WHERE DO WRITERS LIKE ME STAND
I wanted to self publish my favourite poems for children and contacted a relatively new publisher 24by7 publishing.com
To test waters I first let them publish a black and white book of adult poems "Nari tumi k" and I was satisfied
Next I contacted them and with the proposal of publishing my children poem book with sketches that were made by Sri Tapomitra Bandyopadhyay
They requested me to make it a colored book for which I would have to pay INR 23440/-
And they would provide me
(a) option of choosing my colored cover page created by their inhouse artist from three samples
(b) they would make the sketches provided in mono colors
(c) I was entitled to three to four illustrations proved by their inhouse artist
(d) I would get 10 free copies
(e) 10 colored posters to be displayed by them at the coming book fair
(e) 96 colored personal card for advertisement
(f) they promised to provide two drawings with each poem one by Topomitra and other my colored drawing with computer
And by no means they would take a single step without getting my written consent
What they did
They sent me a printed book without taking my consent about the cover page
Only the sketches were printed while they called for the entire file of computer drawing from me
Apart from the title page and dedication page the whole book was black and white only the first letter of each poem was Red (?)
The title of poems were highlighted with odd colors
One of the poem was incomplete and the next two were totally omitted
This thin book of 92 pages are priced at INR 699/-
After consultation they made some changes like
The pages of the whole book were replaced with lightly colored pages
My colored computer drawings were taken into consideration
All the poems were included
Ten free copies , 96 cards and 10 colored posters provided but unfortunately
they remain unused as they have not booked any stall at the bookfair
In the reprinted book a poem has been unnecessarily edited so that it has become meaningless and a jargon of unrelated words
The book is still priced INR 699/-
By the way this is my seventh selfpublished book
Where do writers like me stand
I've faced similar problem. I came in contact with CyberWit publishers and sent them the manuscript of the book I'm in process of writing. After requesting me to send my complete manuscript (90% complete), they said that they can go ahead with publishing the book and THEN told me that I've to pay 26,000 for the publishing.
Having said the above, my friends tell me that there are publishers who are willing to publish for free but only I haven't come in contact with any. 
Why not sell it in the form of ebook?
I'm not a published writer. But I have been told that any publisher which asks you to pay is not worth your time. It even makes sense. They are already earning from us in the way of royalties, so why pay them to publish?
@ Santwana Please guide me with the process for publishing a book. Thanks!
The question worth asking is: Does vanity publishing stand?
And the answer is... No, it remains sitting in some dark and dingy cul-de-sac and deserves the anonymity it manages to award even deserving authors with.
So, my friend, you really need to STOP spending money to get books published. If what you write is good enough, some good publisher will accept... and if it isn't good enough, you can still upload it all on your blog and get hundreds of readers for free.
:)
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