Health

Vanity, Romance: Your Tale on the Web

Who says vanity and romance can't mix? The world of so-called vanity publishing, where authors pay to publish their own work, has come to the Web. Case in point: "Sensual Healing," a contemporary romance novel by Michelle Harris.

Read this steamy tale online. It follows beautiful and naive young Ariel, a schoolteacher who meets the cold, but intriguing Dr. Brandon at the city hospital where she's a volunteer. Harris caught the eye of toExcel.com after her stories appeared on romance fiction sites on the Web.

For a fee, toExcel designed a cover, registered the book for an ISBN number and bar code, prepared the manuscript for print, set up an author's page for Harris and registered the book at online bookstores.

Unlike traditional publishing houses where books are printed first and then shipped to bookstores, "On Demand Publishing" turns the process around. After a customer orders Harris' book at the Website, toExcel will print, bind and ship a hard copy within 24 hours.