Nearly fifteen years ago, I was in college. This is not the same as college in America. Back when I was in college, it was optional but is now one of the mandatory decisions 16-18 year olds have to choose. It prepares students, either to move onto university, or to enter a job they desire through vocational training. I had chosen to go to college and study A-levels: English, Media and Film.
One day, my English tutor approached me with this competition aimed at Young Writers under eighteen years of age. I was delighted and immediately entered the competition. Actually, 4 of them. Each had similar criteria. Tell a story in 100 words that meet this theme. The winners will be published in Anthology X.
I completed the tasks, edited them best I could, and submitted all of them to the competition. Later, I received several letters saying that each of my submissions had won. That I was going to be published in four anthologies!
Great! College me was ecstatic about this. And I don’t blame younger me. I was still a child, although between 16-18, I certainly thought I was an adult. Later, I learned what vanity press is, and it got me thinking. Had I been victim to Vanity Press?
And I had.
What is Vanity Press?
Vanity Press aimed at adults will publish any submission and then charge the author for the work. More often than not, the author will spend more money on getting the book published than they would make in royalties. This would be because the company would sell you their services in different stages. £100 for a first set of poor edits. £300 for deeper edits. £200 for a cover. £350 for proof reading. £1000 to get it into hardback and shoddy marketing.
They promise that after X amount of sales, you’ll receive more royalties than you would traditional publishing. Most authors, if not all, that fall under the clutches of Vanity Press never reach the X amount of sales. They never make any money back on their book and the Vanity Press couldn’t care any less. They’ve already made several thousands of pounds from their victim client. It doesn’t matter to them whether the book does well.
This is different in traditional publishing and also why the royalty rates are so low. The publisher, the editor, the cover designer, the agent…. they’re all banking on your book selling. If it doesn’t, they’ve all lost money. They take the money ONLY when your book sells.
How is the competition Vanity Press?
Statistically, how likely is it that someone will submit four stories to four competitions and not be outshone by the thousands of others that are submitting? What this competition does is that they target areas. For example, all of mine had “West Midlands” or “Birmingham” in the anthology name. That makes the entries much, much less.
I’ve looked at my submissions. They are nothing of quality. Nothing that anyone would want to spend money on. Each entry is 100 words, that’s two entries a page. Easy enough to publish say, 600-800 entries in a book.
They also do not pay the author for their work. Instead, they say to the parent: “Hey, your child’s book is about to be published, it’ll cost £15.99 if you want it”. My mom couldn’t afford £15 for one book, yet alone four, so I never got my copy. But imagine all the parents that could. They might also have brought copies for family members and friends. The only people who would be interested in an anthology written by 8-18 year olds, lets be honest.
And that’s how they make money. That’s how they become a Vanity Press. Since then, I have looked the company up to see what others think and I found a blog article that says that the parents who didn’t pay, didn’t have the child’s anthology published in the book, in the end. I’m not sure how true that is as I had never gotten a copy. If I had and it is true, then I would have paid for my entry to be there. So short of knowing someone who had those anthologies, I can’t speak on that, but it would fit the Vanity Press genre.
How this Vanity Press works
It works by approaching schools with a ‘competition’ for students. It knows there are going to be children inspired by Jacqueline Wilson, Phillip Pullman, Malorie Blackman. These children are going to want to take any chance that they can get to be published in an anthology. It’s a big thing when you’re a child. Heck, it’s a big thing when you’re an adult, especially if you go through all of the right channels.
These children enter and they ‘win’. Now, the vanity press is hoping that the child begs their parent for the book so that they can shelf it and show all of their friends. Just like Vanity Presses for adults, this one is preying on the vulnerability of children. And parents don’t want to let their child down. Emotional blackmail at its finest.
The difference, I suppose, is that they don’t promise you’ll get any royalties. In fact they make sure you know that you are not paid for your work. A child wouldn’t mind about that. They just want to be in print like their favourite authors.
Mentioning my Vanity Press work
I don’t mention these titles to agents. There’s no point. Agents are most likely going to know that work published in the Young Writers anthologies are Vanity Press work, and it doesn’t look good. It is not my best work and it is not something that I want them to see or judge me on. I would recommend the same if you have fallen for a Vanity Press company, whether it’s one aimed at children or one aimed at adults. It’s a learning experience, best to forget and move on.
However, I will sometimes use it for job applications on a CV for jobs such as Lecturing in Creative Writing. It may be a bad experience, but it is an experience that shows I know both the good and the bad of publishing and that’s something that I can use to my advantage. Published once traditionally and four times under vanity press… all I’m missing now is self-publishing! Maybe that one will remain missing though. Who knows.
Advice for parents of writers
If the school approaches you asking if your child wants to write a story in a competition, research the company. See if they are a Vanity Press or if it is a true competition. If it does turn out to be a Vanity Press, I would say don’t say no straight away. Sit down with your child. Let them know it’s not really a competition, everyone wins but that their entry can still be featured in the book. It won’t hold the same value as other books but if they want to do it, they can.
This might be easier to explain to 11-18 year olds than to 8-10, although it would depend largely on the child. I just think it is important that the child knows they didn’t beat anyone, everyone wins, and that the book isn’t going to be something that kickstarts their dreams.
Maybe offer something else, such as the child makes a portfolio of work and you get it bound. It wouldn’t be the same as being published but it would have the same value as the published work and be only the child’s work.
Would I change it?
As an adult, I wouldn’t enter into ‘competitions’ like these, but as a child it did make me happy. I’m not sure whether I would enter into the competition if I knew the truth as a child. I was very logical in some ways and naïve in others. My gut feeling is that if someone told me that I had to pay in order for my entry to be featured and everyone won, then I would absolutely say no. I wouldn’t have seen it as a competition and I think it would have taken the fun out of things.
Now, I know to look for agents. I have made my agent package and I am now querying my book. I have even made a resource that I am happy to share with over 800 agents on it. You would still vet those 800 though and delete any that mention reading fees.