True or False? It takes thousands of dollars to publish your book.?

I'm not into the entire publishing industry but I've heard that it takes thousands of dollars to get your book published no matter which publishing company you use. Is that true?True or False? It takes thousands of dollars to publish your book.?
WRONG!!!!!





If you use a reputable publisher (and even if you use an agent as well), you will pay nothing out of pocket, or at the very worst a small amount for postage and copying.





A literary agent takes a percentage, but usually only after you've received a profit from a publisher.





There are scam programs that cost money, and there are self-publishers who let you pay for everything in order to get your book published. Neither of these is likely to ever make you a profit, and should be avoided (or in the case of self-publishing, used as a last resort).





Just as an example...I wrote a novel. So far I've submitted it to eight literary agencies. My cost: $0, because I have only submitted via email so far. If they all reject me, I will then submit to agents that want snail mail, and my cost will simply be the postage.





If one of these agents accepts my novel, I will pay nothing up front. If they can manage to sell my novel to a publisher, that will cost me nothing as well. Once the book is published and I receive a check, the agent will take out 15% for themselves (and a few take out a couple hundred to cover their copies and postage). I could avoid this cost by submitting to publishers without an agent, but many won't allow it, and it's alot like selling your house without an agent; risky.





If I can't sell my novel through a conventional agent and publisher, I won't do it at all. I'm in this to make money, not pay it!True or False? It takes thousands of dollars to publish your book.?
False.





With a reputable publisher, the money flows TO the author, not the other way round.





If you want to pay someone to print copies of your book, then yes, it will cost you, and possibly thousands. However, that is not really publishing as all the responsibility for production, marketing, distribution, everything is assumed by the author. Very few authors are equipped to do everything, which is why self-publishing or vanity publishing is seldom profitable to anyone but the company who prints the books.





This is why vanity presses and other companies who like to prey on uninformed writers call their operations ';publishing'; so they will be confused with legitimate publishers. They aren't.