I recently read the following blurb in a free home decorating magazine that I get from my former realtor. The article was about trends for 2010, and the blurb was thus:

Thanks to iUniverse and other self-publishing companies, the path to authorhood is a click away. Even a single copy of the history of your century-old house is possible.

So far so good, right? I'm all for self-publishers for cases where you have a small, specific market for something that a traditional publisher would never print. Want to give everyone in your family a nice book with the family tree and great uncle Mort's diary from the Gold Rush? Want to print a history of your small town to sell at the local museum?

Then self-publishing might be the way to go. The problem I had with the article was this next line, because it perpetuates the vanity press and self-publisher's claims that a wannabe fiction writer can skip the slush pile and be the next NYT Bestseller if they pay to publish.

And the secret is out: This is where many six-figure book deals start.

The secret is out? Many six-figure book deals? How many? Whose? Where the heck did the author of this article get her info? I'm guessing she interviewed the happy sales folks at iUniverse and swallowed the bait whole.

All I can say is thank goodness I'm a member of a professional writer's organization whose aim it is to educate me about the predatory practices of such publishers.