Originally posted by Kaylle:
In addition to the vanity press, the two of them run a poetry publishing company and have apparently been publishing books for some time, at least one of which has been very successful (at least in terms of critical reviews, notoriety). And they managed to convince Amazon, B&N, et al to carry their books. They must know something about what they're doing. The poetry publisher is simply a division of the vanity press. You know the kind -- the ones that used to run those "contests" with a $25 (or more) application fee? And Amazon and the others are more than happy to carry POD books. For the cost of a tiny sliver of their webspace, they get a percentage of all sales, and just pass along the order to the publisher.
Either that, or all their college education and publishing experience really has left them clueless, which makes it that much sadder.
That's my bet. And yeah, it is sad.