You've written a book. Perhaps it took years, perhaps it was the 3-month product of a blast of inspiration. You rise from your desk and ask now what?

If this were the old days, it would be time to find an agent in the hopes of finding a trade publisher, time to craft a brilliant query letter that would open the doors to publication. Or, if you could afford it and wanted to see your work in print at your own expense, it would be time to take your manuscript to a traditional vanity press.

Enter digital printing. With the advent of ink-jet printers in the late 1970s, a new world was born. By the mid-80s,the first desktop publishing program wrested the power of the printed word from big publishing houses and placed in the hands of the rest of us.

Vanity and subsidy publishers vs. self publication
The terms 'subsidy press' and 'vanity press' are practically interchangeable. Other terms you may come across - joint venture publisher, co-op publisher, partner publisher - all add up to the same thing.

A true VANITY PRESS produces a book at the author's expense, using the same, expensive web press technology available to standard publishing houses. Upon completion, the author takes delivery of the books produced. The vanity publisher may or may not provide marketing and/or distribution for the book. The author sets the price at which the book will be sold, retains ownership of the copyright and of the books themselves, and retains all profits from the sale of the book. A typical vanity publishing project may easily cost the author $7,500 to $10,000. Profits rarely pay for the cost of production.

A SUBSIDY PRESS also produces a book at the author's expense, but, taking advantage of lower-cost digital printing technology, charges the author far less for the production of his book. However, the subsidy publisher often retains copyright on the material and sets the price at which the book will be sold. The author receives anywhere from a few to a few dozen copies of the book; beyond that point, the author purchases any further copies from the publisher. The publisher promotes the book, and should the book produce a profit, pays royalties to the author. The cost of subsidy publishing is considerably less than vanity publishing. Royalties received rarely pay for the cost of production.

SELF-PUBLISHING, on the other hand, is the last word in taking total control of your book's destiny. You write the book, you prepare the manuscript for digital publication, you purchase an ISBN number (available in blocks, with a minimum of 10 numbers per block), you deal with the Library of Congress and copyrights, you shop for competitive printing bids, you manage the promotion and marketing, you find a distributor. You do it all... an understandably daunting prospect for most writers.