Bill and Nancie Carmichael are the former publishers of Virtue and Christian Parenting Today Magazines. In addition, they are the authors of twelve books. Major publishers such as Tyndale, Thomas Nelson, Harvest House, Baker, and Crossway have published their work. They are also popular seminar (学术讲座) and conference speakers.
Most unpublished writers do not get the kind of consideration they deserve from book publishers, simply because most publishers are flooded with thousands of book proposals and unsolicited manuscripts（稿件）. Because of the significant reward of the industry, the publishers often play it safe and like to go with proven writers. They simply don't want to (or can't) take the risk on new writers.
As a result, some new authors get caught up in "vanity（虚荣）publishing." Such companies may help you "print" your book, but offer nothing in the way of editing, creative design, or marketing and distribution. When an author decides to self-publish in this manner, they often come away with a poorly designed, poorly edited book with no distribution（发行）plan. They are left to sell what they can to their own sphere of influence and the rest of their books gather dust in their garage.

比尔和南茜·卡迈克尔是《美德》和《当代基督教父母》杂志的前发行人。此外，他们还是12本书的作者。丁达尔、托马斯·纳尔逊、收获书屋、贝克、克罗斯韦等主要出版商都出版过他们的著作。他们还在一些受欢迎的学术讲座和会议上发表演讲。

许多未出版过作品的作者得不到出版商的应有关注，这仅仅因为多数出版商的手头都堆积了大量的出版建议和未经审阅通过的稿件，考虑到出版行业的丰厚回报，出版商常常谨慎从事，愿意和成名作家打交道，而不愿（或不能）在新手身上冒险。

由此产生的结果是：一些新作者陷入了“为虚荣而出书”的怪圈，这些出版公司可以“承印”你的书，但在编辑、创意设计、市场销售和发行等方面帮不上任何忙。作者一旦决定通过这种方式自费出版著作，最后得到的常是一本设计简陋，编辑混乱的书，也没有发行计划。它们只能在影响所及的圈子内销售，卖出多少算多少，余下的就只有尘封在书库里。