Is The Arts Council Funding A Vanity Publisher?
Dear Editor,
Are you a vanity publisher?
Yours,
A Hopeful Author
Dear Hopeful,
I am afraid you are going to have to work out a more subtle approach. The internet is full of sharks who would like to devour your wallet, and none of them is going to answer ‘yes’ to that question.
Yours,
A Small Press Editor
No, I am not joking. I really have received that email quite a few times. Authors are not famous for having large amounts of business sense. A lot of them have big dreams, and there is an enormous and flourishing industry preying on them. I get emails and letters every day from would-be professional authors who have got themselves trapped in worse-than-useless agreements but this week, all the emails I got said pretty much the same thing:
Help! I’ve been offered a contract by YouWriteOn. They are offering to publish 5000 people for free. Is it vanity publishing?
I get similar cries for help so often that I decided this would be a good time to try to sort out what exactly ‘Vanity Publishing’ is. We’re all very good at flinging accusations - but not so good at definitions, it seems. For one thing, ‘Vanity Publishing’ is a term regularly thrown at self-published authors and independents, as well as those who have a ‘cv’ made up of endless lists of publications in the likes of Forward Press poetry anthologies. Others cry ‘vanity’ whenever an author contributes financially to the production of their work - but that doesn’t make sense to me. Many kinds of publishing can provide a perfectly viable business, for example when a specialist author is self-publishing to provide books to a niche market too small to interest mainstream houses. True, there are many grey areas, and many companies make a profit by thickening the fog, feeding the dreams of inexperienced authors and then pocketing their money. So how do we define ‘vanity press’? For me, there are two key factors. First, where is the publisher is making their money? Second, how seriously are they attempting to market the author’s work? A reputable publisher should be aiming to make their profit by selling books so, with these key factors in mind, I looked into the YouWriteOn ‘free publishing’ offer.
The first thing that struck me was that YouWriteOn appear to be Arts Council funded, so on the plus side, we can assume someone is watching over their motives and their actions. But then I saw all the debates about this scheme on the internet, and I saw anxious people saying, ‘it must be kosher because they’re funded by the Arts Council’ - that’s worrying. One of the consequences of being funded is that YouWriteOn don’t need to make money from book sales. That should ring alarm bells. The ‘publishers’ aren’t investing much - these books are to be pod (print on demand) publishing. That means that a book they publish exists only on the Internet unless someone clicks on a pay button. When a copy is ordered, a copy is printed. So there is no financial motivation to market the books. YouWriteOn do offer an additional option (which writers have to pay almost £40 for) which makes the book more visible in the real world but - the writer has to pay, so there goes the ‘free publishing’ element. (Whatever happened to the world where writers actually got paid for their books?)
True, authors don’t always approach publishers with the intention of getting rich. I am a small press publisher myself, and I run a private (ie, unfunded) club for independent and freelance writers. Sometimes, club members have contributed financially to our projects. They are always asked to contribute both sweat and brain-power to the marketing effort. But here comes the key point. There IS a marketing effort. The YouWriteOn offer to publish 5000 authors for free comes with a contract that exonerates the publisher from ANY marketing effort or expense.
Perhaps the most alarming point of all is that YouWriteOn don’t provide free author copies. Most publishers are delighted to give the writer an armful of books to kick off the publicity campaign. Used as review copies, for readings, or even as gifts for friends, those free copies get the book out into the world and start people talking about it. YouWriteOn are not doing this. Authors must pay the full price if they want to own a copy of their book. This is reminiscent of companies like Forward Press, who produce anthologies (books including work by hundreds of writers), and then charge the authors for a copy - sometimes even make the author’s purchase of several copies a condition of publication. Bearing in mind the number of people who pay the - quite high - price of those books in order to see their name in print, it seems likely that most authors will want one or more copies of a their own YouWriteOn publications - maybe half a dozen copies - and that is where the profit will come from.
To sum up, YouWriteOn will put electronic images of 5000 books on a website, and print a copy if and when someone buys it. The authors will probably buy around 30,000 books between them, so YouWriteOn will get 40% of the profit on 30,000 books just from sales to the authors. They don’t have to do anything except print books that are already ordered and paid for. They can’t lose. What will the authors gain?
Presumably, the authors are participating because they want people to read their books. If this is the case, why not put a pod edition on their own website, put their own pay-buttons on, and take 100% of the profit from any sales? You may say an individual author’s website wouldn’t attract many buyers, but how many will YouWriteOn attract? Would you buy a book from a publisher who you know has just published 5000 authors’ works on a first-come first-served basis?
Or perhaps the authors participate because they hope to attract the attention of a mainstream publisher. Okay, it is possible a commissioning editor or an agent will get interested in an author whilst browsing this site but how likely is that? I’ve met quite a lot of editors and agents. They are busy people. They really do not spend that much time browsing websites at random. I think all the authors will gain from this project is a little initial warmth followed by a severe disappointment.
Is this vanity publishing? Well, under the banner of the Arts Council, YouWriteOn have embarked on a no-risk poject where they will publish anything and everything, hoover up the profits when authors buy copies and exempt themselves from spending any money publicising those authors.
I decided to reserve judgement for a little while. The publishing world is in flux at the moment. Who knows what will work? Maybe this is the beginning of a wonderful new, egalitarian world for writers. The telling point, I thought, would be when we find out who buys the YouWriteOn books. Maybe it won’t just be the authors and their friends. In the meantime, several of my own club members received contracts from YouWriteOn and one of our more worldly-wise members wrote to the Arts Council to find out more about the funding position. The reply from the Arts Council stated that the Arts Council are asking YouWriteOn to make it absolutely clear that this is NOT an Arts Council sponsored project, and advises anyone who is offered one of these contracts to contact The Society of Authors for advice on ’self-publishing and vanity publishing’. Well, that was a week ago but I’ve just visited the YouWriteOn website and their home page still says ‘Arts Council funded YouWriteOn.com will publish the first 5,000 writers who contact us’
I then had a look at the contracts our members had received and discovered to my horror that the £40 ‘optional extra’ we’d heard about was an ISBN number - so authors are paying £40 for that basic property that makes a book real, and marketable in the eyes of the world - and if YouWriteOn have bought a batch of ISBNs for this project, they will have cost them only a few pounds each. The profit for YouWriteOn starts rolling in before the books are even online!
Not all is vanity, but looking round the internet, I think quite a lot of it is. I implore would-be authors everywhere to come down off their clouds and learn a bit of business sense. If they don’t, their wallets will be emptied whether or not they suffer from vanity.
I found Kay Green’s article interesting, enlightening – but slightly unfair, in that it seems to imply that YouWriteOn’s motives are questionable. Whilst the publishers, Legend Press, clearly need to be reimbursed if they actually produce anything, it seems to me that YWO have only the authors’ interests at heart. Certainly without their initiative and the motivation of their ongoing encouragement, my own book would never even have been written – let alone actually appear in print.
Kay advises seeking out a small publisher if you have faith in your novel. Well, that might apply to some of the more talented among us who have leapt at the YWO offer, but I think the majority, like myself, have a realistic view of their own abilities.
She also wonders what the authors will gain and speculates that they participate in the hope that they might attract the attention of a mainstream publisher.
I suppose if we’re honest, we all entertain that little flicker of hope that a Hollywood producer will come riding out of the sunset on his white horse, but the real gain is the pride of seeing our work on display. Maybe it’s a hang-up from schooldays?
And as for the charge that YouWriteOn stand to make 40% of the profits – their contract states that ‘The Author shall receive a 60% net royalty on all sales of printed copies of the Work that the Publisher receives’.
Thanks Mark - that’s a useful and well thought out response and I agree that there is a purpose for a developing writer in putting their work on display. I hope it gives you satisfaction and encouragement. I just feel that this project is a million miles away from the sort of collaborative work YouWriteOn usually do. Online workshops and discussions are very, very useful. Had YouWriteOn presented this current project as, ‘let’s have a bit of fun and show off our work to each other’ that would be fine with me but the fact that they are calling it a publishing opportunity, putting in very little money or work and then taking 60% of the profit - which I believe will largely be money from the author and their friends, and the fact that they present an ISBN number as a £40 optional extra, makes the project look very, very much like the many profit-oriented quasi-publishers I spend a lot of time warning people against.
You, Mark, are one of the ones I’d call vulnerable. One of your stories was, as you know, chosen for one of our Earlyworks Press anthologies and whilst we do produce the anthologies with the intention of encouraging and developing new writers, we NEVER publish anything we aren’t willing to stand by as professional standard work - so what are you doing suggesting that YouWriteOn pod books are the best you can hope for?
And to any YouWriteOn buffs who are offended by my choice of example, I am sorry, I am not critising your critiquing and workhshopping efforts but I chose this one specifically because it represents so well one of those dangerous ‘grey areas’ - the YouWriteOn forum is, as far as I know, a useful and positive resource for writers, the website is Arts Council Funded, so everything looks hunky dory - but a pod publisher that charges the writer for copies of their own work is NOT. The Arts Council DO NOT want their name attached to that scheme.
It’s the apparently deliberate blurring of the positive with the exploitative that worries me.
Long, long ago I learned the hard way that paying for copies of anthologies in which your own work appears is no better than blatant vanity publishing. I applaud Kay’s article and sentiments, as well as her willingness to stand up for what she believes is right.
I completely agree that Mark should not talk himself down. If he doesn’t think his work is good enough to be published properly (either by a small press or a large one) then he should use sites like the one mentioned above to help him improve. However, paying to get published does not help one improve (unless you realise your mistake and vow never to take that route again).
Having read Mark’s response, I feel he must admit, surely, that he is in favour of vanity publishing - indeed, he says himself (and I quote) ‘but the real gain is the pride of seeing our work on display.’ That quote, if the context is the way I read it - and feel free to correct me if I’ve misunderstood you, Mark - demonstrates a position completely in favour of VANITY publishing.
Writers write for many reasons, including compulsion, bliss, excitement, etc. However, if any writer is writing simply to ’see their work on display,’ then vanity publishing is for them. I’m not making a value judgement, if that’s what you want and you go into it with your eyes (and pocket) open, fine. However, in my opinion, a good deal of potentially good, potentially successful writers are, I feel, stifled and suffocated at an early stage in their career because they fall into the trap of publishing for vanity instead of working at their craft a few more years - yes, years. Of course, not all great writers get published, but not all published work is by great writers. I for one would rather write til I’m on my deathbed having never been published at all IF what I’ve written wasn’t good enough artistically and technically.
One last point, and I’m really not trying to have a go at you personally, Mark, it’s just that your comments strike me as a tad naive and I’d rather try and help you and get lambasted for it than keep quiet when I might have made a positive difference, so forgive me but your comment that ‘it seems to me that YWO have only the authors’ interests at heart’ would only make sense if they were not going to profit financially from their scheme. They are, patently, going to profit from it so how can you say they only have the writers’ interests at heart?
I don’t think the debate about that word ‘vanity’ is ever going to end! On the one hand, I absolutely agree with you Tracey. The desire for display and approval all too often rushes writers into print when their work would have been the better for some more thinking and editing. If it’s the thought of ’seeing your work in a real book’ that excites you, ask yourself whether it’s going to be a really good book. Inexpert writing looks far, far worse in perfect bound format because that format leads the reader to expect a professional standard. A badly edited book, unwisely published, will haunt you forever. Imagine a drawing you did in primary school. You were really proud and happy when the teacher put it on the wall but then imagine, years later, that drawing turns up in an exhibition with your name on it. Anyone seeing it will think you’re a pretty hopeless artist - and once you allow an ill-considered book to be published, it’s out there telling the world that it represents your kind of writing.
But back to that word ‘vanity’ is there any writer out there who can honestly say they don’t want their work read, approved of, paid for? Is that vanity, or legitimate, professional ambition? The problem is, we tend to think of ‘vanity’ as self-regard - or as a tendency to over-value your own work - but the first definition in the OED is ‘futility’ - and there’s the key. If someone is offering to display your work, you need to ask yourself, ‘what is the purpose’. If you can’t see a useful purpose, it’s all in vain. For someone seeking a career as an artist, that primary school drawing re-appearing is totally futile - in fact it will probably have a negative effect on their career.
I still maintain that money itself isn’t the key. To quote writer Sarah James in a very thoughtful piece she recently posted elsewhere, ‘ask yourself where the money is going.’ In this case, if it’s going to pay a printer, fine - as long as, when the printer’s done his job, you own the product you’ve paid him for. If it’s going into a publishing house which truly values and markets your sort of work, great. If it’s going straight into your own pocket, better still but if it’s going into the pocket of someone who’s just sold you a dream, and has no intention of marketing your work - forget it, it’s in vain!
I enquired on the Arts Centre side of this and received the following reply:
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Dear Geraint
Thank you for your enquiry.
Arts Council England works to get great art to everyone by championing, developing and investing in artistic experiences that enrich people’s lives. Arts Council England’s main funding programme is Grants for the arts. It is open to individuals, arts organisations and other people who use the arts in their work.
YouWriteOn.com receives funding from Arts Council England to run its website forum and professional critique service for writers.
Arts Council England has not funded, and has not endorsed, the separate Print-on-Demand self-publishing service offered through the site.
As with any self-publishing service, Arts Council England would encourage writers to read the terms and conditions carefully and make an informed judgement about the service on offer. If in doubt, you should contact the Society of Authors www.societyofauthors.org who have information sheets and guidance about self-publishing and vanity publishing.
We have asked the site moderator to make this absolutely clear, so that there is no confusion about the involvement of Arts Council England.
Kind regards
Gemma Thorpe
Customer Service Advisor, Enquiries
Arts Council England
—————————-
Thus I think the answer to the blog title is ‘NO’, however the points made by Kay are equally valid. Out of curiosity I set an application and managed to receive two invitations back to publish my work. I am concerned that my work has been accepted due to a 50 word synopsis and that the publishing will take place in the form I sent, so no proof-reading or editing just straight out, warts n’ all. It seems a bit too gimmicky for my liking.
Thanks Geraint, useful info - and look, three weeks on, the home page at YouWriteOn still says
Arts Council funded YouWriteOn.com will publish the first 5,000 writers who contact us for Free - Fiction & Non-Fiction
I don’t think that counts as making it absolutely clear that the project isn’t Arts Council endorsed or funded.
AND I’d like to underline once more that this ISN’T a self-publishing scheme. If it was, the writers would own the books themselves and get 100% of the profit, not 60%.
27th October - I notice the ‘Arts Council Sponsored’ bit has now disappeared from the front of that ‘free publishing’ offer.
What an interesting debate.
I’m still pummeling my Ms into shape for YouWriteOn - and I shall hand it over, plus my £40 and try and make an opportunity out of it. I don’t have the resources to produce my own book. I do have some contacts and some nouse and I shall do my best to market it.
I consider that, if there was still a mid-list, I’d be a mid-list author. There isn’t, so I’m not published. The novel that I’m sending to YouWriteOn is nearing the end of its shelf life. Several largish and smallish publishers to whom I had an ‘in’ have rejected it. I don’t know where else to send it. I have another project to work on now. If I’m to reap any reward for 5 years of work and worry over that book this is IT. There’s nothing else.
I’m happy to be a guineapig and see if this IS vanity publishing. I’ve certainly been mildly singed by more blatant and MUCH more expensive vanity publishing enterprises in the past.
You do seem to have thought this through pretty well, Judi. You say you are still working on the ms, which suggests you aren’t going to risk publishing something that doesn’t do you credit by its quality, and you say you have tried other likely sources of publication and judged that its time is up as a commercial proposition. - How did we get into a world where a novel has such a short ’shelf life’ - but that’s another debate. You are right, it is so.
That being the case, you have looked at the cost of independent self-publishing and decided you aren’t ready to invest that much so yes, in your case, I’d say there isn’t much to lose - you are testing the system on a work that otherwise probably wouldn’t see the light of day. I only have one remaining quibble then.
What a shame that YouWriteOn didn’t see fit to allow for some free author-copies! If, as you say, you have a bit of experience in marketing books, having a boxful of your own for exhibitions and readings could just do the job, and lift the book into what you describe as a ‘mid-list title’. As such, it could enhance your reputation and pay you a small but encouraging sum. Well, maybe you’ll manage that anyway. I wish you the best of luck. It looks as though you have the experience and the vision which tend to create luck.