As a writer I realize that there are many many ways to be published. There are a lot of hoops to dance through if you want a trad pub deal, and that whole journey is just difficult. Many posts are devoted to that road if one wishes to travel it. There are a lot of posts about self-publishing too. But what I do not understand is the “pay-for-pub” deals.

Now I am not knocking anyone else’s journey or path to publication. I really am not. But I don’t understand why in today’s DIY world anyone would pay for publication. In fact, there are a ton of posts devoted to steering the author unaware away from such activities.

To me, it is a no-brainer. If you are a writer and you want to get published, either go the trad pub route and try to be all that you can be, or, self-pub and promote the heck out of yourself. But I do not understand this paying for publishing. Why would someone invest hard-earned money for their work to be published when the return is so low?

I do not understand this !

I mean, it takes a LOT of sales to get your money back, or hit that “breakeven” point.

It is okay, however, to pay OTHERS to HELP you PUBLISH. I mean, DO hire a cover artist, a formatter, an editor (or two!) and DO use your money wisely to promo your book. But those vanity places? Um…no.

Just my two centavos.