Vanity press

A vanity press, "sometimes also subsidy publisher," is "a book printer that is paid by authors to self-publish their books." It "charges fees in advance and does not contribute to the development of the book"; the editing, cover and publicity a mainstream publisher provides free are its paid services, and it "has absolutely no interest in whether the book is saleable or suitable for publication." The label is the fight: "the term vanity press is derogatory, so it is not used by the printers," the practice "has been described as a scam," yet it "does not necessarily meet the definition of actual fraud."

The line against self-publishing is John Scalzi's: "While in the process of self-publishing, money and rights are controlled by the writer." The self-publisher pays too, but for their own ISBN, keeping money and rights; with a vanity press "the author pays the full cost of production and therefore carries all the risk."