#42 A Frank Discussion about Publishing in Romancelandia

Join us for this (rather extended) talk about different publishing models in the romance world. We talk hybrid, small press, vanity presses, and independent publishing, and weigh a few of the pros and cons across the board. Long answer short, however you choose to pursue publishing, you're doing great sweetie!

Questions/comments/concerns/something you want to rage about? Email us at [email protected] ♡

Books/authors we talk about:

• American Dirt by Jeanine Cummings
• From Blood and Ash (series) by Jennifer Lynn Armentrout
• Mink
• Alexa Riley
• Jesmyn Ward
• Cape May by Chip Creek
• Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud by Anne Helen Petersen
• Tessa Bailey

General links:

• "Bad Romance" (Jeong, 2018) (The Verge article Jen mentioned)
• "What is an indie author?" (Alliance of Independent Authors)
• "What is Hybrid Publishing? Here Are 4 Things All Writers Should Know" (Warner, 2016)
• "Hybrid Publishing: Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Know" (Probst, 2021)
• "How to Get Your Book Distributed: What Self-Published Authors Need to Know" (Friedman, 2017)
• "How to Publish an eBook" (Alliance of Independent Authors, 2021)
• "The Shaky Future of Self-Publishing and Romance"(Bloom, 2018)
• "Why Would Anyone Sell A Book For $0.99?" (Bloom, 2021)
• Reddit about Ruby Dixon and Amazon
• "Black authors are on all the bestseller lists right now. But publishing doesn’t pay them enough" (Grady, 2020)
• "The Disadvantage of Market Saturation" (chron.com, 2020)

KDP:

• Kindle Direct Publishing
• Royalties in Kindle Unlimited
• "How Authors Get Paid in Kindle Unlimited" (Adrienne C., 2021)
• "Why is Amazon Banning Thousands of Authors?" (Bloom, 2018)

More info on vanity presses :

• "What is Vanity Publishing?" (Doppler, 2020)
• "Why it’s a bad idea to pay a vanity press to publish your writing" (Snyder, 2005)
• "Vanity Press: How to Dodge Scams and Self Publishing Companies to Avoid" (Allan, 2022)
• "Self Publishing Vs. Hybrid Publishing Vs. "Vanity Publishing"" (Hawk, 2021)
• Quora "Why are "vanity press" publishers viewed as such a bad thing?" (see discussion from Andrew Chapman specifically)

Victoria Aveyard tiktok (@victoriaaveyard), website, and instagram (@victoriaaveyard) - lots of information on what the nitty gritty is like!