I've blogged about this before, but apparently it needs addressing again. Most people don't understand the difference between self and vanity publishing, so I'm here to explain. I'm an indie author. I self publish my ebooks on Amazon KDP, Smashwords, and Kobo Writing Life. My paperback books are published through Createspace. None of these publishing platforms cost me any money. I just upload my ebook and paperback files and then they become available for sale world-wide. When I self publish a paperback through Createspace my book is only printed once it's ordered by a reader. This is called POD Publishing / Print On Demand Publishing. It means that my paperback novel is only printed when a real order is placed for it. If you go to amazon.com and order one of my books viewAuthor.at/SuzKorb Amazon prints off one copy on their book making machine . This saves trees, and ebooks save even more trees. Win. With vanity publishing a writer basically hires a printing