Traditional vs self-publishing
“To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard.” - Allen Gainsberg
When I sat down to write The Perilous Road to Her, I wasn’t thinking about having millions of people read my story. I still don’t. Although, it would be nice! For me, curating a well-written story and then holding it in book form in my hands was my dream.
This journey has been a bucket list item. When I started, I did not think about what it would take to publish a novel. Whether that be with a traditional publisher, or through self-publishing. I am glad I didn’t because with my shaky self-confidence, I likely would have given up. Now here I was, ready to move forward towards getting a copy of my book into my own hands.
The question I faced was: do I try and pursue traditional publishing or do I self-publish? This is a hard question, and one that I still ask myself on a daily basis. However, along with that question, I remind myself what my goal is.
To write for me, and to hold my own book.
I would be lying if I didn’t say that I would love to be able to make a good living while writing full-time. That is a dream. That is a future dream. For now, I am focused on my current dream. Yes, my choices now could impact my future. I could argue all the reasons why I shouldn’t wait to pursue my larger dream. However, I have made a decision, based on my current life circumstances, to write part-time. If I was going to be writing full-time my choice between traditional and self publishing may have been different. Then again, maybe it wouldn’t be.
Each writer will have to do their own research and find the road that they feel best fits their dreams.
For me, self-publishing made sense as the road for me to take. Before I go into the rationale of my decision let’s take a look at what it means to be traditionally published versus self-published.
Note: This information is based on my own research and I am not an expert. In fact, I would consider myself a novice when it comes to the publishing industry.
Traditional Publishing
With traditional publishing, the author writes the book, hands it over and most of the rest is done by someone else. The author most often doesn’t own the rights and royalties associated with their work. These are generally purchased by the publisher when they offer a contract to an author. I have no knowledge of contract law, so I am not going to discuss the impacts of the contract and what an author may want to negotiate for.
To become traditionally published, by a major publishing house at least, you will need an agent. As I have not looked at obtaining an agent, I cannot speak to the painstaking task of creating a list of agents to query. I also cannot speak to writing a successful query letter. From what I have witnessed through friends and social media, it is a painstaking task - however you only need 1 yes by someone that you feel is a great fit for you, to start you on the road to your dream. I recommend people read up on the agent querying process. That in itself may help you make your decision on Traditional Vs. Self-Publishing.
Advantages of a Traditional Publisher include:
Potential monetary advance before the work is published.
Professionalism (most often) in the product printed.
Opportunities for traditional media coverage
Highest potential for your work physically being in a bookstore.
Disadvantages of a Traditional Publisher include:
Less than 1% of proposals pitched by an agent are accepted.
It can take two or more years to get your book to market
Little, to no, marketing control.
However, presentations I have attended have indicated that publishers do expect the author to put in the same work as a self-published author to promote their work on social media etc. The marketing ads, etc., would be designed by the publisher.
Little, to no creative or content control.
For example, they design the cover as they see it is marketable. Sometimes that is not a deal breaker. They may also change the content of the story.
Potential minimal return on investment.
Agents can take 15-20%. The publisher is going to take a percentage plus recoup the costs of publishing.
However, if on the odd chance your story becomes a NYT bestseller, first off, congratulations! Second, this could be where the author starts seeing a decent return.
Publishers generally don’t do niche books.
Publishers look for what is marketable, or will be marketable.
However, no one can predict the future. Historical fiction may be hot right now, but will they be when they are ready to publish your story in two plus years?
Is the market over-saturated with content and therefore publishers are looking for something else?
Self-Publishing
A self-published author owns all of the rights and receives all of the return on investment. However, they also cover all of the costs associated with publishing and marketing. A self-published author is a full-fledged entrepreneur. Success will be based on both the material produced and the effort to market the book.
The good news is, you don’t have to do all of the work yourself. You can outsource tasks (cover design, marketing ads etc) to others. Just do your research to avoid being scammed out of your hard earned money!
Advantages of Self-publishing include:
Full ownership of rights and royalties
Complete creative control
You are your own boss!
Control over your own deadlines/goals
No one is saying you cannot write that niche story.
Fast to market
How fast you publish depends on how fast you can write, edit and market.
I have witnessed authors put out a new novella/novel every 8-10 weeks. I haven’t read their works so I cannot speak to the quality.
Complete marketing control.
Higher profit margin potential
Between 30-70% depending on the platform and medium.
Disadvantages of Self-publishing include:
Professionalism is on you.
If the writing, editing, cover, marketing etc is unprofessional it could make you look bad to the audience. This may turn readers away from future endeavors.
It takes time - a lot of it!
Not only could writing and editing a book take a long time to get it into a state you are happy with, but you have to learn all the little intricacies of being a professional self-published author. This does not happen overnight. Trust me.
Mistakes may happen.
Learning as you go comes with the risk of mistakes. Some of these mistakes can hurt you. However, from what I have witnessed, a lot of these can be rectified, learned from and lead to success.
It can be costly.
If you hire professionals to help you (cover design, editing, marketing etc) it is expensive.
For The Perilous Road to Her, I lucked out and had friends that were able to help me on the cheap. But I know that I cannot rely on their ‘free’ services for my next book. In fact, I will be insisting that I pay them for their help. Everyone deserves to earn a decent wage for their services.
Indie-publishers
One avenue I looked into at a cursory level were indie-publishers. Those that did not require you to be represented by an agent. However, they too would take two plus years to print any manuscript they accepted. It also appeared I would still need to do most of the marketing myself. I could be wrong here though as I did not enter into any conversations with publishers.
When you are querying agents or publishers, be sure to review their websites to make sure they are looking for work in your genre and for their submission guidelines. You will want to be professional and industry people talk to each other. I would not recommend submitting queries to just see what sticks. Make sure it is a right fight for you and them!
Printers
Another option available to authors is to have a printing press print their book. What this means is that the author pays the printer for a service, usually thousands of dollars, to print the book for them. This is why some of these businesses have come to be known as “vanity presses.” They can feed off the vanity of the author who wants their work in print and charge high fees to do so. They also take a percentage of earnings for books sold. Not all printers are like this, however the author must do their research.
I spoke with a printer, who I know a lot of people have enjoyed working with, and found it wasn’t the right fit. Why?
Everything they were going to do for me, I could do myself. The exposure they would generate for me would be the same as me putting my book on IngramSpark. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if they used the same platform (I didn’t ask). During my conversation, I asked a lot of questions and I got the feeling that they were surprised by how educated I was. In the end, based on their answers and the fact they did not provide me with the sample contract they committed to providing me, I knew this would not be the right fit for me.
As my experience is my own, and may not be the same as others. I will not name the printer I spoke with. You may ask, but how can I avoid them if I don’t know who they are? Well, to be honest, they might be the right fit for you. They had a lot of tools in one spot that could help new authors. This is why everyone needs to research and come prepared to meetings with a list of questions and a set of expectations. Also, don’t be bought by any ‘big names’ they may have printed for. Just because a famous person had their book printed with them, doesn’t mean the printer was part of the marketing strategy to make it successful. It was likely name recognition of the author that propelled the book to success.
Why I Chose To Self-Publish
The main reason I chose to self-publish was because I didn’t want to wait for two or more years to get my book created. Whether it was just for me or for the world. If COVID has taught me anything, it is that life is short. Why wait!
My other reasons:
My research told me I could end up making less money for all the hard work I put into my book.
Not all authors who find agents or a publisher find success.
I kept control of everything, my rights, royalties and creativity.
I have a growth mindset and am willing to learn new things.
Although I would love to be a popular author I don’t care about my status in the writing world. All of this is for me.
Self-publishing is easy to do.
Using Amazon and Ingramspark has so far, fingers crossed, been extremely easy.
I can do it part time and not have to worry about deadlines.
I have a mentally draining job, which I love, however most days I don’t have the mental capacity to write.
These are only a few of the reasons self-publishing currently works for me. I may change my mind in the future, but for now I am happy with my decision.
One point I do want to share with you, should you decide to self-publish. I attended a group session with an agent, through the Writers Guild of Alberta, and posed the question “If I self-publish can I then try to find an agent with the same work, or other work.” The answer I received was, in that particular agent’s opinion, it would be harder to move from self-published to traditional publishing. With the same work, I would have already tapped out all my friends and family with respect to earnings. Therefore that is lost revenue for the publisher and a big revenue stream for newer authors. For future work, my sales from my first book will be reviewed and if they are not great then they wouldn’t bother with me.
It’s a catch-22: I am not an expert marketer so my first book may not do well and therefore could prevent me from traditional publishing. If I go with an agent and traditional publisher my work may not do well and they may not want to buy future work from me.
The road to publishing is not easy, whichever way you choose to go. A writer should understand their goals, the different ways to achieve them and then gather the necessary information to help you determine the path you want to take.
Next week I will divert from the stepping stones to launching my book, to share about how this journey has impacted my mental health so far.
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N. L. Blandford
April 25, 2021
