# If you've been published, PLEASE read this!! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 30, 2001, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youve-been-published-please-read-this/70734 "2001-06-30T15:53:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LightTracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ab097/32.png) [@LightTracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LightTracer)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2001, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youve-been-published-please-read-this/70734/1 "2001-06-30T15:53:49Z")
I know that some of the posters here have gotten published, a goal I have been fighting for seemingly forever!! How many of you published authors have used a Vanity Press or otherwise self published? If you have, was it worth it, did your work sell well and if it did not, was it for some other reason than context, like perhaps poor promotion? I’ve a box full of rejection notices and I’m starting to get sold, so I’m considering a vanity press as an alternative. ---
**Author:** ![LightTracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ab097/32.png) [@LightTracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LightTracer)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2001, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youve-been-published-please-read-this/70734/2 "2001-06-30T15:56:07Z")
(Mutters to self about not proofing work.) That should read ‘I’m getting **old** not getting _sold_’. ---
**Author:** ![LightTracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ab097/32.png) [@LightTracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LightTracer)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2001, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youve-been-published-please-read-this/70734/3 "2001-06-30T15:57:41Z")
??? I give up. You get the meaning anyhow. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2001, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youve-been-published-please-read-this/70734/4 "2001-06-30T16:20:28Z")
I haven’t been published myself, but I do have a wonderful collection of rejection letters. Some of them aren’t even form letters! Yay me! sigh… My latest rejection came from the Writers of the Future contest. Orson Scott Card was one of the judges! My favorite author. My idol. He read my work and said “sorry, not good enough.” sigh… So I sent another story to the contest yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2001, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youve-been-published-please-read-this/70734/5 "2001-06-30T16:26:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LightTracer \* > **How many of you published authors have used a Vanity Press or otherwise self published? If you have, was it worth it, did your work sell well and if it did not, was it for some other reason than context, like perhaps poor promotion?** If you’ve used a vanity press, you’re not entitled to complain about poor promotion. All the copies that were printed showed up at your house in a carton, along with the bill. If you want to sell them, promote them, publicize yourself, or just put them out in the garage, that’s your business and only yours. No one else has any investment in those books. You paid a printer for work which is now complete. ---
**Author:** ![LightTracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ab097/32.png) [@LightTracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LightTracer)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2001, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youve-been-published-please-read-this/70734/6 "2001-06-30T19:14:48Z")
There are advertisements for this place called “Vanity Press,” and I got a book by them some years ago. They will take your precious baby, read it, critique it, rip it’s guts out and put them back in, then send it back with an opinion as to whether or not it is print worthy and, if not, suggestions for corrections accompany it. If print worthy, for a fee (back then, it was $5000), they will print it, create cover art, which you have to approve, then promote it and set up ‘meet the author’ episodes at book stores you can get to. There’s more to it, like copywriting and stuff. I actually have purchased some books off of the shelves published by Vanity Press.