting that there are differences between a vanity press and a self-publisher. In self-publishing, the writer takes on the duties of editor and formatter himself, simply contracting with a printing firm to produce the physical book. Naturally, for similar reasons, many (but not all) self-published books also suck. Some do not, and some have to be self-published even though they're high quality and well written, because they wouldn't sell in the real world, e.g. the history of a corporation. (Would you be interested in the corporate history of BB&T Bank? Well, that bank has a history of itself, well-written and professionally produced, in the lobby of every branch for customers to read. Even though the book is well done, seriously, nobody in the general public would be interested in buying it.)

* ''[[http://www.amazon.com/Control-Christian-Marriages-Priesthood-Children/dp/1425992609/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_2 BIRTH CONTROL IS SINFUL IN THE CHRISTIAN MARRIAGES AND ALSO ROBBING GOD OF PRIESTHOOD CHILDREN!!]]'' Not only is the title of the book capitalized just as shown, ''[[BoldInflation but the entire book is!]]'' The book consists exactly of what the title suggests it does; some insane [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalist]] Christian woman under the impression she is God's ChosenOne ranting about birth control and abortion being evil and how she's going to convert all the Jews, Muslims and atheists to Christianity. Did we mention she charges $135 for a copy? Greed is a sin too, you know...

* ''[[http://www.amazon.com/Control-Christian-Marriages-Priesthood-Children/dp/1425992609/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_2 BIRTH CONTROL IS SINFUL IN THE CHRISTIAN MARRIAGES AND ALSO ROBBING GOD OF PRIESTHOOD CHILDREN!!]]'' Not only is the title of the book capitalized just as shown, ''[[UpToEleven but the entire book is!]]'' The book consists exactly of what the title suggests it does; some insane [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalist]] Christian woman under the impression she is God's ChosenOne ranting about birth control and abortion being evil and how she's going to convert all the Jews, Muslims and atheists to Christianity. Did we mention she charges $135 for a copy? Greed is a sin too, you know...

* John Harrigan's ''The Professor and the Dominatrix'', published by [=PublishAmerica=], was apparently sent out by the author to some atheist groups at its release. It was a murder mystery featuring sex and violence, which was hoped to draw the reader in and then lead them to question their religious beliefs more closely. One member of a receiving group decided to review it and [[http://www.blaghag.com/2009/04/book-review-professor-and-dominatrix.html put her review online]]. Unfortunately, she did not particularly care for the book. According to the review, much of it was basically a long AuthorTract, and the main character was a blatant MarySue, to the point that he wasn't just an outspoken atheist like the author, but even had the ''exact same'' day job too (professor of psychology), and a mustache. The author [[http://www.blaghag.com/2009/05/professor-responds.html responded to the criticisms by]], among other things, pointing out the favorable review the writer of the foreword gave it, similar to what the one non-deleted [[http://www.amazon.com/Professor-Dominatrix-John-Harrigan/dp/1605633682 Amazon review did]] (the remaining review mentions other, critical reviews that were presumably deleted; it is implied they were sock puppets). It left many readers on the Pharyngula blog [[http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/04/oh_noan_atheist_can_write_a_ba.php thinking or hoping the book was an elaborate joke]]. (Note, the remaining Amazon review is not from a sock puppet; it is a "real name" account for someone other than the author or foreword writer. It was the reviewer's only review though, so it seems to be purpose built).

* The 1939 novel ''Literature/{{Gadsby}}'' by [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Vincent_Wright Ernest Vincent Wright]] is one of the few (known, at least) vanity published books [[TropesAreNotBad that is actually good]]. The reason it was vanity published is that Wright wrote it as a lipogram i.e. he didn't use words with a specific letter, in this case, the letter ''e''.

* One of the most notorious examples of vanity publishing is ''[[http://www.eternalnight.co.uk/books/r/rosslaverne/nighttravelsoftheelvenvampire.html Night Travels of the Elven Vampire]]'' by [=LaVern=] Ross; originally thought to have been a parody of vanity publishing, a la ''AtlantaNights''. Once discovered to have been a serious attempt at writing; it became the subject of multiple scathing reviews, some of them [[http://crevette.livejournal.com/113659.html brilliantly hilarious]]. Notorious for its over-the-top MarySue lead, laughably bad language, and bizarre graphic sex scenes; it generated at least two Internet memes. Eventually dropped by Amazon.com, a nearly identical "re-imagined" version, ''Eternity of Blood'', was subsequently vanity-published; written by Ross under the pen name Valena Graham.

Vanity publishing is also present in the academic world, with some journals publishing ''anything'' even a [[http://www.fastcompany.com/3041493/body-week/why-a-fake-article-cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs-was-accepted-by-17-medical-journals paper that was actually produced by a random text generator (note: said paper opens automatically as a PDF if you click this link)]] for a fee.

* ''Another Hope'' is a ''Franchise/StarWars'' FanFic by Lori Jareo in which all the main characters die in the first episode and the author's MarySue AuthorAvatar takes over. Also, the ''Star Wars'' Galaxy now apparently possess a [[Franchise/StarTrek Starfleet]]. When Jareo, in a move that must have taken balls of steel, had the story vanity-published and put it up for sale via mainstream channels like Amazon.com (claiming that it was okay do so because only her family knew it was there), Creator/GeorgeLucas' lawyers wept tears of burning sulfur.

* ''Literature/MaradoniaSaga'': Once upon a time, a girl named Gloria Tesch wrote a [[ClicheStorm woefully generic]] young adult fantasy novel about a [[MartyStu Gary-Stu]] and [[MarySue Mary-Sue]] who discover a magical land adjacent to the US, ''à la'' ''{{Narnia}}'', fulfill a prophecy, turn out to be [[ChosenOne Chosen Ones]], and fight against an "Evil Empire" (yes, [[ObviouslyEvil that is what it is called]]; in spite of the fact that a reading of the first chapter reveals that isn't actually an empire anyway). Random words being italicized or in quotation marks for no fucking reason does not help. Her parents told her it was brilliant, published it, and the girl has since developed an ego the size of a planet; proclaiming herself the world's youngest published author (which she isn't), dismissing the most meager negative criticism as the work of "haters", and is under the impression that a Maradonia movie and amusement park are on the way. Amazon.com and other such websites are full of reviews written by [[SockPuppet the girl, her parents and her friends]] in which they relentlessly praise the series. Her books and self-promotional tactics have been [[http://conjugalfelicity.com/gloria-tesch/ analyzed in detail]].

Vanity publishing is also present in the academic world, with some journals publishing ''anything'' even a [[http://www.fastcompany.com/3041493/body-week/why-a-fake-article-cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs-was-accepted-by-17-medical-journals paper that was actually produced by a random text generator (warning: said paper opens automatically as a PDF if you visit that page]] for a fee.

* ''Another Hope'' is a ''Franchise/StarWars'' FanFic by Lori Jareo in which all the main characters die in the first episode and the author's MarySue AuthorAvatar takes over. Also, the ''Star Wars'' Galaxy now apparently possess a [[Franchise/StarTrek Starfleet]]. When Jareo, in a move that must have taken balls of steel, had the story vanity-published and put it up for sale via mainstream channels like Amazon.com (claiming that it was okay do so because only her family knew it was there), GeorgeLucas' lawyers wept tears of burning sulfur.

* ''TheFairyChronicles'' was originally vanity published by [=PublishAmerica=], but its author was able to promote it well enough that a legitimate publisher picked it up and gave it much better treatment, adding vibrant color illustrations, a beautiful cover, and many overall improvements. The fact that the books are decently written helped, but the author's own ability to actually market her (originally overpriced) work is probably what pushed it into the mainstream.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry.com The National Library of Poetry]], anyone? Sure, you don't ''have'' to pay anything to get published... but you know they expect you to buy the book, and pay to travel to the conference where your poem will allegedly be read, and so on and so forth. People, including Creator/DaveBarry, have gotten in on the attempts to send something that's actually bad enough that they'll refuse to publish it; [[http://www.wockyjivvy.com/poetry/shame/index.html so far, no dice]].

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry.com The National Library of Poetry]], anyone? Sure, you don't ''have'' to pay anything to get published... but you know they expect you to buy the book, and pay to travel to the conference where your poem will allegedly be read, and so on and so forth. People, including DaveBarry, have gotten in on the attempts to send something that's actually bad enough that they'll refuse to publish it; [[http://www.wockyjivvy.com/poetry/shame/index.html so far, no dice]].

* In the play ''Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac'' by Edmond Rostand, there is an InUniverse example. At Act II Scene VII, [[StarvingArtist Cyrano]] [[DiscussedTrope discuss this trope]] with [[TheWatson Le Bret]], claiming that he will [[DefiedTrope defy it]].[[note]]: Because this play is VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, there was a real poet called CyranoDeBergerac and Sercy was his real editor, implying the very thing the fictional Cyrano vehemently denies[[/note]].

* In the play ''CyranoDeBergerac'' by Edmond Rostand, there is an InUniverse example. At Act II Scene VII, [[StarvingArtist Cyrano]] [[DiscussedTrope discuss this trope]] with [[TheWatson Le Bret]], claiming that he will [[DefiedTrope defy it]].[[note]]: Because this play is VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, there was a real poet called CyranoDeBergerac and Sercy was his real editor, implying the very thing the fictional Cyrano vehemently denies[[/note]].

* One episode of ''NightCourt'' has an in-universe example when Bull writes an autobiography and gets it published this way.

* The topic being written about may be controversial, or appeal only to a certain niche group. While this happens with some traditional publishers, a book with an AudienceAlienatingPremise is more likely to be published by a vanity publisher (or self-published), because most traditional publishers would rather not take the risk of publishing something that will most likely not sell well (or at all).

* The topic being written about may be controversial, or appeal only to a certain niche group.

When a traditional publisher accepts a book for publication, it pays all the expenses related to publication in return for a certain percentage of the proceeds. The publisher is betting that the book will earn them more than it costs them to produce, which is why they're only interested in books that are likely to sell well. A vanity press, on the other hand, has the ''author'' foot the bill, which allows them to publish practically anything and still make a profit. This will often lead to fairly large expenses on the part of the writer, and is why many vanity presses tend to be dishonest about sales possibilities in order to get people to pay.

* On ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'', Randy decides to write a book called ''The Curious Tongue'', a book of one-sentence reviews of various items he has licked or tasted. (In spite of the fact that he is uneducated, not exactly street-smart either, and according to Earl, uses a 17-letter alphabet.) In order to make him happy, Earl gets the "manuscript" published, presumably through one of these types of publishers. No one ever buys the book, and it's never mentioned again, but Randy is happy to be published.

Vanity publishers are companies that will essentially publish almost anything a would-be author has written, regardless of quality or potential market. Obviously, most of these books never sell, but some people just really want to see their name in print (hence the name "''vanity''" press).

* A book exists called ''How to Good-bye Depression: If you constrict anus 100 times everyday. Malarkey? or Effective Way?'' by Hiroyuki Nishigaki and can be found on [[http://www.amazon.com/How-Good-bye-Depression-Constrict-Everyday/dp/0595094724/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278976354&sr=8-1 Amazon]]. Once you've finished snickering; it is published by "Writers Club" and [=iUniverse.com=], and is largely made up of the author explaining his theories relating to how depression can be cured on newsgroups in 1999 and 2000, along with people reacting in various ways. The book is perhaps the best example since ''ZeroWing'' of the results of making [[TranslationTrainWreck literal translations of Japanese to English]], with sentences like: "Besides shooting out a big blank from your buttock, you can feel as if your root chakra leaked sweet hot mucus" (we'll give you another five minutes to stop snickering again). At the end of the book, the author thanks the reader for taking the time to read his book in spite of his English being so bad. Well, at least he's humble, which is more than we can say in regards to most of the authors who wrote the pieces of nonsense listed on this page.

* On a positive note, Marcel Proust had to pay for the publication of the first book of ''In Search of Lost Time'' - which is now considered [[VindicatedByHistory one of the greatest novels ever written.]]