How Do I Publish My Book

Okay, here's the real deal on publishing.

 They're the ones that charge you zero for publishing your book, offer you an advance on your royalties, agree to spend $5000 or $500,000 on promoting your book, etc.

 If you choose this route, more power to you.

 They have that reputation because they'll appeal to your vanity---your deepest yearning to become a published author.

 Vanity presses may call themselves joint venture or subsidy presses, but in a vanity press arrangement, the author pays all of the cost of publication and undertakes all of the risk, and the publisher does no promotion whatsoever.

A subsidy or "joint venture" publisher distributes books under its own imprint, and is therefore a little more selective in deciding which books to publish.

 Often, the adjunct services provided are minimal.

 Most subsidy publishers also keep a portion of the rights from any book that they publish.

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True self-publishing means authors choose a printer, get an ISBN number from Bowker, get copyright forms and register with the Library of Congress, get a bar code for the cover (for scanning price, etc.

), arrange for the book's cover design (one of your most important investments), arrange for endorsements and testimonials to go on that cover, develop a marketing plan, arrange for publicity (free coverage as opposed to paid-for advertisements, which are seldom worth the investment), arrange for radio and TV appearances, book signings and other public appearances, make sure you're listed in all the right online places, and so on.

 All rights then remain with the author, the completed books are the writer's property, and the writer gets all the proceeds of sales.