The fifth in a series on how to become a writer.
While we talked about different writing careers in our Overview post, this one focuses on book authors. Whether children’s or adult’s, whether fiction or nonfiction, we all come to the same question. Self-Publish vs Traditional. What is the difference? Which one is best for my situation? What are the pros and cons of each?
Traditional Publishing
With traditional publishing, you submit your book (or book concept depending on your situation) to literary agents. This requires information like a short “elevator pitch” along with a multi-page, highly detailed breakdown. Sometimes you might land an agent very quickly, other times it could take hundreds of agents. The brutal truth is many aspiring authors never land an agent.
An agent will then be your representative, pitching your book to publishers. The goal is landing a book deal. After that, your manuscripts will go through rounds of editing with the publishing house’s official editors. They must agree on the final document prior to publication.
Pros:
- You have the big name of a publisher on your book.
- You have an agent representing you and working for your best interests.
- You get the use of the publisher’s official formatting, artwork, and marketing teams to put your best foot forward.
- You get your book fine-tuned by professional editors.
Cons:
- Just because you get one book deal with a publisher does not mean they will sign you again for a second book.
- Who agents pick to represent is more based on books they feel like working on at the time and not necessarily on the quality of your writing. Most readily admit they turn down plenty of great books because they aren’t in the mood to do that genre right now.
- Just because you have a professional marketing team doesn’t guarantee your book will ever make money.
- Editors can force you to make changes to your manuscript that you don’t want to in order to be published. We’ve heard plenty of stories from upset authors that the book published is not the one they wanted to write.
Self-Publishing
Self-publishing is where you publish your book yourself on a platform such an Amazon’s KDP. You are in charge of all formatting, book cover art, and marketing. You have much more freedom over the final product, including the price and what formats it’s available in. You don’t have to do it all alone, though. There are many freelancers online that will design your book cover, edit your manuscript, and even format the book for you. But that is money out of your own pocket.
Pros:
- You have 100% control over the final product and can publish the book exactly how you want to.
- You have a greater choice of publishing platforms, instead of having to go with whoever offers you a book deal.
- You can set the price you want.
- Most publishing platforms allow you to easily change the book cover, summary, and even interior content (within reason) should you want to make updates.
Cons:
- You have a very limited reach as there is no professional marketing team behind you.
- You most likely will be putting your own money into the book at some point, especially if you hire freelancers to help you.
- You have to learn it all on your own, so it is easy to make mistakes.
- It typically takes indie authors much longer to make money and get recognition, though every situation is unique.
Conclusion
So, Self-Publish vs Traditional, what is best for you? We went with self-publishing our book because we wanted full control over its content. We have definitely spent plenty of money on it, and it’s definitely an uphill battle to get our book marketed out to readers. But we feel we made the right choice for our needs.
If you have the patience and perseverance to wait on being chosen by an agent and publisher, and a willingness to collaborate on your story, then you will likely be happier with the traditional route.
Don’t forget that you can always do both! Publishers used to turn their nose up at anyone who self-published and didn’t want to work with them, but in this digital age times have changed.
Helpful Tip!
Be wary of scam publishers out there. If they want you to pay them to publish your book, they are not legitimate. A real publisher has faith your book will do well and will never ask for money up front.
Also, for our fellow indie authors, be wary of scam book marketers. They promise outreach to a lot of readers, but in reality, they have no significant, engaged following and your money will be wasted. Always do your research.