Why do this website
and the Alliance exist?
Our dream is to stop vanity publishers from calling themselves "self-publishing companies."
More realistically, the site exists:
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To encourage and help self-publishers.
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To provide news of interest to self-publishers.
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To clarify the differences between self-publishing and vanity publishing.
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To make potential customers of vanity publishers aware of the problems that await them.
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Maybe to try to convince the Federal Government to stop vanity publishers from falsely claiming to be "self-publishing companies."
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To help writers understand and evaluate the various paths to publication.
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To provide a semipermanent directory of recommended service providers that are useful to self-publishers.
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To provide a semipermanent repository for the many fleeting bits of advice that are useful to self-publishers.
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To provide and promote a term ("Independent Self-Publisher") and a graphic symbol that can be used to identify real self-publishers.
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To help self-publishers sell and buy books.
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Not to compete with such organizations as SPAN, SPAWN and IBPA. Some of our members (including the ISPA founders) are also their members, and recommend those groups. We don't want to replace them, but do want to supplement them.
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Because Founding Father Michael N. Marcus gets itchy if he doesn't start a new website every couple of months.
