- Author mill
An author mill is a variety of
vanity press .cite news
first=Paula
last=Span
url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25187-2005Jan20
title=Making Books
publisher=Washington Post
date=2005-01-23
accessdate=2006-12-26] The name was coined byVictoria Strauss ofWriter Beware , as a parallel formation fromdiploma mill (an unaccredited college or university that offers degrees without regard to academic achievement) andpuppy mill (a breeding operation that produces large numbers of puppies for sale with little regard for breed purity, puppy placement, health, or socialization).As described by Writer Beware, an author mill is:
Typically an author mill does the cheapest possible job of production; it sets high cover prices and prints its books "on demand." The books are listed with on-line booksellers such as amazon.com and bn.com, and on the publisher's website. Any marketing, promotion, or physical bookstore placement is up to the authors themselves. While authors are not "required" to buy any of their own books, authors who wish to find readers discover that they need to buy their own books for resale.
The rise of the author mill is based on the rise of the on-line bookselling industry plus
digital printing technology such that makes it cheap to produce books using theprint on demand business model. cite news
first=Paula
last=Span
url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25187-2005Jan20
title=Making Books
publisher=Washington Post
date=2005-01-23
accessdate=2006-12-26] The necessary ingredients are:* Minimal editorial gatekeeping
* Low production costs (acquiring/editing/designing) the book
* Low set-up charges for reproducing the book
* The power to set the cover price high enough to make a profit on a small number of average sales
* A relatively predictable number of sales to the author, the author's family, and the author's friends.ee also
*
Print on demand
*PublishAmerica
*Vanity press Notes
External links
* [http://www.sfwa.org/beware/vanitypublishers.html Writer Beware]
* [http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/002692.html Follow the Money]
* [http://www.jamiehall.org/self-publish.htm Self-Publishing, POD Technology and Author Mills]
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