Big publisher is watching

As part of the discussion on vanity presses mentioned below, Lee Goldberg cited a quote by the proprietor of a POD press that I wanted to address:

"In today’s emerging digital world, if you truly want to attract that big name publisher, use a professional POD firm to self-publish because the big name publishers are watching." --Yvonne DiVita, WME Books.com

If that were true, it might be a compelling argument in favor of the vanity press model. Unfortunately, it is patently false.

In the five years that I've been a professional book critic and commentator on publishing, I've had the pleasure of meeting hundreds of published authors, ranging from first-timers to seasoned pros, small press to large, mid-list to the biggest bestsellers.

Of those hundreds of authors, I am aware of only two that began their careers with a POD-printed book. One of the authors went from a vanity press to a traditional NY publishing house. After two books, she was dropped by the NY house and returned to self publishing.

The other author -- already something of a unique case in that he had significant publishing industry contacts -- used his POD books essentially as promotional items, sending them to reviewers, editors, etc. in an attempt to garner attention for his work. He eventually got a contact with a traditional publisher. Subsequent to that, he stated that he wouldn't advise others to go the POD route and that he didn't think it helped him significantly.

Contrast those two to the hundreds and hundreds of published authors who pursued their career the traditional way. They wrote a book, they submitted it to agents and/or publishers, they got published, they got paid.

So who are all these writers who are attracting the "big name publishers" with their POD books? If the big name publishers really are watching, would any of them care to write in and let me know that? I'm sure my readers would be interested in hearing the news.

Comments

[finnigan]

I think PLBW will have a huge impact on the whole vanity press issue.

[Rob]

Oh, no! Not that Preterm Low BirthWeight thing again. What's with you people?

[Brandt Dodson]

I've got to say that, as a traditionally published author of stand alone crime novels and a hardboiled PI series, it's hard enough to build a readership when you have a publisher solidly behind you. Doing it the on your own - near impossilbe.
I will agree, though, that a POD copy of your books for promtional purposes is probably not a bad idea, although most publishers will do ARCs as part of their marketing push for your book.

[mark]

It's the vetting that makes the diffrence isn't it? Meaning that first an agent culls through the pile, then an editor, then the public. By the time it gets on the shelves, it's been through several hands and is hopefully a better piece of work than something that goes from computer to typeset to the public.