If you are an artist with a website, you probably receive an email now and then from vanity book publishers who tell you they have pre-selected "You!" to be in their great future art book. And all you have to do is pay a huge "entry" fee and buy two to ten overpriced books.
Several years ago, I was curious as to how the vanity publishing book process actually compared to a legitimate publisher so I decided to conduct a little experiment. I found a vanity publisher who had recently emailed me with an entry fee that was on the lower end and required me to purchase two $70 paperback books. And wonders of wonders, I was formally "accepted" for the book as soon as I paid the entry fee. They had not even received my images at this point. The email claimed online multiple art professionals were "jurying " the book yet I could find no background or art resume information on these jurors.
In comparison, a sizable number of artists submitted images for the book but unfortunately were not accepted. Typically, it was because the artist was more at an entry or beginning level in their career. In other circumstances, even if I loved the work, the images were not of acceptable quality. An artist could have a 20 page resume but if their images were not professionally photographed, they could not be selected for the book. In some cases, even the selected artists had to go the extra mile and take additional detail shots of their accepted works.
Once I submitted the images of my art work and a "cut and paste" artist statement from my website, more than a year elapsed with no contact from them. At one point they did mail (snail mail) a proof of my pages but there was no response when I asked questions. Even more importantly, they never asked me any questions to clarify anything. For every artist in my book, there were always multiple occasions where I needed to ask clarifying questions to assist in both educating the future reader and having the reader understand the content.
The vanity publisher never explained the process or the status of the book. It was clear that they had little interest in creating original content or having me adapt my artist statement to address the selected images. They never asked for a signed release from me and the photographer of my work which is the standard in the publishing industry. There was no explanation of any process and no personal interaction in terms of creating an unique product.
I continued to email them almost every month with no response from anyone. After a year and a half I received what looked like some sort of computer generated statement that "the book will be out soon." Finally a low end overpriced paperback was printed and also pre-released online (the entire book was online!).
The book had not been through the numerous quality control processes that we use from the author and multiple editors at various stages in the book process. The book had many typos and errors and looked like a junior high collage product. The book was not a true juried and curated selection of art. And what annoyed me to no end was that they listed my name as "Cynthia!" I had never submitted any information stating this was my first name. I emailed them about their errors and of course no response. The book was simple canned statements from artist websites into a pre-determined book template.
The book was not for sale anywhere online, not even on Amazon and almost anyone can sell on Amazon. The experience was disappointing but not surprising. It also verified and completely supported what I had read about vanity publishers.
Several years ago, I was curious as to how the vanity publishing book process actually compared to a legitimate publisher so I decided to conduct a little experiment. I found a vanity publisher who had recently emailed me with an entry fee that was on the lower end and required me to purchase two $70 paperback books. And wonders of wonders, I was formally "accepted" for the book as soon as I paid the entry fee. They had not even received my images at this point. The email claimed online multiple art professionals were "jurying " the book yet I could find no background or art resume information on these jurors.
In comparison, a sizable number of artists submitted images for the book but unfortunately were not accepted. Typically, it was because the artist was more at an entry or beginning level in their career. In other circumstances, even if I loved the work, the images were not of acceptable quality. An artist could have a 20 page resume but if their images were not professionally photographed, they could not be selected for the book. In some cases, even the selected artists had to go the extra mile and take additional detail shots of their accepted works.
Once I submitted the images of my art work and a "cut and paste" artist statement from my website, more than a year elapsed with no contact from them. At one point they did mail (snail mail) a proof of my pages but there was no response when I asked questions. Even more importantly, they never asked me any questions to clarify anything. For every artist in my book, there were always multiple occasions where I needed to ask clarifying questions to assist in both educating the future reader and having the reader understand the content.
The vanity publisher never explained the process or the status of the book. It was clear that they had little interest in creating original content or having me adapt my artist statement to address the selected images. They never asked for a signed release from me and the photographer of my work which is the standard in the publishing industry. There was no explanation of any process and no personal interaction in terms of creating an unique product.
I continued to email them almost every month with no response from anyone. After a year and a half I received what looked like some sort of computer generated statement that "the book will be out soon." Finally a low end overpriced paperback was printed and also pre-released online (the entire book was online!).
The book had not been through the numerous quality control processes that we use from the author and multiple editors at various stages in the book process. The book had many typos and errors and looked like a junior high collage product. The book was not a true juried and curated selection of art. And what annoyed me to no end was that they listed my name as "Cynthia!" I had never submitted any information stating this was my first name. I emailed them about their errors and of course no response. The book was simple canned statements from artist websites into a pre-determined book template.
The book was not for sale anywhere online, not even on Amazon and almost anyone can sell on Amazon. The experience was disappointing but not surprising. It also verified and completely supported what I had read about vanity publishers.
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