Paying A Company To Publish My Book Wasn’t The Best Idea

But I learned a lot

Photo by Skylar Kang

It was 2010 and I had the grand idea that I’d like to publish a book of poems. Groovy, huh? Poetry? A dead literary attempt to entertain the masses without burnishing it into a song or rap — just a common book of poetry that I hoped others would read.

This is not to say publishing poetry is easy. Just easier than a full length novel, plus I prefer poetry mostly over nonfiction. Nevertheless, I did not know I could completely self-publish until later years, but back then I would look at what company published the books I read.

This one particular company published authors’ books that appeared in book stores and libraries. So, instead of competing to get into major publishers, I figured, “Why not pay for my book to be professionally published?”

Note: Vanity publishing or ‘subsidiary’ publishing is when an author submits their manuscript for publication by paying a fee. This is different from ‘mainstream’ publishers who are paid based on sales of your books — you don’t pay them.

At that time, I was not particularly well versed in the publishing world and just wanted to bypass the competition and time it would take to see my book in stores. I went through the vanity company I admired, and learned a strong, financial…