I’ve been blogging pretty extensively on the HQHo situation, and in the past week I’ve learned more about self publishing and so-called assisted self-publishing, or ASP presses (AKA vanity publishing) than I ever knew before.

As Stace says, Harlequin’s new imprint, DellArte Press (previously called Harlequin Horizons) is **not** self-publishing. In a true self-publishing model…

1. The author keeps 100% of the profit. Now to be fair, this point is more and more difficult to find in practice; even Lulu gets a commission or royalty after the author pays all the upfront fees for services. It’s extremely important for the ASP press to be completely transparent in its fee/royalty structure and not rake authors over the coals. Better yet: authors should go with a true POD press, like LightningSource, which is the press that Lulu outsources to.

2. The author controls the ISBN.

3. The author controls the brand. Whose name is on the spine? If it’s the publisher’s name then the author **has not self-published, period.**

I respect authors who choose to go the self-publishing route. I think it shouldn’t be the first path to take, because frankly, it’s extremely difficult to do successfully (read: to produce a strong product that makes money). If you’re going to go this route, if you’re printing hard copy books, PLEASE look carefully at how you’ll be warehousing and distributing your books, and make sure you’re clear on whether your local bookseller will sell your books.

I think the biggest problem with ASP presses is that they misrepresent what they are actually giving the author. An author who uses an ASP press is not self-published. And an author who uses an ASP press because no commercial/trade, small press or e-publisher (which I’ll now lump together as “commercial publishers”) would accept the manuscript may be doing this for the wrong reason. Yes, it’s distinctly possible that your book is so niche that commercial publishers wouldn’t know how to market it. Yes, it’s possible that your previous sales have been so low that commercial publishers think you’re not worth the risk. And it’s possible that your book is not the right fit for any commercial publisher’s imprint.

It’s also very possible that your manuscript just isn’t that good.

Yeah, I know: that sucks. But keep in mind that just because, thanks to technology, anyone can get their book printed doesn’t mean that everyone can write a good book.

So before you decide to get a second mortgage to cover those ASP press costs, think long and hard **why** you’re choosing that path.

I’m glad calm, unwavering voices like yours continue to make clear the point that what HQ has to offer with its Ho imprint is NOT conducive to a career, whether traditional or indie. And until they unhook that cart, the whole publisher is unfortunately carrying a big, ugly V – scarlet letter-style. I’m all for expanding business models and trying to keep books available to the market, but I am absolutely against “models” that shaft the author and don’t even offer a reach-around.

Keep preaching it.

Paying? Really?!!?

I’m really glad you brought that up, about the reasons for self-publishing, because I found that offensive too. In comments at the Smart Bitches post on this, someone pointed out that the HQHo site had a list of “possible reasons” why using their vanity press was a good idea, and the vast majority of those reasons were things like, “Your ms has been rejected everywhere else.” Which does indeed present self-publishing as the last refuge of the unpublishable, which is obviously not always the case.

Again, thanks for responding!

I have a problem with Harlequin’s new venture. Writers whose manuscript is rejected are referred to their self-publishing company. “Sorry, your manuscript isn’t something we want to put OUR money behind, but please feel free to shell out YOUR money to us to publish your book.” It doesn’t sit right with me. Personally – and this is pure, cynical speculation – I think they know self-publishing is getting hot. They know that the authors they reject are starting to go to Lulu or Createspace or Authorhouse and they want a piece of the pie.

I’m a self-published author, and proud of it, and I WANT to be able to get behind changes in the industry that are indie-favorable, and I think those changes are coming. But in addition to (in my opinion) taking advantage of writers, HH’s set up confirms every stereotype about self-published writers: We’re not good enough for ‘real’ publication…we’re so desperate to see our books in print that we’ll pay for the privilege…etc. I’m not desperate enough for ‘mainstream’ recognition to be happy about HH. It would make me feel like a dog sniffing around for crumbs, and I have too much self-respect – and too much respect for other indie authors – for that.