Vanity Press Sting

Have you ever wondered just how honest vanity presses are? Well, one of them just showed its stripes to the world. Read about their hilarious comeuppance at www.sfwa.org/news/atlantanights.htm. (Thirty writers got together and submitted the worst manuscript they could come up with, to see if it would be accepted for publication by a "selective" subsidy publisher.)

In case you're not sure what a vanity press is, it's a "publisher" that preys upon would-be writers by charging the writers hefty fees to print their books—regardless of quality, or lack of it—with little or no editorial guidance. The unfortunate writer is then left with a thinner wallet and a garage full of generally unsalable books.

Writer beware.