vanity press

American  

noun

1. a printing house that specializes in publishing books for which the authors pay all or most of the costs.

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Etymology

Origin of vanity press

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

June’s novel, “Pepsi-Cola Addict,” was published by a vanity press that has since gone defunct.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 2, 2022

Wikipedia is committed to the notion of an encyclopedia, a written compendium of important human information—not a directory, a soapbox, a vanity press, or anything else the site has pledged not to be.

From Slate • Mar. 26, 2019

Smalley had arranged for the work’s publication, too: Gorham was a vanity press avant la lettre.

From The New Yorker • Dec. 23, 2016

Vitale paid a vanity press $4,375 to publish it.

From Forbes • Jan. 22, 2014

Her last book, “War and the Cosmos in Picasso’s Texts, 1936-1940,” was published in 2007 by a vanity press.

From New York Times • Feb. 6, 2010