To read more about Four Chambers Press or for more about their editors, read their Staff page here. Four chambers is a fairly new press and print literary magazine that published their first issue in 2013 as “an independent community literary magazine based in Phoenix, AZ whose mission is to give greater visibility to the literary arts and encourage their larger participation in the cultural scene. Basically, we like to think of ourselves as a heart: something centralized, organic, and part of a larger body; that connects, supports, and circulates life. While most literary magazines publish literary work, and some community literary magazines may get that work from the community, we are publishing work to build community.”

You can read samples of each issue on their order page to get a feel for what they are looking for. You can also check out authors they have published and…

Before we get into the nitty gritty details of this topic, let’s begin with establishing what exactly iUniverse is, and what makes it different from traditional publishing and self-publishing. In a nutshell, there are three types of publishing:

So there’s the breakdown. iUniverse is an assisted/vanity publisher, meaning you pay them money and they publish your book for you. Assisted/vanity publishers have a God-awful reputation amongst self-published authors, due to their tendency to squeeze authors for every penny they have. There have also been all sorts of lawsuits filed over missed/inaccurate royalty payments, publishing books without the author’s permission, etc. On the other hand, many authors have gone with assisted/vanity publishers and been perfectly satisfied.

So … iUniverse — Yea or Nay?

The Good

• The friendliness. Every employee I have ever spoken to at iUniverse has been incredibly polite, friendly, and eager to assist me in any way they can…