List of self-publishing companies

The following is a list of notable vanity publishing companies, and some which provide assistance in self-publishing books, provide print on demand services as publishers or operate as vanity presses.

Self-publishing and vanity publishing are totally different business models. And vanity presses are different from book packagers, book shepherds, or those offering a la carte publishing services for a fee but who do not charge you to publish your book. ^[1] A self-published author employs a printer (publishing) to operate a press, but retains ownership of copyrights, ISBN's, the finished books and their distribution.^[2] A vanity press or subsidy publisher retains some of the rights,^[3] usually including ownership of the print run and control over distribution, while the author bears much or all of the financial risk.^[4]

Both models share a common characteristic of shifting risk and primary editorial control to the author; both encounter the same issues of lax editorial control when the author does not do all of the editorial and production functions well. The vanity press model almost always charges too much, delivers too little, all with low quality and tries to sell unneeded and useless services at high profit margins.

This differs from the conventional model (royalty publishing) in which a publisher pays an author an advance to create content, then assumes full control of the project and any commercial risk if a tome sells poorly. Also excluded is sponsored publishing, where a company pays an author to write a book on its behalf (for instance, a food manufacturer marketing a cookbook written by outsiders or a hobby materials supplier publishing a book of blueprints).^[5]

This list includes only some publishers; it is not a complete list of all existing self publishers or vanity publishers.

• American Biographical Institute
• AuthorHouse
• BiblioBazaar^[6]
• Blurb, Inc.^[7]
• Bob Books^[8]
• Books LLC^[6]
• CafePress^[9]
• CreateSpace^[6]
• DiggyPOD
• Famous Poets Society
• Greyden Press^[10]
• iUniverse
• Kindle direct Publishing
• Kobo Writing Life
• Lightning Source^[9]
• Llumina Press
• Lulu
• Notion Press ^[11]
• Outskirts Press^[12]
• Poetry.com, also known as:
  • International Library of Poetry
  • International Poetry Hall of Fame
  • International Society of Poets
  • Noble House Publishing
  • Publish Today
• PublishAmerica, also known as:
  • PublishAtlantica
  • PublishBritannica (not to be confused with the encyclopedia company)
  • PublishIcelandica
• Self Publish, Be Happy
• Smashwords
• Tate Publishing & Enterprises
• Trafford Publishing
• Vantage Press
• Wattpad
• Xlibris
• Xulon Press

See also

• Author mill
• Print on demand

References

1. Mark Levine. The Fine Print of Self-Publishing. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
2. April Hamilton. The Indie Author Guide: Self-Publishing Strategies Anyone Can Use. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
3. Irina Webster, William Webster. How to Become a Successful Author:: 34 Steps to Self-Publishing. Australian Self-publishing Group. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
4. Dan Poynter, Danny O. Snow. U-Publish.com 4.0: A 'Living Book' to Help You Compete With the Giants. Unlimited Publishing LLC, Dan Poynter, Danny O. Snow. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
5. Marilyn M. Moore (2012-06-17). The Self-Published Cook: How to Write, Publish, and Sell Your Own Cookbook. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
6. "Self-Published Titles Topped 764,000 in 2009 as Traditional Output Dipped". Publishersweekly.com. 2010-04-14. Retrieved 2012-04-23.
7. Sterlicchi, John (2008-02-20). "Self-publish boom challenging old order". The Guardian (London).
8. "The 101 most useful websites". London: Telegraph. 2009-11-12.
9. Rosen, Mike (2009-03-02). "MediaShift . 5 Great Services for Self-Publishing Your Book". PBS. Retrieved 2012-04-23.
10. "Greyden Press". Dayton, OH. 2014-10-06.
11. Biswas, Venkata Sausmita (2012-02-12). "Publishing for dummies". The New Indian Express (Chennai).
12. Torpey, Jodi (2007-07-15). "Outskirts Press brings unpublished writers into the mainstream".