Re: NO ONE, by George Dance

On Wed, 26 Feb 2025 20:12:23 +0000, W.Dockery wrote:

Pendragon, do you pay the poets published in your poetry anthology?
>
Do you send the poets published a contributors copy of the poetry
anthology you've published them in?
>
Do you charge the poets published for a copy of the book they're
published in?
>
If the last answer is yes then you're running a vanity press.
>
HTH and HAND.

Payment vs non-payment doesn't designate something as a vanity press,
Donkey.
Non-payment = small press/indie press
partial payment = semi-pro
payment = professional
This is the industry standard, not my personal opinion.
The annual anthology, again, is best of the monthly ezine, and can only
be defined in relation to it.
I do not charge anyone for copies.  The book is published through Amazon
as Print-on-Demand.  Amazon charges for printing costs.  I don't receive
any money for it.
Print-on-Demand came about *after* your brief flirtation with the small
press, and changed the game (and the rules) entirely.
Small press publishers no longer send out contributor copies, because
they no longer print their own copies.
Xeroxed saddle stapled copies are a thing of the past.  Full color
perfect bound books cost too much money for a small press publisher to
send out.  So small press publishers adopt different means of paying
their contribs.
Some allow contribs to open up an online version of their magazine from
which they can download it.  It's not going to be the same as the
perfect bound print version, but it lets them get an idea as to how
their poem would appear in print.
Others offer their contribs copies at a discounted author's rate (which
is essentially what I do).  They simply charge the authors for cost and
shipping, then order the p-o-d copy for themselves, and forward it to
the author.
Again, I don't know of any small press publications today that still
send comp. author copies as payment.
A vanity press is no longer a magazine that charges contributors for
print copies; nor is it even a magazine that charges submission/reading
fees.  Most small, semi-pro, and professional poetry journals now charge
such fees.
I do not.
A vanity press today, is basically a press that charges for chapbooks
(as opposed to an author self-publishing).
It's a different world than it was in the 1980s and 90s, Donkey.  You
need to get in step with the times.
--