THE PROS AND CONS OF TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING AND SELF-PUBLISHING

The Pros and Cons of Traditional Publishing and Self-Publishing

Amazon disrupted the book industry back in the early 2000s when they introduced ebooks to the market, opening a whole new world of self-publishing to the world.

This development meant that people could publish books on their own without having a publishing house as their gatekeeper. Back then, to publish a book, you had to go the route of traditional publishing only, which had its advantages and disadvantages.

Today the self-publishing is stealing the market share from the traditional and amounts to about 40% of all eBook sales.

If you’re new to the publishing scene and wondering which one is right for you, then this post will give you a clear picture of which one to choose.

What is traditional publishing?

Traditional publishing is a system that gets your book published by a publishing house. To get your book published this way, you’ll have to get a publishing agent to pitch your book or book proposal to a publishing house. If your book is accepted, the publishing company will sign you, and give you some money, also called advances. These typically range from US$6 000 to US$10 000 depending on where you are in the world.

If they sign you, they’ll do the editing, create the title and the book cover, and sometimes marketing it for you.

After your book is published and starts to sell (roughly after a year or two), the publishing house pays itself back the money it gave you as an advance, then starts paying royalties of between 7% and 25%.

Pros of Traditional Publishing

Here are reasons you may want to choose the traditional publishing route:

• It comes free of cost to you because the publishing house will be the one doing all the marketing, edits, and all the other dirty work. If your book ends up not selling, the publisher carries all the losses. You won’t even be asked to pay back the advances here. You’re treated like a king. If any company asks you to pay then they’re not legit.

• Because you’re entering a contract with a well-oiled machine that has in the past released and sold different books, you have an opportunity to become a brand-name author like J.K. Rowling and Stephen King. They have experts who know everything about selling books, so when your book is released, most of their past customers will be alerted of you, which gives you book a little bit of some early traction.

• Having your book accepted by a publishing house validates that you are one to watch out for. Most authors invest thousands of hours of their time just to be signed and merited to have written a good book.

• The editing, proofreading, design, and printing, warehousing, and distribution of the book are taken care of by the publishing house.

• The publishing company is responsible for placing your book in bookstores, institutions, and libraries which will take the workload from your back.

• You can be easily be nominated for literary prizes and critical acclaim because your name will be out there.

Cons of traditional publishing

Here are a few reasons you may not want to go the traditional publishing route:

• The probability of you being rejected by a publishing house is close to always. This route is time-consuming and stressful. If you’re able to land a deal, it’s going to take around two to three years for your book to be on the shelves for sale. This is a very slow process that needs you to be patient.

• You won’t have creative control over your book after you sign the contract. The design, the title, and the edits will be controlled by the publisher. You may not agree with the end product, but there is little to nothing that you can do.

• The royalties you get in the traditional route are way smaller than the ones you could get if you self-publish. Depending on what type of book you’re selling (physical, eBook, or audio), the rates will be different.

• The contracts you’re going to be offered will favor the publishing house most of the time. These contracts are often complicated and filled with a lot of jargon you won’t understand, so it’s best to have a lawyer present to avoid being cheated. Go through the clauses and terms carefully, and ensure that you hold on to much of your book as possible. If you feel cheated, don’t sign the contract, it’s that simple.

• Low marketing help. Nowadays, authors have to do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to marketing. Agents these days seek authors who already have a huge following or email list so that they can market their book with ease when it’s released.

What is Self-Publishing?

Self-Publishing is a publishing process in which the author completes the writing, editing, formatting, proofreading, cover design, book marketing, and everything that entails getting the book out for sale.

There’s no traditional publisher or publishing house that helps the author in this process. About 40% of all ebook sales today go through a self-publishing process, mostly on Amazon.

After you publish your book on whichever platform(mostly for free), you sit and wait for royalties which range between 10% on the low-end, and 65% on the high-end. This is a route most preferred by independent authors because it’s easier and less time-consuming.

Pros of Self-Publishing

Here are reasons you may want to choose the self-publishing route:

• It’s quick and easy. You can get your book out in less than four hours to a few days at most, compared to almost two years of the traditional route.

• Niches considered as risky in the traditional route have a get-go here because everything can be sold in this route.

• Books have a very long shelf life, digitally we can say an eternal shelf life unless you, or the platform your book is on, deletes it. The traditional is the opposite of this because they have to make way for new books to be put on the shelf.

• The author has full control of the book they publish. The creative rights the author holds help them to create a book they’re fully proud of. A book that aligns with their vision. They can alter things on the book as time goes on, especially if the sales are low. The author can choose to change the cover or title and see how the market responds. If they feel that the new cover is better, they can use it, and not worry about dissonance from the publishing company.

• Self-publishing offers higher income capabilities than the traditional route because you can get a commission of up to 65% without holding any inventory.

• You have an opportunity to make a name for yourself without the help of anybody apart from the platform you’re using. After making a few sales and being known, your email list will grow, and your future sales will gross even higher than the current one. Many writers start self-publishing and then attract big publishing houses to pick them up and further deepen their influence on the market.

Cons of Self-Publishing

Here are a few reasons you may not want the self-publishing route:

• All the marketing of the book lies upon you. This means you should have an existing email list, a social media following, and/or a website with traffic to make sales.

• You’re going to have to pay for professional services like cover designs, editing, and proofreading to ensure your book is ready to go for sale.

• You’ll have to start monitoring your marketing campaigns for their effectiveness, vetting different service providers, and making various decisions on the book that you might have otherwise not done if you went the other route.

• It’s going to be hard for bookstores to sell your book because you would not be able to handle book returns like a traditional publisher would.

• It’s rare to see self-published authors winning literary prizes.

• Your book is less visible in a crowded marketplace.

Conclusion

If you want the job of just writing your book and getting it to the market then choose the traditional publishing route because they do all the heavy lifting for you in hope of a good return for their business. Be careful of the newbie companies claiming they can help publish your book because they can steal your property and disappear.

If you feel like the traditional publishing route is tricky and has a low payout then choose the self-publishing route.

Whichever you choose, just weigh the benefits over the cons to see if you’re getting a good deal for your creativity.

So which publishing route do you like best?

Comment down below because I would love to hear from you.