Tag Archives: Traditional Publishing

Why I chose to Self-Publish instead of going the Traditional Publishing Route

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self publishing

photo credit: http://www.jektz.com

Did I consider going the traditional publishing route? Of course I did. There isn’t an author, or want-to-be author, out there that hasn’t daydreamed of being picked-up by a traditional publishing house, given a huge advance, and being allowed to write full-time without fear or worry of not being able to pay the bills. 

The reality is that daydream becomes a reality for far fewer authors than you’d think. With that in mind, self-publishing has become a great alternative to traditional publishing. Over the past few years, self-publishing has also become more and more acceptable as a form of professional publishing. 

The benefits of self-publishing are numerous: 

  1. You Can Make More Money
    Unless you are Stephen King or John Grisham you have the potential to make a lot more money by self-publishing than you will going the traditional publishing route – AS LONG AS YOU DO IT RIGHT! The money you can make from your book doesn’t end with book sales, you also have to consider the possible income from movie rights, audio books, author appearances, foreign rights, and special packages that you are able to offer when you maintain full rights to your work. 
  2. Control Over Cover Design
    As a self-published author, you have final say over what your cover looks like. You will have to hire a cover artist, unless you are artistically inclined, but you control the final product. When you go down the path of traditional publishing, your publisher will take on control of your cover and often you have little to no input on how the cover looks.  
  3. Speed To Print
    As a self-published author, you control when your book publishes! That doesn’t mean you should publish your first draft, but when you are ready to publish – after all formal rounds of edits – you are in control of hitting [PUBLISH]. If you go the traditional publishing route, your publisher determines your publish date. At the time your novel is complete, your publisher may determine that the market isn’t right for the genre, this can result in your book being shelved for an undetermined time… and sometime indefinitely. Self-publishing can speed up your publication date by a year if not more.
  4. Content Control
    As an author, you put your heart, soul, sweat, and tears into your book. As a self-published author, you publish your book – the book you want to publish! As a traditionally published author, your book is changed – adapted – converted – whatever you wan to call it by the numerous interns, editors, publishers, and marketers at the publishing house. By the time your book goes to print, it may not even resemble the story you had originally set out to tell. Traditional publishers control character development, story arc, even the ending of the story, and so much more. If they say change it – you changed it. In the world of self-publishing, you determine what needs to be changed. You’re editor will give you suggestions, but you decide which of the suggestions you’re going to take and which ones you’re going to toss out with last weeks trash. 
  5. Avoiding Stress
    You are worthy! Why put yourself through the stress and anxiety of submitting your manuscript to hundreds of publishing houses only to be turned down time and time again. The fact of the matter is, it doesn’t matter how good you are – you can be turned down by a publishing house. Their acceptance is often based on the market – what is selling at the time of your submission. The following is a short list of BEST SELLING AUTHORS who were all rejected at one time or another: 
  • HERMAN MELVILLE 
  • ERNEST HEMINGWAY 
  • GEORGE ORWELL 
  • H.G. WELLS
  • F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
  • STEPHEN KING
  • WILLIAM GOLDING
  • MARGARET MITCHELL
  • WILLIAM FAULKNER
  • ANNE FRANK

NOTE: This list is just a small sample of best-selling authors who received that dreaded rejection letter… the list could go on and on and on.

Where is Publishing Headed?

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Ever wonder where publishing is headed in this ever-changing paperback vs. e-book world?

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I have to say, as an indie author, John B. Thompson’s article, in the Huffington Post, gave me hope. Sure, things might be getting harder for the publishing houses, but they are also leveling the playing field of book marketing for those of us indie authors. On a day-to-day basis, we are fighting through the weeds, trying to figure out how to get our names out there. We’re attempting to find new and innovative ways to get our books in front of readers.

By the time the publishing houses figure out that they also need to focus more on the online social media platforms, maybe some of us indie authors will have a small advantage. Having worked for years, build our online communities or readers and other authors, we indie authors are developing a strong network. No, I might never be the next Stephen King (Oh but I wish I was), or the next J.K. Rowling (wouldn’t that be amazing), but that doesn’t mean as an indie author I can’t still make my place in the literary world.

[The section below is provided as an excerpt from Thompson’s article. Check out the full article here, written by John B. Thompson on the Huffington Post.]

Today, the publishing business is in turmoil. For 500 years, the methods and practices of book publishing remained largely unchanged, but today the industry finds itself faced with the greatest challenges since Gutenberg.

These challenges are the outcome of two processes. On the one hand, the publishing business has been transformed beyond recognition by a set of profound social and economic changes that have been underway since the 1960s, resulting in the publishing landscape we see around us today: a handful of large corporate publishers based in New York and London and owned by large multimedia conglomerates; an array of powerful agents who have become the unavoidable gateway into publishing for writers and would-be writers; and a retail landscape dominated by a dwindling number of retail chains, mass merchandisers and Amazon.

On the other hand, the technological upheaval associated with the digital revolution is now having a major impact on the book publishing business. After a decade of numerous false dawns, e-books have now arrived and they are here to stay. In 2006, e-book sales amounted to only around 0.1 percent of the overall revenue of large US trade publishers – an accounting irrelevance. Today this figure is around 20 percent, and for some kinds of books, like romance, science fiction and thrillers, the percentage can be 60 percent or more – a huge change in five years. The digital revolution is disrupting many of the traditional practices of the publishing industry, opening up new opportunities and at the same time threatening to dislodge some of the players who have shaped the business of book publishing for half a century or more.

So where is book publishing now headed? Will the traditional print-on-paper book become a relic of a bygone age, a collector’s item to be found only in second-hand bookstores and garage sales, much like the old vinyl LP? Will publishers – and perhaps agents too – be displaced by a flourishing of self-publishing and by powerful online retailers like Amazon who can offer to publish writers’ work on royalty terms that are much more favorable than those traditionally offered by publishing houses?

[The section above is provided as an excerpt. Check out the full article here, written by John B. Thompson on the Huffington Post.]

So, if you’re an author (traditionally published or indie) I would love to know your thoughts on this topic. Leave your comments below and let’s start a conversation on the future of the publishing world.