self-publishing definitions

More and more people are self-publishing books. Unfortunately, many of these are not familiar with the terms used, so I’ve gathered some self-publishing definitions here.

1. What is traditional publishing?

This is what most people think of when imaging themselves as authors: A New York publishing house purchases their book, gives them an advance payment, handles the editing and other aspects of book production, gets the books into the bookstores, and launches a marketing campaign to spur sales.

2. What is self-publishing?

The author acts as her own publisher, responsible for the editing, book design, printing, distribution, marketing, and all other aspects of book publishing.

The author may literally do it all, may hire individual people or companies to handle various items, or may enlist the services of a self-publishing company to handle all of the chores.

3. What is DIY publishing?

Do-it-yourself self-publishing, in which the author hires an editor and proofreader, hires and works with a cover designer and interior designer, pays for the printing, and either handles all the publicity or hires someone to do it for her.
The author shoulders all the responsibilities, makes all the decisions, and pays all the bills. Barry Fox, Nadine Taylor, ghostwriters, memoirs, business books, art books, history books, health books

4. What is assisted self-publishing?

Hiring a firm to handle the self-publishing chores for you. There are many such firms, and they offer a variety of packages and a la carte services.

5. What is hybrid publishing?

A mixture of traditional and self-publishing.

This is an evolving category that lacks a strict definition. You can think of a hybrid publisher as one who asks you to shoulder much or all of the costs, but is very selective in what it publishes.

Since they don’t publish any old author, hybrid publishers may do a better job with distribution and marketing.

Some hybrid publishers work on a crowdfunding model, insisting that you develop a following and get a certain number of pre-orders before they will publish your book.

6. What is vanity publishing?

An old term used for self-publishing. It was used in a negative way, implying the books were so uninteresting or poorly written that their authors had to pay to have them published—and no one wanted to read them anyway—so it was all an exercise in vanity.

That was undoubtedly true with many vanity press books, but then again, many famous writers used the vanity press.

For example, books by Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, Zane Grey, Upton Sinclair, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Rudyard Kipling, and other famous names were vanity press productions.

7. What is subsidy publishing?

An alternate term for vanity publishing.

8. What is print-on-demand (POD)?

A combination of printing technology and business process that has dramatically lowered the price of printing books a few at a time, or even one at a time.

Books no longer have to be printed in lots of thousands at a time to be profitable. Instead, POD costs are low enough that books can be printed a few at a time and still sell and produce a profit for the publisher and/or author.

These self-publishing definitions will help you cut through the initial confusion as you delve into the process of turning your manuscript into a book.



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