Author

==Relationship with publisher==

===Self-publishing===
{{Main|Self-publishing}}
Self-publishing is a model where the author takes full responsibility and control of arranging financing, editing, printing, and distribution of their own work. In other words, the author also acts as the publisher of their work.

===Traditional publishing===
With commissioned publishing, the publisher makes all the publication arrangements and the author covers all expenses.

The author of a work may receive a percentage calculated on a wholesale or a specific price or a fixed amount on each book sold. Publishers, at times, reduced the risk of this type of arrangement, by agreeing only to pay this after a certain number of copies had sold. In Canada, this practice occurred during the 1890s, but was not commonplace until the 1920s. Established and successful authors may receive advance payments, set against future royalties, but this is no longer common practice. Most independent publishers pay royalties as a percentage of net receipts – how net receipts are calculated varies from publisher to publisher. Under this arrangement, the author does not pay anything towards the expense of publication. The costs and [[financial risk]] are all carried by the publisher, who will then take the greatest percentage of the receipts. See Compensation for more.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Greco |first=Albert N. |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781136850356 |title=The Book Publishing Industry |date=2013-07-31 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-85035-6 |edition=0 |language=en |doi=10.4324/9780203834565}}</ref>

===Vanity publishing===
{{Main|Vanity press}}

Vanity publishers normally charge a flat fee for arranging publication, offer a platform for selling, and then take a percentage of the sale of every copy of a book.<ref name="Definition of VANITY PRESS">{{Cite web |title=Definition of VANITY PRESS |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vanity+press |access-date=2023-03-10 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}}</ref> The author receives the rest of the money made.<ref name="Definition of VANITY PRESS"/> Most materials published this way are for niche groups and not for large audiences.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=VANITY/SUBSIDY PUBLISHERS |url=https://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/writer-beware/vanity/ |access-date=2023-03-10 |website=SFWA |language=en-US}}</ref>

Vanity publishing, or subsidy publishing,<ref name=":2" /> is stigmatized in the professional world. In 1983, [[Bill Henderson (publisher)|Bill Henderson]] defined vanity publishers as people who would "publish anything for which an author will pay, usually at a loss for the author and a nice profit for the publisher."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Henderson |first=Bill |date=January 1984 |title=The Small Book Press: A Cultural Essential |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/601438 |journal=The Library Quarterly |volume=54 |issue=1 |pages=61–71 |doi=10.1086/601438 |s2cid=145283473 |issn=0024-2519}}</ref> In subsidy publishing, the book sales are not the publishers' main source of income, but instead the fees that the authors are charged to initially produce the book are. Because of this, the vanity publishers need not invest in making books marketable as much as other publishers need to.<ref name=":2" /> This leads to low quality books being introduced to the market.